On this episode, we explore the hidden ways casual drinking might be shaping our lives more than we realize. Picture this: a festive family gathering, the cheerful clink of glasses, laughter echoing around the room—and then, a regrettable moment fueled by one too many drinks. Sound familiar?
Listen as Cameo shares personal anecdotes and insights into the 'death by a thousand cups' concept—a metaphor for the slow but significant effects that even moderate drinking can have on our time, productivity, and health. From the lost hours and diminished energy that could have been spent on more enriching activities, to subtle yet serious impacts on our relationships and emotional well-being, we'll uncover the layers of influence that alcohol might have in our lives. It doesn't have to be a "problem" to prompt change.
But this episode isn't just about the cautionary tales; it's also a call to action for transformation and growth. Whether you're questioning your drinking habits or just curious about healthier lifestyle choices, I'm here to support your journey.
On this episode, we explore the hidden ways casual drinking might be shaping our lives more than we realize. Picture this: a festive family gathering, the cheerful clink of glasses, laughter echoing around the room—and then, a regrettable moment fueled by one too many drinks. Sound familiar?
Listen as Cameo shares personal anecdotes and insights into the 'death by a thousand cups' concept—a metaphor for the slow but significant effects that even moderate drinking can have on our time, productivity, and health. From the lost hours and diminished energy that could have been spent on more enriching activities, to subtle yet serious impacts on our relationships and emotional well-being, we'll uncover the layers of influence that alcohol might have in our lives. It doesn't have to be a "problem" to prompt change.
But this episode isn't just about the cautionary tales; it's also a call to action for transformation and growth. Whether you're questioning your drinking habits or just curious about healthier lifestyle choices, I'm here to support your journey.
Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host, cameo, and today I'm flying solo to peel back the curtain on a common activity that many of us brush off as no big deal casual drinking. This episode is a continuation of a previous episode called Our Life With and Without Alcohol how it All Changed. On the previous episode, greg and I shared many examples of our behavior, poor choices and negative consequences of our drinking habit, as well as suggestions on how to evaluate your own relationship and situation with alcohol, begin your journey and the results that we've seen. After our decision and after that episode, I had several of you reach out to me directly sharing things like I stopped drinking for two weeks but it was too hard and I didn't drink like you, but I'd still like to stop. I just don't feel like I have a problem. So I'm not convicted in my decision, and so today I want to unpack just a casual drinking habit, not necessarily an addiction or a quote unquote problem, but how it subtly and significantly chips away at the quality of our life Things to think about as you evaluate your relationship with alcohol. So there's this phrase death by a thousand cuts, and it originally comes from an ancient form of torture and execution. So you can imagine it's pretty, pretty obvious what that means. But in today's context, I'm going to use it to describe how small and seemingly innocuous actions like drinking just a few glasses of alcohol regularly, can cumulatively lead to a larger negative impact. So we're going to rephrase it, we're going to call it death by a thousand cups. How can regular social drinking affect us in ways that we may not immediately notice? So, first off and we touched on this for sure in the other episode, but let's talk about time Time is our most precious resource. We're not getting it back, and I just want you to think for one second about how many hours you've lost, wherever you are on your journey, however old you are, whatever you're doing with your life. How many hours have you lost at the bar, or curled up the next day on the couch nursing a hangover, or having meaningless social interaction with people that you never talked to again? That didn't better your life. I mean, I hate to sound cutthroat, but I want you to really think about that, because what happens is you never get that time back and then it robs you of more time. So it starts with like skipping a morning jog, right, and then maybe you ditch breakfast. Those hours start to add up.
Speaker 1:
I have a story. I'm super embarrassed to even share it. I'm not proud of it and, dad, I know you're probably listening, so I'm sorry in advance, but there was one year when we went out the night before my dad and step-mom were coming over to have a Christmas celebration with us and our kids. So I think we went out on Saturday night and they were coming over on Sunday for breakfast and Christmas presents and to spend the day with us. The night before I got loaded so I know we're not talking about getting loaded, we're talking about casual drinks but the night before I went out. So let's just say I didn't get loaded, let's just say I was hung over the next day.
Speaker 1:
But I'll tell you the real story. I got loaded and I actually fell. It was a dress up Christmas party. I dressed up like Rudolph and I slipped and fell on some spilled beer and cracked my face on a stairway banister and I split my nose wide open. I didn't have to get stitches or anything, but there was blood everywhere and the next day my nose was swollen and I had a cut and of course I didn't feel great and I had a raging hangover and my head hurt like crazy, and that was how I spent that Christmas with my dad and step-mom.
