[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the alcohol tipping point, podcast. I'm your host deb Maisner. I'm a registered nurse, health coach, and alcohol free badass. I have found that there's more than one way to address drinking. If you've ever asked yourself if drinking is taking more than it's giving or if you've found that you're drinking more than usual, you may have reached your own Alcohol Tipping Point. The Alcohol Tipping Point is a podcast for you to find tips, tools, and thoughts to change your drinking. Whether you're ready to quit forever or a week, this is the place for you. You are not stuck, and you can change. Let's get started on the show. Today, I have Clifford Steven. Clifford Steven is a regular dude who changed his relationship with alcohol, took a year long break from booze, and now he's really passionate about helping other men, other guys dudes, as he says, take a booze vacation so that they can learn more about what booze is really doing to you. Take an extended break to help them reset your mind and body and just live a better life and upgrade your life and kick more ass, as Clifford likes to say. So if you're interested in taking a booze vacation and you're a dude, you can check out Cliffordsboozvacation.com, and you can always join one of my sort of vacations booze vacations called Alcohol Holidays. And the Alcohol alcoholiday is just a month long break to reevaluate your relationship with alcohol, to have tools and support for taking a break from drinking. And if you want to join, you can go to Alcoholtippingpoint.com alcoholiday. And I'll give you all the information about taking a month long break from drinking. So without further ado, let's talk to Clifford about his own booze vacation.
Welcome to the show, Clifford. I am excited that we got to connect, and I'm looking forward to just hearing from you about how you help men. And I also just want to hear and I'm sure our listeners are curious just about who you are and what you do.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Likewise. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me on, Deb. I really appreciate it. Who am I and what do I do? So I am a 51 year old male, played a lot of sports back in the day, water polo, soccer, tennis in high school, still very active in a lot of sports and outside activity, like a mountain bike, play tennis and hike and try to keep in shape and all that good stuff.
I have a consulting practice. I design employee and executive pay plans for pre IPO tech companies in Silicon Valley. And, yeah, that's been great. And definitely had a little bit more time and space. Having my own practice to kind of continue to look at myself and work on my habits and my diet and my lifestyle and to kind of get into a little bit of my backstory, played sports, relaxed with my buddies, and alcohol kind of went hand in hand with pretty much anything we did, whether it's parties or events or games. And, yeah, just love drinking, love hanging out with my buddies, love having a good time and getting into all kinds of adventures. And that followed me through college and into my career. And you're in corporate America and alcoholiday is kind of everywhere like it is, and I'm in HR, and so we're kind of a social crew and yeah, just loved it, but kind of getting into my forty s and knowing how to look and feel and perform well. Definitely started to see some issues starting to come up in my late 30s, early 40s probably they were there in the 30s, but more noticeable in my forty s. And so that's when I really kind of started taking a little bit closer look at my drinking. Again, kind of more indirectly than directly. Not something that guys are really looking to typically my peers are really interested in even looking into much, but I was kind of that guy that again, was kind of pretty active. I got a degree in nutritional science, so I was pretty on top of just health and wellness and so it was pretty obvious that things were slipping probably earlier than they should be. So that was kind of my segue into eventually what led me into looking into that. It's a long story.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Well, it also sounds kind of typical, like you grew up and it started getting incorporated more and more in your life and with your job, too, and with socializing and all that. So it wasn't until like your started going, maybe I need to do something about my drinking, is that right?
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a little bit more super social, super extroverted, super driven. The more activities and events, the better.
Has great friend groups, all kinds of fun stuff to do. And yeah, alcohol was along for the ride the whole way. And honestly, I didn't have any real intention of addressing my alcohol use. Like I said, everybody was doing it. It seemed like it was a proven model. And it wasn't until things kind of started breaking down a little bit more acutely that it's kind of like and again, I wasn't looking for it, but I was working very diligently to kind of keep my health and wellness and sleep and mindset and stress levels where they should be and they were slipping. And after literally trying everything, meditation and different diets and different lifestyles and different supplements and really kind of turning over every last stone, it's not until then where I'm like, okay.
