Is Dropping Alcohol a Super Power?

The speaker discusses their personal history with alcohol and how it has affected their fitness goals and overall well-being. They mention that in their younger years, they would frequently consume alcohol on weekends, leading to poor nutrition choices and a lack of progress in their fitness journey. They also mention their struggle with controlling their alcohol intake and experiencing negative consequences such as blackouts and anxiety. As they got older and started a family, they realized the need to change their relationship with alcohol for the sake of their health, parenting, and career goals. They made the decision to stop drinking altogether and found it to be one of the best decisions they've ever made. Hello and welcome guys to episode number 25 of the Progress Pod and today I am diving into a topic I'm actually pretty passionate about and it's all around alcohol. So alcohol is definitely a common topic especially in the fitness industry and working with members of the program it's always talked about, always asked about what's the best approach and it's something over the last few years that I have definitely changed my relationship around, definitely gained a lot more knowledge and understanding and balance around it. But I wanted to just do a deep dive, I did a post on my social media just yesterday on how best to manage it over the festive period but with regards to short Instagram posts, you can't dive into things as deep as I would like and especially on the topic around alcohol. So I'm going to be chatting through a lot of things on alcohol today around my history with it, my thoughts on how you can actually incorporate it and still make progress, detrimental effects and like my biggest tips, not just around festive period and things like that but my biggest tips around how to manage it, how to balance it and still make progress because it definitely can be done but I'm by no means an expert in this topic as my own relationship with alcohol has not always been the best, it probably still isn't but I definitely made a lot of progress with it and Kirsten my wife if she listens to me talking about alcohol she'll probably be rolling her eyes in the sense like oh you've not got the authority to chat about that but definitely if you'd asked me to talk about this 3-4 years ago I would not be in a position to do so but now I feel that I've learned a lot and can definitely help with a lot of advice and approaches that I have taken to really vastly improve things. So with regards to my history with alcohol, so I've always been interested first and foremost in health and fitness, I've always played football, I've always trained regularly, I've probably started getting into the gym properly around the ages of sort of 18-19, funnily enough at the same time that alcohol started to ramp up as well so typically like a lot of people, like most people aged 18-19 especially going to uni and stuff like that, alcohol was quite a big thing, obviously at that age it's quite new, you're starting to get served in pubs and things like that and every weekend, sometimes more than the weekend because you were at uni, it was a case of we're drinking, like it was the weekend so that meant you drank, that was essentially what it was like with me, my friends, like there was something happening every single weekend and don't get me wrong I was still training during this time, 5 times a week in the gym but clearly it wasn't optimal as my habits and nutrition choices, alcohol choices outside of that hour to 90 minutes in the gym were pretty terrible to be honest, quite shocking but to be honest I was quite normal at that age, that stage of my life and I don't regret doing that as a lot of people at that age, that's just what they do and I've got a massive respect for a lot of people that nowadays age 19-20, like they're starting their own businesses, they're investing in themselves and like they're far, far ahead of where I was when I was that age, as I said I was at uni, I did train, was still interested in health and fitness but I had a kind of two lives in terms of Monday to Friday life of doing uni work, going to my part time job, training in the gym, trying to eat well but didn't really have a lot of knowledge versus the weekend life of lots of alcohol, lots of rubbish food, whatever was there, lots of lazing about, especially on Sundays, not doing much and that was the kind of cycle, living for the weekend really and that kind of continued I'd probably say between the sort of ages of 18 to 25 and I wondered at that point why I wasn't seeing much progress with my physique and that was pretty much just down to that weekend, weekday cycle that a lot of people are in. If you continue that and you do that, you're not going to make a lot of progress, you can maintain, I managed to maintain quite well in terms of body weight, the shape that I was in, like it wasn't great shape but you could probably tell that I did train and I managed to maintain that, going out every weekend I didn't gain a lot of weight, I didn't gain a lot of body fat