Coach's Corner With Justin and Ethan
Welcome to "Coach's Corner with Justin and Ethan," where your health and fitness journey gets a simplified makeover! Join Justin and Ethan, two seasoned coaches with a combined 30 years of experience, as they navigate the labyrinth of health and fitness, unraveling myths from facts to guide you towards success.
In each episode, we dive headfirst into the vast world of well-being, shedding light on weight loss, dissecting diet fads, exploring diverse workout styles, and fine-tuning the often overlooked aspect of mindset. Our mission is to demystify the complexities surrounding health, making your journey not only effective but enjoyable.
Get ready for a lively and informative conversation that feels like a chat with your favorite fitness buddies. Justin and Ethan draw upon their extensive experience, sharing real-life stories from working with thousands of clients. No stone is left unturned as they break down what really works and what's just another fitness fad.
Whether you're a fitness enthusiast or a beginner taking the first steps toward a healthier lifestyle, "Coache's Corner" is your go-to source for practical insights, debunking myths, and embracing the joy of the journey. Tune in for a fun and engaging exploration of the truth behind health and fitness, and let Justin and Ethan be your trusted guides to a healthier, happier you!
Coach's Corner With Justin and Ethan
Navigating Alcohol's Impact on Fitness and Wellness
This episode explores how to drink responsibly while still pursuing fitness and health goals. The coaches discuss alcohol's effects on metabolism, recommend strategies for managing consumption, and emphasize the importance of moderation and planning.
• Discussing the relationship between alcohol and exercise
• The latency of alcohol's effects on wellness
• Caloric content of alcohol and its nutritional value
• Strategies for alcohol consumption management
• Tips for choosing healthier alcoholic beverages
• Recommendations for minimizing hangover effects
• Maintaining fitness momentum after social drinking
If you guys don't drink, then you're probably not really interested in this episode.
Speaker 1:But if you're like us and you enjoy a glass or four occasionally, I have some thoughts on this. It's a common issue, so we'll just kind of chop it up and see where it goes, with our own sort of viewpoints and anecdotal experiences with alcohol, exercise, nutrition, health in general. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, welcome to coach's corner, episode 45. I am coach justin and I'm coach ethan. And today, folks, as we round out this year and move into the next year, we're going to talk about alcohol. And can we booze and lose? Can we build significant amounts of muscle mass while drinking alcohol? How much alcohol should one drink? All of it, yeah, none of it how do?
Speaker 1:we, yeah, as much as is available. How do we, um you know, create a healthy relationship around alcohol?
Speaker 2:this is assuming that you guys drink.
Speaker 1:If you guys don't drink, then you're probably not really interested in this episode that's uh. But if you're like us and you enjoy a glass or four occasionally, yeah, I have some thoughts on this. It's a common issue, so we'll just kind of chop it up and see where it goes, with our own sort of viewpoints and anecdotal experiences with alcohol, exercise, exercise, nutrition, health in general.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so how to?
Speaker 1:keep the compass pointing the right direction. Keep that North Star Towards the bottle, towards right down the bottle. Yeah, can you find happiness at the bottom of a bottle?
Speaker 2:Ethan Only if you eat the tequila worm.
Speaker 1:You know an interesting way that it was put to me at one point she was using. She was talking about like it was like a business podcast and it was like more in line with how to um train staff well, but then she used alcohol as an analogy and I thought it was interesting. So it goes like this the latency between cause and effect is the most important aspect of any behavioral change. In other words, we all know what happens if you drink too much alcohol you get hungover and hangovers fucking suck Especially as you get older, especially as you get older, it's just like oh my God, it's 4 pm and I still feel like I can't even like keep my eyes open.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, but the problem is that the hangover is a day later because, because, immediately, there's no latency imagine if you drank and immediately started throwing up then you would probably be like oh, forget that, that's terrible it's never gonna do that the fire makes my fingers burn.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm not gonna touch the fire, yeah, yeah. But imagine if, like, when you touched it was like. It was like, you know, the most amazing euphoric experience of your life. For hours you're just like, oh, this feels so fucking good and then, like, later, you had blisters. The latency of the cause and effect is what changes behavior. So this woman was using it in context of like. As soon as an employee does something, you need to immediately correct it, because if a if time goes by and you don't address it, the the latency of the consequence is what does is what does or doesn't change behavior and right the disconnects. Yes, like huh, it's like when you're training a dog not to use like employees as like dogs. But you know, when you're training a dog, you can't like, let them, uh, you know, do something bad and then, like, 10 minutes later, start yelling at right the next day what it's like right in the act.
Speaker 2:It's the same same with your partners, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally no, but it is interesting because I it is that.
Speaker 2:I think it is a similar thing. It's like you can't harbor something and then bring it up in a fight or a conflict, exactly and like well last year you said this, and now that I'm upset about this thing, you been holding on to this forever yeah, like all of a sudden it's some doesn't have some fire power anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's how it works with alcohol, where it's like because the hangover is later but the joy is now, that's where it becomes a problem, right? I thought that was really interesting, because we all know what's going to happen if we drink too much. Yeah, but yet we still do it because right away it feels really good and that can even be.
Speaker 2:you know, that's an interesting perspective and I also feel like that even applies to like weight gain you know being the core process of this podcast is about, though, but, like, if you have a certain goal set, drinking is never going to feed weight loss, it's just it's inevitably not going to be the case. It's just empty calories the way they. You know it's like they. Sometimes people consider alcohol. The fourth macro. I've heard that Because it's per gram has seven calories, as I understand it, and however, you're measuring grams of alcohol in a liquid, but Milliliters.
Speaker 2:But it'd be evident the calorie density is not falling in line with carb, fat or protein, and so it has its own like little calorie profile and but. But it is interesting because I I saw this whole rabbit hole. I watched this whole video of how your liver processes it and basically it goes completely to fat storage. Yep, like they're like people, it's a toxin yeah, and it's just the way.
Speaker 2:The calories within the out, because there are calories within alcohol, but they're basically not able to actually be utilized for energy, and so you might be tired and have a couple beers and feel more energetic, but that's just from the effects of the byproduct, the I forget what, what the that thing that actually makes you feel drunk. It's spacing on me now, but you know the there might be these perceptions of energy and things like that, but fundamentally the alcohols has calories but actually cannot be used like those calories are not zero.
Speaker 1:They're used for anything. Zero, yeah they 100 get stored as fat and then, on top of that, because it is a poison, your liver kind of shuts down normal metabolic functions and goes specifically towards metabolizing this toxin in your system. Meaning that while your body is metabolizing alcohol, which is like one drink per hour so if you have four, that might be four hours of your day, or two or three hours of your day, or whatever you're not actively burning fat because your body is diverting all resources towards detoxing this poison out of your body.
Speaker 2:So there's the delayed repercussion, both with hangover and also for the potential.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean think about it, let's say you have, you know, four or five drinks a night, which might seem like a lot to some people, but trust me, I know people that do that.
Speaker 2:That's very easy, especially if it's a longer night, you know. It's like you if you're hanging out and enjoying a long dinner and evening with friends and it's a six hour experience yep, and people get there.
Speaker 1:You have a glass of wine, you have a glass of wine at the beginning of dinner. You have a second. Someone's going around filling your glass up for you.
Speaker 2:You have two glasses with the meal, and then maybe you have a fourth or even potentially a fifth as the night rolls on. You know, not necessarily in a two-hour span, but over many hours.
Speaker 1:Your intoxication level might not ever reach that high, but your body's constantly filtering this alcohol and you're still dealing with the calories.
Speaker 2:The bottom line is the calories are going in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you got the calories you've, your body is basically, during that time that you're metabolizing alcohol, you're not burning fat. So let's say, out of a 24-hour window, if you know only 20 of them are actually burning fat, that means you're potentially losing fat. So let's say, out of a 24-hour window, if you know only 20 of them are actually burning fat, that means you're potentially losing out on you know 20 of your day's ability to burn fat. To multiply that over three, four times a week, you know you could be in the same calorie range as somebody else who doesn't drink. But see, just way slowed, slower progress, just simply because when you have the alcohol in your system, your body just isn't burning any fat.
Speaker 2:It's like a double negative. It's a double negative you're consuming a fairly high caloric substance that has no ability for energy use and you're shutting down the use of your normal macro energy. So plus, like when you drink alcohol guess what it, you know it it who doesn't want to eat french fries?
Speaker 1:your judgment a little bit right. So alcohol tends to lead to 2 am burritos.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yeah, get two desserts.
Speaker 1:That taco stand looks not not so bad all of a sudden.
Speaker 2:I'm not exactly hungry, but I'm not not hungry.
Speaker 1:I could eat a quesadilla right now, right, and so you know this is a lot of that kind of stuff going on with when you drink. However, we live in the reality that, like I think, most folks listen to this probably are looking for a sustainable approach, and maybe you drink, maybe you don't. If you don't, like I said, probably not your episode If you do, and you're trying to figure out like how to optimize your life around this, because it's like there's more to it. It's like when we were getting ready for the show we were discussing, like there's more, like, yes, there is the objective sort of bad things about alcohol that no one can deny, but then there's like the social element.
Speaker 1:It is fun, you know, it is nice to like meet a buddy you haven't seen for a while and like grab a couple of whiskeys with them and catch up. Or to like go to a nice dinner and like share a bottle of wine and like have the sommelier come and like fill your glass for you and describe this wine comes from. These are experiences in life that are really nice and for me at least, especially after a long week of work, work, man, it's like wonderful to like go to a nice dinner with tanya and just like be able to share a bottle of wine and like, and I you know, and so it's like there is that part that is also part of health too, 100, 100, and so I think I mean the main thing is, like you know, just uh, you know we were talking about this and I have to say it, keeping it real, and it's pretty much shown that no amount of alcohol is good for the body.
