How to Live a Limitless Life with Andy Ramage

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 224. Today I'm sitting down with Coach Andy and we're just talking all about how to live a limitless life. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance and movement, package and position their products, services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

What's up coach? Thank you so much for hanging out with me on today's episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson. And if this is the first time that you're hanging out with me today, welcome. I'm super pumped that you're here. Joining me today I have a really special guest. I have Andy Ramage, the co founder of the One Year no Beer movement and the Dry Dry app and the owner, founder of an incredible alcohol free community which is widely considered the world's number one alcohol free performance platform for coaches, which we actually discuss pretty in depth in today's episode. And so here we both share some vulnerable stories about our relationship to alcohol. Andy shares with us, you know, a very in depth about how he got here, what caused him to, to really be at the forefront of this movement, what it was like 10 years ago. And honestly, I share a little bit in this episode, my experience and my perspective around what it's been like to be sober, curious to potentially release alcohol from my life once and for all. And how this journey for me specifically I'll share, has just really made such an impact on my performance and really made an impact on how I'm making decision. And honestly, take a really good hard look at, at my relationship to alcohol, what was causing me to drink casually and what was causing me to just really drink at all. And we share a lot in this episode about, you know, how there are differences that we tend to think that, oh, people who don't drink had a problem or they had, you know, an issue with alcohol and it had to be all or nothing or that they were just always drunk all the time, which you'll find out in this episode, that was not my case and that's definitely not Andy's case either. So it's just been a very interesting hot topic because we're seeing a lot of research come out, at least for me. I'm Noticing the research come out a lot, especially as I've been really diving deep into this idea of being sober, curious and seeing how it's had such a, just a huge positive impact in my personal life, period, in my performance and in my well being and my stress levels, I mean, just across the board. And we really talk a lot about this and go deep inside of this episode. And so if you are potentially speaking sober, curious or you're wanting to help your clients be, perform better, move better, help them reach their goals, and maybe you're interested in facilitating this conversation with your clients. This is an excellent episode that I cannot wait for you to dive in. So without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview. What's up, Andrew? Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you?

Good. I'm tip top. I don't have your snow. We had it the other day, so it's, it's a bit. And now in, in the uk, we just come, we grind to a halt if there is a little drop of snow. We come to a halt if there's a bit of wind. So it's all right at the moment.

You know, it's so funny I was saying this right before we hit record. I feel like New York is like this too. I told my husband this morning, I said, you know, they, so some like the buses are like, oh, we have the hint of snow, we have to stop, school's canceled. And I said to my husband, it's, it's like they, they think we've never had snow before. But we're in New York, of course we have snow.

Exactly. It's like a yearly event. Get ready for it. It's not difficult.

So true. So Andrew, for those of you who are listening in and haven't been exposed to your work, can you share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there?

Yes. So I guess my name is Andy Ramage, who I serve are the broader alcohol free community. I sort of stumbled into it more by fluke than judgment. I took a break from alcohol myself some 10 years ago and it fundamentally changed my life, transformed it to such a level that I was just impassioned from that moment on to try and inspire other people to also take a break from alcohol. And there was no problem. And what I mean by that is I was a middle lane drinker. I'll just describe that quickly and then I'll battle it back to you. But a middle lane drinker is someone that, that would drink averagely, someone that would drink heavily, someone that would drink moderately, someone that would drink not at all. Basically that's about 70% of the adult population in the western world. So I'm firmly in that bracket. But in stopping proactively take a break from alcohol, the knock on effects of that was so transformational in my own life. I just felt that calling to share with other people and try and inspire other people. And I've pretty much been doing that daily ever since.

Yeah. So can we unpack that? Can we go a little deeper on this? Because I think that in the fitness industry we see a huge, you see a lot of conversations around, you know, we have to move away from all or nothing mentality, let's do moderation and we talk about get out of all or nothing. And I have noticed just with me, in my own experience and what, you know, outside looking in, people have the very interesting unique relationship with all or nothing regarding alcohol. And, and what's also interesting to me is that when people start to talk about alcohol, I start to hear in language things like, I don't have a problem. Right. So to me, I'm hearing in my mind there's things to unpack when it comes to actually looking at our relationship with alcohol. So I'm curious, in your journey, how did that even start for you?

