Pod Dry January
Hello, and welcome back to the alcohol tipping point podcast. I am your host, Deb Masner. I'm a registered nurse, a health coach and, and AFBA. That stands for alcohol-free bad-ass and today I'm excited to share this podcast episode that I did with my coworker from St. Alphonsus that's the hospital that I work at as a corporate health and wellness nurse.
We have a wellness podcast. Called Saint Alphonsus as well cast. And I was really excited that we were doing an episode on dry January. , especially coming from the healthcare world. So this episode is all about what dry January is, why everyone should do a dry January and how to really kick ass.
At the month. You know, I'm so excited if you're listening to this and you're thinking about taking a break from drinking. You know, maybe you are done with drinking and you want to divorce it, or maybe you just want a break. And I think that is fantastic. It will improve your health physically and mentally. And it's just a wonderful thing to do.
So I am giving you a high five. , I also want to let you know if you need any support. I have lots of free resources on my website. I'll call tipping point.com. And I also have two options for dry January. If you want to join me. One is an email only course, , that you basically get an email every day for 31 days to help you on your dry January journey.
And then I of course have my group program, which is called an alcoholic day because I think it is a gift and as a good thing, and it is a holiday. For giving up drinking. , so that is a group program. So you have that option as well. I will put links in the show notes and you can use the code dry.
Just D R Y and save 20%. So really awesome. Whether you join me or not on a break in January, I just want to high five. You you're awesome for listening for even thinking about doing this. I hope you enjoy this show. And please reach out to me. If you have any questions, you can email me
[email protected]. hello, and welcome back to the St. Aons Well Cast. I'm Kandy Zappia, wellness Coordinator at St. Aons Corporate Health and Wellbeing, and today I'm joined by the ever insightful Deborah Maser. Welcome, Debbie. Hi Candy. Thanks for having me. Yes, so as we both know, it's the end of the year and during this time we often reflect on events and personal achievements from the year, as well as start to look forward to the new year and setting new goals for ourselves and a growing number of Americans are choosing to start their new year.
By abstaining from alcohol in a campaign known as dry January. So today Debbie is gonna help us out and she's going to dive into what dry January is the health benefits, and provide us with some tips on how to be successful if we choose to join in on the challenge. So, Debbie, go ahead and take it. Yay.
Well, thanks Kandy. This is Maja . I love talking about dry January. I run dry month groups with ma side gig, alcohol tipping point. And I just, I love it when people are thinking about changing their drinking and taking breaks. So dry January is basically taking. from drinking for the month of January.
And you said, you mentioned in America it actually started in the uk. And it spread across the world. So a lot of people are participating in dry January. I think it's awesome if you're thinking about changing your drinking, if you're cutting back it, I mean, it's wonderful. So that's what dry January is.
questions about that? I have been seeing more and more of you know, things on socials and things talking about like, just kind of being more aware of your alcohol consumption and these different types of like, you know, challenges and encouraging and supporting people from, you know, taking.
Taking a step back from alcohol and giving them some time to, I guess see how they feel. Right. Is that what this is all about? Like what's kind of behind, why would somebody want to do a dry January? Well, I mean, alcohol is a drug. That's the thing. Alco, we kind of forget about. Alcohol is so widespread.
Everyone seems to be drinking. It's so promoted, it's everywhere. Well, in fact, alcohol is a drug and it's a carcinogen, meaning that it causes cancer. That has been known, that's been scientifically proven right, for years. Right? So I think it's really cool. I'm glad that we're doing this episode for St.
Alphons is for a healthcare system because there are so many harmful side effects of drinking alcohol, you know, and it doesn't matter if you're drinking one a night or you're binge drinking, or you're drinking really heavily. alcohol will affect your health. And more and more different organizations like the World Health Organization, the American Heart Federation, have all come out and said, there is no safe level of alcohol for you.
Zero. , it has been shown to cause cancer. It increases our cardiovascular risk. It affects our sleep. It can increase your risk of dementia, and it basically affects every organ of your body. Right, . Wow. So when we decide to take a break, we are giving our bodies a gift. , right? This is a get, we've basically been drinking poison, so we are going to clear some of that up.