Speaker 2:Less turns out, less is best, less is not as best. Yeah. I mean and you know there's always like the one glass of wine per day good for heart health and Not true the Reservatrol and all. Yeah, it's just not true.
Speaker 1:It's pretty conclusive that zero amount of alcohol is the best amount of alcohol in terms of just pure, pure physiology, if you, if your fucking body is your temple, then there is no amount of alcohol that's going to serve you to any degree. Yeah, but you know, if your temple has a little moss on it and maybe you're not keeping it you know it's been a minute since you've brushed this, since you've uh, swept it out that you know, maybe well, I think it's.
Speaker 2:I think it's important to honor that, like you know, and so it's it's. I think it's just. You know, in no way are we condoning drinking, but I think it's just more about not condemning it either yeah, not condemning it, and it's about balance and being able to maneuver and participate with life in an educated, intentional way. That includes the lights and the shadows, you know I I mean. There's a reason that playing in the dark is so fun.
Speaker 2:You know there's a million things in life that I can name that include playing in the dark, so to speak, that people do all the time. I think I know what he's talking about. There's a lot of things. I get it, you know, but I think it's just fundamentally, I think, the encompassing, of alcohol, which alcohol can help sometimes with Of course, I'm just saying Get you right there?
Speaker 2:No, but really there is. I think that the totality of the human experience includes the ups and downs, the peaks, the valleys, whatever kind of dualistic analogy you want to take, and I think that there is. You know, sometimes a little poison isn't so bad for the net and again, it's not condoning. But I think that's just like the realistic truth that when you dance with life it includes all of these things and maybe your path does eliminate as much shadow as possible. But realistically, for the most of us, we kind of have our foot in a little bit of one, a little bit of the other all the time.
Speaker 1:So then I think, I think, then it's, it's like okay, let's just say you are on a health journey, and I think it's important to have awareness that health is no one thing, because there are plenty of people on their high horses who don't drink, who would look down on people who do, but yet their diets all over the place, they're skipping workouts, their sleep is shit, they, you know, um, forget to drink enough water versus someone who might have a few drinks, uh, consistently, but yet has all those other things buttoned up. And I think I would fall into that category. I would let that. I would think that that person in general would be quote-unquote healthier as an aggregate. So health is no one thing. You can achieve high levels of health and fitness while still having some drinks throughout the week, but you can also achieve levels of of very low, very poor health, yeah, by and having no alcohol at all.
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean, how many? I mean there are plenty of people that I know people, people's, parents, just individuals in my life that I can reflect on, that just like never drink, but they're still overweight and they still battle with their body being a temple, so to speak. Right, and so to your point. Yeah, it's multifaceted and it's not one thing, and whether you don't drink because you look down on it or you just don't drink because it was never your thing, that that one thing isn't going to be a determinant of your overall health and longevity and the quality of life you have.
Speaker 1:I just think, like with anything in life, it takes a degree of participation and willingness to participate, because I think sometimes alcohol is also associated with like, abandonment, like, like, like I'm just gonna like, reckless abandonment with like this evening, like I fuck it, I'm just gonna go, I'm just gonna have. And I think that, like you know, if we look at things as a spectrum, that that's when it just goes way off course, where it's just like you're not, you're, you're, you're drinking more than your, than your body can metabolize, you're outpacing your body's ability to metabolize alcohol and you kind of turn a corner where it's like you know, just like the toxin level alone, you're going to be destroyed, but then, like that's just going to lead to other bad decisions, like driving drunk or ordering a fucking bunch of nasty food after you drink and like fight with, so it's like there's.
Speaker 1:I think that like if you're gonna do it smart, it's like there it is. Yeah, it's like there's. I think that like, if you're going to do it smart, it's like there it is. Yeah. It's like being aware of your state, yeah, and like having rules for yourself, like no more than like two per hour, yeah, to your body. Just give your body a little time to sort of catch up, so like it's almost like thinking of it as like riding that wave. It's like one drink, you know, he might as well just be sober, what's? You know what's the point? Right, unless you just really love, like, the taste of it, which yeah, maybe it goes well with your steak, whatever, but right, but like but like, if you're.
Speaker 1:If it's kind of like an evening where everyone's kind of getting together we want to have a few drinks, it's like kind of like being aware of your state and like kind of riding that wave where this down here is not really fun. Might as well not even do it Up here. It's like whoops, what the hell just happened. But it's like this little midsection where it's like okay, let me just kind of keep riding that wave, having like a glass of water after every drink and kind of just like keeping that nice vibe. You can still talk and you're coherent and you're fun, but you're not like slurring your words or crossing your eyes or whatever. I think that's the objective on like a sort of like a night out where you can wake up the next day and not like and be like okay, you know like, yeah, not too crazy.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it goes back to, you know, it's a degree of. I think, in a sense, the perspective that we're offering people is a degree of intentional participation and or responsibility, which can have a daunting connotation to it, but it's like it's just like with counting calories. It's like counting calories is kind of a pain in the ass, it's more work and it's a degree of attention that you have to pay to your life, but it offers a lot of freedom and understanding and takes out the guesswork and puts you in control of your circumstance and at least, even if you overeat, you still know what's going on. Whatever, whatever, whatever. But there's a degree of intentional reflection and responsibility, an intelligence towards your process. That has to happen, and I think for me it's the same idea with alcohol. It's like it's not don't do it, but let's become wiser, so that we can approach the process of drinking with some intentionality, with some self-awareness and with some self-responsibility, so that we can do it in a way that serves us and has the best outcome possible.
