1000 Days Without Alcohol Here's What Happened

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1000 days. Just over a thousand days, in fact, of no alcohol. Here's what happened. I want to share with you how a personal challenge I set for myself has impacted my life this past weekend. I've just celebrated three years alcohol free. No beers, no wine. None of those celebrations on birthdays and big moments, Christmas, none of that. Recently went home to Ireland, which, you know, Irish people. There's a little bit of a stereotype there around people loving alcohol in Ireland and certainly they do. I went home to Ireland recently and had a great time with no alcohol. But please, before I do this, this episode is not me trying to convince you to not drink alcohol. If that's something you enjoy, that's great. But I just wanted to share with you why I did it and some of the incredible neuroscience behind what has changed and some of the other more tactical things that have really shown up in a strong way. So go back and just give you a little bit of background. I grew up in Ireland and probably mid teens, 14, 15, starting to drink a little bit. And that was some of it was somewhat supervised. Lots of it wasn't. Certainly, you know, I look back, my dad's not a drinker, my mom's not a drinker. You know, it wasn't really in my family home at all, but mom and dad divorced in my early teens and certainly I responded to that. And you almost probably used that opportunity to kind of deal with my own chaos and my own teenage brain and thought, hey, well drinking would be good. So went Drinking and started to go downhill a little bit and made some poor decisions for sure, wasted a lot of money, picked up a few minor injuries, thankfully none fatal. But it was interesting how it really took a grip on my life and I still functioned. You know, I was very fortunate to be still winning world championship titles. I started a business. The business was going relatively well. I was in a really good relationship. But, you know, what I started to realize is it just became a. A habit. And, you know, people will say, look, I'm not an alcoholic. You know, I only drink a couple times a week. And so therefore it's. But actually, I think once it becomes a regular habit, the alcohol side of things, there's a spectrum of addiction that we're sitting on. And so certainly I was sitting on that spectrum, very highly functioning, had no clear physical issues, was still showing up, doing great work. But there was a grogginess, there was some tiredness, there were some hungover days. We've all had them, right? And for me, a couple of beers three or four nights a week, and then a few more on the weekend. Not a big deal. But just at the start of the pandemic, my partner Caroline, said, hey, I'm going to do one year, no beer. I was listening to a podcast, and it just sounds fascinating. I'm going to really embrace that for a whole year. And I thought to myself, wow, that's a huge commitment. I don't think that's something I would want to do. But, hey, I just supported her, said, that's awesome. You've got my full support. And I went to bed that night, and I started thinking, why did I not want to do that? What was I holding back from? What was it that was really meaning that I just wasn't wanting to engage? And I started to come up with these excuses because I don't have a problem with alcohol. Alcohol is great. It's part of how I socialize, you know, I know how to manage it. It doesn't control me. So I come up with all these excuses, and I woke up the next day, and I thought that was way too many justifications. So, said Caroline, going to join you. I like a challenge, and I'm very competitive. So let's get started. But tonight, we've got quite a bit of gin in the cupboard. There's a bottle of wine. Let's make sure we finish that off. Tonight's the last night, and tomorrow I'll be a little hungover. It's a great way to start. So we committed for one year. It's called one year no beer. But essentially it's one year, no alcohol, no exceptions, no cheat days. And so I decided the first thing I wanted to do was write a list of why I wanted to go for a year with no alcohol. And it started to focus around, you know, better health, better skin, maybe a little less weight on the body, more focused time, more passion and commitment to the things that I want to be present to. Certainly more cash in the back pocket. And so I wrote this massive list. I thought, okay, that's short term, it's a little bit vain. And I thought, okay, there's a bit of vanity there. Yep, I've got that. But I need something bigger than that year. You know, I'm going to go through birthday celebrations and there's going to be friends that get married and you know, I need something deeper. So I started thinking about, you know, one day, if I'm lucky, I'll be a granddad. That would be pretty cool. And I want to be healthy, I want to be alive, I want to be fit and mobile. You know, I thought when I'm in