Alcohol vs Cannabis

Alcohol is a major obstacle for clients trying to lose weight or get in shape. It is socially acceptable and readily available, making it easy to obtain and convenient. However, alcohol can leave you feeling dehydrated, groggy, and unmotivated. It messes with your body's natural systems and metabolism, leading to poor digestion and weight gain. Alcohol is also empty calories and can accelerate aging and cause serious health risks like liver disease. Substituting alcohol with cannabis can be a healthier and more enjoyable option. Hi, my name is Beth, and you are listening to the Canna Fitness and Nutrition Podcast where we are hanging out at the intersection of fitness, nutrition, and cannabis. So today I'd like to talk a little bit about alcohol versus cannabis because alcohol is one of the biggest obstacles for my clients when it comes to losing weight or getting in shape. And there are several reasons for that, but first I want to talk about why alcohol is so prevalent because it's socially acceptable, right? It's the probably most socially acceptable vice that we have. You know, smoking is kind of on its way out, you don't see that as much anymore, but alcohol is here to stay, unfortunately. I would like to change that, and I'm going to give you my reasons why I think that should change. First of all, alcohol is available everywhere, right? You can buy it at the store, you can get it at a sporting event, if you go to a party there's guaranteed to be alcohol there, if you go out to dinner you're going to get a drink, if you go out to a bar, that's a whole place of drinking, right, a club, alcohol is readily available and socially acceptable. So it's easy to obtain, right, it's easy, it is convenient, right, it can be inexpensive, depending on your taste, right, obviously prices range with alcohol, but it can be affordable, and it is a way that we can primarily, I'd say, really just kick back. It's the way that we relax in our modern society. It gives us, it takes the edge off, it gives us a little bit of stress relief from whatever happened that day, it gives us a way to put aside our cares, put aside our worries, and even sometimes give us a little liquid courage to do things that we might not have done before. I mean, how many times have you heard someone say, oh, I was nervous about flying so I had a drink at the bar before I flew, right? Or I was nervous about meeting a date, for example, and so I had a drink before I went. Or, you know, things like that, so you're hearing, we're hearing this constantly, and it's publicized, and it's on TV, it's just very, very socially acceptable. However, you rarely hear people feeling fantastic after a few hours or the next day. For example, working at a gym for a good majority of my career, I taught a lot of group fitness classes, and in the morning, group fitness classes, I often would have people bail or not show up to a morning class because they drank the night before. And it doesn't even have to be drink to excess, it can simply be having a drink or two leaves you feeling dehydrated, you don't sleep well, you feel groggy, and you're just not motivated to get up, and you're definitely not motivated to work out. So over the years, I had clients and members come to me and sheepishly say, oh, I'm sorry I missed class, I had a drink the night before, and I can't even tell you how many times that happened over the years. So I know that it is a major obstacle to getting in shape and losing weight, because simply you just don't feel good enough to do that, it's not motivating at all. Alcohol, and if you drink, you probably recognize some of these. Having a limited amount can be fine, but there's usually a tipping point where you are feeling pretty crappy, you start to feel the effects of a hangover, which is essentially just dehydration is a hangover. So feeling dehydrated, it leaves us feeling puffy and bloated, because again of the dehydration, and it often causes us to sleep poorly, so we're not getting good quality sleep when we've been drinking alcohol. And here's the thing, the thing about alcohol is that our body sees alcohol as a poison, and so it messes with all of our natural systems. That's why it's easy to get an upset stomach when you drink, because your body's trying to get rid of the poison, right? Again, you sleep poorly because your body's trying to get rid of this poison, it doesn't want you to sleep, it wants to get rid of this poison, and as part of that, your body's not metabolizing correctly. So alcohol doesn't even fit into a macronutrient category, it is its own category, it's not a carb, it's not a fat, it's not a protein, it's alcohol. And simply put, when it comes to your metabolism and how you digest food and how your body uses food, because your body sees it as a poison, again, very simply put, your body is too busy to metabolize correctly the food that you're eating. So if you're having pizza and beers, for example, your body sees the beers as poison, spends all of its resources trying to figure out what to do with that, because it's not natural, and then the pizza that you're eating isn't getting digested and metabolized properly. So it is more likely to end up in your stomach or on your hips, as we like to