Speaker 1:Minimize the downside. Maximize the upside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it just takes a little bit of paying attention. And, yes, you have to take on a little more responsibility, but I think on the path of self-refinement, that is the eternal path, right, if you don't pay attention to your money, then you know what's going to happen, right? And that's a responsibility you have to take, and I think it's just the same thing Totally. The more responsibility you take, the more you can maneuver effectively.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like you said, minimize the damages, and I think that like okay, now bringing it down to, let's say, one is on a fitness journey and they do want to have alcohol in their life, but they also don't want to just like fuck their progress up either. So then, how do we effectively manage the caloric impact of it.
Speaker 1:Going back to it. And so, even though, like Ethan said, you know it is, some would consider a fourth macro, it's not really a fat, not really a carbohydrate, definitely not protein. What the fuck is it? I think that, like, what we have our clients do, is we just count it as a carbohydrate. So so look, if you want to have alcohol and like, if you've ever tracked your calories, you know that when you look at, like my fitness pal or or um, the lose it app or any sort of calorie tracker app, it gives you the calories for said drink. But then there's no, like it doesn't allocate macros anywhere, it just says calories yeah, a glass of wine is just 150 calories, that's it, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so then we go oh, so then what? Sometimes the pitfall is, if people are tracking their macros and they add a glass of wine, they still see all these carbs they get to have, because, although it added calories, it didn't take their carbs. And so they're looking at just their macros and they're like, oh, I still have more carbs.
Speaker 2:So we always just say, count it as a carbohydrate so and I think that makes sense and because also I feel like carbohydrate generally is the highest amount of a macro you get yeah, I mean pending protein, but fundamentally you have more of them, meaning more. You have more grams of carbohydrate in your general balance.
Speaker 1:Typically, people have, at least you know, 150 to 300 carbs yeah, there's a little more wiggle room there.
Speaker 1:So the way we would do this then is like, okay, this is again like, where this like intention and participation with it comes into play. Like, let's say, you do want to, you are tracking your calories because you do want to build muscle or burn fat, or you're on some sort of a plan. Then you look at your calorie intake and you go, okay, okay, I'm hypothetically, uh, 2 000 calories. Okay, of that 2 000 calories, I'm eating 300 grams of carbohydrates a day. We know that carbohydrates have four calories for every one gram. Okay, so what? What is that?
Speaker 1:How does that translate to alcohol? Well, let's say, I want to have two glasses of wine, right, and we know that a glass of wine is 150 calories, so two would be 300 calories, right, yeah, so then what you're going to do is you're going to divide 300 by four, which is 75, and so out of your 300 grams of carbohydrates that you get for the day, you're going to minus 75, and so now you only get to eat 225 grams instead of 300, because you've made the conscious decision to pull back 75 grams of your carbohydrates so that you can incorporate two glasses of wine in that example. So that's how we coach our clients on alcohol. It's like go ahead and do it, but you here's your total calories.
Speaker 2:You just have to minus those, those gotta build it in and I think it just goes back to like again, like you have to if. If you are specifically on a weight loss journey, you have to be paying attention. You can't not do that you can't not be paying attention to your calories.
Speaker 2:And again it's like now you've got this master framework to dance the dance how you want to dance it, and the more intentional you can be and the more you can build it into your day, the better off you're going to be. And so that maybe means you have a little bit less rice with lunch, right?
Speaker 2:or you don't have put. You know, your your hash brown with breakfast or whatever it is, and that that because you know you're going to go out with your girls or your boys later and you're going to have some drinks, and so you build it in, in and it's that whole thing. And even if you end up going over a drink or two, just like we've talked about in the past with counting calories, as much as it's about hitting the target, it's about mitigating damage. Yes, right, so if you eat a normal day's worth of food and you go and you have four drinks, now you're four drinks over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now you're 600 calories over.
Speaker 2:If you build three drinks in and you have five now, you're only two drinks over right and that's just a mitigation of damages that in the long run will make a big difference.
Speaker 1:I always tell our client, I always say that I'm like, listen, maybe you're 20% off, maybe you plan for two or three and you end up having four or five because the night keeps going, You're having fun, but the fact that you had planned it ahead of time and put up these parameters means you only went 20 over. But if there was no parameters, you'd be a fucking 120 over easily yeah, and so exactly right, it's just like.
Speaker 1:It's just like understanding that like did like no one, no one is squeaky clean you know it's a messy dance out there.