so in a way that I suppose can be a result for people, if you're happy where you're at then you can absolutely still maintain but if you're wanting to make progress, you simply cannot do that and with regards to alcohol it was very much like during that time it was very much, if you were going out, you were going out to get drunk, you weren't going out to drink 2 or 3 beers and leave it, it was heavy sessions every single weekend and that for me, I get quite greedy so after 3 or 4 pints for some reason I feel that I'm invincible and I don't feel myself really getting drunk, there's a lot of people that are like yeah, I can feel, they start to feel themselves getting a bit drunk and they're like right I'm going to slow down now because I'm feeling a bit tipsy, I'm feeling a bit drunk whereas for me I don't seem to have that mechanism inside me, I'm really just like yeah I'm absolutely fine, I'm fine, more pints, let's keep that coming, I'm fine, I'm absolutely fine, then before I know it I've hit a wall, I'm black out, wake up the next day, hazy, don't remember things and that's just like seeing I look back and think that's just not a good way to do things like nights out, large portions of nights out missed because I can't remember it, like feeling anxious the next day because you're making up stories in your head of what you've maybe done, what you didn't do and like when you're younger and that's just the norm and that happens fair enough but when it's getting to the sort of mid-twenties and you're like, for me I was just like this is just not really working for me, like I'm not very good at handling my drink essentially and with regards to like drinking, I do enjoy a beer, like I do like it, I do enjoy a beer but I go to watch Party of Thistles so regularly part of that day out is we'll go out, I'll meet my dad, my brother, my mates, we'll go, we'll get a few beers, we'll go to the football, after that we'll get a couple of beers and that's just like the day out and I'm a football lady, that's like a big part of a kind of social football lady so I do enjoy a beer, I do like it but I did realise sort of mid-twenties that like I really need to change this because obviously we were hoping to be having kids in the near future and I was like I cannot be drinking each weekend, like waking up with anxiety and not knowing what's happened and then taking till about Tuesday, Wednesday before I actually feel okay, my gym sessions are suffering, I'm not really making any progress, just got to that stage where I was like well I've kind of done it now, like I really need to change this and it wasn't until, so after we had had Rosie, actually after we had Evie as well, I changed, like when you have kids you naturally drink less, like it's just one of these things you can't literally just be going out every weekend, you can't be waking up hungover, like you don't want to either, you want to be spending time with your kids so naturally having kids, like drinking like dropped quite drastically and at that point I wasn't, like I was happy to do that, like as I said when you have kids that's the number one priority but still any kind of night set that we did have, like I just felt terrible the next day, hungover, you don't feel like a good dad, you feel low on energy, like you're struggling through the day, like you don't get the chance to sleep to recover because the kids are up and I was just like this is just not happening, at that point as well I was starting to really try and build the fitness business, I decided to jump full time into the fitness industry and I was just like alcohol is not in line with my goals right now, I want to really try and grow a fitness business, I want to really take my own physique and train into the next level, I want to be the best dad I can be, I want to be feeling energetic at all times, I was like alcohol doesn't fit into that, like there isn't anywhere that alcohol fits into it, especially the way my mindset was at that time in the sense that like I could easily have fitted it in and had two or three beers at a time but in that way my mindset was kind of like no I'm still the mindset that if I'm going out, I'm going out to get a good few beers I'll probably be hungover the next day and I was just like that just does not fit into where I want to go right now and what I want to do so I just decided at the end of 2021 I was like I am not drinking in 2022 for at least that time and see what happens, I'm not drinking at all and obviously that was quite a big thing for me to announce although at that point I wasn't a heavy, heavy drinker it's not like I drank Friday, Saturday, every weekend at that point, it was probably only maybe one night a month, one football game, like something like that each month so at that point it wasn't as if it was like oh man Jordan drinks every weekend now he's went to zero, it was probably like once a month but still then like my dad, the other guys were like, my friends, that's quite a big statement mate like are you just going to go to football and not drink, are you just going to come on nights out and not