And so what happens is even in just 30 days, you can make significant health changes, right? You can improve your liver enzymes. For a lot of people, they can return to normal after you quit drinking for 30 days. That's incredible and eye, isn't it? You know? Right. Yeah, our liver. Our liver is amazing. Our liver is the only body part that regenerates.
It's, I like to say it's the Groot. It's the Groot of our body. Love it. Groot, because it can regenerate, but you know. our liver. Also, if you do drink enough, it can progress to cirrhosis. It can progress to the point where it does not reverse, right? Mm-hmm. . But for the most part, and for most people, your liver can return to normal function, which is wonderful.
So also after 30 days, you're gonna have better sleep. There is a myth that alcohol makes or helps you sleep, right? Right, yeah. Helps you fall asleep. . Yeah. That term nightcap, right? Uhhuh . Just one drink affects your r e m sleep and r e m sleep is so important. That is when your brain is repairing itself.
You know, I like to think of it as this is when the minions go to work, . This is when we learn things. And it's if you have one drink, it's like you're getting those minions drunk. , right? They don't work very well, , and so you end up waking up in the middle of the night just feeling foggy and groggy the next day.
Okay? Yeah. So 30 days off, better sleep. . Don't we all wanna sleep better? Yes, we do. Desperately, yes. . Totally. Totally. Okay. You can also reduce your risk of cancer. Like I said, it is changes d n a alcohol does. And also when we drink, it's, it's not necessarily the alcohol that is leading to cancer risk, it's that there is a harmful enzyme that gets produced while our liver is detoxing the alcohol.
So we get this enzyme, aceta aldehyde, and that is what causes cancer. And so it's, it's definitely linked to breast cancer, liver cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, you name it, right? Wow. Out alcohol's damaging ourselves. So giving ourselves a chance to. rebalance can help.
It's not a magic bullet. It's not gonna make all your cancer risk go away, but it is going to help you. Right? Another thing is better digestion. So alcohol use affects your gut microbiome. That's been a big thing, right? Gut health. Yes. That's a big word. Yes. Well, when, when we're drinking, we are throwing off our gut balance, right?
I, I know that a lot of people are really into gut health and they won't have Diet Coke and they won't have this or that, and they'll only eat organic and, and they just want all these. Supplements and whatnot, but they're still drinking. Drinking alcohol. Well, yeah, alcohol is not good for your gut, right?
It's a totally off balance. So when you can take 30 days from alcohol, then it's gonna help your gut microbiome. . A lot of us worry about our skin and, and what our skin looks like. We spend a lot of money on facials or we go get Botox or whatnot. Do you want better skin? You know, healthier, glowing skin than when you give up alcohol that is gonna help your skin so much because when you drink it, dehydrates.
Mm-hmm. . And it also leads to puffiness and redness of your skin as well, so you can see remarkable changes in your skin. I would encourage people to take like a before picture on like the 31st or the 1st of January, and take an after picture. They'll see a huge differe. Seriously. That's great. Well, and hopefully you're replacing that alcohol consumption with hopefully some more water consumption as well, which I'm sure would also help in seeing those changes in your skin quicker.
Yes. Water, water, water is always an answer. , you want better help drink water? Yes. Let's see. You're gonna have an improved mood. So a lot of people are drinking because they're feeling depressed or they're. Right. Mm-hmm. , but they don't realize that the reason they're feeling depressed and anxious is because they're drinking.
So alcohol is both a depressant and a stimulant. So when you drink, yes, you do start to feel better right away in that short term because you have some feel good chemicals released. Right? Right. Well, your body is always looking to maintain homeostasis, and so if you're having a depressant and it's kind of like numbing you out, piecing you out, right?
Mm-hmm. , what your body's gonna do is it's gonna up the stimulants and what happens is, yeah, what happens is you start to feel. And that's also your three o'clock wake up in the middle of the night, right? So you've drank, say, say you went out and you drank four drinks or whatever you had. , you end up drinking that much.
Your depressants kick in, your body goes, there's too many depressants. I need to up my stimulants. And you find that about three or four o'clock in the morning, your stimulants have upped . And you wake up and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm so anxious. I'm so anxious. Or you wake up the next day and you have anxiety.
That's what anxiety is. Anxiety is that next day. , yeah. You have more stimulants, more endorphins in your body and you feel more anxious. And then what happens is come five o'clock, well you need a depressant cuz you feel anxious and you've just perpetuated the cycle, cycle, cycle. Stimulant, depressant.