Speaker 1:But by simply just pulling back, you know no carbs for breakfast and lunch, because you know you're going to have a handful of drinks, even if you're a little over. That can really, in the long run, help you get to where you want to be a lot faster, without having to give everything you enjoy in life in the process 100%, you get to where you want to be a lot faster, without having to give everything you enjoy in life in the process.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent, and and and to the. To the conversation we're having right now, which is the person who's on a body composition goal. They're looking to lose some fat and therefore making sure they have to be in some type of a caloric deficit, therefore paying attention to calories and therefore incorporating their alcoholic drinks. There are going to be certain drinks that are going to be more conducive to losing weight than others, right? So the alcohol in the drink is the calories that can't be escaped from the alcohol.
Speaker 1:It's the alcohol itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no matter what right. So, like a 5% beer to a glass of wine, to one shot of liquor, is all the same amount of alcohol, same metabolic process and time for the hour, like you mentioned earlier. But what then can happen is that certain drinks can have more calories, for sure, you know. And so beer is an infamous one because there's a lot of starch in the beer from the brewing process and all the grains and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:And so if you really are going for it, then there are wiser decisions that you can make to get to that goal while still imbibing there's a reason they call it a beer gut yeah, because that man, those beers, they there's like there can be like 250 calories it's insane like one beer can be a 400 like a stout or an ipa man, it's crazy dude, it's wild you sometimes I looked up this one this one time and I was like holy shit, this is like a 500 calorie can of beer.
Speaker 1:It's like when people tell me oh you know, I looked up this one this one time and I was like holy shit, this is like a 500 calorie can of beer it's like when people tell me oh, you know, it's like I have a few beers every night and I'm like you know, in theory I hear you and that shouldn't be a problem, but the reality is that's probably six to seven hundred calories at the end of your night, after you've already eaten your full days worth of food, and you're sitting here thinking like I don't even eat that bad. The only, the only vice I have is a couple of beers a night. But, man, you times that out by 5, 10 years and that could easily be 30, 40 pounds of fat you're just carrying around your gut because of just all those empty calories extra extra empty calories and so do you give.
Speaker 2:do you have any recommendations for your clients for kind of the type of alcohol to choose Like? Do you have a whole?
Speaker 1:No, I mean because I think, like we talked about, it's just like I would tell them the same thing. You just said that, like you know, you can get just as much fun out of a whiskey soda as you can out of a cock, like a sugary cocktail or a beer with literally half the calories, and so, yeah, we are playing the calorie game and yeah, it's just those, those wise decisions in the leanest I ever got I was.
Speaker 1:I was having, you know, multiple drinks per week and uh, it just always factored into just my overall calorie. I mean, you know, could you get there fast without it? Of course we said earlier, yes, but like we're not here to talk about that, we're here to talk about how to sort of make it weave it into your life experience. Um and and less is like, since we're playing the calorie game, then yeah, just looking at these individual choices and just doing the best you can. If you just love fucking wine, then maybe a whiskey soda is just not ever going to work for you yeah, and that's fine but just know that it's 150 calories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got her drink. You got to put the. You got to put the drink into my fitness pal. Look up the specific beer, look up the thing. And for people that just want to, that are on the on the straight and narrow path, it's like I always tell them and like first things, always people say, like clear liquors are the best. Fundamentally, every liquor has the same amount of calories. So whether it's whiskey, maybe some rums might have a little sugar in them, but fundamentally, if you're looking at a 40 or 80 proof liquor, the calories are the same. So whether it's a bourbon or a tequila, so it's not clear liquors only. But I would say to somebody think about taking like a shot of tequila, put it with a lot of soda, get some fresh lime and now you kind of have this massive liquid that contains the one drink, because I think so much of it too is just having the thing a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:I know it's just like beers, because it's like you can like chill with it for a minute and sit there and sip it, you know like a cocktail, like you know. You know you go to like a restaurant these days. You like order a manhattan, they give you like a thimble, yeah, like okay, that was 25 and it was delicious, yeah, but I guess I got another one you know, but like, if you do so, you know.
Speaker 1:There is that balance where I think, like the the, the soda, the spirits and soda is a great combo, because it's like you can fill that thing up like a whole glass well, that's exactly.
Speaker 2:I've had clients say like I don't mind if you have three drinks, but if you're looking to last the night and you're not necessarily looking to deeply imbibe, but just like, have like a large glass filled with soda and water it down and just have something to sip for a long time. I mean it's why they say like tea when people are trying to stop drinking and they replace it with like tea and other beverages, because very often it is just having the thing in hand and having the process, and I think so much with the social aspect.
Speaker 1:That's what's happening with drinking yeah, it's that conditioning of like I finished my night with a drink. It's like, well, if you just swap that out with with the tea in that example. Yeah, exactly, so, yeah, so yeah there's just there's.