And I have addressed my alcohol use in that me and my buddies and take a month off. I wouldn't drink during the week, I wouldn't go too crazy on the weekend after a while. But with age and wear and tear intolerance it's a really tricky equation to figure out. And at the end of the day, I figured out, you can't override your physiology. And so I was inspired by the book. Alcohol lied to me. It's like a four hour listen on Audible and the guy's like a broadcaster from Britain, and he was like, super entertaining and he really nailed it really quickly. And I was like, I listened to it. I'm like, oh, shit, I got to take a know, like a real break. And so I decided to take a year break and I called it, I coined the phrase booze vacation just to kind of make a bit of a joke out of it and make it more kind of fun and aspirational. And so I did. And that was just really a big epiphany that I had. Again, me and my peers, we're not looking for sobriety, we're not alcoholiday, but we're definitely in that gray zone. And so that was something where I really felt like all of a sudden I was able to get a little bit better sense of alcohol and what life was like without it and learning how to enjoy myself and have fun without it and seeing what kind of benefits and gains I can get from a health and business and performance perspective. And relationships. The whole kitten caboodle. And so that's a little bit more about that. But again, it wasn't anything that I was intentionally looking to take on. I just kind of eventually was kind of cornered and kind of like was forced to as the last round.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: I so appreciate you sharing that because I think that is so common.
It's not like you have to hit a rock bottom. Like you said, you were doing all these other things that were good for your health, exercising, changing your diet, doing stress reduction, all these other things, and then it was like, oh, maybe it's the alcohol. So I think it can be more of a health and wellness conversation instead of like a mental failing.
You have a problem conversation because a lot of people are giving up alcohol for their health, not because they have a quote, unquote, like, drinking problem.
So I am thumbs up to you. There was something else I was going to say about that with what you were sharing. Well. Also, I feel like giving up alcohol is becoming the new midlife crisis in a good way, in the best way possible for people who are in their forty s and fifty s. I feel like that's a huge population we're seeing of people who are giving up alcohol because of their health. And they're recognizing, like, oh, hey, I feel better without it. Like you did with your booze free vacation for a year. And then after that vacation, did you go back to drinking or were you like, okay, I'm good, I'm done.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: Right, yeah, no, I know what you mean. And as far as alcoholiday and age, and again, talking to my specific peer group, I'm 50, but I would say guys in their 30s or fifty s that start drinking in high school, you're drinking in college, you're binging all the time.
It's so ingrained in the bro culture.
You're really going to start building up tolerance. You're really going to start picking up some wear and tear on your body. And the reality is that I found for myself, and I think I could speak to my peer groups because I know what we do and how we do it. But you get to your it's like you have wear and tear. You need to sleep well, you need to eat well, you need to be able to absorb and digest your food, you need to be able to perform, you need to not be stressed, and you need to have good hormone levels. All this stuff you cannot do, you just physically can't do any of that. You're going to sleep poorly, you're going to have high cortisol levels, you're going to have low testosterone, you're going to have leaky gut, you're going to have chronic inflammation, you're going to pick up all these injuries. If you're trying to play sports and you're trying to be a weekend warrior, you're going to look and feel like crap. You're going to pick up weight, and so you can kind of try to tap dance around it and go to the gym and eat a kale salad, but at the end of the day, you're just pissing up wind. You're not going to get anywhere in your if you can't think. And that's why timing is really important. So I'm kind of being the asshole in my peer group talking about this, but time is of the essence. A lot of guys are going to have really bad outcomes that don't technically have problems, and that's the rub. And so that's what I'm not cool with. And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing is because, yeah, you can get cancer, cardiac events, diabetes in your can, sure as I'll get it, in your once you get those pretty big chronic disease conditions, you are going to go play with your checkbook and your doctor and your pharmacist, and you're not ever going to have much more fun. And when you start having finance problems, you're going to start having relationship problems, and you're going to start having all this other stuff. So it's really a critical timing issue. And so people having that epiphany, I think, is, yeah, it's in front of us, but yeah, it's been so tricky with our society and all the beer commercials and all that. But yeah, I think it's really important to address that and figure out how to enjoy life and have fun without it and really restore your health. It's kind of like tapping the brakes before you make that turn to 50, because that's when you crash into the wall and we can peel you off the wall, but your looks and your sexual performance and your wallet aren't ever going to look the same if you don't figure that out. So it doesn't seem like that critical of a thing, but it's a really big deal and if you don't even give it a try, it's a very predictive outcome and it's not good and it's just a matter of when, not if I sound a little dramatic, but that's just the reality I see in my peer groups. If you start drinking pretty good in high school and college, it just kind of perpetuates in our alcohol upsets culture. And so no matter what you do, you're just really increasing the risk. And so that's kind of my comment on people kind of seeing the light in their forty s and fifty s and I think it's really important to do so. And it's one hell of an opportunity to really kind of get your health and wellness and performance to really good spots that you can kind of then sustain. And then as far as what I did after my one year vacation so yeah, I took my vacation and then, yeah, I was never looking for sobriety and I was kind of still kind of testing the boundaries. So I would have one to two drinks max on the weekend, on Friday or Saturday I might have one or two drinks and kind of left it at that. And what I was doing was I was keeping it under the binge level, keeping it way below kind of a higher amount and I was just kind of experimenting with it.
