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Quit Alcohol? Me? Yes, that is right. Anyone who knows me around Bangkok will be shocked. Beer swilling, Vodka and Red Bull guzzling, local (homemade?) Whisky (Lhao Dong) shooting, 7-11 whiskey circling Conan has given up the drink, I have quit alcohol.
First I cut back on beers - maximum of 2 night. Then I gave up beer and most mixers and went to Whiskey and Soda or Vodka and Red Bull. Then I went to Vodka or Whiskey straight or on the rocks. Now I have quit alcohol all together.
I quit alcohol because...
... first up I am not a reformed drinker, nor am I a Tea totaller. In fact I drank 1/2 a glass of wine cooler the other night as I was thirsty and that was all that was available at that moment. BUT no more than 1/2 a glass or trouble creeps in via the backdoor.
Why I Quit Alcohol (For Now)
So why did I quit alcohol? Here is a step by step breakdown:
- I quit drinking beer first: these were just getting me fat, so I cut down on drinking beer, over several weeks I noticed the difference in my waist line, so I took it a step further...
- Beers And Mixers: I quit drinking all beers and also mixers (Coca Cola, Lemonade, Orange Juice, etc). I decided after the dramatic improvement that I has already seen that maybe I could go further by eliminating this junk from my diet. It worked, I lost more fat and got more toned. Red Bull I kept for a time due to the increased metabolism, but soon I removed this sugary sweetener from my diet too.
- I quit alcohol now because I was going out 3 or 4 times a week and getting plastered, drinking over a litre of local Whiskey plus shots of homemade(?) Whiskey and several large bottles of local beer and then hitting the clubs for more civilised Vodkas - I have been extremely bored - this was getting me nowhere in life and I was being extremely unproductive, this in turn was getting me into a state of depression.
So there we have it. I started to quit alcohol as I was having trouble shifting weight around my gut. Then I extended the restrictions when I saw good, quick fat loss results, about 5kg in the first week actuallyjust from quitting drinking beer and mixers.
After that I decided to quit alcohol entirely as I have been wasting my life getting smashed continually, anyone who says a litre of Whiskey isn't too much needs to come to Thailand and drink a bottle of Mehkong with a Chang Beer chaser and see how alcohol laws (and effects) differ from country to country, these substances contain additives that are illegal in all Westernised countries. Same as the Red Bull here is illegal in every other country.
Controlling The Urge
Now when I want a drink (almost daily) I think about the consequences of drinking and the reasons I decided to quit alcohol. I imagine getting plastered and then what?
- I go to bed really late (read really early next day up to lunchtime, or sometimes mid-afternoon). This ruins the next day and night completely as I am intoxicated and sleep deprived.
- I do not eat properly and have bad food choices or skip meals or have small meals. This adds up over 24 hours of bad or non-eating and makes me feel small and energyless for a few days after as I refuel my body. This puts my training back several days each time
- Hang over, which lasts a day or two before I start coming together again, during this time I am depressed, lazy with a short attention span and have difficulty working.
- Dehydrated, headache, nasea, lack of energy, until rehydration occurs
In summary, I feel like crap for 2 days, no work gets done, I have little energy, my workouts suffer and I am not my usual hyper personality (Terry reckons I lose my personality at the club and it takes a few days to find it).
So now if I put myself back into that time. I remember the last time, think about the stomach hurt, the headache and the cotton mouth, the general level of depression and feeling down. I remember these feelings as vividly as possible.
Then I think again about having a drink, and the general bad feelings (this is called creating an anchor in NLP), remove my desire to drink and party with alcohol.
This is the secret to on how to quit alcohol, it change the thought association from parties and having a good time to hangovers and feeling sick. If everytime you look at alcohol and have memories of sickness then the alcohol becomes less appealing, you now longer feel like drinking.
Over time this will create an "Neuro Linguistic Programing anchor" and everytime I feel like a drink those bad feelings will automatically over ride my good feelings of alcohol. I will be begin to associate alcohol with feeling bad, rather than feeling good, and this alone is enough to stop me from wanting to get at it.
Beating the start alcoholism, it is a decision, having a goal that I want to achieve (Action Movie Star) helped make it a lot easier as the alcohol was pulling my energy away from my goal, and was slowly ruining my life. I had to quit alcohol
Alcohol in moderation is fine, to the point of getting smashed sideways at every opportunity is a sign your partying is out of control and it is time to quit alcohol.
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