Latest / Callum Walker | Figuring It Out / Episode 34: Why Alcohol Makes You Groggy— And How to Bounce Back with Full Energy

Transcript

Episode 34: Why Alcohol Makes You Groggy— And How to Bounce Back with Full Energy · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey. Hello, everyone, and welcome welcome to the podcast. So today, today, today, today. I'm feeling slightly groggy.
• 0:38
  I'm feeling slightly groggy and the reason why I'm feeling slightly groggy is because I had a little bit of alcohol over the weekend. So it's a Tuesday and I had some alcohol on Saturday. God I feel like I sound like a right dick. I had some alcohol. Right, I had a couple of beers on Saturday.
• 0:58
  Now for those of you who know me, I don't really drink a lot. And when I say I don't really drink a lot, I Where are we now? We are in May and the first three and a half months of the year I didn't have a single alcoholic beverage, not a single drink. Yeah, went over a hundred days sober. And do you know what?
• 1:18
  I didn't intentionally go a hundred days sober. It just kind of happened because I'm pretty happy and content living a low alcohol life. Now why did I have a couple of peers? Well I was with my mates. I was with my mates.
• 1:35
  I was with them from uni and it was really really really enjoyable. My relationship with alcohol has been very up and down over the years. I've yeah. I found it really hard because alcohol in itself really kind of makes that negative voice that really kind of makes things so much harder. It makes it louder for me.
• 1:59
  So you know, I've chosen to live a very very low alcohol life. Now, where am I at with things with this and what is the purpose of this today? Well the next few episodes, what I'm gonna go through is just a few things that you can do if you've had you know a few drinks at the weekend or as we know the bane of our life sometimes is when our clients are drinking and they can be a real nightmare. And what you can do is to really kind of negate the negative effects of booze. So today what I'm gonna really tackle is the fatigue side of things.
• 2:41
  So how this will kind of help is one of two two ways. First of all, for yourself. If you've had a couple of drinks at the weekend, you've got like a shitload of content to do, you've got like sales calls, you've just got loads of stuff and you are just like fatigued and you find that like it really really makes you so much more tired, then will help. But then secondly with your clients, I think one of the main challenges with clients drinking isn't necessarily just the physiological impacts that alcohol has. In terms of that naturally it drives insulin up, it creates more inflammation.
• 3:20
  So their ability to recover, their ability to lose weight really decreases. Yeah, absolutely. But it's more to do with decision making. The alcohol really kind of makes you press the fuck it button. But then also in terms of their their desire to want to go and train, it's gonna go down if they've had some drinks at the weekend because they're tired.
• 3:43
  Their desire to want to cook, it's gonna go down because they're tired. So key thing is that this can really cause them to go off track. So one of the main problems with booze that I have really for clients is not necessarily like I said, the physiological impact it has on their ability to get results. It's more to do with the fact that it causes a chain reaction. It causes them to go ah fuck it.
• 4:10
  So what we want to do is really kind of negate that and make sure that we're like, okay why does this happen? And one of the main reasons is because they're tired. Because when you're tired, you don't want to train. When you're tired, you don't want to cook. So we need to understand why does alcohol make you tired?
• 4:29
  Well two ways. First of all, alcohol negatively impacts your REM sleep. So we look at sleep There is a stage called REM sleep, rapid eye movement sleep. This is where you dream. But also this is kind of where the brain's really preparing itself.
• 4:51
  So what happens is that when we go and have some booze, is that our ability to actually get into REM sleep and really get the REM sleep that we require for the brain's therapy effectively. Because that's what REM sleep kinda is to the brain. It's almost like therapy where it allows it to rejuvenate and really kind of emotionally like get itself into a good spot. We miss out on that. So naturally that can negatively impact how we feel over the coming days.
• 5:22
  But then secondly, the reason why alcohol makes you sleepy really kind of like you know, makes you more tired over the days is because of this thing called adenosine. Now for those of you who know about caffeine or drink coffee, you'll be very familiar with adenosine because adenosine effectively is this pressure to fall asleep. So when we start the day off, our adenosine levels are at zero. Okay? Now what happens is that as the day goes on, we produce more and more and more adenosine and that level of adenosine increases.
• 6:05
  Which means the more adenosine, the more tired we then feel. So you know when you've know when you've a what's it? Yeah. You know when you've you're lying on the sofa, you're listening to neck, you're watching Netflix or whatever and you're like your eyes are going, you're going, you're going like you're really really tired you almost like fall asleep. That's because you get this huge buildup of adenosine.
• 6:31
  Yeah? And eventually you can't take it and you're like, right, okay, I need to go to sleep now. Okay? So that's how we kind of fall asleep through adenosine. Now what caffeine does is that caffeine stops you responding to adenosine.