It's funny because when you take a break from, you enjoy alcohol the most when you're regularly drinking it because it's diminishing the time when you're not drinking it. So that really creates that juxtaposition of like, I'm dragging ass all week and now it's the weekend and I don't have to work and I'm with my friends and I get this chemical boost. So alcohol works really well when you're not drinking it. And then once you stop drinking it and get used to that, it doesn't work as well. So you have to almost turn that machinery back on. And so yeah, I was having a couple of drinks on the weekend, one or two, and then eventually I kind of had a couple of times where I hit three. I'm like, okay, I don't like where this is headed, so I take another vacation. So I take another six or three month vacation. And I didn't take my first vacation early. I mean I was like 46, about to turn 47. So I was by no means ahead of the curve. I was kind of at that point where if I didn't make some changes it was going to have effects for sure. To my health. I wasn't sleeping well, I was stressed, I was scattered. I was just not in the best place and not performing at anywhere near my capabilities.
I'm taking a series of them and I was turning 50 I was going to surf like ten foot waves in Nicaragua. So I took a six month break before that for my 50th birthday. And I think for me and probably a lot of my peers, if you've been doing something for 30 plus years, obviously one month isn't going to be jack, three months is going to be you're getting a little bit of basic kind of toe holds, but that's about it.
Some of my friends are similar.
I think the one year is it's a big epiphany, but it almost seems like several of my and some guys have done it and they've never drank after that. Some guys go back and they're able to control it. But I do think that the concept works well because it's kind of a choose your own adventure and can you have a beer on your vacation? Yeah, you can have a beer. It doesn't mean you're off and you have to start over to day one and whatever. And so it's a little bit of a long story, but yeah, I've taken a series of them since and yeah, now I find myself I maybe have three drinks a month or whatever, something like that.
I drink a fair amount, but they're mostly non alcoholic beers that I really enjoy, insulter and hoppy refreshers and stuff like that. So, yeah, it's almost like just like anything when you have all that muscle memory and habit around it.
It depends, it depends on where you're at in that continuum, but I think there's profound insights and benefits from it. But yeah, it's just really about kind of what you want and where you're at. And again, as you age on the other side of 50, for example, there's just not going to be a lot of benefit to relying on a carcinogenic depressant to get you some fun. And if it does, you are getting fun from it. That's a great indicator that your life kind of sucks when you're not drinking it. And so those are some of the kind of things that I think you might see on these breaks. Some of these epiphanies that I've had that again, I think are quite universal in my peer groups as we try to navigate this crazy substance.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think it's great to have places where you can take a break and just explore your relationship with drinking and what that looks like. And you can practice not drinking. Like you said, it's a habit. We've spent 30 years or whatever that looks like for the individual. It takes a long time to undo that. And so just having these kinds of different programs are really helpful for people.
So you're focused on helping out guys. Dudes, what do you think is different about men seeking help and men who are changing their drinking compared to women?
Yeah, or just in general?
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I've had some TikToks that have gotten a couple of million views and it's funny it's pretty clear to me from my perspective, that women, they're just a lot more attuned to their body. They're a lot more open to kind of lifestyle changes. They're maybe more concerned about their appearance and their situation. And so I think they're more open to it and they're a little bit more, better awareness, a little bit more clued in as far as guys seeking help. My peers and my target are not seeking help.
