Let's debunk some of those myths floating around about alcohol moderation! This episode is for anyone who's curious about cutting back after a break from alcohol and learning to drink mindfully in a world obsessed with happy hour.
We'll tackle the five biggest myths surrounding moderation and mindful drinking. This episode will open your eyes to the real truths you need to know.
In this episode, you will:
Are you ready to drink 95% less in 30 days without committing to the nevers, forevers, and always so you can have more time and freedom to create a life that you love? Fill out this brief application to schedule a free 30-minute call.
Love the show? Leave a 5-star review, and let me know what hit home for you.
Find me on Instagram @camille_kinzler and leave me a DM!
Let's debunk some of those myths floating around about alcohol moderation! This episode is for anyone who's curious about cutting back after a break from alcohol and learning to drink mindfully in a world obsessed with happy hour.
We'll tackle the five biggest myths surrounding moderation and mindful drinking. This episode will open your eyes to the real truths you need to know.
In this episode, you will:
Are you ready to drink 95% less in 30 days without committing to the nevers, forevers, and always so you can have more time and freedom to create a life that you love? Fill out this brief application to schedule a free 30-minute call.
Love the show? Leave a 5-star review, and let me know what hit home for you.
Find me on Instagram @camille_kinzler and leave me a DM!
[00:00:00] In episode 21, I talked all about is moderation possible? Is moderation or mindful drinking actually obtainable? Go back and listen to that episode for more in depth talk about that. However, in today's episode, I'm just going to talk about the five moderation or mindful drinking myth busters. Okay, so let's go to the show.
[00:00:44] Hey, welcome back to the Think Beyond The Drink podcast. We are in full swing of summer here in Texas. And by the time this podcast is released, I will be on the road doing a very long road trip with the family. And I'm super excited, super excited about this. We are headed up the Mississippi River, headed to Detroit, and then we're going to take a hard left to go up to Michigan, check out some sites there for a few days, then hit Niagara Falls, then go up to Toronto, and then five hours north of Toronto, where we'll be dropping off my kiddo for a two week canoe trip.
[00:01:22] Very excited about this trip and vacation. And of course we, my husband and I will be working while on the road, but it will be a nice change of scenery. So I would love to hear what you guys are doing over this season, but let's go ahead and get into today's episode To me It seems like moderation is the gold standard or mindful drinking is the gold standard for most people.
[00:01:45] And I just want to go ahead and talk about some real truths about moderation, some five myth busters, if you will, that I think it's really important to consider if you are considering moderating. So this is for somebody who maybe is abstaining from alcohol right now, and they're considering moderation in the future.
[00:02:02] So it's for you to really consider these five topics. The other is for somebody who's like, I really just want to moderate. I don't want to drink as heavily as I do right now. I want to drink less, and get down to this gold standard perfection of what a normal drinker looks like. So we're going to jump into the five. moderation mythbusters right now today in this episode. Let's get right into it. So number one is that a normal drinker doesn't have any side effects. So when you drink normally at these low levels, so based on the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, what is considered normal drinking or non high risk drinking is for women consuming three or less drinks in one day or seven drinks per week.
[00:02:48] So seven drinks per week, if you're drinking more than that, or you're having more than three drinks in one sitting, that's considered a high heavy alcohol user. I've actually seen that women who consume more than two drinks in one sitting is considered heavy alcohol use. So regardless if it's more than seven drinks per week, that's considered heavy alcohol use.
[00:03:09] So for a normal drinker, that would be less than seven drinks per week. So let's say that you had two drinks on a Tuesday and two drinks on a Friday. And you're like, that's my goal. I want to moderate and just have a limited amount of drinks. So let's go ahead and bust this myth. So first off the whole point of drinking is to feel some aspect of the alcohols to feel some lightheadedness or feeling a little bit more relaxed because yes even though you can have a rebound anxiety from alcohol, it does make you feel relaxed when you drink it. It's part of the substance. And with that means that after a half a drink, you can feel tired. You can feel distracted. You can feel less connected. And after two drinks, you can feel a little bit more buzz.
