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Senior Lifestyle Coach Kevin shares why it is so important to keep track of how much alcohol we consume and shares his top tips how to reduce the amount of alcohol we drink. #FeelingFresherInCheshire

If you’re looking to become healthier a good place to start is checking how much alcohol you consume. If you’re not too sure, there are various trackers like smart phone apps, I recommend the ‘One You Drink Free Days’. This helps you to keep track, make pledges, get support and helps to put you back in control with how much alcohol you consume.

Alcohol can be seen as liquid calories as alcoholic drinks contain almost as much calories as fat does. Alcohol provides 7 kcals of energy per gram where fat provides 9 kcals of energy per gram. Also, when you consume alcohol it can affect reaction times as it has a general anaesthetic effect. This slows down the brains responses and interferes with coordination. You don’t really want to be doing a Hiit class or playing a sport whilst having alcohol in your system.

As well as high calories, alcohol has very little nutritional value. The body can’t store this energy from alcohol the same as it can from fats, carbohydrates and protein, so the body priorities burning off the alcohol first meaning you’re not burning off fats. This will slow down your weight loss or getting more lean goals.

You also need to consider your water balance when consuming alcohol. As alcohol is a liquid, it blocks the pituitary gland from releasing ADH (antidiuretic hormone). Have you ever noticed how much you go the toilet when you drink alcohol? This is because of the affect the alcohol has on the on the pituitary gland making it harder for the kidneys to get rid of the alcohol in the bloodstream. The kidneys react and send out more water into urine. For example, for every glass of red wine, the body sends out the equivalent of 4 glasses of water. Substances that make us produce a lot of urine are called diuretics. Just so you know, Caffeine is another diuretic.

Here are my top tips to help reduce the amount of alcohol you consume each week;

Don’t start drinking alcohol if you’re thirsty. You’ll drink it fast and this will lead to large amount of alcohol consummation in a short period of time. Start with a mixer or even water.
Drinking on an empty stomach is never a good idea. Having no food in your stomach slows down your metabolism meaning its going to take longer than 1 hour to metabolise one unit of alcohol.
In-between alcoholic drinks consider water or a mixer drink. This will help you to reduce the amount of alcohol you consume in a night and if you have set a goal of how much units a day you want to drink, you won’t be going home at 9pm.
If you switch your standard mixer drinks to diet ones you could reduce your calorie intake by as much as 50 kcals. And this is the same for drinking mixer drinks between alcoholic drinks as standard mixers contain a high amount of sugar content.
For the morning after, don’t force yourself to ‘work it off’ your body is already working very hard to recover from the effects of alcohol, recovering from dehydration and most possibly you didn’t get a great night sleep and are suffering from lack of sleep too. Drink lots of fluids, eat light foods and give yourself time to recover.

Help us to spread the word and reach more people in Cheshire East by sharing your tips or even story of how reducing alcohol has made positive changes to your lifestyle #FeelingFresherInCheshire

Do you know how many calories are in our drinks? Lifestyle Coach Chris shares some interesting facts: