De-Stress Without Drinking Alcohol

De-Stress Without Drinking Alcohol

It’s no secret that we live very stressful lives in modern times. And after a stressful day at work or a long evening with the kids, we just want to kick our feet up and decompress with a little glass of vino.

Our culture has normalized destressing with a glass of wine or unwinding with an evening beer. But what if this evening ritual is sabotaging your physical health and wellness goals?

An essential part of living a healthy lifestyle involves finding ways to unwind and de-stress that are beneficial rather than harmful. And I’m sorry to say drinking alcohol every night is anything but beneficial.

So, how can you blow off steam and decompress without toxic alcoholic concoctions? The answer is simple—finding healthy alternatives to drinking alcohol.

Alcohol and Your Health

Consuming alcoholic beverages daily can be detrimental to your overall health and weight loss goals. Here are the effects of alcohol when it’s drunk daily:

  • Weight Gain - While I never recommend calorie counting, it is important to note that alcoholic beverages contain high calories and no nutritional value. Consuming alcohol on a nightly basis can lead to weight gain over time, as you're adding calories without the benefits of essential nutrients you would get from whole foods like fruits and vegetables.

    Alcohol is often made with refined added sugars, synthetic preservatives, natural flavors, coloring agents, GMO yeasts, and other chemicals that contribute to weight gain and inflammation. This does not even include the additives from soft drinks and pre-made sugary mixers which add more calories and chemicals to your evening drink.

    These ingredients can disrupt your metabolism and gut health, slowing down the process by which your body burns fat, making losing weight even more of a challenge.

  • Poor Dietary Choices - Ever go out drinking and the next day you begin to crave a greasy breakfast sandwich to “ help bring you back to life.” because you’re hungover and weak. This was me in my early twenties...

    This is because your body is dehydrated. And your hunger signals are out of wack, intensifying your cravings for unhealthy foods.

    At this moment, what your body needs is hydration from greens and a little added detox support from chlorophyll, but we rarely reach for what our body needs when our body has been altered by alcohol consumption.

    Drinking combined with not nourishing your body properly is stressful on your system. This can lead to more serious health issues in the long run, like impaired liver function and heart health, and even increase the risk of certain cancers.

  • Disrupted Sleep Patterns - Although it may seem like having a nightcap before bed can help you fall asleep, it only has a temporary impact until the alcohol wears off [1].

    After a certain amount of time, it disrupts your REM sleep, which is the deep sleep state. This leads to more wake-ups and less quality sleep making you feel more tired throughout your day.

    Not to mention, when you drink, your throat muscles become so relaxed to the point where snoring or sleep apnea can worsen, further disrupting quality rest.

    Quality sleep is crucial for organ repair, cell repair, and detox.

  • Mental Health Issues - Weight gain and poor sleep are not the only side effects of consuming alcohol regularly. It has a significant impact on mental health, too. While it may provide temporary escape or relief from stress or worry, these short-lived effects wear off.

    Both regular and heavy drinking can disrupt the chemical balance of your brain, which impacts mood and behavior. This is because alcohol acts as a depressant in the brain and impacts neurotransmitters that affect mood and behavior [2].

    This cycle can create a cycle of unhealthy dependence and using alcohol as a coping mechanism, which as a result stops you from developing healthier stress-relief strategies.

It’s important to note that an occasional glass of rose is okay. Celebrating a friend’s birthday or making a toast with some champagne on New Year’s Eve won’t have a huge impact on your health goals. However, regular alcohol intake doesn’t have any health benefits and will cause setbacks. Focusing on healthier ways to cope with stress can promote better health outcomes and support your journey towards a healthier lifestyle.

Alcohol-Free Alternatives

Although non-alcoholic drinks on the market are trending, these spritzes are not necessarily healthy alternatives.

As a holistic nutritionist solely speaking from an ingredient standpoint, these trendy booze-free options should be avoided. Whether it’s non-alcoholic cocktails or alcohol-free beer, they still contain high amounts of added refined sugars, food dyes, flavours, additives, and preservatives. This reigns true for almost all alcohol-free drinks on the market.

If you are suffering from alcohol use disorder, then these alcohol-free spirits may be your best option. If you or someone you love is suffering from alcohol addiction, please contact a trusted healthcare provider for more information.

5 Ways To De-stress Without Drinking Alcohol

When you cultivate healthy habits, you don’t need alcohol. Here are 5 healthy alternatives to drinking alcohol:

1. Nourish Your Body with Whole Foods

What you eat has a significant impact on your stress levels and overall health. Consuming a diet rich in whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, can provide the nutrients your body needs to cope with stress effectively.

These foods provide your body with a wealth of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants that work together to support your physical health, enhance your mental clarity, and stabilize your mood.