my 70s, it'd be great to be traveling, wouldn't it, and go back up to Ireland in my homeland and be physically able and capable doing that. And so I thought, I've got now stronger, longer term purpose behind this one year, no beer. And guess what? I went at it, went out the one year and I went through some, you know, some of it in the first couple of months or some moments like, oh, should I? But no, kept going back to that little piece of paper with my why on it. And we went through some big celebrations that year and some challenging times too where alcohol would have been the normal go to. But we'd made this commitment. The competitive nature kicked in and it was interesting. About four months in, a big shift happened. Like an energy lifted. I was waking up with more conviction. I was definitely more productive. And I got this app, it's quite interesting. It's called the sobriety calculator. It sounds like I've got a big problem, right? And it just calculates your health, your total health. And so I've got the app here right now. And so the blood alcohol, so your blood should be free of alcohol after about one day of quitting. So there we go, right? It's got all these different milestones. Cell regeneration. After three days of no alcohol, many of your brain cells start to regenerate themselves. So essentially it gamifies this journey. Sleep quality. After a couple of weeks of no alcohol Your sleep quality improves and I'm going to share some neuroscience with you about that. Gray matter. Gray matter in the brain starts to increase in size after quitting drinking for one month. Really interesting, eh, Hair. Many people report improvements in the health of their hair about nine months after quitting. Studies suggest that this is due to increased absorption of zinc and water as well as decreased exertion of zinc in the urine. Really, really interesting. Heart disease. It takes two years to decrease your risk of developing coronary heart disease. That's alcohol related. Two years Liver health. After not drinking for a year, your liver health is greatly improved. It no longer has to work overtime to get rid of those toxins. Now there's two things I haven't completed yet and that's where do you hear this? Stroke. Death. After five years of quitting alcohol, your risk of dying of a sudden stroke should be greatly reduced. Cancer after 10 years of no alcohol, your risk of developing several kinds of cancer should be greatly reduced. So I'm on track. There some interesting things but here's, here's one thing that I really liked. You plug in how much roughly you drink. That was a couple of drinks a week, few more on a weekend. So in the last three years it's very Irish. I've saved 31,333 or as my Irish friends would say, 31,333. So that's how much money on average I've saved by just making this decision. So there's been lots of things that have came up over the years and just that clarity has been huge. But I want you to think about this. And I'm a, I'm a data guy. I don't want to try the new thing unless I know why it's going to help me. So you know, if you were thinking, you know what, I don't have a problem with alcohol but I'd like to see if I can do a challenge for a year. Here's some things that I want to just share with you. So this is from a neuroscience research standpoint. Alcohol affects neurotransmitters. Alcohol alters the levels of neurotransmitter in the brain, including dopamine and serotonin. And it can cause feelings of euphoria, relaxation and reduced inhibition. So certainly it affects it hugely which can be helpful you think at times. But there's a consequence to alcohol. There's an after effect, there's that know half life of alcohol and it's, it's really evident. Alcohol affects brain structures, right. So prolonged Alcohol use, the use of it can cause damage to brain structures such as, say, your hippocampus, which is really responsible for memory and learning. And certainly I can remember when I was three or four months into having that, that challenge, that personal challenge of no alcohol, I felt that when I was reading things, I was retaining the information so much clearer. And I've had a few people say in recent months, how do you remember that thing? Like you remember that very specific thing that we talked about? I don't know, I don't know why I remembered it. But certainly I feel that my short term and medium term memory has improved significantly since having that break with alcohol. And also from the prefrontal cortex, it's responsible for decision making and impulse control. I can tell you some of the things I bought when I look back and I had a few drinks or booked flights somewhere and, oh, let's just go there and do that. Impulse control for me diminished greatly with alcohol, even as simple as eating way too many chips and unhealthy food or, you know, just doing things that you're like, ah, if I wasn't drinking, I probably wouldn't have done it. So alcohol absolutely affects brain structures. There's