drink and I was like yeah that's just exactly what I'm going to do because it's just not aligned with where I want to go right now, I want to grow a business, I want to be the best dad I can be, I want to be as fit as possible so it's just not fitting in and honestly I can say that is one of the best decisions I've ever made, I actually felt and this is from somebody that didn't drink every single week at this point, I actually felt that I had gained a superpower, genuinely, it was as if like there was just not a single day wasted, energy levels high at all times, like your nutrition was on point, like obviously you would have a meal out and things like that but there was no oh I'm a bit hungover I'm just going to vegetate and eat rubbish today, like it just felt like I was ahead of the game and see going out as well, nights out, like typically I would leave earlier, I kind of reduced the amounts of nights out that I went on, not because oh I can't have fun if I'm not drinking, it's just more if you are sober and then you're with a group of people that are all drunk, like it was getting, like I would tend to leave early because it was getting to a point where like there's no point in me speaking here because the rest of the guys are not going to remember any of this so I'll use this time to leave and see when I woke up in the morning and I was getting out, I ran, I was training, I was doing something with the kids and just knew that like if I wasn't doing this I could potentially just be struggling, lying in my bed, getting up, grumpy, it was just amazing, it felt so, so good, I just absolutely, absolutely loved it and it allowed me to make so much progress, like I had a marathon PB significantly, just missed out on the sub three hour goal that I set but still had a 25 minute marathon PB, the business went from strength to strength, like just my general fitness and health just was at a different level, like I just made so much progress during that year and it's no coincidence that I wasn't drinking alcohol at all that year, so when I went through this and just this kind of intro part and it sounds like right I'm completely against alcohol, now I'm not but I'm very, very happy that I take that one year completely sober because as I said before that my relationship with alcohol wasn't the best and as I said I'm not a master at this, I've done loads of silly things drunk, like I've, as I said a lot of my nights out where I've not even remembered because just being too drunk and just being open and honest here, like I didn't have a great relationship with it, I just was not very good at handling my drink and then taking that year off just actually enlightened me in like how powerful it is actually having a bit of time away from it but despite that I knew that I wasn't going to just not drink again, what I knew and my aim when I took that year off was not to go right that's me sober forever, it was more of a I'm taking a year off because it's not aligned with my goals right now, I do enjoy a beer though so I will bring it back into my life but I want to try and bring it back with a different mindset towards it and I think having that full year sober and going out and going to nights out and things like that sober just kind of showed you it's like you don't need to be drinking excessively all the time, so for me it really, really did change my outlook and my mindset towards it but as I said last year or this year, 2023, I knew this was a big year, my brother was getting married, Raymond, head coach in the programme, he's getting married actually as we speak in a week's time so I knew I had stag do's, I knew I had weddings, like really big family events and things like that but I wanted to have a beer at, like that's just it, so I was like I'm not going to be sober like for forever, so I'm going to take this full year off, see how it goes and then I'll bring it back in and to be honest for the full of 2023 since I have brought it back in, I have been on stag do's, I've been at my brother's wedding and things like that, I've had other drinks at some of the football games and things but I can honestly say I've been managing it so, so, so much better, my balance around it so much better, I have been drunk a couple of times but overall if you compare it to before that year sober and night and day in terms of the balancing of it, fitting it in to my lifestyle but still it's not, I don't drink very much, like I'll easily go, like we'll have a night out whether it's a wedding, whether it was the wedding or whatever and then I'll probably go like six weeks to eight weeks without it, like it's now a case of I can take it or leave it very much so and it's also like just now where I am with my fitness and things like that, I'm going to go on to this in terms of do I think you can make progress and still have alcohol incorporated, it's yes and no, it depends where you're at in terms of your fitness and your health so is progress possible? Absolutely, that's the number one thing I want to say, you can make progress, if you're drinking heavily Friday, Saturday night like I was when I was 18, 19, 20, you're not going to make progress, it's as simple as that but if you are potentially drinking every couple of weeks, one night, you're getting back on track, you're planning around it, like you can absolutely still make progress, a lot of people, a lot of members in the Progress Project, goals are weight loss, general fitness, health, that can all be improved without completely cutting out alcohol, absolutely, that can happen and a lot of the people you look at online, a lot of the fitness influencers, a lot of coaches, they will all still drink, it's just the fact that you need to manage it better, you need to plan around it so yes, you can still make progress but if you want to take things up to an elite level, I've started to realise that there really isn't a space for it, well in terms of excessive drinking, so over the last 6 months or so, I've started to take my run at an upper level, I'm not at an elite level yet but top 100 finish at the Great Scots Run, sub 3 hour marathon, sub 120 half marathon, it's getting towards pretty good paces, it's not elite level but it's getting towards that, that would be the next step and realising in order to maintain that, in order to continue performing at that level, alcohol doesn't really have a place in terms of excessive alcohol, maybe every so often as I said, if you've got a wedding or whatever and you've got a big night out, fair enough but regular excessive alcohol, absolutely no chance, a few beers, a few pints, absolutely no problem but excessive alcohol really doesn't have a place. So talking about running there and going forward, High Rocks really, really intrigues me at the moment, I've never done one, I'm booked up for doubles with Raymond in Glasgow, I'm also trying to look at another couple of ones to have a bash at solo, it's just something that really excites me and I know I've never done it so I don't really have the authority to say this but based on where my running's at and based on my condition, I feel like I could really challenge up with the best of the game at High Rocks and I'm excited to take that on but I know that if I want to do that and I want to challenge at the best of the game then, as I said, alcohol is not really going to have a place there or as I said, not regular alcohol consumption and that's something I've learned recently is yes, you can absolutely still make progress and I'm going to give some good tips around but if you want to go from good place to absolutely great place and start challenging at elite level, whether that's running, High Rocks, whatever sport or whatever sort of discipline you're involved in, then yeah, you can't really compete if you're going to be incorporating regular excessive alcohol. So yeah, that's my lessons, yes possible but not at elite level but yeah, inside the program, for instance, as I said, I'm sounding like I'm against it and we definitely do incorporate it. Most people drink alcohol, that's it, most people do and within the program, we're absolutely flexible around that. We give best advice, best tips on how to manage it but we are clear that if you are wanting to really make progress and see some life-changing results, you all need to make some changes and some sacrifices around that especially if you're someone who drinks quite heavily every single week. If you do that, then you're not going to make progress and you need to just realise and accept that, that you all need to make some changes around that if you really want to kick on and make some positive changes because if you think about it, some of the detrimental effects, I know everybody will know this but like obviously the increased calories that you're going to be consuming and it's not just on the day that you're actually drinking or the night that you're drinking, you've then got the follow-up where you crave highly palatable, salty foods that then ramp up your calories for the next day, you're then probably going to not meal prep because you're hungover so then what does that lead into Monday, Tuesday in terms of what food are we grabbing? So there's a knock-on effect in terms of calorie level and you can be as good as you want to be Monday to Friday, you can be rigid to your calories but then if you have a blowout on a Saturday full of alcohol, food and then hungover day on a Sunday, eating more takeaways and junk food, you're blowing it out of the water, you're blowing all the hard work out of the water and as I said, you can likely maintain but you're not going to make the progress that you want to make so yeah, increased calories is just one, sleep is probably the biggest one for me, the sleep quality that you get after drinking alcohol is terrible, it's just a matter, it is absolutely terrible and I've got a really, really good example of this and a lot of people have smart watches and trackers, do a bit of analysis on it yourself and just see it but what I had a look at when I was on my brother's stag do, so obviously heavily drinking during that weekend, that was a stag do and as I said, that's like one of the occasions where I would say