We hosted a free toastmasters meeting at our house last night, which meant lots of people consuming alcohol. My first reaction when people was arrived was to seriously consider whether I could sneak a drink. But we all know one drink is very rarely one drink!
When we consume alcohol, it is not just the empty calories to consider. Alcohol temporarily keeps your body from burning fat, explains integrative medicine specialist Pamela M. Peeke, MD, author of The Hunger Fix. The reason is, that your body can't store calories from alcohol for later, the way it does with food calories. So when you drink, your metabolic system must stop what it's doing (like, say, burning off calories from your last meal) to get rid of the booze.
"Drinking presses 'pause' on your metabolism, shoves away the other calories, and says, 'Break me down first!'" Dr. Peeke explains. The result is that whatever you recently ate gets stored as fat.
You are also far more likely to mindlessly eat when you have been drinking, as alcohol lowers your inhibitions. You are likely to eat more AND eat the wrong kinds of foods, without considering the consequences to your body. It also increases your appetite, so even if you start the night with good intentions it is unlikely you will be able to stick to them. So not only will you eat more, but everything you do eat will be stored as FAT!
Alcohol has also been proven to increase the risk of cancer. Evidence indicates that the more alcohol a person drinks regularly over time, the higher their risk is of developing an alcohol-associated cancer (including breast, esophageal, head and neck, liver and colorectal cancers).
Now let's consider hangovers. Who has woken up feeling like nothing but a big greasy breakfast? Or sugar? You are also likely to feel crappy and tired, which often leads to bad food choices (there goes that clean eating!) AND let's face it, who really feels like doing their workout when hungover?
So how did I get through the night? It was easy, once I got through that first half an hour. I reminded myself of all of the facts above, and realised I really couldn't get away with one drink, since I'll be entering my first body sculpting comp in October. Once I got used to the fact I wasn't drinking, and started having conversations with people, I was far too consumed with that, and I didn't even want a drink.
So how about considering this before you have that drink! Even if you don't have a big goal like mine, taking a month off alcohol can only be a good thing!
© Copyright Anna McConnell 2015. All rights reserved.
© Copyright Anna McConnell 2015. All rights reserved.
