Maybe you have a made a New Year’s Resolution to quit the booze, or maybe just quit for a month!

Which is a great thing to do for your health, liver and for your pocket!

But what happens when you stop drinking?

Typically, when you stop drinking alcohol for a week, you will start to see some big changes in the first seven days in the quality of your sleep.

When we drink, you find that alcohol, for most people, helps them fall asleep quickly, but the problem is that you may get to sleep quicker, but the amount of REM sleep is reduced.

REM ( Rapid Eye Movement) sleep is thought to be the most restorative part of our sleep cycle, so a disturbed REM sleep can steal precious hours of healing sleep.

Lack of sleep or a disturbed sleep pattern can also affect your immune system. Studies have shown that people who don’t get quality sleep or enough sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus, such as a common cold or worse.

When you sleep, your immune system actively releases proteins called cytokines, some of which help promote sleep. Some of these cytokines you need more of when you have an infection or inflammation, or even when you’re under stress.

Therefore sleep deprivation can decrease production of these protective cytokines. In addition, infection-fighting antibodies and cells are reduced during periods when you don’t get enough sleep.

Alcohol is known to irritate the digestive system. Drinking alcohol makes your stomach produce more acid than normal, which can, in turn, cause gastritis (the inflammation of the stomach lining).

If you suffer from any gut issues, you will start to see an improvement within ten days.

One of the biggest changes you will start to see as well as feeling better is simple weight loss. There are many empty calories in alcohol that are often not taken into account when we try to maintain our weight. Also, when we are drinking, we tend to eat slightly less healthy foods after a few drinks and tend to snack more as well, so cutting out the booze can also reduce cravings for salt or sugar.

So, what happens when you stop drinking alcohol for a month?

Alcohol has been proven to raise blood pressure, so you will naturally feel better after a month of the booze.

Reducing your blood pressure can be crucial as it can reduce the risk of health problems occurring in the future.

You should also start to see, literally…is that your eyes have become brighter and whiter. This is because your eyes have simply become more hydrated, as you will suffer less with from Dry Eye, which is common when drinking alcohol.

Your liver will also start to thank you.
Taking alcohol out of your diet for just four weeks can help liver function, and as long as your liver is not too badly affected by your current alcohol intake, you can expect it to recover within 4-8 weeks.

Your skin will also have improved dramatically!

It takes on average 28 days for your skin to renew itself. As alcohol is a known diuretic, without it more water will be absorbed than wasted, so you are more likely to recapture that natural ‘glow’. The process itself varies from person to person and depends on age, but your skin should feel more hydrated.

With improvements in liver function and healthier-looking skin, you will feel like a new person!

You will be converting nutrients in food better, storing more minerals and vitamins and this will have a domino effect on every aspect of your health and your outlook.

All of these benefits can be achieved in just over four weeks, but what happens when you stop drinking alcohol for three months?

After giving up drinking for 12 weeks, your blood cells will start to renew, and you will feel much more energetic and healthier all round.
You will be crazy productive as you realise how much time you actually spent drinking or thinking about drinking.

You may want to dive in and have a drink if you think that is what you feel, but I know many people who have used this time to develop a different relationship with alcohol.

There are over 140 Alcohol Free (AF) drinks available, not including good old water and the various soft drinks, so there is more choice than ever before for those that still want to have all the fun but without alcohol in their system.

You may even discover it is not the alcohol you crave, half of the craving is just the actual feeling of a cold, crisp and refreshing beverage and it does not have to be alcoholic. This itself will blow your mind!

I know from experience, with one of my clients who started with my 7 Days to Drink Less program with the initial idea to moderate his drinking and introduce AFD’s (Alcohol Free Days) but he used that as a springboard to sobriety. He emails me to thank me as it has literally changed his life, becoming a better partner and father and he has never been fitter in his life!

But not everyone wants to quit forever!

For those who want to use a few months off the booze to have a better relationship with alcohol, but are concerned about defaulting to historical over-drinking, 7 Days To Drink Less is just the ticket!

This tried and tested blueprint will re-educate the mind and body to drink less without using willpower!