This is me as well. I went through about 5 years from 2010-2015 where I was putting them down daily - a very bad habit I picked up traveling with work 50% of the time. I took a few years completely away from it and now limit it to Friday/Saturday and vacations with 2 months off per year and at least one full weekend per month.
I recently had a friend who I had no idea was truly addicted to alcohol pass away at 42 years old, and with that I cut it back to Saturday only with it not being a problem at all to not drink the other 6 days. For whatever reason, I’ve started to feel really badly about myself even if it’s just 2 or 3 on the Saturday. I’m leaning towards removing it altogether because I guess it’s just not working for me anymore.
Regarding your question about it being awkward socially - when I don’t drink and when I wasn’t drinking for 2 years it wasn’t awkward at all. My good friends also all put em down and the reaction from all of them is/was “good for you”. Chances are pretty high they want to do the same
The older I get though, the crappier I feel after just drinking 2-3 glasses of wine. More often than not, I no longer buy alcohol and bring it home. I drink wine when friends serve it because I’d feel like I was missing out.
My father was an alcoholic and I’m pretty sure I have the gene. Gawd, I love that first glass of wine. But like I said, I feel crappier and crapper the day after the older I get.
It does seem like society is coming around. The research is clear that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption (various cancers). There is no such thing as wine being heart healthy. The latest thing I’ve heard is the ‘California alcohol free buzz’ meaning get high on THC and stay alcohol free. A THC gummy is probably healthier than alcohol.
I came to the conclusion that if I needed alcohol to enjoy the company of others then I needed different company.
Everything I do socially is not drinking related now, and the friends I have are engaging, wonderful and caring.
was your HRV good when you were drinking? HRV is the tell-tale sign for me when I’ve been drinking. If yours was low both on and off alcohol, maybe that’s a sign that your body was really overstimulated. my HRV falls on the floor even with a couple drinks.
Joining in. Doc called me on Dec 23rd and said no drinking and no tylenol for ~6 weeks because my liver numbers are slightly off. I was already rarely drinking (except a stint right around the U.S. election…) but it is nice to have an excuse to abstain for the foreseeable future.
I would suggest that HRV is primarily moved by sleep quality and that alcohol can be a factor in bad sleep. But not the only factor and not always the primary factor.
It can be convenient to blame alcohol, but for the dry times in my life it’s always been doubley disappointing to wake up feeling like shit when you haven’t had a drop to drink.
Conversely it’s also true as you say, 3-4 pints of 4%+ in the evening will likely ruin my sleep quality not least because I’ll stay up late and over eat as a consequence. But one pint around six pm or a glass of wine with dinner will not, and perhaps even improve the nights relaxation and recovery.
At the moment I have no clear causal factor correlating for my persistently low HRV these last six months, so I’m focussing on sleep and breathing exercises.
It’s all been said above, but I want to add that a huge learning for me was that what I previously thought was an alcohol induced hangover, was actually just REALLY REALLY REALLY terrible sleep caused by drinking.
I’ve learned in my little journey that even one drink at night disturbs my sleep enough that I can tell. Usually it’s a 1:30am or so wake up and a little struggle to get back to sleep, and then not feeling refreshed in the morning. Pretty amazing, as that holds even if it’s one beer or one glass of a “weaker” wine like pinot noir or a white.
Day 2 of dry January with trouble falling asleep and again less than 30 minutes of deep sleep according to my watch wheras with alcohol I am usually between around 58 to 105 minutes of deep sleep
I think as hinted at above, sleep is dependent on the person. It could also be the different responses people have from alcohol. I posted somewhere (maybe in this thread) that I was looking forward to the amazing sleep, weight loss, feeling great etc when I did either Dry January or Sober October before but sleep was both subjectively and objectively* worse and I generally felt the same, if not slightly more irritable. I also didn’t lose any weight!
I think the long term health effects are still worth it though, and as someone posted somewhere on the same subject it might take longer than a couple of weeks to get back to ‘normal’ - especially if ‘normal’ is ‘drinking a good number of times a week’
*well, as objective as a smart watch reading can be.
I still think alcohol is only bad if you go over your limit to detoxify (like paracetamol is really safe unless you take even slightly too much) besides the fact that in many people drinking causes to do irresponsible things (including having a bad diet and the excess calories). But if you don’t drink beyond your liver’s limit, eat well, don’t do stupid things and get rid of the excess calories it’s not that bad and maybe even beneficial “sola dosis facit venenum”
I am far from a teetotaller, but there are plenty of studies (especially recently) that there is no amount of alcohol that is beneficial from a health perspective, and in fact even small amounts are detrimental (things like increased risk of cancer, etc.). So I guess it depends on what you mean by “not that bad”, but don’t fool yourself into thinking moderation is not without detrimental health effects.
To me, it’s about mindfulness, and that’s where my big change needed to be. I would pour myself a drink with dinner out of habit rather than making a conscious decision to enjoy a drink with my wife or whatever.
From WHO:
“ No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health
Dec 28, 2022, 12:59 PM
The risks and harms associated with drinking alcohol have been systematically evaluated over the years and are well documented.”
And from the same source on cancer:
“ It is the alcohol that causes harm, not the beverage
Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago – this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco. Alcohol causes at least seven types of cancer, including the most common cancer types, such as bowel cancer and female breast cancer. Ethanol (alcohol) causes cancer through biological mechanisms as the compound breaks down in the body, which means that any beverage containing alcohol, regardless of its price and quality, poses a risk of developing cancer.”