Yep. And, and it also gets your dopamine levels out of whack. Right? Because we've been flooding our brain. With this artificial rush, this artificial feel good chemical, right? And so other things don't feel as good, right? You know, other things that normally bring us pleasure. Don't bring us as much pleasure because alcohols artificially increase that.
So when we take that 30 day break, we can reset our dopamine levels so that we get pleasure out of other things. You know, as simple as taking a walk or, or looking at the trees outside, or, you know, playing with your kids. Like, it just, we get more enjoyment out of life. Love that. Yeah. Yeah. And then a big one, you know, some people find that they lose weight, which is great, right?
So when we drink, our body stops metabolizing. It just shuts down. It goes, oh, there's a poison in here. I need to process it. And that's what your liver does. . That's why we see so many liver problems with really heavy drinkers because our liver is that little guy is working hard, right? Yeah. It is working hard to get rid of, of the alcohol and what happens is your body stops metabolizing the rest of of your nutrients and you end up storing the rest of your food or whatever you ate as fat.
So when you do this 30 day break, your digesting gets back on track. Your liver's not working so hard, you become better at metabolizing food. . And so you can lose weight naturally sometimes without even trying. Also because a lot of times we drink and then we end up having little snacks at night or cold snacks or what have you.
Right. Our , our impulse control has been lowered. Right, right. Gosh, so those were, those were just a few candy, a few of the. Oh my goodness. Yeah, that's a lot of benefits. I mean, when you really break it down Yeah. You, when you break it down like that, I mean, it is a wonder that, you know, this is, this is just a societal thing.
It's almost a Right, it's a rite of passage in all honesty. To, you know, turn 21 and start consuming. , , carcinogenic po poison, essentially. And doing it in a social setting. And I understand how, you know, it can be hard for someone to maybe want to move into this dry January situation, especially when they tie their alcohol consumption with social, you know?
Mm-hmm. and thinking that like, well, I don't wanna be the only one doing it. And you know, everyone's going out to the bar, but I am doing dry January. So what, what advice do you have for the people that are kind of embarking on this journey to, you know, take this challenge and they see the benefits and they see the side, you know, all that could happen from taking this break, but, you know, they, they might not.
The support that they need, or they're a little bit nervous about, you know, giving it a try. What would you suggest for them? Well, well first I just like give them a high five and say you're awesome way to go for taking care of your health. And also let them know like you're not. The, like you said, dry January, so many people are doing it.
And what a great month to take a break from drinking because you have an automatic reason you're not drinking. When people ask you, why aren't you drinking? Oh, true, I'm doing dry January. True, true. That's great. , right? And so really just changing your mindset, right? This isn't about deprivation. This is, this is a gift that you're giving yourself.
You know, we talked about all those benefits. Sleeping better, improving your digestion, losing weight, saving money. We didn't even talk about that. Like go late. Think about how much money, so expensive you spend at a restaurant or out at night or whatever, saving money. Just becoming more mentally clear and focused.
Having that healthy, glowing skin. Just think about all. of the benefits of taking a break. Like you get to take a break. You're, you get to take care of yourself. I call, I call my dry groups holidays because I think of it like a vacation, like a treat. This is something you're doing for yourself. So that, that would be a big tip that I would have as mindset.
You. also have a buddy get someone you're doing it with can help you not feel so alone. , you can join a group. There's lots of groups online. You can join like a Facebook group. That's super easy just to let you know, like there's more people out there. Instagram, yeah. Has a whole bunch of sober accounts, dry January accounts you can follow.
So just knowing that you're not alone, that there are lots of other people doing. . So, so those are my tricks for support and mindset. Love that. Those are great. Those are great. And what, what about four? Because I know that , you know, again, that that kind of, that social aspect of, of drinking can be like a difficult thing.
But I do know and have had the pleasure of video recording some recipes for some, some mocktails. Are mocktails something that you might suggest for people who are. Dabbling and you know, still might want to have something nice and fun to enjoy while abstaining from alcohol, but maybe in a social setting or a dinner party.
