If you feel like you overindulged on the wines, beers, cocktails or Prosecco's this silly season, you’re not alone!
As we head into the year for real (January doesn’t count), you might be thinking it’s time to cut back on the booze.
Whether it’s a defined period of booze-freedom like Feb Fast or Dry July, not drinking for a portion of the week or even giving up entirely, there are heaps of benefits to lowering your alcohol consumption, whichever way you do it. Below are just a few to consider.
Deeper sleep
You might think, because alcohol is a depressant (meaning it slows down the messages between the brain and body), it might help rather than hinder sleep. However, while alcohol might help us nod off quicker, it mucks with our all-important sleep cycles, reducing the overall quality of our shuteye.
Large amounts of alcohol that are still being metabolised while we sleep can even cause more major sleep disturbances (hello, desperate search for water at 3am).
A lot of people who‘ve cut down on the booze report sleeping longer and deeper, and the science seems to back this up too. This inevitably leads to more focus, productivity, and creativity during our waking hours - yes please!
Glowier skin
The main issue with alcohol when it comes to skin, is that it is incredibly dehydrating, literally sucking the fluid and nutrients from our body’s largest organ to flush out the toxins we’re drinking in.
Excessive consumption can also cause huge amounts of inflammation throughout the body and interrupt our ability to make collagen, the protein that gives our skin and other tissues its structure. This can lead to a wrinkled, dry, dull, bloated or puffy appearance.
One of the earliest signs of alcohol abuse is telangiectasia, or a consistently red face. It’s basically a sign that your brain is losing its ability to control the size of your blood vessels.
Laying off the wines for a while can help your skin regenerate, leaving it better able to absorb and use all those good fluids and vitamins we give it through healthy eating and drinking habits.
Better liver function
As our primary detoxing organ, our liver takes on the unpleasant task of breaking down alcohol so your body can get rid of it. Problem is, the process actually makes substances that are even more harmful and toxic than alcohol!
If your liver is exposed to these substances day in, day out, they can cause serious damage to our liver cells and lead to liver disease. This impacts our ability to fulfil its detoxing functions in other areas too.
Laying off the booze can help us detox our champion detox-er, leading to better overall health and vitality.
Reduced blood pressure
If you’ve been diagnosed with hypertension or high blood pressure, one of the easiest lifestyle changes you can make to lower your risk of heart disease is to cut out the booze.
In a healthy body, the pressure in the circulatory system (that is, your heart and all the arteries and veins that deliver blood to your hungry tissues) is just right, such that your heart can pump all day and all night with ease.
Anything that chronically increases the pressure in the system will be compensated for by your heart working harder. This puts major strain on your heart and your arteries, which can in turn increase your risk of a heart attack, stroke or vascular disease.
Alcohol is one such thing that causes a chronic rise in blood pressure. This is because it effects the muscles that line our blood vessels, causing them to constrict and become narrower.
A thinner waistline
There’s no two ways about it – alcohol is not a friend to your waistline. First off, it’s high in calories while being completely devoid of any real nutrition.
Plus, even the smallest hangover can upset our hunger cues and make us crave salty, fatty or greasy options in large doses. No thanks!
A thicker wallet
Those bottles of wine, six-packs of beer or a few cocktails on the weekend… think of all the cash you’d save if you didn’t drink!
If you do plan on laying off the booze for an extended period of time, saving the money you otherwise would have spent on alcohol can be a great and satisfying motivator to stay on track.
Then you can treat yourself and your loved ones to a booze-free experience… you deserve it!
For some alcohol free recipe ideas, download our Mocktail E-Book