This article is comprised of personal notes from one of our writers who conducted an experiment in going alcohol-free for one month.
Here’s a record of his experience.
I Started This Test To Lose Weight
One thing about alcoholic beverages is that they tend to pack in a lot of calories.
For a beer, you could be looking at anywhere from 100 to 300 calories.
And if you drink mixed drinks with either juice or soda, you could consume even more than this in a relatively short amount of time.
So originally, the goal of this experiment was to cut alcohol out so as to increase my calorie deficit.
I was usually a daily drinker. I’d drink at least a beer or two every day, and on the weekends I’d take a few shots and drink a few mixed drinks—getting sufficiently ‘buzzed’ in the process.
So cutting out alcohol completely was actually kind of a big transition for me. But as you’ll learn in this post, some really positive things came out of it.
I Started Losing More Weight
Cutting alcohol to save on calories ended up being a pretty effective strategy.
Drinking mainly water and other healthy low-calorie or calorie-free beverage options instead, I was able to significantly cut back on quite a few calories every week.
This resulted in me losing even more weight during this period of time than I would have otherwise been able to accomplish.
I Was More Productive
One thing I quickly noticed was how much more energetic I felt when I wasn’t drinking any alcohol at all.
For example, if I were to drink a beer or have a drink in the evening, it used to pretty quickly make me tired.
However, skipping this step allowed me to actually put in either more workouts, or more hours of work in the evening.
Instead of just going to bed slightly buzzed, I was able to be productive for an extra hour or two after dinner.
No More Hangovers
I’ll admit that completely ridding myself of hangovers was a welcome upside to this alcohol-free test run.
Granted, I didn’t tend to wake up with terrible hangovers on a regular basis.
However, at least once a week, I would tend to drink enough to give me a headache and a sluggish ‘nauseous’ feeling the next day.
Of course, when I stopped drinking alcohol, these hangovers immediately stopped.
Instead of waking up some mornings feeling kind of gross, I woke up every morning feeling pretty energetic and ready to start the day.
Conclusion
All in all, this experiment showed me that, while alcohol can be a fun way to loosen up your inhibitions and alter your state of consciousness, it’s actually not that good for you as a regularly consumed beverage.
Plus, I found that the benefits I got from living a more productive life without alcohol really outweighed any of the benefits that came from consuming it.
All things considered, this was a pretty successful experiment.