Yes. So my backstory, I started drinking when I was 13. Most people do, most people that I knew started drinking and I started drinking because I wanted to meet girls. And only now that I know what I now know, that for me that was like an elixir. I was this, you know, slightly awkward ginger kid and I drink this liquid and then tadas. If my magic, I could talk to girls. It was easy. Like, so you can imagine in my young brain as a 13 year old feeling that social anxiety, taking this liquid that all the adults in my life would also be taking, that was celebrated and championed and you know, every billboard and advert would have had, you know, marketing in my mind since the age of two, telling me this is a good thing. I take that thing. I have this great experience, I'm not going to dress that up. Imagine my lovely malleable young brain going, that is electric. Do that again. Whatever you just did, do that again. Every time you feel that sense of awkwardness, that sense of emotional pain, play that tape again. And that tape for me was, was alcohol. So it became a part of my life again, not problematic drinking, no more than the other teenagers that I knew. But my journey was into professional sports. So I became a professional footballer. So I Left school at 16 to go soccer player. You guys say to go be a professional soccer player. So that for me took me away from alcohol in a big way because I was too busy playing sport. But I was always drinking at the weekends, all the football as well, we always did it. So alcohol was sort of always in my life for that same reason. When I found myself in a social setting and I felt a bit awkward because I did my go to was was alcohol. And then what happened? In my early 20s, I got injured. Unfortunately, I achieved my dream. I played in professional league, scored in the professional league, got injured when I was 20 years old, dream over, meaning purpose gone overnight, devastated, as you can imagine. And then I fell into the world of oil broking. The guys in the bright jackets in the pits, screaming and shouting at one another. I spent a lot of time in New York, lots of business out there. And that was just then it was open season, right, because there was no professional sport. There was no training on every day, there was no games on a Saturday or midweek. And obviously I still had that real strong neural connection between social setting anxiety and having a drink. So then I found myself in this new incredibly social environment, which was the world of broken, entertaining clients all the time, as well as out of friends and family. And of course, I brought that same tape, that same habitual routine with me, which was to drink again. Even at that level, was it still excessive? Was I drinking more than anyone else? No, I was drinking exactly the same as my peers around me. Were we all drinking too much? Absolute bloody loop, me. But who isn't in that environment? I mean, it's completely nuts. What we think is normal or moderate behavior is so far and above what is actually acceptable in terms of what we should be consuming in alcohol. So I was in that world, basically. So that's why I sort of would say it wasn't a problem to the point of there was a rock bottom moment in my life. I haven't got some horrific story where I blew it all up. And the reason for me as well, that I sort of get straight into that because I think it's really important. I'm glad you asked that question because I have to defend that position a little bit because if I don't defend that position, people switch off. They go, oh, he's one of those. He's one of those rock bottom addicted types. And then they can switch off because they go, I don't need to listen to this because that's not me. But you do need to listen to this because I'm talking to 70% of the adult population right now who, where I was in that middle lane. And that's why I think my story is important and it's resonated with lots of people because they can't wiggle out of it because I'm talking to you. You know, many of the people that are listening who will be in that middle lane drinking moderately, sometimes sometimes averagely, sometimes heavily, maybe a wedding, and then oftentimes not at all. This is where my messaging is aimed. So yeah, hopefully that gives you a bit of a backstory into my route into this alcohol free world I now live in.

It does, and it is particularly interesting for me too. And I'll share, you know, I'll be personal and open as well, is that I got sick in November, which ironic. I got Covid in November and I still my immune system still suffering. But for me, in that moment when I recognized and realized that I hadn't had any alcohol because I was really sick since Halloween, it forced me to take a look at my relationship to alcohol, which I think just what you said, 70% of people, they're, they're not honest with themselves about what is actually happening. Like I just started to look at it from a place of like, well, why am I having wine at night by myself? Like, my husband's not home, my kids are in bed. Like, why is that happening? What am I hoping to gain from that? And I was kind of forced to look at that. And I think most people aren't willing to, to look at it because they write it off as like, this doesn't apply to me, I'm not an alcoholic.

Exactly. It's too easy to sort of sweep it under the carpet. And this is what we're going to get into now. And I think it blows people's minds when they start to look at this from a different angle and go, what the bloody hell have I been doing all these years? People are interested in their health and fitness. It's got to be the worst thing you can do. And I'm not talking again. Forget problematic drinking. I'm talking those one or two drinks, even one drink. Matthew Walker, you may be familiar with who's the real renowned sleep expert, talks a lot about this. As soon as you have one drink, you're going to destroy your sleep. So alcohol is a sedative. So what it actually does, it sedates your brain. That's totally different to sleeping. That's why you might have those couple of drinks and think, oh, it knocked me out for eight hours. And you wake up feeling groggy and tired. And you're a bit confused as to why that happens, what is actually happening. The alcohol is going into your system, which is a poison, which is a toxin. To withdraw from that and remove it from your brain means it's disrupting all of those sleep patterns, those circadian rhythms. So you're actually getting this really broken sleep. But the broken sleep is so short lived that you're coming back up to almost consciousness and then going back down again. You don't notice it. So you think you've had eight hours sleep, but you've had this incredibly poor sleep. And look at what poor sleep does in terms of productivity, in terms of motivation, in terms of the way that we eat, in terms of the chance of you going to the gym and doing the things you need to do. And that's just one drink and that's just sleep. You know, this thing has got these tentacles into our life that is so far above and beyond what most people have ever considered. And that's why I'm such a big believer in taking a break. Because when you do take a break, suddenly you get to see it for what it is and go, bloody hell. Like you've just had that experience. It was enforced on you in many ways due to Covid. But now you've had that awakening of, oh, actually I feel a lot different from not having that one glass of wine on a Tuesday night. That was completely needless. Anyway.

Yeah, well, yeah, for me personally, I'll speak for me is that, you know, I had these moments of. Because I'm also a mom, right? And I grew up in a house of alcoholics. So both of my parents identify as alcoholics and have gone through the process and have been sober for, you know, 10 years. So for me, when I have that context of like, oh, I know what an alcoholic looks like, and knowing that I was so far from that, and then knowing that, like, I've never been intoxicated in front of my kids, but then at the same time I'm like, all right, so if that's the case, then what is the benefit? Like, why? What's the point? Right? And it is also interesting because I'll say that now that I'm going to say predominantly alcohol free, because I still. Because here's the question, what do people do now when they get into social situations, right? What do you do? How do you handle it? Because I feel like that is my next me. For me, personal, that's my next layer of boundary. There's this sense of like, oh, I don't, you know, I just want a recluse now. Like, maybe I just won't hang out because then it won't come up and I won't have to deal with it.