[00:03:56] You might be feeling good, but then two hours later you crash. It's like that sugar crash that I get. It's this alcohol crash that we get. And then we could want to go to bed earlier. We don't want to be as active. We definitely aren't going on that run at 8 p. m. at night or taking our dog for a walk, right?
[00:04:10] We feel more tired. It makes us feel more tired. That's the nature of alcohol and especially when it's wearing off after we have two drinks. And at the third drink, then it's just hangover city. The next day you feel like crap and it's the nature of the beast of alcohol, right? We can't consume a toxin and not expect to have some sort of reaction.
[00:04:31] The toxin of alcohol crosses the layer in the brain called the blood brain barrier. Pharmaceuticals are created, so they won't cross the blood brain barrier. It's that's the whole point of it being there. It's, it doesn't want certain toxins to cross it because when we affect our brain, we affect our central nervous system.
[00:04:50] However, alcohol does cross that blood brain barrier. That's why we have this central nervous system effects. And that includes our inhibition and memory and motor and sensory functions, right? There's all decrease of alcohol. So the higher the blood alcohol concentration, the more affected these areas of the brain.
[00:05:07] So some of the studies even show that one drink can affect our sleep, can affect our REM sleep. I have a whole episode on does alcohol impact your sleep? That's episode number 11. So go back and check that out if that interests you. But even after one drink, we're busting the myth that normal drinking doesn't have side effects, and even after one drink, it can affect our sleep.
[00:05:29] And after two drinks, more than likely, it will affect our sleep if we're going to sleep within three hours of drinking alcohol, and even then, you could still have your sleep affected. When our sleep's affected, it affects our next day. It has this ripple effect that goes in to us feeling rested again or getting enough sleep.
[00:05:48] So, number one, myth busting, normal drinking doesn't have side effects, it does have side effects. Number two. You don't think about drinking when you've finally learned how to moderate, right? Like you, if you've got this moderation and mindful drinking thing down, you don't ever think about drinking anymore.
[00:06:04] You can take it or leave it. That's not true. We live in this world that is saturated by alcohol, by people drinking alcohol and every single setting at birthday parties and at concerts, and the movie theater at family friendly events, there's alcohol everywhere. So you have to make the conscious decision of whether or not you're going to drink every time you go out.
[00:06:28] And even for me, who has created this life of many friends who may drink, but we'd never drink together. Like that's not the thing that we ever do together. So I've created this social network of people who don't drink with the activities that we do. And I still find myself having to decide when I'm in a scenario that has alcohol, whether I'm going to drink that night. I have to really tap into my intuition and ask myself, is this something that I really want and it would be fun, or is this something that I feel like I am just doing because alcohol is available and I can have that one drink now and just be fine.
[00:07:06] But I still feel that it affects me later on that day or maybe even the next morning. So I have to really weigh the cost benefit analysis of not sleeping amazing and feeling just a little bit tired the next day. And, and because I've spent so much time with that alcohol, I'm really sensitive to the effect of just not sleeping perfectly.
[00:07:27] To where if I'm not feeling really well rested the next day, I, and I blame it on that one drink that I had, it completely ruins my day, right? I have to actually really work on changing my mental thoughts around it. I have to work on my mindset so I don't have that ruin, you know, a whole 12 hour period just because I had one drink.
[00:07:46] Sometimes it's one of those things where I'm like, is this really something that I'm creating in my mind or is it true? Because how could that five ounces of wine at 5 p. m. really affect me at 8 a. m. the next day? So, anyway, yes, so the myth busting for number two is that the myth is, is that you don't think about drinking.
[00:08:06] You absolutely do because our world is saturated with alcohol. So even if you feel like you are maintaining this, you know, mindful drinking or moderation, if you want to have a social life and people drink around you, then you're going to have to make that conscious decision. Now, if you were trying to moderate your drinking, so you hadn't had long periods of abstinence, or you just want to drink less, so you typically are a heavier drinker, and you just want to drink less, you definitely will be thinking about drinking, you'll be thinking about drinking a lot, because you'll be tracking how much you're drinking, you'll be in the mindful drinking and moderation programs that are out there, you most definitely are tracking your drinks.