say, right? So you're not digesting that, metabolizing it as much, as well as you would without the alcohol. So that's part of the problem. Part of the problem is just it's empty calories, too. So if you're having a beer or two, that could be upwards of two or more hundred calories per drink. And yes, there are lighter drinks with fewer calories. But again, go back to the fact that your body's not metabolizing correctly when it comes to that. So as soon as you put that in your body, it messes up your metabolism. So even if you had a salad and a chicken breast during the day and you ate so super clean, still, your body's not going to metabolize as effectively if you have a drink with that than it would if you hadn't. For example, and I've seen this a lot with clients, I just think of one client recently. She, middle age, about my age, maybe early 50s, and very social, but had about, I don't know, 15 pounds, not a lot of weight to lose, but she wanted to lose about 15 pounds or so. Very social. Would go out with her singles group and friends on a nightly basis. And she really didn't eat poorly at all. She would eat lots of protein and watch her portions, and she really had all that down. She was working out with me regularly, taking walks, she was really doing all the right things. But the one thing that was still left to change was the alcohol. Because being social meant, in her circle, meant going out to a bar or a restaurant, having a drink or two or more. So that was the, and again, process of elimination, we looked at every facet of her life, and process of elimination, it really came down to the alcohol. And that's what was holding her back. And I will tell you, again, from experience, it's hard to let go of that as a habit. It really is. Because it's so socially acceptable, it's so ingrained in our society, but every single time that one of my clients, or even just members of the gym or people I've talked to, every single time someone gives up or significantly cuts back on alcohol, they lose weight. Every. Single. Time. I will tell you. It always works. Cutting out alcohol or cutting way back on alcohol will help you lose weight. Again, because of the empty calories and because of the way your body metabolizes it, and, or doesn't metabolize the food that you're eating along with it. So along with that, which is, when it comes to a fitness perspective, that's usually our major driver, is how we feel and whether we're able to be in good shape and lose weight. So again, you're missing out on workouts because you don't feel great and you feel terrible and you're not able to lose weight. But in addition to that, there's some actual serious health risks associated with alcohol. And some of those include DNA damage, the acceleration of aging. Have you ever seen someone that drinks a lot and they have really wrinkled skin? That's definitely acceleration of aging. Healthy tissue damage, which again, is really a consequence because if you're trying to build muscle and you're trying to gain muscle and be toned and fit, you don't want to lose tissue. You need all that healthy tissue. High blood pressure, coronary artery disease, heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, which is an abnormal heart rhythm, which raises the risk of blood clots and strokes, cognitive decline, and neurodegenerative disorders. So those are some of the more serious health risks with alcohol. But here's a very sobering statistic. Check this out. Alcoholic liver disease kills about 22,000 people in the United States every year. And that is actually pretty scary. And you probably have thought or know of a few people that have had that. And I certainly do know a few people that have had that. And it is tragic. Again, another statistic, according to a 2022 report, five years of drinking just two alcoholic beverages daily can damage the liver. 90% of individuals who have four drinks daily show signs of alcoholic fatty liver. And again, without the liver, I mean, we have nothing, right? And so then you end up on dialysis and then you can die. So it's really quite serious. But yet it's socially acceptable to have two to four drinks a day. It completely is, right? How many of us sit down, I shouldn't say us because I don't, how many of you sit down and have a glass of wine at night? It's completely common and again, socially acceptable and almost encouraged. We've almost glamorized it. Now here's the thing. I was that person. I never was a daily drinker, but I certainly used alcohol to take the edge off. And as someone who suffered from anxiety a majority of my life, I certainly used it to de-stress and to relax. And I had some really not great experiences with that because once you get into it and you start to feel relaxed, you want more. And it's really hard to stop because you feel good and you feel good and you feel good until all of a sudden you don't feel good. So if you know, you know that that can happen. It very quickly turns a corner into not feeling good. So that's why I like to talk about that and I like to bring awareness to it because with cannabis, I really believe that we can substitute for alcohol in a much healthier and more pleasant way. The problem is it's just not as socially acceptable yet. And that is, that's