Speaker 2:There are better options and just even strategies for drinking less in a short amount of time. Because, to Justin's point, if you get a nice little cocktail that's got two ounces in it, you drink that lickety split. 20 minutes go by, you get another one you could potentially have three of those in an hour, right? Because if you got one drink, that's 12 ounces of soda water and a tequila with some fresh limes literally just the alcoholic calories. You could sip on that for a while again. It's just that awareness.
Speaker 1:Light beers aren't too bad either, like 80 calories something like that, you know, like if you're not all about just getting tanked and you just want it to like have beverage and like be social. Not a bad move either. You know a lot of those canned drinks now, like the, the um, truly's what's nice about that is, you know there are 100 calories.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, the clean brew, the, the white claws and the truly's totally so there are definitely better choices you can make for sure to just like reduce the chances you're going to be going back too frequently for the next, you know, because it gets into a little bit of a slippery slope where it's like you can, you know, you start drinking fast and you get that escalation of alcohol in your blood and it's just like you start to lose your when does those inhibitions go down and I think it's something you mentioned earlier that that is the one thing about alcohol is it does lower inhibitions.
Speaker 2:And so if you are on a path that involves responsibility like we've been talking about counting calories, making proper food choices, only having a certain amount of drinks as you kind of get in there a little bit, all those protocols are going to start to get thrown out the window, and so it's just one of those things and that's going to happen. That's fine in some degree, but the more you can mitigate it, the more responsibility you take, the more you can traverse the path. Again, specifically talking about somebody who is looking to lose weight while also having the opportunity to have some imbibing, and it goes back to let's just like I think you know, look over the calories for the day, choose, I think, a big one, which I, you know, it's obvious but it's just like, choose how many drinks you plan on having. Again, even if you go over, don't just say, oh, I'm going to eat a light lunch and I'm going to have a 500 calorie deficit for the day that I built in and I'm going to go out drinking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like good luck Right, it's just like at least name, like, okay, I'm going to have three drinks, I'm going to have three glasses of wine, specifically built that in, and again, if you have four or five, it is what is. But I think that is something I've seen with my clients at least. It's like they'll, they'll, they'll create the deficit, but they won't name the future right. And then, because it's open-ended, it all just kind of goes to shit, including ordering some like disco fries at the end of the night for sure, whatever, because they're just you know, because if you have, it's like I only have room for three drinks and no food versus oh, I created a deficit and I got some leeway and I don't have any plan for the night ahead Now that I've had a few in me.
Speaker 2:well, it's like oh, I probably shouldn't have the fries, but whatever. Versus if you have the numbers laid out and you know this is all you got. There's just a little more room for that part of you to catch yourself.
Speaker 1:I think like the more the more you participate daily with your meal planning, aka calorie counting, whatever you but like, the more attention to those details you give it, yeah, the more you're exposing your own little gremlins tendency to sabotage you. But the more general and like kind of like wishy-washy you are, the more you're empowering that dark side of you to take over once your inhibitions are lowered. And so it's like by going that extra mile and be like I'm not just going to leave 500 calories because that could just be a basket of fries, you know, like that's nothing.
Speaker 1:But like okay, here's what we're going to do is three drinks and, like you've been said, if it ends up being four, well, you're only 150 calories over now, versus potentially being a thousand calories. That might seem crazy, but I look at meal plans all day, every day, and I have some people out there and if you're listening, you know who you are, who they're dangerous to them, like they're it's like they're good, they're good, they're, they're good. Then, all of a sudden, a 6,000 calorie day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's just like holy shit, because it's like, once the membrane is punctured, man, you get in that slipstream where it's just like woo it is, it is crazy. So you have to really think about it ahead of time and plan that so you don't get caught up in it and just kind of say fuck it, I'll pick up tomorrow. So that's the thing. One. Thing two I think is really important as well as that like, if you're gonna play hard, you gotta work hard and don't let your drinking be the excuse you give yourself and then let everything else for the next 48 hours go to shit too. So like, if you're gonna go out and you're gonna drink, you don't get to like have comfort food the next day.
Speaker 2:You don't get to like Right, because you're a little hungover.
Speaker 1:Because you're hungover, oh but I don't feel good Because you fucking did that to yourself. Yeah, that was your choice. So if you want to like, this is the discipline that I have. Like that I put on myself working out the next day I'm hitting my 10 000 steps, I'm right back on my calories. I'm not letting this be the trip wire for an entire week of just like kind of getting back on track, because that's what.
Speaker 2:That's the pitfall that people get into and I think that's this is probably probably one of the more important things to name, because it's just kind of like psychology, it's just the human condition, totally. So, whether it's a vacation or a night out drinking or a hard emotional moment, the, the, the tendency to kind of like throw it all out the window is very easy to do and and you are, you hit the nail on the head. It's like that one night of drinking you wake up, you feel like shit, you slept in, whatever. Then you're just like, oh, like, oh. I would love a fucking fried chicken sandwich right now.
Speaker 1:I'm supposed to go to work. I'm supposed to do legs today.
Speaker 2:Fuck it yeah.