Yeah, it's really important question. It's what you said. There's really interesting that, you know, you drink on occasions now. So we have a big part of what I do. I've created various organizations and movements to inspire hundreds of thousands. Probably clatter into the millions now. Just so exciting. We have an app called Dry and it's got two wires called Dries, the app. But we have three distinct groups in there, really. We have 100% dry who are like me nine years ago I stopped drinking and you know, why would I? We have tactically dry, which is really important. Those that want to take a tactical break and then we have mostly dry. So you'd be mostly dry. And I think that's new language that we're starting to get into the space now, which is really important as well, that people that sort of identify someone that doesn't really drink but on occasion, for whatever reason might have a glass of fizz at the wedding or whatever it is. And I think it's important to sort of speak to those three distinct groups. But underpinning that from, you know, our group already has grown to sort of almost 10,000 in as many weeks. It's incredible the momentum that's going on in the alcohol free space at the moment. It's great to have those distinct groups because I think people are underpinning that with this sense of why would I drink? You know, I'm serious about my health. I love going out. I can learn to socialize without it. So to come back to your second question there about the social thing, right, because that's, that's what a lot of people are fearful of. Like my biggest fear, genuinely this is true, when I stopped drinking was how the bloody hell am I going to dance at weddings? I was like, that's impossible. Like middle age ginger bloke trying to dance at wedding. So when's that ever happened? Who's ever done that before? You know, I mean, I had all these fears about it, honestly. I was like, what? Is my wife going to run off with the really exciting postman that still has a drink? Is my best mates going to disown me because I was always one of the lads? Is my career going to implode because I did all of my business through entertainment, through drinking, through socializing. Imagine that baggage that you've got to carry with you. Trying to make this behavioral change that you know is unbelievably good for you, you know, could be the gateway to your health, your fitness, your performance. And you've got that mountain of social pressure sitting behind you. It's no wonder that so many people don't make this change. But for me, it was about retraining and what I touched on right at the start of the podcast. I think what alcohol did for me as a teenager, it robbed me of the training that I needed to learn how to feel socially awkward and deal with it. And I think I would have been much more malleable and flexible as a teenager to figure that stuff out had alcohol not been around, had it not been so prevalent, I would have figured it out. I would have worked out how to talk to girls at some point. Do you know what I mean? I would have got over myself and it would have been harder, don't get me wrong, more difficult. But I would have learned that skill. I would have mastered that skill. I still would have been able to socialize. Think about teenagers and kids, they socialize brilliantly and then they get this thing that's alcohol. And then they stop learning and nurturing all those other ways to socialize and they just go to that one. Go to, right, I've got a socialized drink, Celebrate, drink, commiserate, drink, stressful day drink, day ending, wire drink, birthday drink. So all of a sudden, all those other skills that we need. So what happens is when you remove it, you've got to retrain yourself. That's all it is, just a bit of retrain. You've got to retrain to socialize about it. And you know what? It doesn't take you that long. And the alcohol free alternatives now, which have exploded, I mean, they've increased 500 in the last three years, which is off the charts, has made it so much easier as well. So I can go out now socially. Like when I got into this nine years ago, there's nothing. So it's like orange juice or a Coke, right? And then imagine you're used to standing with a pint and now you're standing there with an orange juice. It's basically like this beacon to the whole pub. He's not drinking. All the alarms almost go off. You know what I mean? Start pointing. He's not drinking, he's got an orange juice. Whereas now at least you can stand there with something that looks like everyone else's drink taste like everyone else's drinks. It takes that social pressure away. People are getting much more comfortable with it. So I think in answer to your question, the best way to do it is to retrain it. But the only way to retrain is by doing it. But then you're, then you're bulletproof, right? Because imagine what it'd be like if you could socialize and not drink and wake up the next day. Fitter, faster, healthier. Imagine what your consistency will be like. Imagine what your performance would be like in the gym. That's where life starts to get transformed. You know, I think we should get into that as well as we develop podcasts, because that's the really, for me, that's the big stuff that gets missed. It's things like consistency. I mean, I'm sure, you know, in terms of training, consistency is queen. It's king. You've got to show up and do what you've got to do. But if it's constantly interrupted by those couple of drinks, that makes you a bit tired, a bit jaded. You can't quite be asked to go and do what you need to do and suddenly you miss a couple of days. Your stop start stuff to start. Imagine what it's like when you've got that proper consistency. You're not throwing that hangover grenade of shit food and can't be bothered to move. I mean, that is, if you think about most adults in the western world, that grenade, that's slightly jaded, a little bit tired, even from those one or two drinks I described, right? Start the podcast. That grenade of inconsistency is in, is blowing up in everyone's lives all the time, all over the globe, especially in the western world. And people are wondering, why is it I can't just seem to get like that consistency with my nutrition? Why is it I just have to burger occasionally instead of the salad? It's the same, but it's this cultural blind spot. Most people haven't seen it. They're like, oh, I know what I need to do. I need to do an ice bath. I'm gonna ice bath my way out of this one. That's what everyone's doing at the moment, trying an ice bar whiz ice bath. You'd be sort. Is that going to do anything? I do love an ice bath, don't get me wrong. But you can't. I out ice bath. A few drinks can, you know.

And what's interesting, right, is I always talk about the I'm fine coma. Most people don't realize how good it can be. They just settle for what is and so what. And at least for me, like I'll just, you know, I have my aura ring which tracks my sleep. And on the days that I have shortened sleep that I have like six hours instead of seven or eight, I'm still sharper than I am. When I have eight hours of one to two alcohol glasses, my ring tells me I still get better sleep. Even though it's less, I'm still sharper.

