PODCAST - Copy of The Sober Hangover_ The Hangover You Don’t Know You Have
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[00:00:00] Welcome to The Athlete with Asthma Show. I'm your host, Johnny Havey, an ultra runner, endurance athlete, and yes, a guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer nor run a marathon, let alone 100K ultra, I proved them all wrong. This show is where I share everything I've learned, from breathing techniques to mindset shifts, to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals despite limitations, let's get started.
When you are sober or you don't drink for extended period of times like me, taking four months, six months, 10 months, even 14 plus months off from drinking, you realize two extremely important things about hangovers. They [00:01:00] last far longer than the headache and nausea. A good friend of mine shared with me that this is what they call the sober hangover.
When you realize that after you drink, that the hangover goes far beyond feeling a headache and feeling sick to your stomach, you have uncovered why drinking is so detrimental to you and I. Days after drinking, you may experience brain fog, lack of energy, lack of motivation, lack of productivity, low mood, overall feeling dehydrated, feeling dry.
All of these things you realize are part of the hangover experience when you take time off. And number two, people who drink even moderately on a consistent basis are chronically hungover. And today on the show, I'm gonna unpack with you why you should join me and countless others in taking at [00:02:00] least 30, 60, 90 days, even a year plus off from drinking, and see how powerfully it changes your life.
But aren't hangovers worse for people that don't have a tolerance? Did you ever get made fun of in college because when you drank, you got drunk faster? When you tried to drink as much as your friends, you'd have an even worse headache and nausea induced hangover the next day? Well, I have news for you.
Hangovers are not worse for those who drink less. The effects of a hangover are more obvious when you drink less. Because when you drink less, and I'm not talking about drinking once a week, I'm talking about drinking once every couple of months or once a year. When you drink less, and alcohol is able to clear itself from your system, and more importantly, your body is able to experience how it feels to have this toxin eliminated from your system for extended periods of [00:03:00] time, you realize that sobriety equals A new baseline.
And when you put alcohol in your body after creating, after experiencing this new baseline, this new you, this powerful version of yourself, you realize how bad alcohol is on your system. Now, if you've ever taken a month, two months, three months or more off from drinking, you have probably experienced at least a little bit of what I'm about to share with you next.
If you've taken a week off, two weeks, or you've decreased your drinking to one drink a week, you have not experienced this. And until you really get up to the 90 days plus, or you join me for at least 12 months off from drinking, you will never know how powerful it is for you, which is why I'm gonna share with you what I have experienced so that you can finally decide that this is the [00:04:00] day that you take a year off from drinking.
It all starts with brain power. I didn't know how much brain power I was missing until I took an extended amount of time off from drinking, and I'll tell you how I know today that my brain operates at a completely different level than it does when I drink weekly. Leading up to my bachelor party, I decided that I should probably drink something before breaking my drinking fast- Of 10 months with my bachelor party.
So I had a little bit of sake. Then a week after my bachelor party, it was a good friend of mine's birthday, so I had a couple more drinks. I'll tell you this, I am not operating where I was before I broke the fast, and I felt it right away. The second I started drinking sake, I realized that my brain could no longer focus like it does when alcohol hasn't been in my system for months.
This is crazy. And until you've actually taken time off from drinking alcohol, [00:05:00] you can't argue with me and this point. And I know I'm gonna get comments, 'cause I get comments on other videos about, "Oh, no, I can drink and it's fine." You don't even know what you're missing until you actually do the thing, or stop doing the thing, which is drinking.
Brain power is at a completely different level when you don't drink. Next, better mood. Now, some people think that alcohol makes their mood better. And I actually, when I drink, I get to a place where I feel so fricking good that you could make an argument that with the right amount you can get the best mood ever for a small amount of time, for maybe 30 minutes.
The problem is that alcohol breaks down into sugar, and blood sugar spikes in your system can really drain your energy and tank your mood for days, weeks, months, years, especially if you're putting yourself through this on a weekly basis. Even one drink a week can spike your blood sugar, and then it tanks, [00:06:00] and now you're recovering for the next week.
And then it happens again, and again, and again, and again. My baseline mood has been lower since restarting drinking after taking 10 months off. Next, more energy. Do you know that you may not have to have that cup of coffee every single day? Did you know that it is possible to wake up with all the energy you need inside of yourself?
Did you know that alcohol not only drains your energy, it messes up your sleep, it messes up how your system recovers, and no matter who you are, your baseline will be lower. So even if you have energy now and you drink a couple times a week, your energy will be better when you stop drinking. And that is the thing here, is you can't argue with me unless you've actually taken a year plus off from drinking and seeing how it has impacted your life.
Those of you who have done this know that there is a different baseline for all of us. Dr. Benjamin [00:07:00] Hardy talks about in his books that you need to raise your floor in order to become even more successful in your life. Well, when you raise your baseline, you are raising your floor, so your worst days are significantly better than your worst days...
When you have alcohol. Next, talking about longevity. Younger body. Yes, when you have alcohol, you age faster. Your body is allocating energy to expelling this toxin from itself instead of running the system. You start getting dehydrated. Your skin dries out faster. Everything ages faster when you have alcohol in your system.
So when you cut alcohol out, you're metabolically healthier, you're physically healthier, you're mentally healthier, you're emotionally healthier, and ultimately, you have a younger body. And guess what? You have more money. It's expensive to drink, y'all. We were downtown last [00:08:00] weekend, and to get a drink at a bar, you're looking at 10 to $20 per drink.
Per drink! This is crazy. So to go out to dinner, it costs double when you drink. When going to the grocery store, buying alcohol for the house, you have increased your grocery bill by probably 25 to 30%. When you drink, you crave eating more, which means that that brings your grocery bill up. When you cut alcohol out, you get a pay raise, and it compounds over time.
We're talking about thousands of dollars per year. Thousands of dollars per year. And this doesn't even account for the medical bills that are created when you continue to drink into your later years of life. Now we're talking about tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars. But hey, until you try this, you don't know what you don't know, and that's why I invite you today to set a goal.
Go at least a month, then go to two months, then three months, then a year plus, and see how cutting alcohol out of your life changes your [00:09:00] life. And if you wanna take it even further, I invite you to grab a copy of my Healthy Living Guide in the show notes and in the YouTube description, or you can go to www.athletewithasthma.com to start instilling the three pillars of healthy living into your life today.
Just gonna take you a couple of minutes to read. Grab your copy, and I'll see you on the next episode.
Thanks for tuning in to The Athlete With Asthma show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection, it's about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals. And if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and [00:10:00] redefining what's possible