• 6:44
  So you're still producing the adenosine, you're just not responding to it, which means that you feel more awake. So the way that caffeine makes you feel more awake is by stopping you from feeling sleepy. Okay? That's of the ways anyway. Now what happens is that alcohol makes you feel really really sleepy.
• 7:06
  It makes you feel drowsy. So you know when you've had like a beer, you then start to feel really really sleepy. That's because alcohol increases adenosine. Okay? So let's say that on a typical day, our level of adenosine can only get to 100.
• 7:24
  The way we clear adenosine out of the system is by going to sleep. So when I then go to sleep, I then clear my adenosine to zero. So, sorry, I'm just parking. I'm just on my way to the gym. Actually.
• 7:40
  Just on my way to the gym which is beautiful. So I'm really excited to do a session. So what happens is that let's say on a normal day your adenosine goes up to a 100, we then go to sleep and it comes back down to zero. The next day our adenosine starts at zero and we go up to 100, we fall asleep, we have a good night's sleep, clear all the adenosine out and it goes down to zero. That's how the body works.
• 8:09
  Alcohol is What alcohol does is that instead of us going from zero to 100, it will take us from zero to 100 then we're to have some alcohol which takes us up to 130. So we're at 130. Now the problem is that our sleep can only get rid of 100 of the adenosine. Which means we go and have a good night's sleep and what happens is that we're left at plus 30. So I feel groggy, I feel tired because I've got this excess adenosine lingering around.
• 8:47
  Okay? That's partly why you feel groggy and tired in the days after having a drink. Does that make sense? Cool. Now, because we know what the problem is, we can then come up with the solution or make sure that we avoid things that could make this worse.
• 9:08
  So let's look at the thing to avoid. Now what most people will do is that they will wake up in the morning, okay, they feel groggy, feel tired. I'm at plus thirty adenosine. Now the problem is that I then, because I feel groggy, feel tired, I go and reach for a coffee. K?
• 9:31
  Now what's the problem there? The problem is that I reach for a coffee and it stops me responding to this adenosine. Now the challenge there is that what we would ideally wanna do is actually have a nap. On a day when the day after you've had some alcohol, you want to make sure you can have a nap throughout the day or even in the following day. So if you go out on a Saturday, you want to have a nap on a Sunday and you ideally want to have a nap on the Monday.
• 10:01
  Why would you do that? Because it will clear out the adenosine. So let's say it's a Sunday, you're starting at plus 30, you then get up to a 100 and I've still got another 30 to go. You go and have a nap, that nap clears out the adenosine and brings you down to 70 which then allows you to then only go up to a 100 and then you have a good night's sleep and you come back down to zero again. Does that make sense?
• 10:25
  Problem with caffeine is that caffeine will do two things. One, it will make it harder for you to have a nap because you are not tired as much. So naturally you can 't clear out that adenosine, but then secondly stops you responding to that adenosine anyway to be able to clear it out. So the thing that I'm coming from here is if you can, on the day after drinking alcohol, try your best to avoid having excessive amounts of caffeine. So what I'm not saying is don't have a cup of coffee, because your cup of coffee can actually be really useful off the back of drinking booze.
• 11:05
  Caffeine naturally has what's known as an analgesic effect, which is pain relief. So if you woke up and you got a headache, like having a cup of coffee can actually be really useful. But then secondly, it's actually really nice to have a cup of coffee. I love my coffee. And it can actually help you kind of just like have a bit of a spurt for the day.
• 11:26
  So what would I potentially suggest? Try and do other things that could potentially provide you with the energy that the caffeine could. Sunlight, 100%. Go out and get the power of the sun to boost you up. Do some form of movement.
• 11:40
  Have a nap throughout the day. Make sure that you're adequately hydrated. From that movement, make sure that it's movement that really, really energizes you. So that's just one thing that I would do ideally to avoid the, like the alcohol crash and the feeling of, oh my God, I'm absolutely knackered. Okay.
• 12:00
  It could help immensely. So to summarize this, because I want to keep this short. Alcohol makes you feel more tired, okay? It does that through excessively stimulating adenosine, which can then linger over the days afterwards. So what we wanna do is clear out that How do we do that?
• 12:18
  We do that through having a nap. I have a nap, I can clear out that adenosine. Now what I wanna potentially avoid is excessive caffeine because that excessive caffeine can stop me responding to the adenosine, but then it can also make it harder for me to have a nap and bring my level of adenosine down. Cool. There we go.
• 12:40
  So I hope you found that useful. I hope you found it informative. Kept it really short. I'm really happy with that. I'm gonna go into a strength session, which I'm really excited for, and then I'm gonna head in the sauna.
• 12:54
  Because again, what I wanna do is optimize the quality of my sleep, recover from some form of alcohol and one of the best things you can do, sauna. I'll go on to that in another episode. Never forget, for every single one of your clients gave you one new client, you have doubled your business. But the question is, are you giving your clients a good enough reason to recommend you? If not, you've got to come on the next level coach course.
• 13:20
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