Yeah. And this is, these are the knock on consequences that it's this weird cultural blind spot because barely anyone's having this conversation. So I really appreciate you having me on to have this conversation. You know, I've traveled the world and work with some of the real all elite gurus in the wellness space. No one even mentioned alcohol. I've just been approached by someone who's created a brilliant documentary. I won't go into any details, but only to say that he's also spent a lot of time traveling the world very recently speaking to the real top end, high end elite wellness experts. None, not one mentioned alcohol. I'm like, how the hell can we talk about wellness? How the hell can we talk about fitness and not mention alcohol? That's completely nuts. That's got to be the first conversation. In my opinion, I am a bit biased, but I do. So with years of experience and tons of research behind me, that's the first conversation you have. If you're in the middle lane and you want to get fitter, faster, healthier, take a break from the boots. If you're a little bit anxious, take a break from the boots and see, is that actually the thing causing your anxiety? There's a ton of research around that. If your relationship's struggling a bit, take a break from the booth. If you want to be a better parent, even better parent, take breaks. If you want to be even better at your job, take breaks and boots. It's this foundational thing for me that gets completely overlooked. No one ever talks about that. Have a nice bath. Get yourself in the ice bath. That'll sort you right out. I love a nice bath. I feel like I'm picking on ice baths. But it's funny, it's making me laugh. At the moment I'm like, everyone's at ice bathing and still boozing. What's that about?

Oil. But it's also, you know, everyone also wants to like hate on the, they want to hate on, you know, processed foods and all this stuff, right? And, and for me, when I look it And I'm like, okay, so it's not the best choice, but there are at least some nutritional benefits that they're going to eat and get from processed food. What is the nutritional benefit from alcohol? Absolutely zero. It is literally a poison. And yet. Let's have that moderately.

Yeah, yeah. And on all these. So we're getting to this now, but the World Health Organization has come out again, but we're announcing it as if this is fresh news. But they've come out again to say there's no safe limit. There isn't one. It's. It's zero. It's not a few units or a drink a day, it's none. It's zero. That's just it fact. And they've been saying that for many years. The press is just starting to get hold of it now. So all of these other limits drink less approaches are just really skillful. Marketing spins on something that invariably is exactly the same as smoking. In fact, the consequences of alcohol are far wider reaching than smoking ever was. It's a carcinogenic, the process that turns ethanol, which goes into your system, which turns into acetahide and then into acetate. Acetate's energy. So some of it goes into acetahide. That is a toxin that's carcinogenic in the same way that smoking is, in the same way that asbestos is. That's the thing that gets you drunk and that's the thing that stays in your system, that gives you the hangover that you need to withdraw from. You can't get around that system. It doesn't matter what you encase. That in the beautiful bouquets and the lovely grapes is still whatever lives in there. The alcohol bit is a toxin, it's carcinogenic. You can't dance around that. And of course you see this research and we saw it with smoking, we've seen it with climate change, we've seen it with food confusion. Is our product confused the public and they just do what they've always done. And while the public at the moment are always drinking, all you got to do is confuse me a little bit. My mum will say to me, yeah, but what about red wine? Red wine's good for you, isn't it? I'm like, yeah. Have you actually looked at that stuff? You know anything about it? No, I just saw Headline the paper. Yeah. Did they actually look behind the scenes? No, they didn't. If you look behind the scenes, they're talking. I think that's how you pronounce it. And that's their big. Oh, yeah. Because that's in. That's in red wine. Do you know you'd have to drink almost a thousand bottles of red wine to get the amount of revistrol that actually make a difference, but that doesn't make it into the headlines. So we just get duped and tricked and confused to do this thing that we've always done. That frustrates me, you know, And I know if you look at any of those alcohol studies that try to dress it up, basically all they're trying to say is the bit that sits outside the alcohol, the tannins, the grapes, that's mildly good for you. But just drink bloody grape juice. Then why'd you need to.

Or eat Dance.

Yeah. It's just completely nuts. Yeah. We're going, oh, brilliant. Glass of red wine a night is great for us. No, it's not. It can't. It cannot be. You can't ingest a carcinogenic and say that's good. No matter how you dress that up.

Yeah. So I'm curious, you know, in knowing this and having your three different groups, how do. Do you think that. That alcohol can live moderately in people's diets? Or do you. Or do you subscribe to just. Just get it out forever?

Yeah. I mean my camp personally is why bother? You know, once you retrain yourself and your life gets so much better for it. Genuinely, you know, it does for me and I've experienced that and seen it transform the lives of so many people. That's the camp that I sit in. I totally get it. I think that there's ways to approach it. If people want to get intoxicated, that's a different game altogether. It's like, right, I want to get out of my mind for whatever reason. I don't mean completely out of my mind, but you want to go to a different place. I think that's a very natural desire for a lot of humans. I don't think we should underestimate that. That and there are lots of ways to achieve that same result. I think that's really grown up if someone's like, I specifically want to get intoxicated, but if it's just one or two drinks for taste, why, why bother? It's just, it's just such a non value add. It's just a. Always a massive net net lose in. In my opinion, so why bother? Equally, I think there are those that are mostly dry like I described at the start. I think those people can just take it or leave it. They're not moderating. So I've Got a bit of issue with moderating, so if I can just explain that. Moderate.

Pack it.

