6 Reasons Why Exercise & Diet Can’t Counteract Alcohol’s Effects / EP 41

In Episode 41, Coaches Ruby and Susan tackle a common yet eye-opening misconception: Can exercising or eating healthy really offset the negative effects of alcohol?  They answer a listener's question: "I would regularly justify the amount I drank, by convincing myself it wasn’t that bad, because I’d be counteracting the alcohol by running/exercising and eating healthy."

Have you ever wondered if your morning workout can undo last night’s drinks? Or if a healthy diet can balance out your alcohol intake? This episode is packed with personal anecdotes, myth-busting insights, and practical tips that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about alcohol and fitness.

Ruby and Susan dive deep into how alcohol impacts your body—from dehydration and liver damage to nutrient malabsorption and weight gain. But it’s not all doom and gloom!  There’s hope and a clear path to recovery.

What myths about alcohol and fitness have you believed? How can you start making changes today to improve your health and well-being? Tune in for inspiring stories and actionable advice that will empower you to rethink your relationship with alcohol and embrace a healthier lifestyle.
Let’s dive in and feel lit, alcohol-free!

Timestamp
00:00 Exercising hungover; dangerous habit justified as fine.
05:39 Drinking replaces eating, degrading women's nutrition severely.
07:36 Alcohol inhibits nutrient absorption, leading to malnutrition.
10:29 Alcohol-free life ended abnormal heart rhythms symptoms.
14:44 Exercise for body positivity, not as punishment.
16:34 Alcohol consumption leads to weight gain.
20:37 Indoor pickleball gaining popularity in Connecticut.
26:24 Internal and external evidence influence thought perception.

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Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and ask us any questions you have about breaking free from wine or living an alcohol-free lifestyle. Your question could be the highlight of a future episode!

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Watch Episode on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@FeelLitAlcoholFreePodcast/videos

Websites:
Susan Larkin Coaching https://www.susanlarkincoaching.com/
Ruby Williams at Freedom Renegade Coaching https://www.freedomrenegadecoaching.com/

Follow Susan: @drinklesswithsusan
Follow Ruby: @rubywilliamscoaching

It is strongly recommended that you seek professional advice regarding your health before attempting to take a break from alcohol. The creators, hosts, and producers of the The Feel Lit Alcohol Free podcast are not healthcare practitioners and therefore do not give medical, or psychological advice nor do they intend for the podcast, any resource or communication on behalf of the podcast or otherwise to be a substitute for such.

Transcript

Sick and tired of your love-hate relationship with wine?
Welcome to the feel it alcohol free podcast. Hi. I'm coach Ruby Williams. And I'm coach Susan Larkin. We are 2 former wine lovers turned alcohol freedom coaches exposing the lies about alcohol and giving you, our listeners, the tools to break free so you can feel lit. And when you're lit, you'll feel healthier, freer, and more in control of your life. So relax, kick back, and get ready to feel lit alcohol free. And don't forget, grab a copy of our wine free weekend guide after the show.



Coach Ruby [00:00:01]:
Welcome. Welcome to the Feel It Alcohol Free podcast. Welcome back. So excited to record with you, Susan, again. Yeah. We're having so much fun. Lots of different cool topics. Today's question is really relatable.

Coach Ruby [00:00:20]:
I'll just get right into the question from our listener. I would regularly justify the amount I drank, by convincing myself it wasn’t that bad, because I’d be counteracting the alcohol by exercising and eating healthy. Does exercise and eating healthy counteract the effects of alcohol? Am I alone in this? That's the question. Yeah. What do you think, Susan?

Coach Susan [00:00:47]:
Definitely not alone. I think that I used the same, yeah. Absolutely. I exercised as a, I don't know, punishment or whatever after drinking and thought, you know, if I could get to my exercise class on Saturday morning, then I wasn't that bad, obviously, if I could still work out. But there were times, definitely, I was working out hungover and just felt terrible, you know, and and not you know, definitely wasn't exercising at my full potential. And sometimes, you know, you can kinda feel your heart pounding. I mean, it's actually really dangerous to be exercising hungover, so it was a terrible, terrible thing that I was doing. But, you know, I could just tell myself, oh, I'm fine.

