The Hidden Calories in Alcohol: Impact on Health, Weight, and Overcoming Addiction

Ever wondered how your casual evening drinks could be impacting your weight loss goals?

In this enlightening episode of the "me&my health up" podcast, host Anthony Hartcher, a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist, delves into the hidden calories in alcohol. He discusses how regular consumption can significantly contribute to your daily caloric intake, potentially leading to weight gain over time.  

The episode explores the varying standards for alcohol units of measure across different regions, leading to confusion about what constitutes a 'standard drink'. Specific examples are provided for Australia, aiding listeners in understanding the caloric content of various alcoholic beverages.  

This episode doesn't just highlight the problem; it also offers practical strategies on how to reduce alcohol consumption. These include changing routines that involve alcohol, seeking professional help if struggling with addiction, and finding healthier ways to socialise that don't involve alcohol. 

If you're on a journey towards healthier living or trying to shed some kilos, this episode is a must-listen. It equips listeners with the knowledge and strategies to manage alcohol consumption effectively, helping them stay on track with their health and wellness goals.

Tune in to the full episode to gain valuable insights and practical tips on managing the hidden calories in alcohol. Remember, every calorie counts when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle!


About me&my health up & Anthony Hartcher 

me&my health up seeks to enhance and enlighten the well-being of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my health up which provides holistic health solutions using food as medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.