None of my peers in the right line would be like, hey, I'm looking for a break. Who can help me? Nobody will say that, can I catch a guy on the right day on the golf course? It's kind of dragging ass and be like, dude, you're stressed because you had Arnold Palmers on the course last yesterday and then you're going to feel like crap and all this stuff. And so I can catch them on the right day and provide that invitation and can get some adoption, but they're not looking for it. And so what we're trying to do is kind of create that invitation and that awareness that there is kind of a situation. And so when it comes to your sleep and your health and your fitness and your strength and your relationships, there's a tax that regular alcohol use has on top of wear and tear and all these responsibilities and all this other stuff. So it's engaging with them that is not that. So it's more about trying to just initially start having those conversations because my peer groups are not looking for any solution around it. They think it's great. They associate alcohol with fun and invest in a reward system. It works great.
They drink it often, frequently, so they're not really looking for it. And again, you get my peer in their forty s and forty s that is in the nice house, has the big business, has a beautiful family, and come weekend time they're going to be all about it.
But if you look at the weekdays, they're going to be overweight, they're going to be stressed, they're going to be sleeping like crap. They're going to have this shoulder injury or this knee injury, so they look like they have it all on paper. But you peel back the curtain and they're dragging ass and they're kind of Al Bundy in it. They kind of just look kind of forlorn and low energy.
They don't realize it. They think alcohol is working great, but it's actually really holding them back.
The problem with my peers and success is when you have success and you work hard, you're supposed to celebrate. And when you celebrate, you need to have the right beer or the right cocktail. And so it really creates this negative feedback loop that people struggle to get out of and could not even know what's really going on.
Trying to have some of those conversations and try to bridge some awareness so they can kind of have some courage to give it a go, but they're not looking for it. They're not looking for it, but they need it. And so somebody's got to be the asshole kind of talking about it. So that's what we're doing.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: So it sounds like you're saying they're not aware of it, but for the guys that are aware of it, then what is different?
[00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
I would say, like I said, 10% of my peers, all guys are of course aware of what alcohol does and all that, but we all like to play dumb. It's like la la, everything's fine and it's almost like a hangover is a badge of honor or something like that. But that's the exciting part, is yeah, there is going to be some low lime fruit that can do it. And it's funny, even guys that don't drink that much get really powerful benefits and results just because, again, foundationally, you're just kind of improving. Instead of eroding all these systems simultaneously, you're settling that down and then you're improving all these systems. So again, your sleep and your hormones and your diet and your fitness and your mindset and your hydration and your outlook and your mood, there's just so many things that are happening. But yeah, I think a lot of guys are open to it and are aware and they're typically folks that are drinking a little bit less than some of my peer groups that are drinking a little bit more because again, it's kind of a predictive model.
The more you drink, the more you associate it with fun, the more it is truly fun because the times when you're not drinking it kind of suck. So that's kind of the dynamics. But yeah, they're definitely out there but that's just not the norm per se or how guys would relate in a group setting.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: It sounds like a lot of your solution would be more awareness and education.
What are other ways we can help more men just become aware and be open to breaks?
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Yeah, so let me talk a little bit about booze vacation and our brand and our offerings and what it looks like and that will hopefully kind of back into what I was hitting on. So drink less, live more as our tagline tools and resources to get smarter with your drinking today and a community of dives to rock your vacation with whenever you're ready. And so yeah, it definitely starts with awareness and education, as dull as that sounds. So they can land on our
[email protected] and they can get a you versus booth PhD. That's like a 20 minutes read where we have a quick self assessment confidential that you fill out yourself and you can kind of self assess how it's affecting your health and quality of life and kind of a little bit around the operating system culturally of what we have to navigate again. So that's a great way to kind of, again, just start a lot of the stuff. You just can't unsee it's like, oh, he said after a big weekend I was probably going to have another big weekend and repeat it and I'm stuck in the cycle or whatever it is or I'm going to sleep horribly or I'm going to be stressed and unproductive or whatever it is. And we also have again, when we first launched this, we're like, hey, we're kind of going like take a three. Our vacation packages are three to twelve month vacation. You can kind of choose your own adventure, but a minimum of three months. We didn't really like the one month. We felt like they just didn't work for our buddies, but we needed to again, have more education and awareness around that. So instead of just kind of slamming everybody into take a big break, the other big thing we have is a quick win challenge so they can kind of work on one skill each week and just kind of focus on that. So we have these different challenges that they can take on. So just kind of easier ask and easier things to see. So we have one around how it affects your sleep. We have obviously the Andrew Heberman podcast, Listen Up, where they can kind of just listen to the podcast and try and incorporate one thing they finding. Finding your favorite non alcoholic drink. Find some good anti beers that you like. You can start incorporating that in your mix. And when you do decide to take a break, you'll know that you'll have some good drinks to have. So just kind of trying to get them a little bit of some arrows in their quiver, so to speak, to kind of start creating that awareness.