Moderate for me means I want more of something, but I'm going to use willpower to have less of it. I'd quite like to drink three glasses of wine, but. But I'm going to resist and have one that's always going to end up in tears because eventually you have to use willpower. We know it. Willpower's like a metaphorical muscle. It runs out the more it's used. If you're tired, you're hungry, emotional stress. If you've been resisting using willpower data, resist shouting at your boss because they're a bit of an ass, whatever it is. And then by time you come home, of course your willpower tanks are low, that one becomes free and you're back into that cycle again. You can't make lasting change on willpower alone. It has to be something much deeper than that. So I think moderating, as it appears to me, which is this resistance method, is always doomed to failure. I think the only way to achieve that is to become almost a non drinker. This mostly dry approach where you don't need it, you could take it or leave it. And in fact you're just having one on your terms. And I'm talking twice a year, three times a year type of thing. For whatever reason you've decided to have a glass or to get deliberately intoxicated because you're really skillful with it and you're thinking that might be a value add to your life, you know, the knock on consequences. I think that's a totally different approach to this moderating. I'm in the middle lane, I can sort of resist it all. But there's a wedding coming up. I might actually, it's the 40th next week, so I'm not going to moderate during the fourth. That's why I like, I catch moderators out all the time. I'm like, so how much do you drink? Well, they have two or three. Three drinks in a row. It's not moderating, it's binge drinking. Technically binge drinking three average sized drinks in a row, whether it be wine or beer, will put you into binge drinking mode. I would say most people think moderate is binge drinking two or three drinks. Let's moderate, right? It's not at all. It's not even close to it. I think again, I touched on that at the start. I think people's view of what's normal around alcohol is so ridiculously so far away. From what the truth is, and the truth is now that there isn't a limit, it's zero. So I'm like, just train yourself out of it and then just move it out of your life. And if you like the taste of it, just drink the alcohol free alternatives. They are brilliant now. They genuinely are. So, so good.

Yeah, it's also too, you know, people think, oh, I've had one glass of wine. And you're like, well, that's a five ounce pour and that glass you're holding is actually two glasses of wine.

Come on, are you trying to kid? It's like, yeah, but it looks like goldfish bottle. And, and I basically, there's only half a bottle left. So as I figured out, I believe what.

Oh my gosh, I'm laughing because, you know, I, I just have seen it, right. People will fill their Stanley cups, that holds two bottles of wine, you know, so I've seen it. It's crazy. But you started to talk about it and I'd love for you to dive deeper a little bit more in terms of the transformation that you have seen for yourself and for your clients. When people actually remove it and you talked about retraining yourself, how long does that process typically, typically take? When do people start to see an actual transformation after they've removed the alcohol?

I think it's actually really quickly. I think that's, that's one of the beauties of it. I think you'll start to see results within the first week to two weeks. You'll start to feel better. I mean you will, you will. You have to withdraw from the drug. And I think people forget it's a drug. Right, that's enough weird things like, well, that's not a drug, that doesn't count. Yes, it is. It's the same as all the other drugs. So your body will withdraw from that. That might be that traditional headaches, a bit meh, a bit grumpy, a bit tired. So sometimes in that period people want to give up, right? Because they're like, oh, I feel awful. I'm going to go back and have a drink because this is rubbish. I feel a bit bored and a bit grumpy and a bit tight. Actually. It's just your body withdrawing, right. So your body healing on that note. And that's really important that alcohol can be lethal if you've become physically dependent on it and you stop too abruptly. So I think it's really important to share that for anyone listening. If you're drinking. This is very roughly, if you're Drinking something like eight pints of strong lager a day, two bottles of wine for females. Because there's a slight difference between the two. Anywhere near those type of limits, obviously that's a lot. Right. You've got to be really, really careful. So I'd always advise if you're on. Sure. Always seek professional medical advice before stopping drinking alcohol. But there's a clue right away, because if it was this happy go, fun pastime, how the hell is it potentially killing people to stop taking it? It's nuts. It's safer to withdraw from crack cocaine than it is alcohol. Nuts. People just don't know these things. Yeah. So coming back to it, in terms of the transformation, I think it happens really quickly. Get over that hump of withdrawal and then you'll find that you've got more time, you'll find that your sleep improves. You start to. I do a lot of talk at corporates and I'm like, if you want to improve performance, do two things in this order. Take a break from alcohol, which will improve your sleep. If you do those two things, you feel like a different person instantly. Your performance will improve, your motivation will go up, you'll have more energy. I think about that in terms of your personal training or your mental training for the career that you're in. It's like rocket fuel. To the point that I work with a lot of elite and clients right now, training professional soccer players all the way up to our premiership, real top end CEOs. I won't. This is just my stance. I won't work with anyone at that level because I only train one or two, one to one clients at any one time. I won't work with you unless you want to take a break from alcohol. As long as it's safe to do so. I will not work with you. There's a lot of people that I could work with. If you're serious. You're telling me you're serious about being the number one CEO, the best athlete you can be, then for me, the foundation of that, and I'm pretty hardcore with it, alcohol's got to go, right? Because I know this is the secret sauce to me as a coach. I know they're going to get bloody brilliant results. Don't matter if I do anything, I just have to show up. Because if they remove. If they're a middle lane drinker and they remove it, they are going to fill a million dollars after two, three, four weeks. They're going to get results they haven't been able to get for years. Nothing to do with me. I'm whispering this, so don't tell my secret. It's all to do with the fact they've just removed this drug out their life that's been holding them back, that's been destroying their sleep, underpinning their lack of motivation, their lack of oomph. They remove that, they start moving their body, they start thinking differently. It's like a light switch that's gone off. They come back to me a month later or two months of work for me. They're like, this is incredible. This is amazing. What have you done? I'm like, well, you just take the booze. I've just basically showed up and been a bit of a guided light. Now we're working on this new stuff together. So the rewards are quick and they're transformational. In my own story, if I may share, I went from being three or so 42 pounds. I lost 42 pounds in weight in probably the first two or three months without trying. My body fat went from 38% down to below 10%, pretty much where it is today. My resting heart rate went from 68 to 42, roughly where it is today. I even over time paused the reversed heart disease that features in a book by a guy called Dr. Alan Desmond, the Plant Based Revolution. Because I also transformed my nutrition. I thought, you know what, sod it, I've stopped drinking. I'm a social pariah as it is. I might as well go vegan, I'd imagine. Ten years ago, no one, I was a broker in the city not drinking alcohol. And then, you know, the way it would come around say, what would you like to. Or any allergies, sir, or any. And I'd be like, yeah, I'm sort of the only way to describe it then was to say vegan. The jaw drop from my clients 10 years ago, they're like, who is this? Who's this broker, doesn't drink and now he's doing that vegan thing. What? So I had all of that going on and now it's matured into this plant based movement. It was never an ethical thing for me. It's always a health thing for me, to be clear. So in making those couple of transformations as well as getting fit, and I'll get to that in a second. The reason I got really fit again and super healthy again back to my sort of 21 year old professional sport playing days, was because of that consistency. I cannot describe how powerful that is. I was no longer inconsistent in the way that I moved my body because I Could show up as me all the time. I was energetic, energized at that bit of oomph, the extra bit of motivation. I'd slept really well, so I wanted to go to the gym. I was excited about it. I could see the results. I wasn't throwing that hangover stodge grenade into my world in terms of poor nutrition McMuffins on a Wednesday lunchtime because I felt awful. It was all about better nutrition, better movement, less stress, more time. The transformation in me in terms of my performance in the office was dramatic. That business we grew. I started a new business through this. A broken business. Everyone said it would fail because I'd stopped drinking. So you can't be a broker and not drink. It's impossible, right? That's just. That doesn't happen. When does that ever happen? We grew up business seven times bigger in half the time. The reason we spend smashed that business out the park up against the titans of the industry because I figured it out. I knew everyone was going to be boozing on Friday lunchtime. I knew everyone was going to be so hungover for most of Friday and out most lunch times. Why don't we not drink? Be on our A game at lunchtime, be all over it on a Friday. No one was allowed to go out on a Thursday. I must put a stop to it as best I could. And we smashed it. We grew a business sometimes bigger than half the time. Because guess what, we were on our bloody A game all the time. It didn't matter that we weren't going out and boozing to ours. We were demonstrating to our clients that we were the best at what we did because we were on it all the time. That bundled up together. And many more things led to this. As I described, massive transformation in my life. And I was like, I just got to share that. I got to share that with people. That's too good. And that's what we've been doing ever since.