Podcast Disclaimer
Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more

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Transcript

Anthony Hartcher: 0:08

Did you know that drinking two standard drinks in Australian standard drink per day over a year equates to 75,000 extra calories consumed? Wow, how's that? And that's equivalent to eating 1600 Chicken nuggets or 127 Big Macs or 328 mars bars equivalent. It is shocking! And today's topic is the shocking revelation of how many calories you're consuming when you're drinking your liquor, your poison, also known as Alcohol. Yes, you've landed on the me&my health up podcast. I'm your host Anthony Hartcher. I'm a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialists. The purpose of this podcast is to enhance and enlighten your well being and today, I'll be doing that just for you. Because I came across an article a research article that was conducted by drink well, which is an association in the UK and they survey 2000 participants and what they found on average the consumption across those 2000 participants consumed two and a half standard drinks per day or equivalent to 18 standard drinks per week. And that is equivalent to two standard drinks per day in Australia. So the for those Australian New Zealanders. It's two standard drinks per day. Okay. However, it's equates to two and a half in the UK. So if you're drinking two standard drinks, which what is that you're probably thinking what is two standard drinks their case twos cans of drinks is two middies of beer 285ml of beer, which has an equivalent alcohol strength of 4.8%. So if you're having two beers every night after work for a whole year, that's equivalent to 75,000 extra calories. It is huge. Okay. And that's why I'm having this conversation with you today. Because I came across this study and I was thinking how the general public aware of this will they actually read this. And so I thought I'm gonna make a point of it on my podcast, and certainly help in enhance and enlighten the well being of my listeners so that you're more aware of how many calories are consumed when you're drinking liquor. And so I'm going to go through the nuts and bolts of alcohol and how many calories are in alcohol and how you can work out how many calories you're actually consuming when you're drinking just so that you're aware of how many extra calories you're having in a day beyond what you're eating. Because as you know, we're generally great at measuring how many calories we're having through our meals, but we tend to neglect the calories the hidden calories in what we're drinking. So soft drinks have huge amounts of calories, so does alcohol. And generally there's a lot of people out there that are having soft drinks during the day and alcohol at night, or having mixed drinks at night containing alcohol and soft drink alcohol and soft drink is a calorie bomb. It's gonna be a lot of calories. So how does our body see alcohol? Well, I've shared it with you before it sees it as a poison. It's got no use for alcohol other than to get it out of the body to use it as energy and to get it out of the body as quickly as possible get the energy out of it extracts energy from alcohol we do we extract energy from alcohol and then the metabolites are excreted from our body. And so you're probably thinking, well how much energy is in alcohol? And I thought that too. Well let me share with how much is in alcohol. First of all, I'm going to share how much is in fat, right? So I'm talking about a gram. So a gram of fat, a gram of fat has nine calories. Okay? A gram of carbohydrates has four calories and a gram of protein also has four calories. So it's incredible how people say I'm going to go low carbs, I'm going to you know, reduce my calories. However, it's a calorie equivalent to protein. One gram of carbohydrates has the same amount of calories as one gram of protein, but today's episode is not about that. Okay, so alcohol, guess what alcohols got? It's got seven calories per gram. It's up there with fat seven calories per gram. So next time you're drinking alcohol, just see it as a glass of lard or something. A glass of fat, okay, a glass of olive oil. Not really, but it's really up there. In terms of calorific value. It has large amounts of calories per gram of alcohol. So you're probably thinking, Well, how do I calculate how much calories I'm consuming? So what you want to do is measure the amount of mils or whatever alcohol you're consuming. So say you're consuming beer you're drinking 100 mils and to make this easy for me 100 mils and then you're it's about four and a half percent by volume alcohol. So therefore it's got 100 mils has four and a half, I mean sorry 4.8 I said 4.8 4.8 mils of pure alcohol, okay, that's how much pure alcohol is in it to then get that converted to a gram, we need to times that by point eight times that by the density of alcohol, this is point eight, roughly around 20 degrees, which is around room temperature, and therefore you get your how many grams are in that equivalent, which is time set by point eight, or it's going to be around a nice rain a bit grams of of alcohol. Now that's pure alcohol and pure alcohol contains seven calories. Okay, so we times that three grams by seven calories, and we get 21 calories in 100 mils of Beer. Okay, a standard drink a standard drink equivalent is 10 grams of pure alcohol, that's the Australian so Australian New Zealand, they measure it back to a pure alcohol equivalent of 10 grams. So they're converting the type of alcohol times that by the volume, they take a volume of that they times that by the percentage of alcohol in it to get the amount of mils equivalent of pure alcohol, then they convert that to grams by time sit by the density and then that's a standard drink is 10 grams of pure alcohol. So I hope I haven't lost you here, but I'm gonna go through it to better explain it. So for example, one standard drink of beer in Australia is equivalent to around 285 mils, which is a middy what we consider a middy in Australia, New Zealand, it's different in the States because the standard drink in the States is equivalent to 14 grams of pure alcohol. A standard drink in the UK is equivalent to eight grams of pure alcohol. So we don't have a universal or global standard for for alcohol units of measure. It's varies depending on your region. So get familiar with it in terms of your region. I'm talking today in relation to Australia, New Zealand's however, you can quite this comparing it to America by its standard measure is 14 grams of pure alcohol and it relates the amounts of alcohol consumed in terms of the volume, how much volume is needed to equate to 14 grams of pure alcohol in America. So in Australia, if we just take that 10 grams of pure alcohol, it is roughly 285 mils of Beer, okay. 285 mils of beer at four and eight 4.8% is equivalent to 1.1 standard drinks. Okay, so 1.1 standard drinks, if we times that by 10, because that's the equivalent in grams. So that's 11 grams of pure alcohol in a media of beer. So in 285 mils of beer at 4.8% strength there is what I shared was, there's 11 there's 11 grams of pure alcohol now 11 grams of pure alcohol to convert that to calories, we times that by seven. So there's 77 calories per middy of Beer if it's equivalent to a 4.8% strength. So if you're having a middy beer roughly around 5% rounding up numbers now 5% In terms of its percentage weight of alcohol volume, then you're having 77 mil or sorry, 77 calories of you're consuming 77 calories, so every beer is going to be 77 calories. Okay? Now in terms of Wine, wine has a higher alcohol percentage. So roughly wine can vary anywhere between 11 and 13%. So let's take 11 and a half percent, which is what the Australian alcohol Association has done, and what they've done is I think it's a drink wise.org Association. It's 100 mils at 11.5% equates 2.9 standard drinks, okay, so point nine standard drinks times that by 10 grams is going to be nine. Okay, so we've got nine grams of pure alcohol and 100 mils of wine. Okay, so and then we times that by seven, okay, this is going to test my math. I think it's 64 or somebody who probably got this wildly wrong, but yeah, so it was at 65. Anyway, so that's essentially a roughly around that 70 calories, okay, is it going to be it's going to be about 70 calories per standard drink. So any standard drink you have? And so what's that equivalent to in spirits is we have 30 mils, 30 mils if that spirit is 40% by what? By volume, alcohol, so that's equivalent to roughly around that 70 calories in that standard drink. Okay, so every standard drink you have is about 70 calorie. So if you have to two nips two to 30 mils of spirits, like a double spirit on rocks with with some ice, that's equivalent to 140 calories, okay? So it starts adding up. Because if you start looking at it, like some people are consuming a bottle of wine a night, right, these ones that just really enjoy a bottle of wine. That's the only thing I could think of. But I'm going to talk about not only to get you're aware of the alcohol, I'm going to then share strategies on how you can reduce your alcohol consumption at the end of this episode. So it's leading up to some strategies and how to reduce it. The first of all, I want to create some awareness around how much you're consuming because that awareness, you'll see alcohol differently, okay, you'll see it as food and you're consuming more food. And then it makes you more conscious of how many extra calories you're consuming a day, and how much it may be contributing to your weight gain if you're concerned about weight gain. So if I look at a bottle of wine, a bottle of wine is equivalent to 476 calories. So I took a bottle as being 11 and a half percent by volume, weight by volume, alcohol and 750 mils in that bottle, which is a typical bottle of wine, that's equivalent to 68 grams of pure alcohol, which times that by seven, you get 476 476 calories when you consume a bottle of wine. So if you haven't got a bottle of wine with dinner, then that's an extra 476 calories, which is equivalent to a meal. So that day, if you've had three standard mils, then you've had an additional meal just through consuming that bottle of alcohol. And then I worked out if you were to do that every day for the whole year. So 365 days, it will equate to and consumption of 19.3 kilos of fat, okay. And if you have an exercise of that extra bottle that you've consumed every day, then that's what's going to be deposited in you is an extra 19 kilos of fat. Okay, that's a lot. And if you think over a few years of doing this, you can put on a lot of weight quickly. The other thing that I want to share is how this then translates into a compounding effect. So if you're drinking alcohol on a regular basis per night, it not only you're consuming those extra calories, which I share with you, which could be anywhere between say 200 to 