Four hidden ways alcohol is affecting your health

Is alcohol affecting my health? Yes — and here are 4 hidden reasons why

For years I dabbled in exercise, mindfulness, yoga and even tried the occasional salad, but I could never get a decent run with any of these healthy lifestyle changes. Exercise routines would be cancelled on a regular basis due to hangovers. My diet would be blown as I craved stodge to get over the night before. Morning after anxiety, ironically, left me in no state to meditate. Combined with the general tiredness and lack of time my healthy lifestyle was almost non-existent.

At this point I was 3 stone (42lbs) overweight, my body fat was 35% and my resting heart rate had moved up from the low 40’s to 67. I felt constantly tired and stressed. Oh, and I was showing early signs of calcification of my arteries. I was on a one-way ticket to a heart attack.

Then I quit alcohol for 90 days — and everything changed.

This is such a key point. My health did not transform itself just because I cut out alcohol. It was all the knock-on effects that made the difference.

1. Motivation to exercise

For the first time in many years, with hangovers out the way, I finally started exercising on a daily basis. I suddenly found renewed motivation and energy to train.

This fed a positive feedback loop: the more I trained the better I felt, and the more motivation I had to train.

2. Better diet

With the fog of hangovers lifted I started to notice which food nourished my body and which ones depleted my energy. I moved from a salad-dodging meat eater towards a plant-based diet, which I still love to this day.

3. Improved mental health

Alcohol and mental health do not mix.

My drinking would leave me feeling terribly anxious the morning after. This anxiety was starting to creep into my normal life. I was scared.

BUT once I quit alcohol, I never had to suffer these feelings again. I totally understand alcohol is not a panacea for anxiety, but for me it stopped it in its tracks.

4. Deep sleep

Let’s not beat around the bush — alcohol destroys sleep.

Late nights deprive you of precious hours, but the real damage is caused by poor sleep quality.

One of the biggest alcohol-free advantages I noticed was massively improved sleep. And it is sleep that drives all the wonderful health benefits above:

• motivation to exercise

• eating well

• good mental health

All of it improves when your sleep improves.

The healthy takeaway

After 90 days:

• I lost 3 stone (42lbs)

• my body fat dropped to below 10% (where it remains)

• my resting heart rate dropped back to 42

• I stopped/reversed early arterial calcification

Combined with improved mental fitness, I am in better shape now at 42 than in my 20’s when I played professional football.

And it was the one change — quitting alcohol — that ignited all the others.

So is alcohol affecting your health? Yes.

But not only because of the well-known medical consequences of even moderate drinking.

The biggest problem is:

you are missing out on all the advantages that being alcohol-free gives you.

• improved motivation to exercise

• better sleep

• more time

• more energy

• improved mental health

• often a better diet

If you want to improve your health — take a break from the booze

You don’t have to quit for life.

Just try 30 or 90 days and see what happens.

We’ve created a system that makes it as easy as possible for you to take on this challenge and win —

daily emails, videos, group coaching, an audio course, daily accountability, and the best community online to support and inspire you.