Go 7 Days With No Alcohol: Weekly Habit Practice

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The Weekly Habit Practices are mini-challenges intended to help you fine-tune different aspects of your health and wellness. Offered between Challenges, these practices address fitness, nutrition, stress reduction, productivity, and personal connection — because health is about far more than food and the gym (and we could all use a little practice).

A Week of No Alcohol

Simple Instructions:

  1. Each day this week, abstain from drinking alcohol.
  2. Leave the beer in the fridge, the wine unopened, and the liquor cabinet closed. Unlike the Kickstart and Lifestyle levels of the Challenge (both of which allow a relatively small amount of weekly drinking), this Habit Practice foregoes all forms of alcohol at all times.
  3. The intention of this practice is not to keep you from enjoying life — you’ll still attend parties, go to restaurants, and spend time with your friends.  You’ll just do it knowing that you’ve made a conscious choice to keep the adult beverages out of your system for seven days.

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Why Is This Skill Important?

It seems like alcohol is everywhere we go — an accepted part of our social lives, an easy way to relax, an expected part of after-hours conduct. As a culture, we drink (and we enjoy it).

At the same time, alcohol consumption has far-reaching consequences for those pursuing calm, balance, and a wellness-oriented lifestyle. Here are some of the potential effects:

  • Fat Loss: Ethanol (the primary chemical that gives alcohol its effects) has metabolic priority in the body, ensuring that it is metabolized before fat, carbohydrates, or protein — this effectively stops any ongoing fat loss in its tracks.
  • Mood: Alcohol can have an impact on mood, with high alcohol consumption rates linked to depression.
  • Sleep: Alcohol consumption is correlated with a reduction in sleep quality and duration, as well as an increase in sleep disturbances.
  • Athletic Performance: Alcohol consumption can impair recovery from athletic activities, inhibit motor coordination, reduce muscular work capacity, and increase the potential for injury.

Going alcohol free for a week may seem like cakewalk (or it may be a great personal challenge). Regardless, you’ll get the chance to see the effects that abstaining has on your emotions, physical performance, body composition, and sleep quality — perhaps giving you insight into how you’ll approach drinking in the future.

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