Hey there!

I like to drink. I think it’s fun, I think it tastes great.

I associate it to social events, and I like the history of alcoholic beverages, and the whole process of making them. The only issue I have is that it’s a poison. Loss of motor control and throwing up are usually tell-tell signs.

Taylors Porto

Unfortunately, I have trouble letting go of things I like. Even if those things are killing me. Tobacco, High Energy Cities, Coffee, Sweets, Toxic People… but once in a while, I take the time to cut them out of my life, and see how it feels.

This August, I had too much of a good time. 3-4 glasses of wine, or beer, around 5 times per week. It’s a lot, even when you‘re on holiday. I think this was a reaction to my 12 week Weight Loss Challenge which has a BEFORE and AFTER post, where I lay down exactly everything I did to lose 9,1 kg in 12 weeks (and 10kg in 14 weeks). During the challenge, I cut down to 1 day a week where I could drink, and the whole food intake control on top of it was a bit much I think, so I bounced back.

Fuelled by Joe Rogan’s Sober October challenge (which apparently existed long before that) I thought it would be a great idea to do the same, but in November.

Why November? Because my birthday is in October, and I enjoy popping champagne and having abuzz as a celebration.

As any of the challenges I do, I got a sheet of paper out and drew my 30 squares with the days inside on the 1st of November, and ticked it off immediately. Why don’t I prepare it beforehand? It’s all explained in this article HERE, but basically I like to ignite the challenge with a win. So I don’t actually draw the sheet before I’ve had a win.

30 day Challenge Sheet

Here’s how it went :

PREMISES

The not drinking part was actually much easier than I thought it would be, mostly because I have facilitating factors :

  1. My girlfriend doesn’t drink. At all. She doesn’t like it. That means we didn’t have any alcohol at home, except for Cooking Rhum but I really don’t like rhum.
  2. I usually drink the most when I see my parents. However, two extra lucky factors came into play. My brother just had a baby (yippee!) so I mostly met with my parents at my brother’s house, in the daytime. On top of that my father also reduced his drinking, in order to prepare to quite smoking.
  3. No social events. Except for one birthday. I simple brought some Heineken 0.0 beers (having the reputation of tasting the best), and drank those. No one cared really. So no excuses.

PHYSICAL IMPROVEMENTS :

I decided to take a weekly picture of my torso to see if any changes occurred :

What do you think? I would say I put muscle on, and lost a little fat, until day 21 where I seem to have put fat back on.

As the weeks went by, I had more and more of an urge for chocolate. I’ve had a few stressful events occurring my professional life, and alcohol and chocolate both being anxiolytics, I ate a lot more chocolate (Ferrero Rochers to be exact).

Other physical interesting fact, I have felt less HOT and sweaty. So I suffer from hyperhydrosis, meaning I sweat PROFUSELY. On top of that I’m ginger, which means a greater sensitivity to heat differences. Explosive combo.

I take the subway when I go to meetings, my sessions or anything else. This is Paris, this is how you do things. And when you go from a frosty 1 degree celsius to a whooping 32 degrees filled subway, the slap in the face is quite extraordinary. I seem to be the only one that has to strip down to his t-shirt when this happens. Everyone else happily cruise in zipped up coats… go figure!

Well, not drinking has helped with that tremendously. I imagine stopping coffee will help when i get around to it.

PERFORMANCE :

Over the 30 days here’s what improved (in kgs) :

  • SQUAT : 142,5 -> 145
  • FRONT SQUAT : 100×2 -> 105×3
  • DEADLIFT : 182,5 -> 185kg
  • SUMO DEADLIFT : 145×3 -> 155x5kg
  • BENCH PRESS : 110 – > 112,5kg
  • OVERHEAD PRESS : 70×1 -> 70kgx2

You can see most of the movements on my instagram HERE

My other movements weren’t comparable because they were new movements. It has been a GREAT month performance-wise. I have felt less sore between sessions, I feel like I have been sharper during the lifts, and have felt less stress when attempting maximal efforts. This might simply be a coincidence, and I just became better at lifting and  programming my sessions, but none of those factors were changed much.

SLEEP :

I have not changed my sleeping patters. I go to sleep at approximately the same time at night ( Around 11pm), and wake up between 6:15 and 7 am. However even waking up after a shorter night has been much easier. The compounded effect of NOT drinking for weeks really does make things much easier.

Going to sleep when you’ve had a drink is easier. I’ve had a bit of trouble falling asleep over the past few weeks ,but mostly because I was fired up by new things developing in my business, and I have been thinking about a lot of developments for the future.

MOOD :

Now this is the best part. I don’t thinkI have achieved as much in my life as I have in the past month. My productivity is waaaay up, and my capacity to do start things has also increased. I think that decreased stress levels coming from better sleep, and detoxing from alcohol has made me a much harder worker. I also have to that Gary Vee screaming in my ears all day long that helps

[wpvideo GXSbhuKp]

THE AFTER :

Now… here’s what happened when I drank again on the 1st of december. So saturday night. I drank slowly but surely from 6pm to 12 pm, and I drank a whole bottle of wine (Pouilly-Fumé 2017). I had a great time. I was joyful, singing, even dancing while cooking, had a great time with my girlfriend.

Pouilly-Fume 2017

Fast forward to the next morning, and a veil of sadness came over me… I was silent, grumpy, and feeling unworthy for some unexplained reason. I wasn’t  tired, or had a headache or hangover nausea. But I was snappy towards my girlfriend at the gym, so much so that I saw her become sad too. My mouth started tingling, and I felt like I had inhaled dust or something.

And Lo and Behold! I woke up Monday morning sick. I haven’t been sick in over 2 years. Now is this another coincidence? Has a month of breaking records, and the autumn slowly becoming darker, wetter and colder simply made me weaker? I don’t have an answer, but the sequence of events is there.

CONCLUSION :

I am going to stop alcohol 3 times for 30 days in 2019, and probably drink much less than I have been in the past. The upside of quitting outweighs the downside by a lot. These 30 days have taught me I don’t need to drink, and even though I enjoy it very much, the short term enjoyment is not worth the long game of getting stronger and healthier.

Take care,

Morgan.

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