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The Rejuvenating Health Podcast
Join Women's Health Nurse Practitioner, Lindsey VanSchoyck for a weekly dose of Precision Medicine as she addresses the hot-button topics specific to Women's Health, Fitness and Nutrition, interviews expert guests and hosts round table discussions with the team of dedicated functional health care specialists.
The Rejuvenating Health Podcast
E138 | Alcohol 101: The Hidden Costs of Holiday Drinks
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Parties everywhere, pressure from every angle, and a voice in your head saying you’ve “earned” that drink...
But let’s talk about what your body is actually experiencing and how to take back control without missing the fun. We unpack why alcohol feels like relief at first and why the rebound is so costly: dopamine dips, cortisol spikes, blood sugar crashes, and the cravings that follow. Then we map those ripples across hormones and metabolism; think estrogen dominance, low progesterone and testosterone, impaired thyroid conversion, and disrupted REM, that make fat loss, steady mood, and deep sleep feel out of reach.
It's way deeper than the science. We share the mindset and identity shifts that make change stick during the most triggering season of the year. You’ll learn how to pre-commit before events, navigate social pressure with grace, and use the drink delay rule to let urges pass. We also give you real-life replacements that satisfy the ritual without the crash: magnesium-calming mocktails, club soda over herb-and-juice ice cubes, and a blood sugar-friendly “margarita” that keeps your nervous system regulated.
If alcohol has become a nightly reward or a weekend reset, consider this your invitation to try something different. Curiosity beats shame, and practical tools beat white-knuckling. By honoring your biology and creating simple systems, you’ll protect your sleep, heal your gut, stabilize hunger, and make progress you can actually feel. Your future self will thank you.
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Welcome And Why Alcohol Now
SPEAKER_00Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on the Rejuvenating Health podcast are solely those of the speakers and are intended as such. Please consult your trusted healthcare practitioner for medical advice. Let's go, girls. Hey Lake, welcome after the Rejuvating Health Podcast. I'm Lindsay, your nurse practitioner and founder of Rejuvenating Health. And as always, I have Coach Lakin.
SPEAKER_01Yep, Coach Lakin in the house, words, stories, mindset, all that stuff, holistic health. And what are we gonna talk about today, Lindsay?
SPEAKER_00Well, it's this is gonna drop in that fun time, right, around Christmas and New Year's, where alcohol seems to show up everywhere. And I'm sure that it's getting talked about on all of our client consults this time of the year. So alcohol.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, tis the season, holiday parties, more stress, right? Office outings or you know, happy hours, girls' nights, shopping trips, things like that. The things of uh that idea of I earned this or this is my way to downregulate after dealing with family or stress, right? That's all the stuff that comes up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and so we're gonna touch some ways to maybe rethink alcohol, some ways to still enjoy social events um and not be feeling like you're left out. But I think first it's really important to understand how profoundly alcohol affects your health, your hormones, your blood sugar, if you're on a weight loss journey, your weight loss journey, your anxiety, your sleep, your gut health. I feel like every one of our clients has gut health issues right now. And if you're drinking alcohol, then not great. And it also really affects your decision making, right?
SPEAKER_01All the time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if like I don't know, I haven't I don't drink, but you know, what'd you do in college after you drank? You like went and ordered Qdoba and you just ate pizza, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so let's um let's get into the mindset component of it first, right? Like if we're being honest, alcohol is the most socially rewarded coping mechanism out there, right? It's very common, it's very prevalent, um, it's very perpetuated. Like often you're the odd man out, or you're looked at weirdly, or you receive judgment or shame if you decide not to partake. And so what happens is like if we're stressed, the coping mechanism is drinking. If we want to celebrate, then we drink. If we want to grieve, then we drink. If we're on vacation, then how do we do that? We drink, right? It's just it's really is everywhere.