It's amazing. And what's interesting to me and I'm curious about like what the experience was because oftentimes I think people will have a social anxiety experience around not drinking because that often brings stuff up for the other person. Like other people will project their own insecurities about their relationship with alcohol onto the non drinker. Right. Without even realizing it. So I'm curious, like did that. Did your environment of people that you were surrounded by have an effect? And if so, you know, did you know especially from like a client relationship, like did that affect. It clearly affects sales in A good way. But did you have to navigate that relationship at all?

Yeah. I mean, I got slaughtered by everyone 10 years ago. You turn around 10 years ago and you've been a big, you know, drinker and go, I'm not drinking today. Like, well, that's. That's like unacceptable behavior. What are you talking about? Not drinking? You can't not drink with me. That's what you do, right? Somebody would say to me once, if you're a broker and you're not drinking, I must just use the computer screen. Because what else. What else you bring into the table is this. Like. It was like one of those flippant. Many true words said it, Jess. But clearly that's how much he valued what I did as a broker. It was like, well, you're going to take me out and get you drunk. I must use the computer screen, mate. So, yeah, it's up to you what you want to do. My best friend put me in the boring corner. He said, you can come out when you start drinking again. I. I had it all from all angles. And to be fair, I crumbled. World loads. It took me, and this is part of my story as to why I now create, like the DRY app and do all the things I do in the world to help people. Because I had no support, no one doing what I did back then. It was very classic. Rock bottom, lost it all. Devastated Phoenix from the flames. That wasn't my story. There was no one that was in the middle lane going, hold on, just stop. Why bother drinking the first place? There's no value add to it anyway. All the benefits are from not drinking. I didn't have that. So I had my rubber arm twisted. Loads. People would bore me off. Oh, don't be so boring. And I'd crumble. You what's bloody boring? I'd have a couple of drinks to get over it. So I'm not saying for one second that bit of it's easy. You're gonna get it, you know, that's just the world that we live in at the moment. Although it's getting so much easier. I've seen that real transformation over the last 10 years. People are becoming much more accepting of it. I think it's really getting into the mindset this is a solo mission for you. If this is important to run a test, run it as a test. Just a little break. 28 day test. If you get some of the results that I've been banging on about for the last 30 minutes, that's incredible. Right? What a win. That would be. And also then you've got something to go into bat with with your friends and colleagues to say, look, I'm just doing 28 days, it's all it is. I heard this ginger blow on the podcast banging on about all these benefits. I'm just going to give it a go and see what happens. If at the end of that, you've got more time, you've got more energy, you've been more consistent, your nutrition's been on point, you're smashing it out the park at work, your relationships are better, your resting heart rates drop, you're asleep, sleep has improved, you've shed some weight. What a win that would be. In fact, the largest ever study into a 28 day break from alcohol from a guy called Professor Kevin Moore at the London Royal Free Hospital. When he got the results back from this study, he said, pretty much quote, unquote, if this was found, these results were found in pill form, everyone would want it and it would be worth billions. And it's so true. Those benefits I just described, if you could take a pill with no side effects, only side effects being happiness, in my opinion. If you could take a pill, I did a TED talk on this, it's called the limitless pill. If you could take appeal, you've got those benefits. Everyone on the planet is taking that pill, everyone. It's available to 70% of the population right now. And all you got to do is stop doing something to get all those results. And you know what, if you get to that end of that 28 days and you go, no benefits, no upside. My life's better with alcohol. Crack on. Do you know what I mean? If that works for you, go for it.