it's worth it to go and have a good few beers and so this was I think the second night in and my dad, his friends, my uncles, they had a separate hotel that wasn't in the hostel, later on that night, I ended up getting split up with everybody, I was with my dad, with my uncle and they said, do you want to just come and sleep at ours? So that was like a good actual hotel, a nice bed rather than a stinking hostel shared with six others so I was like a happy day that I walked out here and it was fairly early on, it was only like 10pm but I was happy to go back that night and actually slept solidly for about nine hours which I don't ever get that much sleep at home and certainly not on any stag do I've ever been on, I've ever got anywhere close to that amount of sleep and I was like yes but see when I woke up, I didn't feel any better and I was like what's going on and if you look, if you've got a Garmin watch, it shows you what your body battery is so typically when you go to sleep, that's you charging it, that's like you plugging in your iPhone, when you go to sleep, you charge up your body battery and typically if I get a good sleep, my body battery charges up to 80, 90% plus and that's a good indication that I've had a good sleep, I'm ready to take on the day. When I had that nine hour sleep, as I said, longer than any sleep that I have at home, I woke up and my body battery at the start of the day was 14%, 14% and it just still said poor sleep, poor recovery and although you are sleeping when you drink, you are missing so many stages, you miss REM which is like a really, really important part in terms of recovery and actually memory and things like that, that's why you sometimes have a bit of haziness, blackout because you don't, you miss REM sleep which is your short term memory and that really has an impact so regardless of how long you sleep, you think, oh yeah, I've slept, I feel better, you don't, the quality is terrible. Even recently, I had not even a lot to drink, I was talking about three or four pints, woke up and felt a bit sluggish in the morning, checked my REM sleep, it was like 40 minutes in comparison to average of two hours so it just shows you the detrimental impact that it has on sleep when your sleep is off, your decision making is then off the next day, you're tired, your workout is not as good so again, knock on effects. Alcohol itself, the actual drinking of alcohol itself isn't the worst part about it, it is the knock on effects of it in terms of recovery, in terms of nutrition, in terms of quality of your training post alcohol so it's just all these things that have a knock on effect. Again, it also impacts on muscle recovery, metabolism and it's those days away, the days it takes you now, if you have a really heavy drinking session on a Saturday, there's no way you're training optimally and feeling really good again until the Tuesday or the Wednesday and whether you feel great or not, that's just a fact and if you think about that, if you do that every single week, you cannot expect to make progress, it's just not going to happen, it simply isn't. No matter what you do and what you put in place, you're not going to see the progress that you want to because of these detrimental impacts. So in terms of actionable steps and my advice and what I feel has been really working for me over the last year or so because before that, I couldn't give any advice on it because I didn't know what would work apart from completely not drinking but over the past 11 months, 10-11 months, there I feel that I do have more of an authority to give advice and tips on it because it's really, really been working for me. So firstly is plan for your big nights, so if you have got a big night out on Saturday, whatever it is, it's a big birthday night out, it's a wedding, something that you want to drink for, plan ahead for it, work around it, don't schedule yourself a training session on the Sunday after it, get all your workouts done and completed before it, be more active that week, maybe drop your calories a bit throughout the week just to give yourself a wee bit more room so the average weekly calories is down a bit even if you have a bit of a blowout on the Saturday. Plan around it, have a think and just work around that night out and that alcohol. Secondly in terms of actually drinking on nights out, let's be choosy about them, let's drink at the big events. For me now, I'll only really drink if it's a wedding, a stag do, a big birthday celebration or if it's like a big football away day or something like that that I'm going on. It used to be every single game, it was a Saturday so we played football, home away, whatever, it was drinking whereas now I'll pick and choose and go right okay I want to come, that's a good away day, I'll have a few beers at that. I'll pick and choose the events that I want to drink at so I'll regularly, because of that, I'll regularly go long stints without drinking alcohol and I think everybody should go, should spend a bit of time having a period of time not drinking. Whether that's I'm going to do a sober month or whatever, I'm