The Top 10 Benefits of Living Alcohol Free
There are countless benefits to living alcohol-free. Many are physical. Some are emotional. They are all deeply personal. From simply ‘feeling better’, sleeping well, and waking up bursting with pride each day… To better skin, weight loss, and a jump in productivity… Here are my top 10 benefits of living alcohol-free.
Living alcohol-free — what are the benefits?
Time, so much time
Take out the time it takes to buy alcohol, drink alcohol, feel the effects of alcohol and then get over your drinking session the next day, and it all adds up. When you go alcohol-free, it feels like there are simply more hours in the day. The days can be filled with so much more. For me, this was a benefit for my entire family. Having more time to spend with them meant stronger relationships, more time making memories together, and time for future plans.
Balancing hormones
Living alcohol-free helps to balance your hormones. That’s because booze interferes with the operation of our hormone systems. Studies show overwhelmingly that drinking increases the amount of oestrogen in women’s systems and may also lower progesterone. Higher oestrogen has been linked to breast cancer. My oestrogen dominance reversed when I quit drinking.
Weight loss
Alcohol can change the way your body burns fat. When you drink, your body is more focused on breaking down alcohol, rather than burning fat. Instead of burning fat, it’s burning calories from alcohol. There are 625 calories in a bottle of wine. If you aim to consume 1400 calories a day in order to lose weight, you can see how drinking makes it almost impossible.
Take away all the calories in alcohol and it’s much easier to lose weight – quickly.
Sleep
Drinkers often wake up at 3 am. They’re thirsty, tossing and turning, and sometimes feel ‘hangxiety’ start to kick in (that dreaded ‘What did I do last night?’ feeling.). Without alcohol in your system, you sleep all through the night. The effects of alcohol may make you feel sleepy and fall asleep quickly at first but alcohol is linked to poor sleep quality. Night after night of poor sleep quality really adds up! Take it away and sleep 9 hours a night of sober sleep and you start to feel unstoppable.
Motivation
Alcohol is a depressant that affects your brain’s level of ‘happy’ chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. While you may feel a hit of happiness when drinking, the next day you’ll be deficient in these chemicals leading to feeling unmotivated, down, and depressed. When you take out alcohol, your motivation gets a natural boost. You’re clear-headed and not riding a chemical roller coaster.
Confidence and self-esteem
It’s almost impossible to feel great about yourself when you’re drinking a depressant every night. Shame, guilt, and waking up with dread and regret impact heavily on confidence and self-esteem. Without drinking, your pride changes. You start to realise how fantastic you are without booze. And what you’re capable of.
Glowing skin
There is no better anti-ageing trick out there than living alcohol-free. Alcohol dehydrates your skin leaving it dull and lifeless. Inflammation also causes puffiness and red blotches. When you live alcohol-free your skin has a natural glow.
Self-connection
Take away drinking and you have to face yourself. It’s unavoidable. You are faced with a person you may not know that well sober. Diving deep into who we really are, and what makes us tick (and why we drink), is a huge benefit of living alcohol-free. We can find better tools for coping with stress and complex relationships. We connect without our true selves – instead of hiding from her.
Productivity
When you face a workday without a hangover you’ll notice a huge shift in productivity. Take away feelings of exhaustion, physical withdrawal and the emotional shame and regret that alcohol often brings and your productivity starts to charge. You are engaged with your work in a clear- headed, confident way.
Possibility
This one is deeply personal for me. Going alcohol-free for me felt like I took the brake off my life and I could suddenly see what was possible,moving forward. I found the belief I could do anything I wanted with my life and nothing was holding me back. We sometimes don’t realise just how much drinking is holding us back - until we take a break from it.
Xx Sarah
P.S. If you need to take a break from alcohol, I’m here to help. You can read about my challenges and programs HERE.
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