And the thing that's funny is that everyone would buy and they'd buy a lot, when the truth is you could actually put more money in your bank account because you're not going to be buying alcohol anymore, you're going to be richer too.

You get paid, you get paid to take that pill. It's just like such a no brainer when you start to see it for what it is. And that's the bit that I'm trying to get across to people, I think.

Yeah. So I'm also curious, how do you begin to have this conversation or at least start to open people's minds up to the idea of living a dry life when I know, you know, as a trainer, I'm not gonna lie to you, nine out of 10 clients would come to me and say, I'm not willing to give up Alcohol, don't make me do alcohol, but I'll buy Nutra, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I'm not getting rid of alcohol. So how do you begin opening up the conversation around this 28 day break.

Point in my direction? Just go, go and listen to that bloke for five minutes and he'll hopefully get into your mind. No. And I think that's why we have our app drive with the two wise. I think it is becoming a broader message now and, and all I do is seeing the benefits. It's like crack on. These benefits are incredible and I think fit for you as well in terms of the training side. I think if you can live and breathe that message and again, it has to be part of your story, but if it is part of your story, live and breathe that message and see the results that you get and talk about the consistency that you now have, I think is a great place to start. And I think the challenge concept of a small break is the best way to approach it because if it feels any bigger than that, it's too much. People are switched off. It's like standing at the bottom of everything, you know, having to climb that thing. It's like, well, all you got to do is climb the first 28ft. Or I can do that. So I think suggesting a break just to see it's a performance talk, like I, I went back, you know, I left school at 16 to play football, as mentioned. I went back and did a degree part time and then did a master's degree in positive psychology, coaching psychology. My aim is to turn that into a PhD later this year, maybe next year, to put all the science around what I'm talking about, there's tons of science in there anyway and turn it into a positive psychology intervention. So an intervention. So like gratitude's an intervention, like mindfulness is an intervention, like ice baths are an intervention. So actually we come along to people go, this is a performance tool. That's all it is. If you want to get better results, why don't you try this performance tool which is taking a break from alcohol. Let's have a look at it, let's track your data. If you've dropped some weight, if your resting heart rate's better, your sleep's better, your performance better, you're more consistent because you're not crying off with a mystery bug, that old chestnut. Oh, I think I ate something. Yeah, whatever, you're hungover, let's not lie about it to ourselves. All of that goes and you actually get consistent. What A win. That is so I think for me, that's the approach. This is a performance tool. Come on, you want the best performance, you want to get the best results. And this is the secret sauce for any of the trends. Listening. This is the truth. All of your clients will get better results. That's a fact. And I know you're all in it for that. Every single one of them, without exception, will get better results if they take a break. That's why I think there's massive synergy, I think, between what I do and the personal training world, because I think if you can leverage that expertise and bring it into the personal training world, I think it's massive because you will get better results. Like, like I described in the mindset coaching I do, it's almost a secret thing. I'm like, it's not my super duper mindset coaching a lot of the time. It's actually the fact that they've just stopped drinking.

I mean, I, I can't even begin. I could just my own personal stats like, like right before, my resting heart rate was not getting lower than 68 and it was getting worse and worse. And I was, I was literally like, maybe I should go to the doctor. And I cut out alcohol. And I swear to you, it like dropped the 50, 55 like almost overnight.

Yeah. I mean, honestly, the health implications are huge. But the body's so beautiful, as we know it recovers so quickly. We're so lucky because we abuse our bodies, you know, we are, we abuse it with rubbish, food, stress, alcohol, whatever is, drugs, the whole lot. And then our beautiful bodies, when we give it what it needs, they just replenish, they recover so quickly. There's something wonderful about that. And I think, you know, just going a bit broader, the Zelco thing. I think when you haven't got that drug in your life and you've had to deal with those big challenges, the funeral, the stressful day, the celebration, the wedding, the day ending. Why you become a more resilient, more rounded, more robust person psychologically, but also you're improving physiologically. This is beautiful. Win, win. And I think that's why you'll see lots of alcohol free people that approach it in the way that I do are in the best shape, mentally and physically, of their lives. And I think what's also beautiful about that, you then inspire other people. And this is beautiful ripple effect inspiring. My two teenage daughters that don't seem to have much interest in drinking at the moment, whether they will or not, it's up to them. My wife still drinks as well. Funny enough, putting that out there or they shrinks a lot less. So my approach is I'm not telling people what to do. I just share this message and I give it some in the hope that that will inspire a few people. But I'm not going to wag the finger and say you've got to do this or you've got to do that. You know, I think it's important that you show up and radiate this message. It's all about performance, it's all about wellness. If you're interested in performance and wellness, for me, foundationally, a break from alcohol's got to live in that package, hasn't. It's got to be in there with your meditations and your ice baths and your exercise and your nutrition. It has to live in that package and it's not there in enough space at the moment. And I think anyone that does bring that into their coach and into their training gives you a massive edge. Because all that's going to happen in the next few years. This momentum is building at a massive rate. The alcohol free revolution is now you're going to look like you were miles ahead of the game, even now, miles ahead of the game by introducing this into your coaching, into your training.