What are your thoughts on mocktails? love . Yeah, I think mocktails are great. So you, you can get so many mocktail recipes now. Well, what I think is really helpful is to, because our drinking oftentimes it's just a habit. . Right, right. It's a habit we've gotten into. We get home from work, we automatically go for that beer or wine or we're at a restaurant.
We, that's what we do. We order when we're out. So making sure that you have something to drink, but just not alcohol, right? Mm-hmm. , so that could be a mock shell, that could be a Diet Coke, . That could be. . There's a lot of really good NA drinks out now. A lot of good na beers. I think Athletic brewing makes some of the best alcohol.
Free beer. Mm-hmm. out there. There's alcohol free wine. There's alcohol free spirits, like there, there are a lot of options that can be really, really helpful for. . Now I will say some people that can be triggering and makes them want their real stuff. Mm-hmm. . So just experiment, you know, be curious.
I, I do like, you know, recommend that people think of this month as an experiment. Right. It, it's a time to be curious about why you're doing it. , you know what, what do you hope to get out of it? Maybe even write down all the reasons you drink, and then write down all the reasons that you don't drink and all the reasons that you, you want to reduce your drinking.
But just going back to that, having something else to drink or eat like now. Is not the time to diet. I wouldn't recommend doing dry January and like an extreme diet. Like, okay, I'm gonna go keto, I'm gonna quit drinking, I'm gonna do Whole 30 . I'm gonna workout twice a day. That might be too much, you know.
That might be too much. Pick one, one goal . And treat yourself right. So because you are not getting all the dopamine from alcohol, your body's gonna be looking for some reward, some treat. So that could be having the dessert at night, having a donut, you know, eat whatever you want. You are gonna save a ton of calories by not drinking, so it's okay to eat what you want.
I mean, you can have other ways of treating yourself too. Everything from like taking a bubble bath or queuing up the Netflix or doing some meditations, buying a new book, reading a sober quit lit book, those are really popular. That might be really motivating for you. So just making sure that you are giving your treats and also making sure that you're keeping.
especially at night, right? Because you'll find that drinking hut takes up a lot of time, . And so when you stop, you're gonna have a lot of time on your hands. So maybe you wanna sign up for a class or break out the puzzles or the board games, pick up the, your old hobby of knitting, you know? Or try something new.
Or take comfort in something old, reconnect to some friends, something like that. Something to keep you busy. I love that you're replacing, you're, you're replacing one habit for hopefully another more healthy habit. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and like I said, it doesn't have to be about deprivation. Like this is a treat.
Make sure you're having treats either you know, physically having treats, candy, whatever that looks like. Or like self-care treats, just something to feed your soul, something to reward you for this new endeavor that you're taking on. Yeah, and you could even like plan a bigger reward for the end of the month.
maybe even like a real vacation or, or maybe a massage or something you've been saving up for. You could track your money that you're saving by not drinking. Mm-hmm. and use that money to, to get yourself something at the end of the 30 days. I love that idea, . Yeah. That's a great motivator. And yeah, this has been wonderful.
I think that you did a great job of explaining. Why someone might want to try for this new year, since we're here in December and we're about to step out into 2023, if you can believe it to, you know, go ahead and, and try dry January. And again, looking at different resources that are available, different support groups, books I think you mentioned.
And you can always look up Alcohol Tipping Point for some great resources as well to help you with your dry January and to hopefully experience some of those wonderful benefits from taking a break from. . That's right. And I would just also add like focus on practice. Right? This is a month of practice not drinking.
You know, if, if you're, you don't have to be perfect. Okay? If, if you do end up drinking one night, that's okay. Get back on track and keep going. Right. When we are learning to do new things, it takes practice and it takes work and that's okay. That's how we learn. So I think that just the fact that you're even listening to this and thinking about dry January, I just think that's huge.
So I want to applaud you and like Candy said, feel free to check out my website, alcohol tipping point.com. I have a lot of free stuff. I have a free 10 day challenge. , I have a free dry guide. I have a free mock She recipe book, . So lots of resources for you there to help you out and know that you're not alone.
Wonderful. Well, thank you again, Debbie, so much for coming on here and explaining this more for us and for our listeners. We just hope that you have a wonderful new Year and maybe you can start it off, you know, with a dry January. Cheers. Cheers. Without beers, . Cheers without beers. All right, join us next time for our next episode, and until then, stay well.
