I have stopped drinking alcohol to start the new year and already feel great.  You only realize how good you feel once you knock it on the head for three to four weeks.  It has been difficult at first because when you socialize in the evenings with people it is something that is done and when you don’t drink people think you are being anti social.  If it wasn’t for the socializing aspect I think I could go for a very long time without alcohol.  I am going to talk about my experiences of not drinking alcohol here in this blog updating the length of time I have gone so you can see the benefits in my step by step journey.  Right now the thought of drinking again is something I really don’t want to do, my body is recovering from workouts faster than ever and I feel great overall.  I am writing about me stopping drinking to encourage people to try it like me, it will really speed up your chances of reaching your fitness and weight loss goals.  Give it a try!

Below I am going to show an average days diet for alot of people they don’t believe to be to bad but at the end when we look at all the calories and irregularities you will see why living like this is so bad.  The people below are the common scenarios that alot of people are in who come to Personal training studios.  In the next personal trainers blog post I am going to show how this can be altered very easily and how personal training can fit in.

Person- 38 year old man in banking in the city of London

5:30am- Get up

6:00am- skip breakfast

1:00pm- lunch, sandwich at desk

2:00pm- Coffee at Starbucks

4:00pm- Coffee at work

5:00pm- Banana at work and snickers bar

7:30 pm- Dinner at home- healthy dinner- steak with potatoes and beans and two glasses of red wine

10:00pm- Cup of tea

11:30pm- Go to bed

This is an average day for alot of men in the city this is the average, we have seen alot worse scenarios than this and alot better scenarios than this.  The problem with the diet above is the following

Missing breakfast not eating since dinner the night before 18 hours without food this makes the body store alot of what you are eating as fat instead of using it as an energy source resulting in you  feeling more lethargic and having a more fatty appearance.  People often ask me “Why am I fat I hardly eat anything” there is the answer.

Coffees in the day are what is keeping him going where as if he just ran on the treadmill once every three days that would give him the energy to work through out the day.

Going to bed too late, if you are getting up that early make sure you get to bed earlier and ensure you always have breakfast.  Sleep reduces stress, stress leads to stress hormone being released which causes ou to store more fat.

Drinking too much alcohol, the two glasses of wine a night is too much he needs to cut down to one, he is taking in too many calories here.

Cut the snickers bar out for obvious reasons

Personal- Mother in Notting Hill

7:45am Up out of bed

8:00am cup of tea

8:15 am breakfast two slices of toast with jam

8:30 am leave take kids to school

9:00 am starbucks coffee

12:00 am cup of tea

1:00pm out for lunch glass of white wine with lunch

5:00pm pick kids up from school

7:30pm dinner at home healthy dinner same as husband and two glasses of wine

8:30pm cup of tea

9:30pm maltesars whilst watching tv in evening

11:00pm into bed

Probelms with the above are

Too much tea, tea contains caffeine like coffee too much is bad and will lead to anxiety and not being able to sleep.

Too much wine throughout the day that is where there is too many bad calories leading to fat build up

Maltesars for the obvious reason

January is a great time of the year to go alcohol free for a month.  By cutting out alcohol for one whole month each year it allows the body to flush out lots of toxins alcohol puts in the body.  One month off allows the kidneys to have a break especially if you tend to binge drink.  By starting off the year with one month off alcohol it also gives you a great start to a new year of fitness and if your goal is weight loss it will really kick start weight loss.  Go alcohol free this month at Personal training studios and we will reward you with a free 30 minute personal training session.

Other related articles-

Low calorie alcohol choices

White spirits with slim-line mixers are the low calorie alcohol choices.  Vodka lime and soda, gin and slim line tonic etc are the choices of low calorie alcohol you should be choosing.  Beer is the worst choice and it is no wonder why it leads to what is known as a “beer belly” a pint has 182 calories, wine has 90 calories a medium glass, champagne is the same at 90 calories a glass.  If you are drinking alcohol keep to the low calorie alcohol choices but at a safe drinking level.

Bloating is usually caused by overeating, lactose intolerance, constipation, air swallowing, IBS.  The best way of tackling boating is analyzing your diet to make sure it is not containing alot of things that cause bloating such as toxins from tea, coffee and alcohol.  Alot of people who come to Personal training studios find that when they switch regular tea with peppermint tea their bloating is reduced and with just a few alterations to their diet their bodily appearance has massively changes.  Alot of people appear alot larger than they actually are due to bloating, and with a few changes of diet it can be improved.  Another factor is stress levels and sleep patterns.  If you are only getting 4 hours sleep a night and eating just before bed plus work a high stress job then there is a chance of feeling bloated.  Aim to get around 8 hours sleep a night and eat 3-4 hours before you go to bed and if you can reduce the stressful environment you live in and this should help with bloating.  Bloating is caused by many factors as you can see and if in doubt see a nutritionist and see a personal trainer to help structure your fitness and diet in to better healthier lifestyle.

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Weight management advice from personal trainers

People often come into Personal training studios after a heavy night out drinking and are hung over and feel bloated.  They often ask me their personal trainer if drinking gin and slim line tonic the night before would make them put on weight and that they had heard they could drink it all the time as it is low in calories.  The other common question is can I drink 2 glasses of red win a night?  Will that make me fat?  The answer to both these questions is that even alcohol low in calories is not great for the muscles and tend to aid fat creation in the body other than aiding a muscular low fat physique like meat or fish and protein shakes would.  Alcohol is ok in small amounts e.g. one glass of red wine a night or two gin and tonics on the weekend on a night out but any more is not great.  Remember a bottle of red wine has roughly 750 kcal in it so one class is around 200 calories so two glasses is almost like having an extra small meal.  So if you drink like this every night over a week you will be taking in a huge amount of calories and even if you are training hard in the gym three times a week with a personal trainers it will make it hard to shift the weight and get their toned up body you are after.  Read our low calorie alcohol page for more details about which alcohol is the highest in calories.

Hangovers are horrible luckily I dont suffer too bad from them but many people suffer badly so here is some advice to help prevent them or if its too late, ease through them.  The best bit of advice I could give you as a personal trainer and keeping fitness as a major priority would be dont drink this is sure to sought out the problem but if drinking is still a part of your life here are some tips.

• Drink lots of water to keep you hydrated
• Eat before you drink alcohol, to line the stomach
• Take plenty of multivitamins daily
• Eat plenty of fruit to help with sugar levels
• You can even drink milk before going out to help line the stomach

The above all help in keeping hangovers away.  The main cause of hangovers is dehydration so number one on the list is always drink plenty of water.

Related articles-

Low calorie alcohol choices

What London personal trainers day about different milk tops