The Brain On Alcohol: Dopamine And GABA
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we just got back from an all-inclusive and we didn't drink once. We're probably the only couple on the resort that didn't drink. Like staff would look at us like, you're not, you don't want alcohol. I'm like, no, take it away from our fridge. We won't drink it. Like, don't, I don't want your coconut drinks. Go away with those. But biologically, it works temporarily because alcohol increases your dopamine and GABA. So you do feel better when you drink. Like, why do you drink on vacation? Because hey, it's relaxing and you know, it's something fun to do. But what happens after is then your dopamine drops and you feel like trash. Like your mood is awful. Your cortisol spikes, so you get a lot of anxiety. Your blood sugar crashes, so you go and binge on the pizza and the not great food. So your brain literally learns drink relief, crash, need another drink. And the cycle goes on and on and on.
Mindset Work And Root Causes
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's like the neurochemistry component of it. And the the thing that I work with clients on when we have awareness of an alcohol issue that we want to address, right? Because it really does take awareness if there is any type of struggle there, or at least a desire to want to reduce the frequency or the volume of alcohol, understanding what it does to our body and the negative impact that it can have, but understanding the why behind it, right? Like what's fueling the desire for it? Often it's very similar to what we see tied to emotional eating, right? Like we said, it's a coping mechanism. So, what are you actually feeling when you're going to reach for that drink? And what is a better way to feel that feeling fully or to fully process it and be able to ask yourself what would actually help me in this moment instead of reaching for this coping device.
Hormones Wrecked: Estrogen, Thyroid, Sleep
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think that's something really important to point out. Like, I don't want people to listen to this and be like, oh, well, these ladies just think, oh, it's easy, just stop drinking. Because I we understand that it's not. Like it is a neurochemical, biological, like wiring of your brain for a lot of people, and it it really is dug in hard as a coping mechanism. So for a lot of people, it's not as easy as like just don't drink, or you know, just stop eating cookies. But that is where working with a health coach and someone that can help you dig into that pattern recognition and learning different coping mechanisms can be really good right now. And a lot of people right now are like, I don't want to start working with a coach or a program because it's pointless. It's the holidays, right? Like I can tell you right now is the number one time to start working with a coach because if you can get your shit together right now and learn how to cope with the code, it's gonna be way easier when it's not the holidays. Exactly. Exactly. So we understand that it's not as easy as just like stopping. But I do want you to understand what it actually does to your body. Like it has some really significant health impacts on your body, right? So it really messes with your hormones, um, especially your estrogen. So if you're drinking a lot and your liver becomes congested, your estrogen is gonna increase and you're not gonna be able to detox that estrogen through your liver. And then you can get it.
SPEAKER_01And what are the things that we see when we have estrogen dominance?
SPEAKER_00You get estrogen, like bloating, weight gain, sore breast, moose moodiness, all that type of stuff. And then when that estrogen is going up, your testosterone and progesterone are going down. So when progesterone goes down, you're more depressed, you can't sleep. When testosterone goes down, there goes your libido, your energy, like literally your mojo for life. So you're gaining weight, you have no energy, you can't sleep. Horrible combo, right? Then it disrupts your thyroid conversion because it really messes with your gut, right? So it causes your T4 to not convert to T3. So then you're feeling even more sluggish, you're constipated, your hair's brittle, your skin, you you have no energy, right? And so if you're a woman that's drinking, you probably have worse PMS, you probably have heavy periods, you probably have more anxiety, more belly fat. Like it has a profound effect. And I you you might be looking at the calories of alcohol and being like, Well I'm only drinking a hundred calories of alcohol. That's not the issue. It's the issue of what it does to your body chemically.
SPEAKER_01Disruptors.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like every drink that you have, you have a spike, a crash, nighttime hunger reaction. And it's just increasing that insulin resistance over and over and over. And so that midsection fat that you are not enjoying is not gonna go away. You can be eating clean and weight training like a pro and doing everything, right? If you're drinking alcohol, you're not gonna have the body composition that you want. Like I and to be fair, we're not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're not talking about like the occasional celebratory drink, right? We're talking about a consistent use of alcohol. And also, no, like bringing up the fact that alcohol, there's no magic bullet. Like we always say that, right? It may not be that alcohol is the thing that's causing all of these things, but guaranteed it's not helping. And it's a lever that we can pull, and it's a lever worth pulling.