[00:08:45] You're thinking about drinking or not drinking all of the time because you're trying to stay under this certain number of drinks that you've self indicated. You're really thinking about whether you're underneath that number or not.
[00:08:55] Number three, moderation is healthy. Well, there were some studies that were done a while back, and this is why I always talk about science is always changing and evolving.
[00:09:03] So we write everything in pencil, y'all. We update what is happening in the real world as accurately as possible. And a while back, it was said that the resveratrol in red wine was an anti inflammatory, antioxidant that helped prevent some certain cancers. And now we know that that is false. And actually the WHO, the World Health Organization came out recently and stated that there is no safe amount that does not affect the health.
[00:09:31] And you know, alcohol is a toxin. It's a psychoactive toxin that is dependent producing. It increases the risk of addiction, of tolerance, of wanting more. The more you drink, the more you will want to drink. And that can be true. So it has been classified as a group one carcinogen by the international agency of research on cancer that was out decades ago, and it was grouped in one of the highest groups.
[00:09:57] And the other big hitters in that group are asbestos and radiation and tobacco. Okay. Alcohol causes at least seven types of the big C word guys, including the most common cancer types, which is bowel cancer and female breast cancer. So, no amount is safe. So if you are not drinking, don't just say like, Oh, I think I'm going to try to moderate.
[00:10:18] I mean, no, no amount is safe. With this all being said, we are not into scare tactics here. That is not what I preach. That is not what we're looking at. There are other things that we consume and do in life that are very unhealthy for us as well. It does have to do, if we are having an alcoholic beverage.
[00:10:37] And we are sitting here saying it's causing cancer in my body. That is counterproductive. That is counterproductive, people. We are not doing that here. We are recognizing that with anything that we do in life, there is a risk just because I am drinking a alcoholic beverage does not mean that I will have cancer.
[00:10:56] Okay. So what we're saying is, is that we are looking at the research and data, we are being very consciously aware, conscious consumers of what this could cause. Moderation is healthy is the myth that we're debunking and moderation is not healthy because the WHO states that no amount of alcohol consumption is safe.
[00:11:14] Okay. And number four, it's easier to moderate. So believing that moderation is off the table can be super beneficial for some people, right? If they say they cannot moderate, they will never be able to moderate because they've looked at their past experiences and they've, seen the writing on the wall, if you will.
[00:11:33] So abstinences can be so much easier for those people. So, what we're debunking here is, is moderation easier. And moderation takes a lot of energy, especially if you're coming from the heavy drinker to just wanting to drink less. That takes a ton of energy because you have to come up with this drinking plan and you have to track it and stick to it.
[00:11:57] And for me, seven years ago, when I was looking at how I had tried to moderate for a while, for about a year or so, and that it was taking so much of my energy focusing on that, that I decided it was worth it to me just to remove alcohol altogether. And now does moderation take a ton of energy?
[00:12:18] No, it doesn't, except for go back to number two, about how we, we do live in this alcohol saturated society. So, I do have to make these conscious decisions on whether I'm going to drink when I'm in an environment that has alcohol and other people are drinking. So, but is it easier? I don't believe moderation is easier, especially if you are really trying to stick to a certain number of drinks per week, because then you're thinking about that all the time. Now, I really like to look at the effect that I'm wanting to receive. What is the outcome I'm wanting to receive from alcohol? And I'm recognizing that this is a dose dependent type of response.
[00:13:03] If I drink more than one to two drinks on any given night, then I will have the opposite effect that I'm wanting to achieve. So, it is a biphasic drug, meaning that there are two phases to it. The first phase is initially very pleasant, and you experience like feelings of calmness and connection and I mean it typically feels pretty good.
[00:13:27] And then if you cross over that line and that can be more than one or two drinks depending on how much you ate, how much you slept, how much water you drink. All of these other factors, then if you cross over that one to two drinks, then it is followed by a depressant feeling. Then you feel depressed. You feel lethargic.
[00:13:46] You don't feel like doing anything. You feel less connected because you're just zoned out. So it's a biphasic drug. And so if you're looking at, when you're moderating, it's not really the amount of drinks. Like, I'm going to stick within two, you know, three drinks in this night out. I would say look at it more of how it makes you feel.