sad to me. It's really sad. And I'm hoping that, you know, through doing things like this podcast and all the information that I'm passionately sharing and showing with my life, that it is possible to use it in a responsible way and really dispel the stigma of it because, you know, cannabis users, we're not just stoners and we're not hanging out on the couch and eating Cheetos. We are active professionals. We are doing great things for the world and we are, you know, we're world changers. We're active, we're living our best lives, but our secret is that we feel great. And I want everyone to know that that is possible, that you can feel good or better than you do with alcohol. And it's just a matter of finding the type of cannabis that makes you feel that good. And that sentence in itself can be a turnoff because I talk to people all day and I know that I see the eye roll and I see the hesitation in the face of, well, I don't know. I don't know. You know, I don't know. I tried it. Maybe you tried it in high school and you didn't feel good. You know, maybe you've experimented and it didn't sit well and maybe you had a bad experience. The problem is we haven't been properly educated on cannabis. And for the longest time, we didn't know what we were doing. You know, if you experimented in high school, did you have any idea what you were having, what you were using, or was it just something, a joint that everybody passed around? Because now we can separate different types of cannabis. We have different strains that have different purposes and just like you may have picked out your go-to drink where maybe you love wine or maybe wine gives you a headache. Maybe you love shots and, or maybe you love mixed drinks, but, or maybe tequila makes you angry. For example, you know, maybe you love craft beers and you love the flavor and the taste of it, but also maybe beers make you feel disgusting just like you probably figured that out over time. If you're middle-aged like me, you've had plenty of years for this experiment, but just like that, now we have to do that with cannabis. And again, going back to basics with cannabis, there's two basic types. There's the psychoactive type and there's the non-psychoactive type. So depending on your comfort level with a buzz, you can have what I call no buzz, which is the CBD, just the plain cannabis oil. And then there's the THC, which gives you the buzz. So there's two separate types just to begin with. You don't even have to get buzzed if you don't want to. You can try the no buzz and that will also help you take the edge off and relax and you can use it. You can use it anytime because there's no buzz to it. If you're interested in more of a buzz, then you want to try THC. Now within that, there are different types. So within the THC, you want to know and look for which type feels better for you. And that could be what's called an indica, which is more of a sedating type of flower. Or there's a sativa, which is more of an energizing type of flower. So the indica, the way we remember this, and I may have said this already, but just so you remember, indica, we say in the couch, right? So sedating. Think of being in the couch. That's a little more of the couch lock, they call it. Not entirely. It depends on how much you take. And again, just like you have probably figured out over the years that you can have one glass of wine, but two makes you have a headache. Or you can have one beer, but two makes you sick to your stomach. Just like you've probably figured out the levels that you can handle alcohol, you've got to figure out the levels of cannabis that you can consume. And that's why we always start with the lowest dose, what's called microdosing, actually. And that's becoming really popular too, because we're finding that these smaller doses of THC have a profound effect, but leave us feeling fantastic. I will say, people that use THC, or consume THC, rarely feel crappy. If you feel crappy with THC, it's probably too much. Because it is shown, they study this, that too much can cause anxiety. So you have to be very careful, but again, too much alcohol can cause anxiety, right? So it's the same consequence, it's the same formula, it's just that because cannabis hasn't been socially acceptable, we haven't been studying ourselves with it. Thankfully, now it's becoming legal in more and more states, thank goodness. In New York, it just became recreationally legal last year. And so we're just now opening up dispensaries, and we're just now opening up our minds to the power of this plant. And again, there's psychoactive, and there's non-psychoactive, will leave you feeling great. I can't even tell you, every time that I consume cannabis, I feel fantastic that day, the next day, and every day thereafter, I've never had a hangover from it. And again, if you do have different effects, and it doesn't agree with you, then it's probably not the right type. Just like some people cannot tolerate certain kinds of alcohol, same thing, right? So in addition to feeling good, and feeling better, and not having a hangover, which is enough for me to convince me. But in addition to that, some of the other benefits of cannabis, supports your muscles and joints. So keeps your muscles and joints