Speaker 1:Now you have another day where you're eating like shit. Then you skip your workout, then it's just this snowball 100%. Then you call your coach and say yeah, it's just not working for me, man. It's just too working for me, man. You know, like I just can't. It's just it's just too strict for me. I just can't see. It's like no, if you're gonna go and do it, yeah, have fun, and then the next day you're gonna feel like shit for one day.
Speaker 2:You just get back on track, you just do what you gotta do and there's a, there's a little bit of grit, and this is I mean I. I do really appreciate you bringing this up, because it's something I I see myself fall into all the time of just that trip wire and it's like you gotta, like the, the you can't avoid the friction, like there's just no way around the discipline, or like making the kind of semi-uncomfortable choice and it's like the, the choice you have to make that next day, while being uncomfortable, will probably be a lot easier than a week down the road. Oh yeah, and and it's just the swallowing the pill that it's inevitably going to have to happen, if you want that goal and if you're going to name that goal, you have to, at one point, get back on the horse and or do the hard thing and be disciplined.
Speaker 1:You know, whatever it is, you're going to have to like face the music in some capacity, because it's like whatever justifications you give yourself in the moment that feel logical, like you're only going to regret it in a week or two and be like fuck you know. But so as hard as it is in the moment, no matter how much that little gremlin in the back of your mind is telling you sleep in order, takeout, skip your workout.
Speaker 1:You deserve it. You don't feel well. Yeah, yeah, you overcome that negative voice and you just order order, take out, skip your workout, you deserve it. You don't feel well, yeah, yeah, you overcome that negative voice and you just do the hard thing anyways. And then it's like you got to realize that, like life and success in life is all about momentum. And if they were to trace back to why people just can't ever seem to like accomplish what they want, it's just that this lack of momentum they're good for a while and then they're not. And it's like like your number one objective is to stay in momentum, because without momentum, like nothing you want to accomplish is going to come to fruition, including your health and your fitness. And so it's like, if you're going to go out, don't let that be the tripwire that that like pulls the momentum rug out from under you. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, huge, huge, very wise, wise man over here, especially if you've been in momentum up to that point right because, that's another pit, that's another tripwire is like oh, I've been so good for so long because you know what we all have.
Speaker 1:Reward behavior syndrome and like that's normal for us to want to reward ourselves after doing something hard for a period of time a hard week of work, a hard day at work, whatever we want to reward ourselves, typically through food and alcohol. Okay, but recognize that, man, it takes a while to get into momentum and you can reward yourself. There is value in that, giving yourself that dopamine hit after you've done something for a while. So that way you stay on the trail but recognize you only got to that point because of the discipline and momentum you were in and so don't let that be the thing that severs that discipline and momentum, you still got to keep the push.
Speaker 2:It's interesting because momentum is tricky, because it has a sensation If you just think about the word, like pushing a car out of neutral, it's like when you go to first push it, it's so hard.
Speaker 2:You get it rolling, though, and you're like oh, I'm good that's so hard and there is almost this sensation of like we compensation of like yeah, I can no longer push because the thing is moving on its own and to your point, there might be a capacity to let it off a little bit, but you can't just be like, well, it's rolling, now you know no more, no more effort or perseverance, which is why, like, planning your week is just so crucial and like having your daily non-negotiables, like we're gonna do 5 000 steps a day or 10 000 steps a day.
Speaker 1:I'm going to lift weights four days a week monday, tuesday, thursday, friday um, I'm going to eat 2 800 calories a day, almost like I have a little thing on my desk which is just like my little daily skills and habit checklist and I give myself a yes or no. Did I? It's a binary Did I do it or did I not do it? Did not do it, did not practice Spanish today? Okay, and I see that visually, and so it's like that is my accountability system in a lot of ways, and I think that when you don't have these parameters for your life, then things like drinking too much or, you know, just like letting the alcohol but this meant like throws you off because you don't actually you've never actually like taken the time to like give yourself that three to five non-negotiables that you do for your health or for your business or for your life or whatever, and so then it's like well, you know, like I'm accountable to no one. There's no rules. I can't break rules that don't exist.
Speaker 2:I can't break rules that don't exist, but if you give, yourself the rule and you break it.
Speaker 1:You have to sit there and look at yourself and be, like I didn't do it.
Speaker 2:And that's harder.
Speaker 1:It's harder, for sure it just reduces the likelihood that you will. We'll still all self-sabotage at some point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nobody's perfect.
Speaker 1:I think that's part of it, but it maybe just mitigates the degree of self-sabotage or the frequency of self-sabotage by having it actually written out. I have rules, so anyway. So Wise words, wise words.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Tangents. But you know, it's all no but it's super, super good.
Speaker 2:You know, and I think what I would say is like I fall into the sandpit snake oil, tar of. Just I don't want to.
Speaker 1:Because you're always going to feel a little bit worse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, quicksand, that's what I say, sandpit.