[00:14:04] Is that usually, you know, after you have one drink, like, how am I feeling right now? Am I feeling like really pleasant to my feeling really relaxed? And then say, will the next drink, will I cross the line after I have the next drink? Will this stimulant, like feeling crash and crater? And I'm no longer riding that wave.
[00:14:23] And it will happen after that first drink or after that second drink. If you go to the third, you will absolutely be in that depressant feeling because your blood alcohol concentration will just be too high. So I say, don't look and count the number of alcohol beverages you have, right? This is called mindful drinking.
[00:14:40] It's mindful in all aspects of our life. So I would say really look at how alcohol feels after your first drink, sit into it, how it feels after your second drink. If you've never done this before, then how it feels after the third drink. And remember, you can not chase, you're trying to chase the feeling of that first or second drink, right?
[00:14:59] That's what we're trying to do by drinking more and you can never catch it. You will never be able to catch it. But if you stop at one drink, you can ride that feel good wave for a couple of hours. Then you maybe decide to have another one or not, right? So it's being more mindful about the way that alcohol makes us feel, not the certain number of drinks that we're having.
[00:15:19] And since I talked about alcohol being off the table for some and how in my programs what I really do is we have this period of abstinence at the beginning and if people choose to go back to moderation, we extend out the program. But I really believe that having this abstinence in the beginning will give you the greatest amount of bang for your buck, if you will, because the research shows that it requires 10, 000 repetitions, which is a minimum of three months of practice for us to develop new neural pathways.
[00:15:49] So if we can remove alcohol and focus on all these positive better health habits, then we are creating those neural networks faster and stronger and creating new behavior. So that's why I really focus on having some period of abstinence with a lot of focus, right? It's not just being absent for the health of it, right?
[00:16:08] It's really being abstinent. And using and creating these new tools and new neural pathways so that when and if you do drink again that you're not falling off the wagon. It's not a slippery slope. You're not going to be in the bottom of the bottle again that you can actually use the tools and these new neural pathways that have been formed to really help support you.
[00:16:30] And number five, moderation can't happen if you've already self diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder. and with this one, I say, go back and listen to episode 22, is drinking and moderation possible? Cause I think that I answered that question over there in the short and the sweetest, and I think I've kind of touched on it throughout here too, is that mindful drinking, I really like to use the term mindful drinking instead of moderation because mindful drinking is how are we mindful in all areas of our life.
[00:16:57] Mindfulness helps us know how to be mindful drinkers because it creates this habit and language and neural pathways that help support that. And so I do believe in the research supports that you can go back to mindful drinking after being self diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. But again, you know, looking at the myths of moderation, is that important to you?
[00:17:20] Is that risk benefit ratio important to you? And always get support. It's like when you are trying to get off of a medication that's been prescribed, a pharmaceutical that's been prescribed by your doctor. It's always best to talk with your doctor when you're trying to wean off a medication or when you're wanting to start a medication and really get support around that.
[00:17:44] And it's the same when we're looking at even when we want to start drinking again. I mean, that's, that's basically dosing yourself with a psychoactive medication. So what you want to do is get support to really help you feel out if this is the right method for you, if this is something that you really want, instead of just going for it, just hoping for the best, right?
[00:18:04] And we're grownups here and we know better now. And so when we know better, we do better. I hope this was helpful as always share this episode. Go to wherever you listen to podcasts and give me a five star review and get a little review. I'd love to know what you think about this. Go over to the show notes.
[00:18:21] If you want to schedule a consultation with me or in my Instagram at Camille Kinzler, Camille underscore Kinzler and go into my DMs. I want to from you. Okay. Hope all is well. Bye.
[00:18:33] This is the first of two part series where we look at the common myths that keep us drinking, that keep us in the bottle. And of course, like always in this episode right here that you're listening to today, I will give you four questions to ask yourself to change any stressful thought or change any belief that you might be living.
[00:18:57] And I'll give you some other ways to reframe your thoughts so you can live who you want to be right now.