not telling everybody to do a full year but having regular breaks off of it in terms of like next couple of weekends, I've not got any major plans, let's just not have any alcohol and honestly trust me, the benefits that you'll see in terms of energy levels, sleep quality, training intensity, I cannot explain, as I said, it felt like a superpower. Initially, initially it felt like a superpower because I just felt on top of the game constantly but then eventually that became just the norm and then obviously you were just operating at that higher level so I could highly, highly recommend regular periods of time off it and if you're, if you've not got anything major planned, just give it a miss, that's what would work best for me. And then getting back on track immediately, like literally the next day. So for instance, my brother's wedding was a kind of three day event, it ended up being because me and my brother went out and my dad, his father-in-law, we went out for dinner on the night before the wedding, a few beers, then it was the wedding day and then afterwards Josh, whose father-in-law had a kind of barbeque gathering and it was in the middle of summer, so that was like a three day event but did I then lie in my bed for two days? I can't do that anyway with kids if I wanted to but did I lounge about and kind of be grumpy? No, on that Sunday after three days I went out for a 5k run, I didn't feel amazing but got out, got running, prepped some food and just got back into the swing of things straight away. If you do that then that's, as I said, a lot of the detrimental impacts on the back of alcohol is just due to the knock-on effect and the delayed recovery and not getting back on track and taking till Wednesday before you feel okay again. If you can just force yourself to get up the day after, get moving, get some good food in, good nutrients, a lot of water, electrolytes and just get right back onto it then there's not going to be any long-term detrimental impact, especially if you're only doing that every so often. Let's just say for instance now you pick and choose events, you have one night of the month that you're drinking alcohol but then you're back on track the next day, like there's going to be no detrimental impacts to that and you can 100% make a lot of progress while still incorporating that so just get back on track the next day. I say that again and again and again. The longer you wait to get back on track the worse it's going to be in terms of damage done and also with regards to your mood and energy levels so get straight back on track. And then in terms of what I've been finding really, really works for me in terms of minimising the hangover effects and allowing you to get back on track is before I go out, if I've got a day or night out, I've got a big bottle of water filled with electrolyte hydration tablets laid out on the worktop for me for when I come back along with some paracetamol and I'll get some food laid out there as well. Just get some food in before bed, drink that electrolyte drink, some paracetamol, get to bed and I've found just making sure that I do that and having that laid out makes a massive, massive difference in terms of how I feel first thing in the morning. As I say, I could probably say I've not really been hungover, like in terms of hangovers in the past would have been like being sick in the toilet for hours on end the next day, banging headaches, struggling to lift my head off the pillow, like that could have been a typical hangover back in the day but like apart from a bit of a sore head, a bit of tiredness, like that's all I've had recently since I've been kind of having this new approach. And then the final one for me is something that works really, really well for me, I don't know if it's just because I'm getting old and I don't go dancing and stuff like that anymore but if I've got a day where I'm drinking, I'll do my drinking early on and kind of stop in the evening. So let's just say I've got a wedding, I'll happily do my drinking early on through the ceremony and then what I'll do is I'll kind of scale it back, I'll kind of stop earlier on in the evening. Similar with a football game, football game's at 3 o'clock, I'll do my drinking earlier in the day, lunchtime, drink a few beers after it, I'm stopping drinking at like 7 or 8 at night at the latest. Then if I'm coming home at that time, getting that electrolyte drink, some paracetamol and then getting to bed, honestly like some days I'll wake up and you don't even feel like you've been drinking because you're sleeping through that kind of hangover part. So drinking earlier on definitely works for me. If you are drinking late into midnight, 1, 2, 3, 4 in the morning, the next day is just, it's not, it's going to be a shambles. You're going to really find it hard to do the get back on track the next day thing because you're going to have minimal sleep, you'll be absolutely shattered, you'll probably wake up still a bit drunk and that's just, that's the kind of tips that I would have. So just to kind of summarise that, plan for your big nights, pick