Adding cold-pressed juices and smoothies from Raw Generation into your routine floods your system with concentrated doses of these essential nutrients. The process of cold-pressing juice combined with using high-quality ingredients ensures high amounts of nutrition in every sip.

Even on your busiest and most stressful days, you can still ensure your body receives the nourishment it needs with our products. All you have to do is order, thaw, sip, and decompress. It’s that simple.

Nourish Your Body And De-Stress With A Variety of Raw Juices and Smoothies

2. Stay Active

Moving your body naturally for at least 20-60 minutes a day to relieve stress.

When you exercise your body releases endorphins, also known as the “feel-good hormones.” These hormones elevate your mood.

Find physical activities you love like cycling, yoga, rollerblading, walking, or kickboxing.

This form of "self-care” will help you destress and help you lose weight by boosting your metabolism and helping to naturally reduce body fat.

You have nothing to lose by adding some movement to your daily routine.

3. Prioritize Sleep

Sleep is essential for managing stress. Lack of sleep directly impacts the body’s ability to handle stress.

According to the American Psychological Association, adults who sleep fewer than 8 hours each night, reported higher levels of stress [3]

Establish a consistent sleep schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same times daily weekends included. This helps regulate your body's internal clock, leading to better sleep quality.

Make it fun. Creating a bedtime routine that promotes relaxation, like reading a good book, taking a warm bath, lighting your favorite candle, or diffusing some lavender essential oil. It may even be a good time to do some breathwork or journaling.

These small practices tell your body that you are safe and remove you from that highly stressed “fight or flight” response.

4. Practice Mindfulness

Now this may sound foreign to a lot of you, but mindfulness is a great way to decompress. Mindfulness is the practice of engaging fully with your experiences, emotions, and bodily sensations in a non-judgmental way.

Rather than marking your emotions with alcoholic beverages, you feel them without judgment or shame. This approach will look different for everyone and take some trial and error.

One core technique for reducing stress is breathwork. This involves paying close attention to the rhythm of your breath and using deep, controlled breathing to bring more awareness to your body and calm the mind. Breathwork can be an effective and powerful tool to help with stress and other mental health issues [4].

In addition to breathwork, journaling is another effective mindfulness practice. It provides a reflective space to express thoughts and feelings on paper, which can help process emotions and identify stressors. Journaling encourages a mindful reflection of your daily experiences, allowing you to gain insights into patterns of thoughts and behaviors that may contribute to stress.

The key aspect of mindfulness is allowing yourself to truly feel your feelings without judgment. Acknowledging and accepting your emotions as they are, whether they're pleasant or uncomfortable, as difficult as that may sound. But also understanding that it’s a part of the human experience.

5. Make Mocktails Instead

As I mentioned earlier, most low-alcohol drinks or alcohol-free alternatives are unhealthy and have poor-quality ingredients.

But what if I told you, that you could make adaptogenic mocktails that taste good, are good for you, and take little to no effort?

Well here’s a healthy non-alcoholic beverage recipe inspired by my favorite cocktail from a restaurant I frequented in New York City.

This simple recipe will help you to decompress and lose weight—talk about killing two birds with one stone.

Hibiscus Evening Spritz

Ingredients

  • 1 Skinny Boost™ Shot

  • 1/4 cup Sparkling Water

  • Lime wedge for garnish (optional)

Directions

  1. Defrost your Skinny Boost™ shot

  2. Mix in sparkling water of choice

  3. Garnish with a wedge.

It’s that simple.

Hibiscus for Stress

The hero ingredient in our Skinny Boost™ shot? Hibiscus.

While Hibiscus is known for its ability to lower inflammation, help you lose weight, and lower blood pressure, it also has been proven to help regulate emotions and improve overall health and well-being.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Linn (Malvaceae) also known as Hibiscus, possesses anti-depressant-like tendencies that help to stabilize mood due to its high flavonoid content [5].

Not only will you de-bloat, but you can also decompress and lessen stress with hibiscus.

Lose Weight and Decompress With Hibiscus

 

Sources:

  1. Alcohol and The Sleeping Brain

  2. Alcohol and Mental Health

  3. Stress and Sleep

  4. Effect of Breathwork on Stress and Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis of Randomised-Controlled Trials

  5. Antidepressant-like activity of anthocyanidins from Hibiscus rosa-sinensis flowers in tail suspension test and forced swim test

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Bio image of article author Lisa Testa, M.S.

With over two decades of expertise in the field of Health & Wellness, Lisa Testa, M.S. is an experienced nutritionist who has dedicated her career to empowering hundreds of clients on their journeys to weight loss and natural healing through the transformative power of raw food nutrition.

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