Speaker 1:
Our time was limited. Our time was precious with our kids when they were little. Gosh, this was probably 11 years ago, so the kids were really little and I'm robbed of that experience Again. Dad, I'm sorry if you're listening, but yeah, it impacts you in ways that maybe you don't think so again. Maybe you weren't out getting loaded, but you had a few drinks in the next day. You just didn't feel awesome and it robbed you of the time that you may have spent with your family. By canceling or by sleeping in or by whatever, however it pertains to you. I want you to really think about those moments and think about how drinking impacts your most valuable resource your time. I also found another interesting fact about hangovers. As it pertains to hangovers, a study from the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs estimates that the hangover effects of alcohol cost the US economy $249 billion annually, and that's due to lost productivity, healthcare expenses and other costs. So it's certainly a lot of money. It's not as valuable as your time, but it definitely illustrates how hangovers and how the alcohol industry definitely impacts a loss of time and, subsequently, a loss of resources.
Speaker 1:
The next thing I want to talk about is how alcohol impacts our sleep and our hydration. So while we drink at night and it seems harmless it's to help us relax and fall asleep it actually disrupts your sleep cycle and significantly dehydrates your body. We need sleep and we need to be hydrated people, and so that combination is extremely damaging. Studies have shown that consuming alcohol can decrease your sleep quality by almost 40%. That's a significant reduction in REM sleep, which is crucial for cognitive function and overall wellbeing. Now, you might not connect your next day tiredness or your dry and lackluster skin condition or your sunken in eyes directly to your drinking habits, but these are clear signs of dehydration and poor sleep quality caused by alcohol that accumulates over time.
Speaker 1:
Third, I want to talk about mood swings. Now this one's a little tricky, because it's easy to attribute our moods to other stressors in our life. However, regular alcohol consumption can amplify feelings of anxiety and depression. It messes with your brain's neurotransmitters one or a thousand, it doesn't matter. Our neurotransmitters are chemicals that regulate our mood, and when we put alcohol in our system, it throws us off.
Speaker 1:
Often, we use drinking as a method of escapism. I talk about that pretty in depth in my upcoming book the Reset Button. There's an entire section titled Hit the Reset Button on how you Deal With your Shit, where I talk about how alcohol, among other things but alcohol primarily was my way of dealing with things or not dealing with things is maybe the better way to phrase that. So being used as a form of escapism absolutely impacts our mood and how we make our decisions your mood, and Alcohol consumption also has a significant impact on how you show up in your relationships. So it's not just excessive drinking that can put a strain on relationships. A study highlighted in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs revealed that regular, moderate drinkers experienced 30% more issues in their relationships compared with those who drink less often. So this shows that even casual drinking, just a casual drink here or there, a casual drinking habit, can subtly influence the harmony and dynamics between you and your partner, you and your kids, you and your coworker, anyone that you have a relationship with, and I would add, you and yourself as well.
Speaker 1:
When you look at these habitual behaviors, it's all about the cumulative effect. Why is cumulative such a hard word to say? Anyway, each drink might not seem like much, but it's adding up and it's altering the pathways in your brain. It's altering your body's hydration levels. It's altering how you sleep. It's altering how you interact with others. The time lost to drinking or to recovering from hangovers accumulate and they prevent personal growth and productivity and fulfilling relationships. Over months and years, all of these things can fundamentally change aspects of your personality and, obviously, your physical health, without dramatic signs until much later.
Speaker 1:
As I mentioned before, I encourage you to think about the subtle ways alcohol might be chipping away at your life. What could you achieve with better sleep, a better mood, better hydration, better relationships, more time? If you haven't listened to the previous podcast episode that we did again, it's called our life with and without alcohol, how it all changed. It was episode 55 and we share a little bit more detail about what our experiences were. This episode, I hope, has been helpful for you to provide some more thought-provoking curiosities about how alcohol is impacting your life in ways that may not be so obvious. Tripping and falling and cracking your face is pretty obvious, but missing out on time and being dehydrated and how it's impacting your neuropathways is not quite so obvious. This may help you if you had questions, like I mentioned in the beginning, about not really thinking. You have a quote-unquote problem, but wanting to know, like why should I still consider not drinking, or how can I still consider not drinking, or how can I still consider not drinking? What am I missing?
Speaker 1:
If you're inspired to rethink your drinking habits and want to learn more about making positive changes, head over to my website, cameoelisebrauncom, and sign up for my newsletter. There I send out weekly lessons, favorite lists. You'll get the latest updates on this podcast, sneak peeks from my upcoming book and an exclusive first look at a new program I'm really excited to unveil soon. I've been working on it. It's going to change some lives and I'm super excited to finish it and welcome people into it. Thanks again, as always, for showing up, for tuning in, for sharing, for making positive changes in your life, because that ripples out to everyone around you and inspires others to do the same in their own. Until next time.