and choose, like the weekends that you are going to drink, like just stick to big events, get back on track the very next day, electrolyte drink and paracetamol before bed and drinking earlier on. Slow down the drinking later on. Obviously that's different, depends on what you do. For me that works because as I said, if I'm drinking it's different than like a football game and stuff, it depends if you've got a night out and you're not starting drinking until 7 or 8, that's different, you can't really do that, but if you've got that option, drinking earlier and stopping earlier will make a massive, massive difference, I can guarantee it. So that would be my kind of biggest tips around how to manage alcohol and actually not have it be too much of an impact on your progress, but I can fully see myself heading into 2024, again even reducing alcohol even further. As I said, I don't drink very often now at all, I think it's been about, I had a couple of beers, a couple of pints for the Scotland game at the weekend there, but before that it was like 6 weeks ago, so it's just like I'm really picking and choosing and I can even see that decreasing even further because it just does not align. I like to be, now that I've experienced the feeling of a year of no alcohol, when you do drink you actually feel that crash even more, like you go from a high level to a really low level, so now knowing how I feel without it, it's like, as I said, I do enjoy a beer so I will incorporate it here and there, but I'm very, very much more picking and choosing when I do it and I'm just more aware in terms of how I recover from it, making sure I'm really planned and dialed in, so that I just, I really cannot be bothered now with alcohol derailing things, derailing progress, and that's the kind of tips that I would go around so yeah, to summarise, you can make progress with still incorporating alcohol, but if you want to go to really sort of elite levels and depending on where you're at, then it's really, it just doesn't align and it's not really got a place, it's just not, so you really need to be very, very picking and choosing at that point, and yeah, it's just, again if you stick to that advice that I've given, those kind of points, for me, it's worked for me, and as I said that's gone from someone that didn't have the best relationship with alcohol, and it really does, it really has changed the game for me, especially this year, and yeah, a long period of sobriety is probably the best thing I've ever done and it's not as if, although I say my relationship with alcohol wasn't very good, it wasn't as if I was like drinking constantly, like I really, really struggled with it, it's not that sense of things, but it was just a real, real benefit, it was one of the best things I've done in terms of just like clarity of mind, like progress, training wise, nutrition wise, energy, mood, like just that way there was no wasted days whatsoever, it was just amazing, so I would highly, highly recommend a period of sobriety, just to give it a go, just to see what it's like, even if you're not the heaviest of drinkers, it's still worthwhile, still worthwhile, as I said it doesn't need to be a year, maybe it's a month, maybe it's two months, whatever, but yeah, really, really powerful in terms of the benefits of it, so yeah, just to summarise and overall, I'm not against alcohol, I do enjoy a beer, I know a lot of people do, inside the Progress Project, it's something that we do incorporate, but just be aware that if you are going to drink excessively, regularly, you're not going to make a lot of progress, however, with exactly what I've kind of ran through there, you can still drink and make progress, just takes a wee bit of extra planning, a wee bit more sacrifice, but it still can absolutely be done, so yeah, hopefully that was useful, just wanted to dive into a wee bit more around alcohol, as I said it is something I'm passionate about, something I've been learning a lot around over the last couple of years and starting to get onto the right track in terms of like being able to advise and discuss it in terms of what can actually work in terms of progress and not progress, so yeah, give us a shout, let us know how you found this podcast, let us know yourself, send us a message, an email how your current relationship is with alcohol, if you feel it's been a bit of a detriment to your progress, if you're maybe struggling to see any results or even reduce it, like give us a shout, drop us a message, let us know, share this podcast with anyone you feel might benefit from it, but hopefully that was a wee bit of an insight into my history around it and some beneficial actionable steps that you can take in order to still make progress without completely cutting it out, but yeah, as I said I would highly recommend a short or long period of it, as long as you can kind of feel the benefits, as I said it literally felt like a superpower gained by removing that completely, but yeah, hopefully this was useful guys and looking forward to hearing the feedback on it and I'll speak to you on the next one.