just no doubt about that. But even further than that, it affects brain function. Alcohol can impair cognitive function, which is memory, attention, processing speed, and disrupt your sleep patterns like you wouldn't believe. Causes mood changes. But it's funny, people like, no, I'm not hungover, I'm just tired. You're tired and you're reacting and you know, maybe a more negative way or you're in lower energy, that is a hangover. Right? So are you willing to go through, you know, those days of cognitive dysfunctionality, memory dysfunction, attention deficit. That's what neuroscience is sharing with us. And certainly, as I say, I'm not trying to tell you, never drink alcohol again, but I think it's good that we can chat about, well, what are the benefits? And working in the positive psychology field, I'm always like, well, why would I continue this journey of alcohol free? I remember when we got to year one, been 12 months in, we booked a beautiful dinner out, thought, hey, we got to celebrate this moment. We'll get a bottle of champagne. We've done our year, it's done. We got to this beautiful restaurant, we sat down, first thing, the server said, hey, would you like a drink? We looked at each other and I just said, yeah, two Heineken zeros would be great, thanks. Obviously no alcohol. And I don't know, we just we were intending to, to go with it and celebrate it with a bottle of champagne, but the appetite had gone. And so we decided that night, should we just give it a crack for another year? You know, it's another challenge for a year. Got the end of year two, same conversation. Should we go for another year? Now we're in year three. We didn't even have the conversation. Okay? It's just ticking by, who cares? So I'm not asking you or telling you or urging you to quit alcohol, but what I am challenging you to do is think about your relationship with alcohol and what you want it to look like. Alcohol affects brain development. Consuming alcohol during adolescence can have long term effects on brain development and function. It can definitely impair emotional development and massively increases the risk of addiction and mental health problems later in life. So if you've got young people around you, think about what your relationship is with alcohol, how you talk about it, how you engage with it, how they see you use it, because it can have really lifelong impacts on them. And look, another, another thing. Alcohol affects brain chemistry, chronic alcohol use. And chronic doesn't mean that you're having a bottle of vodka a day. Chronic does mean that you're just using it frequently. It could be 10 drinks spread across the week. But chronic alcohol use can lead to changes in brain chemistry that contribute to the development of addiction and tolerance. So we know that neuroscience research shows that alcohol affects massively our brain and nervous system in complex ways, both short term and long term. So I wanted to share with you that, you know, I've been on this journey. It's been fun, it's been really insightful. I've learned a lot more about myself. I think the brain is a busy place. There's a monkey mind for sure at play there. And a glass of sauvignon blanc was certainly very welcome at the end of a busy day to quieten down the thoughts and relax. But I'll tell you what, I have really started listening to those thoughts. I've journaled a lot more. I've learned how to quieten that monkey mind. I've learned how to slow the tempo down and change the rhythm of my mindset through different things. Exercise, meditation, journaling, as I mentioned, reading, connecting with great people, becoming really deeply present with people around me, and moments like sunrises and sunsets. It's very interesting that it's just, I'm not going to say forced me, but it's challenged me to look for other ways. And certainly I feel great. My wallet's better off for it. My health overall, long term health, is definitely being impacted in a positive way. So I just wanted to share with you. That's my journey. I'm not going to hide it. It's something I'm proud of. It's something that I know will definitely have lifelong impacts, not just for me, but the people around me, my clients, my friends, listeners, you know, my son, Finn, my partner, everyone. There's definite positive outcomes for everybody. But whatever your relationship with is with alcohol, maybe you don't have one, but whatever it is, I'm just hoping that today's episode can allow you to just press pause for a moment and go, huh, what is it? And I'm going to, you know, if you want to explore the conversation, reach out to me, you know, connect with me on LinkedIn. Best way to connect with me. James Laughlin on LinkedIn would be great to hear from you and I'd love to know what your journey is and where you're headed and how it affects you positively or negatively. But hey, for now, please get out there and lead your life on purpose.

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