Fat Loss Myths And Metabolic Fallout
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And it's not something where if you drink, quit drinking for a week, you're gonna see results because it has these, like it takes time, especially because of the impacts it has on your gut, right? So alcohol really increases that intestinal gut permeability and gives you kind of leaky gut. It kills your beneficial bacteria, it feeds yeast and inflammatory microbe microbes. You're gonna get bloating and brain fog and autoimmune flare-ups and skin issues and weight gain. And that's not something that can be fixed by a month of stopping alcohol. Like it takes time to heal all the downstream effects that have happened.
SPEAKER_01And there's phases, like you're gonna notice some things early on when you give it up, and then it's just gonna get better and better. Just like the residuals of drinking, how that impact builds and has a compound effect over time. Removing alcohol will also have a compound effect over time and you will feel better and better the longer that you are without it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and again, we're not saying like you go to a holiday party and you have a few drinks, and that happens once a month. I'm talking about you're drinking Friday and Saturday nights, like every Friday and Saturday night, or you're drinking a glass of wine to unwind every night. Like that's where we're gonna start to see the issues pop up, right? And you can be saying, like, it's just one glass of wine every night. I mean, to be honest, I'd rather you have a binger on Saturday night than drink one glass of wine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, consistently across the board.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Just because of what it does to your sleep. I don't like when you fall, like you're not really sleeping when you're drunk, you're just kind of passing out, right? Yeah. And your REM sleep drops drastically. So my lovely aura is gonna say, like, oh, you were in bed for seven hours and slip, but your recovery is like zero because you literally got no good sleep.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it is it is toxic to our system, right? And so whether you are doing a slow drip of poison over time or you're doing a vial of it, you know, it's still gonna have a negative effect. It's just how how quick an onset do you want it, or do you want it to suffer longer, you know, out in the long run?
Identity Shifts And Decision Tools
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. So I think a big myth around alcohol is I can just burn it off with my workouts or, you know, do lower calorie. And that is not how it works because, like Lakin said, it's literally it's a toxin to your liver, right? So your liver is going to stop burning fat to detox the ethanol first, which means every time you have a drink, your fat burning shuts off for 36 hours. This is why I'm like, don't have a drink every night. I'd rather you have a binger. Because if you're drinking every night, your fat burning mode is getting shut off.
SPEAKER_01It never recovers. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And it messes with your hunger hormones. Your ghrelin, your leptin, uh you like are hungover the next day, and so you're eating gross stuff, right? So it's not just like the glass of wine, it's that 48-hour, 36-hour ripple effect that it has after.
Rituals, Mocktails, And Nervous System Care
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and if we're looking at, you know, people talk about the infrequency of it, oh, well, I only drink weekly, right? Well, it's if you're having a 48-hour shit fest every week, that adds up over time, right? It'd be the equivalent, it's the same thing of saying, like, well, I eat really clean during the week, and then I have, you know, a 3,000 calorie day, two days a week on the weekend when I go all out or I have my cheat days, right? And it's like, or even one cheat day. It's like, well, what we're seeing is like then we're taking our progress and basically putting it in the shitter and then trying to start again, right? But it's we're getting lower and lower every time. So you it's diminishing gains over time that we're battling. And let's talk about the emotional side of it, right? So the the pressure, the guilt, and what people wrap up their identity around it. And people say, like, oh, you know, people will judge me if I don't drink, or it's the only way that I unwind, or it's my reward. But the truth is at the end of the day, like, if alcohol is your reward, then what does that, what are you making that mean about you? Right? Like, what does that say about where you're at, that that is the thing that you are treating as a reward? Can you reward yourself with something that would truly benefit you or that truly serves you, or that would get you closer to the goals that you want? Because I can guarantee I don't know anybody, and I, you know, correct me if I'm wrong. Send us a send us a DM, but I don't know anybody who alcohol contributes towards a goal that they want for themselves. Right? It's not having any net positive effect.