You know, when you bring up, you bring up your kids, because I have to say that this is probably my number one motivation, is just that I have been in this world for so long now that I, I know without a shadow of a doubt that the environment that you were raised in has a direct impact and influence on your decisions that you make. Right? It's the same thing. You want to eat healthy, just don't buy it. Don't buy the junk food, you can go and eat it, but now you have to work harder to go get it. Just don't bring it into the house. And so for me, I want my kids to be around an environment where they have to really go the extra mile to make that conscious choice, where the choice becomes so conscious and it's not accidental. That is so important to me. And growing up alcohol free is part of that.

I think it's gotta be. And actually what we know from the research, the younger that children drink, the much more likely they are to become problematic drinkers as they age. And there's a real strong correlation between that. The later they start drinking, it's a huge percentage in the difference between, let's say the 13 year old that starts drinking and the 21 year old. So the longer they go, the Less chance. Because what's happening in that space like I described, you're actually having to learn all those skills to deal with the social events, to deal with the heartbreak, to deal with the upset, the celebrations without the drug, that is alcohol. Whereas I think the earlier you come to it, obviously, like I did, you start to create those neural connections really early on, and then it's your go to. And then you miss out on the education that you need. Really important.

I also have yet to have a conversation that starts with, man, I'm so happy I got drunk yesterday because this awesome thing happened that has never happened. I've never had that conversation.

Shame and regret of, oh, no.

What did I say?

But then, right, this is another one that always makes me laugh. Then we fall into this. This is the novel. This is the big liar that we all get involved in. Right? And who's been here before you send? Everyone. Everyone sends themselves a text. Let's just say you've had quite a big night with friends. You'll get the WhatsApp the next day. And I go, great night. And everyone, without exception, replies, yeah, great night. Oh, what a great night. You know, you're sitting there thinking, I don't even know if I upset. I feel like I'm in trouble again. I'm late at work. Everyone's, oh, great, what a great.

Oh, shit, wait till next week.

Oh, it's just like, we're all lying. Everyone's sitting there in pieces, lying to themselves and to everyone else on the WhatsApp group going, Great. Not, It's a great night. Oh, amazing. Like, it's a. We've never had a shot. No one's ever had a shot night in their life, have they? Around alcohol. Total and utter lies. Be honest with yourself. You got. I catch people out all the time. I'm like, last five nights, Last five times, you drunk, Were they excellent? Average. Osht. I guarantee you, if you're really honest, they're probably borderline average. To shine. Oh, yeah. If you went into those.

Without a shadow of a doubt. Without a shadow of a doubt, out. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I can't tell you how many times I used to cringe being like, oh, I just met that person. What are they going to. Oh, my gosh. I can't. I'm just. I'm happier now. I'm happier now.

Good. That's the key. And I think happiness is what it's all about. If you set the right conditions, you know that through all the beautiful work that you do mentally and physically Spiritually, you get into this beautiful place and genuinely alcohol can't live in there. I just, I personally, I don't believe it can live in amongst all that good stuff because it's the thing that's undermining it you in many ways.

Yeah. Okay, so I. Andy, this has been incredible and I definitely want to be very mindful of your time. So for those of you who are curious about how they can incorporate, you know, or sober curious or curious about how they can help their clients start to facilitate a sober or you know, at least this 28 day break, what are some of the best places I can send them?

Yeah, so I think the optimal place to go is to our app. It's a free app, it's called Dry with the extra why. So two wise, I'm live in there every day doing pretty much what I'm doing on this podcast, literally a live feed in there every morning. We have a live every evening. So the app is incredible, the community is incredible. That's a brilliant place to go and take a break. We run a monthly challenge in there that's free every month, Jan, Feb, March, a monthly challenge. You join the challenge, it's all free. Will inspire you for it. We'll take you on that journey, you'll get the incredible results, then you can make a lovely choice. And then for anyone that's a trainer that's listening, I also train coaches. What I've been doing for a long while in the executive space, but I have a specialism called dry coach or alcohol, Free coach or sober coach. That's a two day training that would work perfectly for pts, especially to give you the skills. Because as I said, there's one foundational difference with alcohol. It can be lethal if you advise someone to stop and you're not skilled. So there's a full day of that. Trainings about managing risk. Because it's really important that you learn how to manage risk so that even if you're advising someone or you're encouraging someone to take a break, you've got a way of assessing risk through conversation quickly and easily. You know how to refer on should you need to, so you know you're training the right people in the right space. Plus, day two is all about me and many of the tools and techniques that you can use again conversationally to help motivational interviewing, solution focused coaching, just to bring that into potentially your coaching with your client to help them see their ambivalence, break it down, get excited about their future. So that's a two day training I'd highly recommend, especially in the alcohol free space, should get the AF Coach Soda Coach, Dry Coach specialism that you can add to your PT portfolio. And if you want to get more information on that, go to drycoach.coM-R-Y-Y coach.com I'm andyramich.com Andy andyramics.com if you want to drop me an email.

Okay, cool. Thank you. And we'll make sure that we link all this up inside of the show notes.

Love it.

Okay. Andy, it's been such a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you. It's been an absolute blast. Hopefully this inspires a few people to come and join us on the fun side of the island as I describe it.

So true.

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