healthy versus the tissue damage that alcohol causes, right? It supports your mood and your overall wellness. I mean, the term angry drunk, right? That's a term for a reason, is because a lot of times people get angry when they drink. There's no term for that. There's no angry stoner. There's a kind of a joke in the cannabis community that you don't ever have to call the police to a stoner party, because there's no fighting going on. Stoner party is peace, love, and happiness when they're high, and even just using a little bit. Again, peace, love, and happiness. We're not angry. But how many bar fights are there, and how many times are the police called to a bar because people are drinking and they're out of hand? Angry drunk, right? Whereas cannabis lifts your mood, it makes you happy, it makes you feel good, it actually gives you that endorphin rush that you get from exercise, you get from cannabis. It's stimulating serotonin in your brain, right? It's stimulating dopamine. It's providing all those feel-good chemicals. It's stimulating all of that. It reduces your pain and inflammation, so again, another way that you'll feel good, but it has been shown to reduce pain and inflammation in your body. It actually promotes sleep. You could sleep like a baby after consuming cannabis. CBD, again, the non-psychoactive or the psychoactive, they do all of these things. You can even get those effects without a buzz if you're worried about, if you're nervous about a buzz. Clarity and focus for life's daily tasks. That's why you'll hear, and again, it's not as socially acceptable, but you'll hear cannabis consumers say that they use during the day sometimes. Again, small doses, of course, micro-dosing or CBD non-psychoactive, but that it allows us to focus better. Actually, one of the big uses of cannabis right now, the THC, even micro-dosing THC, is fantastic for ADHD, so people, adults that suffer from ADHD are finding that with small doses of THC, they can focus better on what they're doing. Get more done during the day, be more productive, and feel good. You also, it enhances your mind-body connection, so again, you're just more in tune with your body, and as you know, one of my big endeavors is to help people realize that when we're craving food, we're not actually hungry, we're just craving food, and that in order to moderate our eating, we just have to listen to our stomachs, so having a stronger mind-body connection can help us tap into that, those hunger sensations, but also the fullness, so that we're not overeating. Certain kinds can suppress your appetite, so if you're worried about the munchies, then you can, some of these actually will suppress your appetite, and you can select that type if you'd like. And gone are the days of passing around a joint that nobody knows what it is, those days are gone, now you can go and pick out exactly what you want, exactly what you want it for, and you can tailor it, and I hope that in the near future, we can be even selecting that and growing it in our own backyard, so use responsibly, cannabis can help us with managing anxiety, enhance our fitness, and accelerate our weight loss. If you are open to using it as a substitute for alcohol. So on a side note, I do love the alcohol, or not the alcohol, the cannabis-infused drinks, so if you like to have a drink in your hand, and so if you're socializing, then, and I'd like to see more restaurants and bars offer these, because I think this is such a great alternative, is they have a lot of infused drinks right now, seltzers are probably the most popular right now, but there's a bunch of brands out there that you can find at your local dispensary, and there's a couple of brands you can even get online and have shipped to your house, and one of those is Happy Hour Drink, Happy, H-A-P-P-I, and then HourDrink.com is my favorite, and again, they're not paying me to say that, I just really like them, so Happy Hour Drink, they have seltzers that have about five milligrams in each can, and that's not very much, it's a great starting point to get a little bit of a buzz, but also have a drink to have in your hand, because sometimes we need that physical drink in our hand. But again, your local dispensary will have a selection of seltzers and ciders and all kinds of different drinks that you can have as an alternative to alcohol. So just as a side note, they are out there, and if you'd like more information, or if I can point you in the right direction, please just send me an email, or reach out and let me know, because I'd be happy to do that. My email is Beth at CannaFitnessNutrition.com, so all one word, and you can find me on Instagram, I am now, it's at Beth underscore CannaFitnessNutrition, and I'm on Facebook as Beth Skinner Jasinski, and you can, I think you can even contact me right through the podcast, so please reach out if you have any questions, if I can point you in the right direction, or if you have anything you'd like me to talk about or share about, I'm happy to. So thank you for pressing play today, thank you for listening to me talk about what I believe is a powerful alternative to alcohol, and what I believe is a total game changer when it comes to getting in shape and losing weight. Okay, see you next time!