And then obviously we have free vacations. So the ability to take a free vacation with a group of guys and tools and resources to do so, we have created kind of a robust toolkit, but we really kind of stripped that back because we wanted to make it again, it's not hard to do if you're not an alcoholic. Yes, it will be awkward to start and whatever, but the biggest fears are just the unknown and not having anybody to do it with and not having anything to say. But we've engineered all that. We have a community. We have this fun aspirational brand.
You're going to know what to say, you're going to know what to drink. You're going to know how to handle these awkward situations that you'll come across initially and then ultimately it's a proven model. Like guys that take vacations will look and feel and perform a lot better than guys that don't. And that will be peer pressure will kind of go the opposite way. And it's not about pointing fingers or pushing sobriety or yes, guys will talk shit, that's fine, but you'll get some shit and you'll talk some shit. But it's just really about ultimately being a good friend because I was in a situation, a lot of situations where I saw that a lot of my buddies had pretty bad alcohol problems. And I'd be like, oh, shit, Johnny's not doing so good here. Second DUI divorce. Like, talk to some of our buddies, and I get things like, Johnny's a big boy. He can handle it, blah, blah, blah.
And so there's really no know. So it's like, you need to have this community. You need to have kind of a little bit of scaffolding around how the hell to tackle this and why to tackle it and make it more fun and aspirational, or it's just going to be a really predictive model of a lot of top performers going down in a whimper is what we're facing in the reality.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Yeah. That whole death of 1000 cuts.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And then once chronic disease hits, you can't put that genie back in the bottle.
It's like, figure this out or it's going to be a real bummer. And it's going to happen a lot faster than you think because my buddies are now turning 50 and they're in the red zone. So definitely like to engage guys a little earlier in the curve if we can, for better results.
And it's surprisingly easy. And the transformation that we can have with just healthy habits and fitness and diet and lifestyle, and we can really make some crazy significant gains quickly. Like, a buddy just started it. He was that not a big drinker, but business guy and wealth planner.
He's lost like, 40 pounds in like, three and a half months.
He's loving it. So there's some really significant gains and insights to just figuring it out.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Can you speak to some of the health effects of alcoholiday on men? Like on testosterone, something that might be different than how it affects women?
[00:29:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Testosterone is the obvious one. So even a few drinks, you're going to lower your mood. You're going to increase stress levels. You're not going to sleep as well on those days. You're going to inflame your gut, inflame your liver. You're not going to absorb nutrients as well. You're not going to make as good of good of decisions around your diet and without sleeping, without the right nutrients. Yeah. Alcohol is estrogenic. So it can convert testosterone to estrogen. It could convert your muscle into fat. And lower levels of testosterone make it difficult for guys to do hard things. So they just get softer and softer and they skip the workouts. And they have lower energy, they have less drive, they have less oxygen in their body. So they're just really kind of diminishing returns. And of course, testosterone is already dropping. You peak at like, 1820 years old or something like that. So you get to your you're doing something, you're associating something that's essentially reducing your testosterone with fun.
You're associating lowering your testosterone levels with fun. That's a bad combo. And yeah, so it. Really changes guys in bad ways ultimately. Really.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: And then you had mentioned a lot about, well, it sounds like you're a super social guy and I know that a lot of people struggle with when they're taking breaks or they're not drinking and they're in social settings. What's some of your top advice for that?
[00:31:42] Speaker B: Yeah, no, you're right. That's kind of one of the core know, I think obviously fear of the unknown is a big and like, oh, like I'm taking this break but I have this wedding, I have this vacation.
How am I going to interact?
I don't know. Remember that Mark Twain quote? But it's like I have all these fears but none of them came true. But it's just really easy to get kind of tied caught up in your head about how it's going to be lame and boring and all that.
There's a pretty big mental aspect to it and that's the nice component that's a key feature of Boots vacation is like you're not taking a two or four week break. You're taking a three to twelve month vacation.