SPEAKER_00Besides that, maybe it's like numbing out a feeling, but I don't know, I can turn on Netflix and cozy up to the fire and get that relaxing on like drink your hot tea. I don't know. But I mean, and from a coaching lens, like it's asking like, who are you becoming this season? Not like how strict can I be, right? Like I I think you need to like not view this as like, oh, I'm having to cut out alcohol this season. It's more of like, what kind of energy, health, clarity do I want moving into January and how can I set myself up for success during this time of year?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like you mentioned earlier when you were saying, you know, if you can do it this time of year is the best time of year to do it. I think for most people, it's that all or nothing mentality, right? Where they tell themselves there's FOMO of like, oh, I've just got to get through the holidays and, you know, drink all the drinks and eat all the food and do all the things, and then I'll start fresh in January. But if that's always the mentality, there's always gonna be a reason that pulls you into that type of behavior. And so if you can get those things in check and understand the patterns that are emerging and understand the reasons why they're occurring and work through them when you have the prevalence of reps, right? Like this time of year gives you a lot of opportunity to practice this integration, to practice how this is gonna show up in your day-to-day life so that way when the frequency reduces, like we said, it'll be that much easier.
Stress, Unmet Needs, And Coaching Support
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I'm so like some coaching tools that you can use, right? Like one, do an identity shift, right? So instead of I'm not trying to drink, like making that your identity, like switch it to I'm someone who's prioritizing my recovery or my health or or something like that. So instead of it being restrictive, again, making it more of like a positive thing, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And be cautious of like when you're making the decisions, right? Like we always say set yourself up for success. So if you're someone that decides that you're gonna wait until you get to the party or to the event when somebody's offering you a drink, and at that moment you're gonna put the pressure on yourself to decide, am I or aren't I gonna have a drink? That's very the likelihood is very low that you're gonna be able to pass on that scenario versus if I decide before, right? If I know going into that scenario that, yeah, I'm planning on not having any alcohol. And this is what my backup plan is. I'm gonna have club soda or cranberry juice instead or whatever it is, right? I'm gonna have, I'm going to decide beforehand. So that way going in, I feel prepared.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and uh you can also do like a drink delay rule, right? So putting some delayed gratification in there, like I can have I can have a drink later if I want it, but for right now, I'm gonna have some water or some club soda. And 90% of the time that urge fades and you don't want that drink, but it's just that right there, it's in front of you. And if you can just wait it out, then that urge is gonna go away.
Boundaries, Self-Respect, And Closing
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that can be applied in the moment, and it can also be applied to that all or nothing mentality that we talked about about seasons, right? We think like, oh, I don't want to miss out on all the things that are happening during this time of year. And it's, I promise you, alcohol is not going anywhere. Like it's gonna be there if you ever want to revisit it in the future. Like all the things that you think you have to cram into this time of year to take advantage, they're going to be there. So it doesn't have to be this high risk factor of like, oh, I have to hurry up and take advantage of all these things. It's gonna be there. What you could do is look at it as an opportunity to put yourself first and know that it's there if you ever choose to go back to it. You're not missing out on anything. And so then can we look at what we can do instead of alcohol, right? So I'm a fan of breath work. If that's not your thing, you could literally do anything that would downregulate your system or relax, implement some magnesium, take a hot shower or a bath, going on a long walk or a short one if that's if you that's what you have time for, right? Like playing a game, doing some incorporation of play or laughter or joy, listening to your favorite music or a podcast or something that you like or a, you know, um, a guided meditation. Like these are all things that are easy and most of them are free. And if you can create a ritual around it when you recognize the driver for what's pushing you to the alcohol and replace it with something intentionally instead, then that allows you to seek that regulation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because at the end of the day, you're not seeking relaxation, you're seeking regulation. Right. So, and I get it a lot of times, it's just the act of pouring a drink and like and doing the thing, right? Or feeling like you're social. So my God, there are so many mocktails out there now. Yeah, really good ones. Right. So, like, we're not about deprivation here, but like let's have some replacements maybe that work better with your physiology, right? So you can like here's some of our favorites. There's a cortisol calm mocktail. So some sparkling water with some lime, with a pinch of sea salt, some magnesium powder. Like, sip on, sip on that, right?