500 extra calories per day. So nearly a meal equivalent, or at least a snack equivalent per day. And then that amounts up to a lot per year, which then results in to as I shared 19 kilos of pure fat, maybe it's only four or five kilos, so if you're not drinking a whole bottle, but you're drinking about a say a third, a third of a bottle, okay, so that's around six around six kilos, okay, six kilos per year. So you're drinking a third of a bottle a night, which a third of a bottle is about 200 to 250 mils. So a standard like what you get poured in a winery, not a winery, but a a bar is around 150 mils. Okay, 150 mil, so you have just two standard two drinks at a bar of 150 mils, then that's every night or you have that at home, you pour yourself 150 mils in the glass and have two of them per day, that's going to equate over a year to around again, a weight gain of around six kilos, if you are not exercising off that extra calorie consumption, that's a lot and it can then creep up on you. And all of a sudden, you've realised over a few years, you've gained 20 kilos. And so it can be just as a fact. And a matter of fact, because of the alcohol consumption that you're drinking, so it's the white elephant in the room with for a lot of people. So if the average Australian is drinking around two drinks per night, then that is what I've just shared. Well two drinks is actually less than that six kilo gain per year. It's because it's only to 200 mils because the standard drink is 100 mils and I was referring to 150 Okay, so it's quite easily that you could easily be consuming at least two standard drinks per night because that's only 200 mils of wine. So let's get to the flow on effects. So credit this awareness around alcohol and how many calories are in a, you know, a video of beer or how many calories are in a nipper spirits or how many calories are in a glass of wine which are referred to as 100 mils. But most glasses of wine are 150. So what's the foreign effects? The flow on effects is when we drink alcohol it creates an inhibitory effect. So it inhibits our inhibitions like so we lose our sense of control. We let go a Essentially, as you've probably realised, when you drink alcohol, you become a bit irrational, and you result in a bit of irrational behavior. And that can result in irrational eating. So there's no rational logic, you just you respond by impulse, you're that burger looks great, you're not even going to think about what it could possibly do to you in terms of your health, because you're not thinking rationally, your inhibitions are inhibited. And so it also increases satiety, I mean, not satiety, it increases hunger, it increases our desire for food. Okay, so it doesn't increase satiety, it actually makes us want to consume food. So we've not only increased the desire to consume food, we increase the desire to consume more desirable foods because of our lack of rational thinking. Okay, so we're going to consume more food on top of the alcohol and foods that we typically probably won't consume. If we're in control of ourselves, we're in governance of ourselves, we're governing ourselves. So that then relates in you know, translates into consuming foods that you'd normally don't eat, which are highly more highly calorific foods, such as fats and sugars. So you're going to consume more calories on top of the liquor, the calorie liquor, and you're going to consume some food, liquor, or food calories. And then what happens to that is then it also translates into a worse night's sleep. So our sleep is greatly affected our REM sleep, our even our deep sleep is affected by alcohol. So our whole sleep cycles ruins okay, we we get less restorative sleep, we get less dream state sleep. And so our dream state sleep is associated with emotional well being the next day, the deep restorative sleep is associated with repair, rejuvenation repair work, so the repair work doesn't quite happen, the maintenance doesn't quite happen. And we are a bit more emotional in the next day because we haven't had our emotional dose of REM sleep the night before. And so this the sleep impairment as a result of drinking alcohol, and probably overeating, so we overeat. So, eating excessive amount of foods before bed will affect our ability to get deep restorative sleep, that will prolong it, so we get less of it. And we also get less sleep overall, as you know, you wake up early mornings, because your your body is busily working so hard to get the toxins out of you. It's It's working, it's so busy, it can't rest. It's not resting as much as it would as though it's busy and it keeps you awake. So you have an impaired night's sleep. Studies have shown with just sleep impairment, so not getting adequate sleep results in more calorie consumption the next day, okay, so we consume more calories next day, even if it's not in relation to alcohol, we just have a bad night's sleep. So not only you've consumed more calories the night before, through the liquor and the extra food you've consumed, you then consume more food the next day, and the studies have shown sleep deprivation results in around two to 300 extra calories consumed the next day. So it's a compounding effect. And so you feel like crap, you've got low energy, you're less likely to move your body. So you're more couching around and not doing much because you're hungover from the night before you're consuming more calories than what you'd normally consume when you're active.