Speaker 2:Sandpit you know you never heard of that quicksand sandpit. Yeah, those are the worst ones. Those are the worst ones, but you know. So I mean I think you kind of mentioned earlier, like drinking a glass of water after every drink is a crucial one, and then, I think, having some type of an electrolyte supplement, either throughout or at the end of the night. I know this is a practice, you do, something I do, and it's you know, fundamentally, alcohol is a diuretic and with that go a lot of your body's minerals.
Speaker 2:Mineral balances, yeah, and so and you know, electrolytes are huge for your nervous system function and all that kind of stuff, and so just having a simple electrolyte, even an emergency packet, is, as a low hanging fruit option which I don't think is the best.
Speaker 1:There's some good ones, like Element is great, liquid IV is my fave. Yeah, there's a bunch out there.
Speaker 2:Go on Amazon, just look up, you know, electrolyte supplement, they have ones with zero calories. Keto friendly, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, but it's in the sense I say keto friendly because there's literally no calories, no sugar, no, no sugar in it. Yeah, and and I don't think sugar is bad, like I love liquid iv, but just like that that can help so much for making you feel better.
Speaker 1:So, whether it's just like it's otherwise. If you don't, then what ends up happening is you wake up at three o'clock in the morning with your dry mouth and a full bladder, because your body is literally just pulling all of the water out of your cells and you're peeing out.
Speaker 2:All your minerals, your precious minerals.
Speaker 1:So by taking an electrolyte, what ends up happening? Is it just restores that sodium barrier?
Speaker 1:And sodium is what holds water and hydration in your cells, and so by drinking the electrolyte you get potassium and magnesium and all these other good things. But, most importantly, the sodium just helps plug up your body so you're not just sitting there leeching all of your hydration out. Yeah, so a you, you won't it. It helps reduce the chances you're going to disrupt your sleep because you don't have to wake up and pee, so you stay hydrated as you sleep, which is huge, so you're not going gonna feel even worse by not sleeping and then, um, yeah, it just makes it, so you just aren't gonna wake up with a nasty hangover the next day, not as bad.
Speaker 2:Another one is b vitamins like so getting a broad spectrum b vitamin complex methylated if you can not required but helpful, and it's one of those things like some. Some people talk about b vitamins keeping them up at night. I think it's just ridiculous. I personally I b vitamins definitely give you energy. They can definitely affect my energy levels, but I personally have never been kept up if I've had a little too much to drink from taking a b vitamin. Yeah, I think the b vitamin that's keeping you up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know but some people are in that boat. But either way, whether you take it the next morning or the night before, a b vitamin, because the same thing, your B vitamins are crucial for your mitochondria and energy production in your cells, and alcohol disrupts and takes away all that as well. And so that's just another very easy, accessible thing you can do to kind of help mitigate that next day feeling. And then there are also like crazy supplements that have been shown to help mitigate hangovers. There's a compound I cannot think of off the top of my head, but it exists, I promise you, and there's just clinical studies that have shown.
Speaker 2:Because basically it's like the thing that makes you drunk is a toxic byproduct of the liver metabolizing the alcohol. So alcohol itself, ethanol does not make you feel the sensation of being drunk. It's when your liver metabolizes the alcohol and it produces I believe it starts with an A also escaping my mind right now but that's the thing that's toxic and that's the true poison of the body and it's that poison that actually produces the sensation of intoxication. And so if you basically the idea and there's even like probiotic gut biome supplements to help with this but the idea is that the more you can like aid your liver, protect your liver, help your liver. You know, participate with the toxin can have, you know, a positive outcome. And I've done some of those specific supplements and they have helped. So I guess just how deep you want to go down the rabbit hole, but there are things you can do.
Speaker 1:Whatever you do, don't? Electrolytes and b vitamins are? Just so easy to do and can make such a big, totally even just the water if you just water, I would say, if nothing else, water and electrolytes would be a great place to start. But like, whatever you fucking do, don't get hammered, eat a bunch of shitty food.
Speaker 2:Salty, greasy, high-fat foods, don't drink any water and then just go pass out Like just don't do that. Because that's, I think, how many people fall victim. That's how you wake up and just eat like a full day's worth of sodium with some burgers and fries and already dehydrated blood plasma, you're just like bleh.
Speaker 1:They're just like some street urchin. Yeah. No, you like hydrate? Be smart, don't try to keep it. One to five is your range. Drink wise Tons of water. If you can do electrolyte, do it. Just keep better hygiene as a human being, if you're going to drink. It's a simple decision that can make a big difference. You go not my best, not my worst Right, and then, therefore, I can work out that much easier to make the decisions, to keep the momentum.
Speaker 1:Not have to like order. You know breakfast in bed because you're in the net to skip everything. I just don't feel good. No amount of Advil can fix that, yeah. So anyways, I think that does it yeah it feels good man. That was a that we went a little bit long on this one, but I think we covered pretty much all the bases on it and yeah, I hope that could be helpful, I hope so I'm falling right ears here. Yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed it. That was episode 45. 45.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of episodes, that is.