SPEAKER_01Um Yeah, you can incorporate stuff like berries, um, or like something that I really that I've loved doing in the past is taking like ice cube trays, like the bigger ones, and filling them with like fresh pressed juice of my choice and putting berries or herbs in there, like sprigs of rosemary and orange juice, for example, and then like pouring club soda or soda water over that. Like so that it still feels fun and festive, but you can incorporate a lot of different things, and those are really popular now. I don't know if you guys know this or not, but alcohol is actually going out of style. And so the Gen Z that are coming up are making it more easier than ever to enjoy like fun celebratory events and drinks that don't even have alcohol in them.
SPEAKER_00Oh my God, you can go to the store and buy so many drinks now that don't have like non-alcoholic drinks. Yeah, right. Um, you can do like a blood sugar stable margarita, so some lime and coconut water and put some salted rim on it with cement, right? Um there's tons of even nighttime drinks like um beam has like really good cinnamon and almond milk and seed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like cacao.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, like your nervous system wants like a ritual and it wants regulation. It doesn't r necessarily want the alcohol, right? So when alcohol is like a a symptom, maybe not necessarily a problem, like clinically we're always looking kind of deeper, like why are you craving that alcohol, right? And it it a lot of times it's due to low dopamine or poor estrogen clearance or chronic cortisol elevation or insulin resistance or trauma and emotional burnout, right? And so alcohol use almost always is pointing to some unregulated stress plus unmet needs. And I know that like this is one thing that you and the other mindset coaches work a lot on with our clients because there are a lot of people that will come in and they'll want some magic bullet with the program, like they'll want something magic me to find in their labs. And I'm like, it's the alcohol. Yeah. And they don't like it when I tell them that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but at the end of the day, you're numbing, right? It's a distraction, it's something to avoid what's really trying to bubble up on the surface. And so if we can take a look under the hood and uh find out, you know, where that's rooted, and often it's not even something that we necessarily think it is. Sometimes they know coming in, right? But more often than not. And not when we excavate a little bit and we find out what's underlying, we can we can get to the source of that. And then we can start to put in with your health coach simultaneously practices that allow you to redirect or to interrupt that pattern or to um implement and get reps in daily, something that works for you and your lifestyle that meets you where you are, as opposed to either just shaming yourself for it and trying to eliminate it or restrict yourself or feeling like you're restricting yourself or deciding that you know there's something wrong with you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um, so you don't need to be sober forever, right? But if you want fat loss and hormone balance and mental clarity and deep sleep and a calm nervous system.
SPEAKER_01And all these lovely things.
SPEAKER_00If these all sound good to you.
SPEAKER_01It can't. Yeah. So it's, you know, I always like to say, like, you know, tis the season during the holidays, you know, what's in your glass is not necessarily gonna help you. What is gonna help you are things like boundaries and intentional choices and self-respect and energy, right? Things that are not necessarily feeding your ego, but that are feeding your soul, your peace. Like if you were to protect your peace, what would that look like? And alcohol is uh not usually one of those things.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. So set some boundaries, some intentional choices, some self-respect, right? And if you need help regulating your stress and healing your hormones and building relationships with your food, body, yourself, this is exactly what we do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And if this, if this got under your skin a little bit, right? If um you feel either triggered by this or very defensive around the way that you interact with alcohol, I would say that's worth some self-reflection, right? That's worth looking at and saying, oh, like what if I, what if I was curious with myself instead of feeling defensive? What if I took a deeper look at what's driving this or where it's rooted in or what I'm using it for, or what maybe I'm trying to avoid feeling in place of, right? So it's just it's always worth uh shifting into that curiosity, curiosity over shame.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, exactly. So share this with a friend, use some of these tools, reach out if you need help, and we'll be here.
SPEAKER_01Rate and review, please. Five stars. We appreciate it. All the love. Yeah, happy holidays, and we'll see you guys next time.
unknownBye guys.