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Anthony Hartcher: 19:04

And so it's really Compounding this whole effect. It just compounds so we were consuming more calories the night before more calories the next day. We're not exercising. So our calorie gain. We're in calorie surplus. And what does happens when we're in calorie surplus, it goes to fat stores we store the energy okay? And if this is a repeated cycle weeks upon weeks upon weeks, we can easily gain a few extra kilos very easily just purely through alcohol consumption and that compounding into eating more eating more the next day sleep deprivation and this compounding effect. So what are the other effects of alcohol has on our body so alcohol is a diuretic Okay, so we urinate more as you're drinking you're probably realised that you go into the bathroom more okay, you more frequent trips to the bathroom. So fluids are passing through you quicker and so that can lead to dehydration because you're not holding on to the water the waters going straight through and what gets flushed out with the water is minerals and water soluble vitamins. Okay, so we lose minerals along with the water so we're getting dehydrated Plus, we're losing minerals such as magnesium, zinc, potassium, well, we're more likely to you lose the sodium. So the salt has been washed out about bodies, potassium, minerals, magnesium, zinc, all the minerals will be somewhat affected, we'll have a mineral imbalance we'll have dehydration and what also happens is that we lose the water soluble vitamins such as the B vitamins. And so they get flushed out of us by B vitamins, we're losing B vitamins, we're losing vitamin C to water soluble vitamin and so we mineral deficient as a result of drinking alcohol, we're dehydrated, we're also lose our B vitamins and are vitamin C. The other thing in order to break down alcohol, we need vitamin v3 and zinc. So we're using up more zinc in our body, we're using up more vitamin B3. So you can see why a berocca really helps the next day or are having a vitamin B injection or whether you have a vitamin B supplement, you can see how that really helps recover because you've lost a whole lot of B vitamins the night before it's been flushed out through the diuretic process and also consumed through breaking down alcohol so and with zinc loss, excessive zinc loss over periods of time can result in a depleted or rundown immune function so you don't have an optimal immune function. So you can get more sickness as a result of having lower zinc or lower zinc also is correlated to poor mental health and not getting having the sleep deprivation also results in lack of emotional regulation the next day, so you're more irrational, you're more emotional. And that emotional behavior can then drive more eating more binge eating as a coping mechanism or to feel better to make you feel better about yourself. And so you can see how these compounding effects just from one night drinking alcohol. And then if it's done a consecutive night, it then has a Further compounding effect. And then you're tired for the working week. If you have if you binge on a Friday, Saturday night, then you're depleted for Monday you're feeling tired so then you have more stimulants stimulants during the day, you're more emotional, you might result result in more emotional eating, you have more sugar consumption because of the blood sugar dysregulation. And then that results in you know, if you have higher caffeine that that day results in poor sleep quality than the next night. And so your working week is just trashed. And you struggle to get through the week. And he hit the weekend again to do it all over again. So this has a massive compounding effect, it really has a massive effect on your performance on your your emotional well being your relationships, because emotional well being affects our relationships, poor emotional well being results in poor relationships, more irrational behavior, you'll say things that you wish never said you also do things you wish you never did, because of the irrational behavior when you're drinking alcohol. So I've shared a lot of downsides. Okay, so hopefully I've brought that to your attention to make you more aware. So why why why do we drink. So there's a there's a number of reasons why we drink. So drinking is again, it can be socially accepted. It's what other people are doing. So to fit in, we can drink. Okay, so just to fit in with the crowd to fit in with the group we drink. But it might not be something that we like, but we just do it to fit in. Okay, so you might want to question who you're hanging out with whether they really resonate with what you value. Because if you don't feel if you feel compelled to drink because everyone else is drinking, then you might have a different value, you might value your health, and they might not value their health. And so therefore you're hanging out with people that don't value that your health and your, I guess subordinating your values to their values, and you're doing something that goes and violates your values. And so you feel dissatisfied. And this happened to me, I can relate to this because I had a high value on health yet, I used to hang out with people that had a lower value on health and would be happy to drink and wouldn't even think about all those side effects or disadvantages that I just mentioned. Because there's a low value on health. It wasn't didn't matter to them wasn't important to them. But me it was very important to me. And I was thinking why don't want to compromise my health by just trying to fit in. And so you could be doing a fitting in strategy to be socially accepted by the group. You could be doing it because it's a