A boozy week in Spain after 4 months alcohol free — Observations.
Early this year, I quit alcohol.
I wrote about it here:-
My alcohol free year to date — and the positive effects so far
I didn’t know how long this booze break would last and whilst I hadn’t ruled out the notion of drinking again, I was surprised at how solid the habit had formed and how much life had changed.
A looming family break in Spain was going to be an interesting week.
I stated beforehand that I would definitely have a drink or two in Spain. Particularly as I was with most of the family. And what do you do in Spain in 40 degrees of heatwave? Have a beer. I also didn’t want to look like the odd one out, the boring one in the corner. This is wrong, but that’s often how it is.
(More on habit and association later.)
I thought I’d use the week of indulgence as a positive exercise to gauge how my body reacted to alcohol after nearly 5 months off.
I didn’t go crazy — maybe 2–3 pints and a short here and there.
Jetting Off
I was surprised at how easy it was to resist the need to grab a beer or three at the airport. The airport was horrendous with many people experiencing huge delays as Microsoft had shat itself and in turn most UK airports had to do a CTRL-ALT-DEL. Our flight was delayed for two and a half hours — ordinarily this would have lead to sitting around downing lager to pass the time — but not today.
I even resisted Ryanair’s best £4.50 cans of warm lager.
After finally landing in Alicante around midnight, we made our way back to our parent’s house around 30 minutes South West of Alicante. Given the rare occasion of so much of our family being present with our parents, I was surprised and pleased that I was so easily able to boil the kettle and make a cuppa whilst the others tucked into the Beer and Whiskey.
But here was the mindset change in action — it was 0130 — what was the point in drinking at this time?
Whetting the whistle
So the first beer was cracked at around 1pm the next day. With so long off the beer I savoured the moment — and wasn’t as refreshed as I thought I’d be. But, I felt inclusive as the others were on it — and what do we associate with Dad’s bar and 40 degrees of unobliterated sunshine? Beer. And here’s one of the big issues with booze — association. Many of us associate airports, holidays, barbeques etc with drinking and so drinking becomes a kind of automation — especially when influence comes from others too.
Associating hot sunshine with drinking alcohol is also somewhat a false premise. That thirst quenching cold pint of Estrella isn’t having the effects you would think. Alcohol is a diuretic — which means more urinating and loss of fluid. It actually increases dehydration as well as the risk of heat exhaustion.
Nonetheless, maintained this association and remained inclusive and continued to drink for the remainder of the holiday — for the purposes of my experiment.
Here’s what I noted:
- My sleep quality was instantly disrupted (not due to heat either — thanks to air con!). I awoke daily at 4am with my mind racing, conjuring up the most detailed imagery and scenarios from work emails to interactions with people I’d long forgotten about. My over active brain wanted to stay awake and this lead to tossing and turning for an hour or so, followed by deep sleep too late into the morning — leading to reluctance to get up. Alcohol was already taking quality time away from my holiday
- Heartburn — This came back with a vengeance. I’ve had zero heartburn since abstaining from drink and immediately this returned. Mainly in the night, adding to the poor quality sleep. I also felt like alcohol was stripping the skin in my mouth, throat, oesophagus.
- Lack of energy — in the lead up to the holiday I’d got back into running and fitness. I’d done several mountain peaks consisting of 10–15Km hikes to 900m+ elevation. I’d ran 2Km twice a week and was in a good routine. My lungs had never felt better. I looked forward to running in Spain and seeing what it was like to run in 30–35 degrees of morning sun. This didn’t happen. Instead, much moping about occurred whilst doom-scrolling on that bloody phone.
- Reduced focus. “Looking forward to getting stuck into a book on holiday and taking a step back from the business to look at the wider picture”. Didn’t happen. Got to maybe page 10 of the book and rather than think about the business, I found a big pile of metaphoric sand (San Miguel) and shoved my head in it.
- Weight gain. I’d lost 7.5 kilos in weight and could see my ribs. I only gained a bit of weight during the week, to be fair, but wondering around a pool half naked with a belly full of beer makes you feel heavy — but you do fit in with the English stereotype
- I went on a 20Km bike ride and, accepting it was very hot, I felt my lungs weren’t performing the way they had been in the run up to my holiday. I felt wheezy. I felt this at night too.
- My HRV Status plummeted (see my previous article). I also noted my heartrate spike around midnight and it took until 4/5 am to return to ‘normal’. My resting heartrate also increased during the week, along with my baseline sleep heartrate. A sign of declining fitness.
Since getting back a week later, I’ve slipped straight back into the sober routine — and I’m enjoying it. In just a few nights, my HRV Status has recovered — sleep HR has settled back down and my sleep is back inexcess of eight hours of quality sleep, including a good mix of REM and DEEP sleep.
I’m already feeling the motivation to get back out hiking, running, cycling — whatever I can fit in whilst we still have long summer nights.
I was concerned that this break in Spain would kickstart my weekend tipples again — but actually by taking note of how I reacted physically to a week of booze, this has only validated the reasons for going alcohol free. It’s really bolstered the desire to continue with this lifestyle.
I’ll no doubt drink again on occasions in the future — but I feel like this will occur less and less.
Something has clicked. A habit has formed. A new lifestyle with a new approach has formed — and I like it.
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