You're committing, you know, why you're doing it and it's really more about what you're going to do instead of just not drinking. And so with that commitment level you're kind of forced. You're like, okay, I can't sit there and wait out the clock, wait for the month to be up. I have to figure this out. So you need to know what to say. You need to know what to drink. You need to know how to say it. You need to know you need to have different strategies. And so obviously you need to know what to say now I'm going to boost vacation right now. Kind of make it fun. It's really more important than how you say it, than what you say. So light and positive people are going to take it personally that you're not drinking because indirectly it shines a light on them. Never go to a party empty handed. There's a bunch of killer NA beers and mocktails and seltzer waters and stuff like that.
And there is muscle memory, as weird as that sounds like you have an N a drink and you've been drinking beer for 20 years. Yeah, you're going to get a little bit of a buzz and when you're not in that dependent cycle, you're not going to be needing it like you were when you were. And so there's just a lot of subtle things and there's going to be trade offs. Like it's not going to be the same. You're not going to stay at a party till 03:00 in the morning chasing your blood alcohol level. You're probably going to get out of there at some point when it gets dull, and that's okay. And go home and go have some sex or go get ready for the weekend and just have a really intense activity. Level of just like, taking care of business and having a lot of fun and really going for it versus your buddies that are going to be on the couch sick all day watching reruns. And so there's going to be trade off, and you just have to kind of be open and kind of just dance with this awkwardness and this new experience. And that's a nice feature about having a vacation, is like, you have a purpose, you have a plan.
And that's the rub with guys that just try to cut back or just, oh, I'm taking a month off.
It's too squishy. It's like, oh, what do you mean? No, just have a drink, that type of thing. But if you have like, a set plan, you can kind of start establishing a little bit clearer of a foundation and directive, and it just gives you kind of a clear freedom to like, I'm not drinking right now, I'm on vacation. Okay?
So it gives you that ground cover and that runway to really start getting, because the gains of momentum will happen quickly with just some basic mindset and health interventions when it comes to your sleep and diet and stuff like that. All that stuff is so much easier when you are a break, when you are on break. So really starting to get a little bit of momentum right out of the gate is critical. And then you're looking and feeling better, and that's a great way to go to social events, and you're a little sharper. And yeah, guys will talk shit, but guys always talk shit, and you talk shit back or laugh it off, it doesn't matter. But it does change the social dynamics. And that's the funny part. I think our culture forgets pretty quickly that parties are about the people, not the alcohol. And once you've decided that it's like, okay, you need to relearn that, that's a pretty important deal, because if you don't, again, predictive results that you want nothing to do with, that you didn't realize you signed up for. So, yeah, those are some of the key things. But yeah, you're not going to the pre party. You're not staying there till five in the morning, howling at the moon. So it's just different. But you absolutely can still act like a lunatic and go crazy and whatever. You're just probably less likely to get arrested or whatever.
Accosted.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: What would you say are some of your other top tips for someone changing their drinking?
[00:36:34] Speaker B: Have a plan. Have a plan. Know what you want to accomplish. So when you're not drinking, you're going to have a lot more time, money, energy, clarity. Everything's going to get better and easier. And so it's really a land grab time. It's like, how much can I conquer? As quickly as possible. So clean up the diet, clean up the fitness, take that course, dust off the toys in the garage, pick up that hobby that you used to do in high school that you lost track of, build yourself, buy a bunch of Audible books, get some podcasts, start your business, just kind of like go for it. Just kind of go crazy, reengage with your kids or whatever it is with all that extra time, money and energy. So it's really more about what you can do with all this extra time, money and energy as quickly as possible. So clearly, yeah, the first four or five weeks, you might be kind of like a little bit of a lost puppy and maybe you go a little heavy on the caffeine or the sugar or whatever, but it's like once you stabilize, there's going to be a really big opportunity. That's the other nice part about the length of our vacation. It's like typically the toughest part of taking a break from alcohol is the first two to three weeks when you have that physical dependence and then when you stop after four weeks, you basically get to the mountaintop and they slide off the back end immediately. So it's like, okay, now you have time to start making some gains and start to look and feel better and perform better and kind of just not numb out as much. And so it's a really big opportunity that we're all about kind of fostering to get as much massive gains and just have as much fun and just do a bunch of different stuff, like get out of your little hamster wheel and really kind of open up the world and just do a bunch of different stuff and check it out and get awkward and have fun and get new experiences and yeah, I think it's a great opportunity to do that. So I don't know if that totally answered your question, but yeah, it's kind of a reimagining period because like I said, I think alcohol is very predictive and it's like, okay, I can work hard on the week and I could have my fun on the weekend with it, and I can do this. But then over time, the benefits and gains get pretty lopsided, and so if you can learn how to have fun and relax without it, you can really get the keys to the castle pretty quickly when it comes to happiness and health and success and looking and feeling like a kid.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: I love your positivity, and I have the same kind of positivity about it. Like, taking a break is a good thing.