coping mechanism. There's an unfulfillment within you so you're going to externally to get that fulfillment you're looking outside to get that fulfillment and alcohol can also be used for those that are very anxious and want to calm the minds because it provides that inhibitory effect. It slows down our thinking, our cognition, it slows us down. So if we've got a racing mind, then alcohol can be used slowed down the mind. But there's also other more resourceful ways to slow down the mind such as mindfulness, such as meditation, such as yoga practices, there's a whole heap that I've spoken to about in previous episodes, there's also an element of addiction. So some people become addicted to the effects of alcohol and how it helps them cope with various could be PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it could be to help with some trauma, it could be to help with some life event they're not coping with. And so it can be that real coping mechanism, which then turns into an addiction, they've become very dependent upon it. Addiction is where you've become very dependent on that means to cope. So I did an episode Episode 139, on breaking through addictive behavior. So you might want to go to that episode on breaking through addictive behaviors if you want to go through the technique. So the technique I shared was what I learned through Dr. Demartini and doing his course was how to rewire the brain. So you break that addiction, it's a really good exercise, I suggest you go to Episode 139 called breaking through your addictive behaviors, and that can really help you rewire your brain so you can apply it, it was just understanding, first of all, create some awareness around what you're doing. So you're starting to reflect on what you're doing and why you're doing it. So you're doing that you go through a self reflection exercise of, you know, why am I doing this? What triggers it? So you're getting to an underlying root cause? You're understanding that there's benefits to why you're doing it, and what why, what are those benefits you're getting from it? And then you're looking at how else can you get those benefits that you're seeking? What other ways can you get those benefits that you get through alcohol, and then you're starting to list those other ways you can get those benefits, and then you start to go back to the benefits you derive through alcohol. And then how if you continue to get it through alcohol, how it's of disservice to you. So how's it not benefiting you as to what you value? So for me, alcohol wasn't benefiting me, because I valued my health and my health was deteriorating or being affected because of the alcohol consumption. So that's, and then how else could I get the benefit of or how else could I fit in? For me it was more fitting in with others that were doing it. You know, how else could I fit in without drinking the alcohol? Do I just need to have you know, find that inner self belief and have a, you know, a strong compass as to, I don't need to drink to fit in, I don't need to drink to hang out with you, you know, I don't need to do it to feel connected with you. I can connect with my friends in other ways. So how else could I connect with my friends, I could connect with my threat friends through sport, and sport is connected with health. And so I go through this exercise, check out the episode, I don't need to talk about it now. Otherwise, I'm merging that episode into this episode. So breaking through addictive behaviors, Episode 139, visit that I'll put it in the show notes, then there's the whole thing of you're lost, that you're unfulfilled and hence, alcohol is a coping mechanism to that unfulfillment. So what can you do to get fulfilled is understand like, it's again, it's self reflection, it's understanding yourself and what you value, and then planning your life around your values, living out your values. So I valued my health, my exercise was important doing activities towards being a healthier me. And then I started to prioritise them. And I started entering events on weekends, so that I would be doing my health and living out my what's highest on my values at the time. And then I just tell people that I was hanging out with the night before that I've got an event tomorrow, I don't want to be intoxicated for that event I want to perform well, because it's important to me and that understand that, then I could say I could be your designated driver. And so I could help them, how could I serve them? How could I continue that connection with them? Well, that's an advantage to them, the benefit of them, the benefit to them of me not drinking is that they have a designated driver, they don't have to worry about getting home. So again, it's relating to one another. And we relate through one another by understanding each other's values and respecting each other's values. And then seeing how what I'm doing is benefiting them. And they seeing what I do is or what they do is benefiting me. So it's understanding that there's a two way relation ship and those relationships really well served when you're honoring each other's and respecting each other's values and what is important to that other person. If you don't have that understanding of each other's values, you're not respecting each other's values. That's not a healthy relationship. Because you're one person's trying to impose their values onto you. And that's not healthy. That's not you being new, and that's them trying to change you. And that's not fulfilling for anyone because everyone wants to be loved for who they are. So in terms of I mentioned the habit as you might be just doing it as a habit and you Have a question yourself. So question why you're doing it? And