This is something that is going to benefit you.
It could feel like deprivation, but you're really focusing on, okay, what are you going to add into your life? What are you going to do now that you have all this time, energy and money? What are you going to do with that?
I think keeping the focus on the positive aspects is so helpful.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it's critical.
I think you kind of hit on it, but obviously Willpower doesn't work and waiting out the clock doesn't work. That's where the education and awareness comes in. So you have to realize, you have to start connecting the dots and saying, okay, I'm not going to be able to sleep well, I'm not going to be able to eat well, I'm not going to be able to absorb my nutrients, I'm going to permanently increase my stress levels and lower my mood. Like I'm doing all these core things that are really bad and have less testosterone and more fat and more erectile dysfunction. Like all this stuff I really don't want to have. And so if I don't figure this out, these outcomes are going to become more permanent. And so yeah, it's really about really for me, it was as simple as questioning this one question is album really benefiting me? And if I could start getting enough education and awareness, like, oh well, it's screwing up my sleep and that's making me stressed and it's making me unproductive and it's making me foggy and it's causing weight gain.
Okay, none of that's good to my long term health. So it's like I'm not certain, I'm not saying it's not, but maybe it's not. Let's give this a try.
We're not having anybody make any lifetime declarations. We're not swearing off it, we're not pointing fingers. It's none of that. It's like, hey, is alcoholiday really benefiting you? Let's give it a try. Let's test this out. You got ground cover for three months or twelve months, whatever you want through vacation and go do it and go see what happens. And the reality is the longer your vacation, the more your results, the more gains and wins and the more insurance you have about backsliding. And yeah, most will drink less or not at all and for different reasons, but yeah, that's critical because if you don't get why you're doing it, if alcohol is really benefiting you, then drink it. Then you're going to drink it. And so that's why you really have to question, is it really benefiting me? Let's give it a try. I have 30 years of drinking pretty much every day and I'm well aware of those outcomes and let's give this a try. Let's mix it up. And so that's kind of where it's at.
[00:42:28] Speaker A: It's important to have these groups that you have and I have, and there's so many now, which is wonderful, where people can really address their drinking in a different way and change their drinking and change their life.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: I just think totally agree. It's just really important that we start having these conversations and we start engaging and we start I think it's just gone to pass in our society and culture. And again, I think women can be a little more open and exposed in this topic, but I think guys can really struggle and yeah, it causes a lot of problems. So it's important to try to address this in as many ways as we can, as many subgroups as we can. And I think there's a lot of fun and good to be done with it. But you're right, it's meeting people where they're at and people are in different spaces and have different experiences within and backgrounds.
[00:43:36] Speaker A: Well, remind people how they can find you.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: So Boozevacation.com is our website and yeah, like I said, you can get the you versus Booze PhD, which is a really cool report and a manifesto that we've included there. You can hop in and do a quick win challenge where you can just kind of work on one skill per week and knock that out. Or you could take three to twelve months of vacations with a group and get your own playbook and some tools and resources to help you really rock your break and have a blast.
That's what we're up to. So, yeah, love for you guys to check it out. Appreciate the time to speak with you today.
[00:44:16] Speaker A: Thank you so much for coming on the show and just sharing about men and having this resource for men because it's so important. So thank you.
[00:44:27] Speaker B: Cheers. I appreciate it.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Alcohol Tipping Point podcast. Please share and review the show so you can help other people too. I want you to know I'm always here for you, so please reach out and talk to me on Instagram at Alcoholiday Tipping Point and check out my website, Alcoholiday Tipping Point Free Resources and Help. No matter where you are on your drinking journey, I want to encourage you to just keep practicing, keep going. I promise you are not alone and you are worth it. Every day you practice not drinking is a day you can learn from. I hope you can use these tips we talked about for the rest of your week. And until then, talk to you next time our.