what what else could you do in order to get that fulfillment? I mentioned that what else you could do to get that benefit and how that doing that other alternative is more fulfilling, connecting that to more fulfillment around your values, how it benefits your values, and how then alcohol how that is a disservice to your values. So breaking that connection through that neural pathway rewiring in terms of my top tips for moving on. Okay, so you want to break this alcohol, I suggest you go through a reflection exercises, some journaling as to why you do it, start questioning why you're doing it to get to the underlying driver behind it that questioning, journaling, reflection, so start journaling, start just putting your thoughts on paper, and then start seeing some patterns like, are there certain triggers that make you want to drink more? What are those triggers? Why are they triggering and start getting to the underlying root cause. Because if you can get to the underlying root cause of why you're using alcohol as a coping mechanism to deal with your past experiences, or to deal with some unfulfillment, the better you get to that then you can address the root cause. And then once you address the root cause, then you don't need it anymore. You can break that addiction, because you'll find other ways to fulfilment by just doing what's important to you. And that's what I started to do. I don't need alcohol at all anymore. I don't drink anymore. I drink if I want to. But I it's no I have no desire to. And but I'm not abstaining, I'm not it, I'm not using willpower, there's no willpower. I've just broken the neural wiring that and I did this exercise, I did the self reflection and that journaling reflection and asking myself why so and that creates some awareness around your habits. So you're more aware of your habit habitual routine, and maybe it could just result in changing up that routine. So you don't go to the pub on the way home from work, you got to do exercise on the way home for work because you value a health or you catch up and go for a walk with someone and do a walk and talk. So there's other ways in which you can socialize and stay connected doesn't have to revolve around alcohol. Again, you might want to look at getting support. So if you have this, you know underlying trouble and you don't know how to break it, you don't have to break the habits, you don't know how to break the addiction and seek help. That's what I thoroughly recommend. Seek help from someone that you believe that can really help you whether you think a psychologist is the one for you, I can certainly help in relation to this area through applying what I learned when I became trained in the Demartini method facilitation. I'm a trained facilitator. So I can certainly help by applying that methodology. Otherwise, you could see a psychologist, you could sign up to AA, the alcohol anonymous program that's got a really good program to help people through you with other people also sharing what you're going through. And you're working together to support one another as a supportive community around it. Yes, or just open up and mention it to a friend and then start, you know, brainstorming with a friend of how you might get support. So seek help. And then as I said, connect with what's truly important to you like I did, I just connected back to my health and thought that this is not supporting my health. Why am I doing this, it's just to fit in. But there's other ways in which I can fit in and create rapport with these people. I don't need to drink alcohol another way to overcome excessive drinking. So you want to drink just because you like sort of having one drink with you, then you want to drink less. Okay, so this is more drinking less, it's not following the crowd. So how can you do that? Well, what I suggest you do is not to go buy into the round. So if people are doing rounds, say no, I don't want to do rounds. And you could, you know, could be that, well, you know, you're doing something that you value the next day, you don't want to be hanging out hungover. So just jump out of the rounds get out of it. Or you could just say I don't have the budget, they can't afford it. So I'll just drink at my own pace. And what if you're drinking at your own pace, you're not trying to keep up with the Joneses, you can then have water between every drink which will half your drinking consumption, it will help a bit with hydration, it will help reduce the hangover. Eating before you've probably heard that trick is eating before you go out really helps, just so that you can slow down the rate at which you get the rate of which in toxic, toxic you get intoxicated, essentially. So that will help having food on your stomach. Drinking less as I say getting out of the rounds. Having waters in between drinks and being designated driver can be an easy escape. That's what I do. I just become the designated driver happy to do that. My friends are happy about that and drink life. So drink like beer can be really advantageous. So I really hope this created some awareness around how many calories are in alcohol and the flow on effects in your life and how it can really result in further calorie consumption and lack of exercise and resulting in a calorie gain. Overall which results in overall weight gain. So if you found this value of benefit, please share it with others that could also benefit because I truly want to help more people. So please spread the word and get it out there to help others to reduce their alcohol consumptions and remain true to who they are. Thanks for listening really appreciate your ears. Thank you!

Podcast Disclaimer: 35:31

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