Coach Susan [00:01:31]:
So I could definitely see how and I bet you a lot of people do this. Use this as a justification. Like, oh, I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me. My drinking can't be problematic because I still work out, you know, 4 times a week, and I still make it to the gym on Saturday mornings even if I drink Friday night, which was my night to drink. And then I found out because we had a nutritionist working with our gym and we were doing some food challenges and things like that, and he was like, your body stops burning fat the minute you put alcohol in it. So even if you're lifting heavy yeah. Yes.

Coach Susan [00:02:07]:
So even if you're lifting heavy weights and then you're supposed to be when you do heavy weight lifting, or strength training, your body does burn fat for 24 hours after your workout, but not if you go home and drink beer or wine. Right? So going out for beers after the gym is completely counterintuitive. Yeah. And then so I tried not to drink on days I worked out, but then that also became, like, one of those rules that I put into place to try to moderate my drinking and try not to drink so much. And, just like all the other rules, sometimes I threw it out the window, and it didn't really work. So It's

Coach Ruby [00:02:46]:
so funny you said that because it's like a thing out there in our culture. I remember when I did a half marathon, it was, like, drinks right after and you know? And Yeah. There's even, like, I kid you not, Wineries, because I live in wine country, wineries will have, like, yoga and then wine tasting. Oh, yeah. I'm sure. It doesn't make sense now that I'm alcohol free, but at the time, I totally did that. Like, I would, like, work out more, like, oh, I'm gonna work out twice as hard because I drink so much. You know, that story was going on in my mind.

Coach Ruby [00:03:19]:
But then around the food issue too, because part of the question was, you know, eating if I eat healthy. So I remember doing, like, the whole food. Do you remember the whole foods diet or whatever? I remember, like Whole

Coach Susan [00:03:33]:
30. Right?

Coach Ruby [00:03:34]:
Yeah. Sorry. The Whole 30 and eating Whole Foods in the Whole 30. I remember, like, doing the Whole 30 and printing out all the sheets and, like, okay, eat organic and lots of vegetables and cook your meals and have all the good grains. And I would spend time and money and like, and like all, you know, checking all the boxes and doing all this. And then I drink a bottle or 2 of wine. Like, hello. Yeah.

Coach Ruby [00:04:01]:
Where does that move out? Then guess what would happen, Susan, if I would then all my inhibitions would be out of the way. I would forget about the Whole30. I might even go to fast food which was a big no no or eat a big bowl of ice cream which was and there you go, Everything that I and then I would and then the next morning, I'd try again. Oh, I'm on my Whole Whole 30 diet. I eat really well all day. So, yeah, we wanna talk about this. I wanna explain it in, like, a 3rd grader language,

Coach Susan [00:04:39]:
just because Good. Then I'll be able to understand.

Coach Ruby [00:04:41]:
What you wanna know? Okay. No. I'm kidding. I just think, like, imagine your body is like a car. Okay? Eating healthy foods is like putting good fuel into your car, which helps it run smoothly, but drinking alcohol is like pouring sticky syrup into the fuel tank. So even if you're putting all the good fuel in, you know, the healthy foods, that sticky syrup can still mess up the whole engine and make the car run poorly. So even if you eat lots of healthy foods, if you're drinking alcohol, it can still cause problems in your body. Mhmm.

Coach Ruby [00:05:20]:
So it's so important to only put the good things in your body to keep it running well. So that's my little, like, explanation. Good.

Coach Susan [00:05:28]:
Thank you.

Coach Ruby [00:05:29]:
Yeah. But now we have we're gonna get into it, like, the actual, like, debunking these myths and give you some real solid information. Yeah. Do you wanna give us the first one, Susan?

Coach Susan [00:05:39]:
Well, one of the things that just came to mind when you were sharing about food was also what a lot of women do is we don't eat. We don't eat. We drink on an empty stomach. This is my and I would not eat the junk food, etcetera, etcetera, but I just wouldn't eat. I also didn't eat good food. And so actually my nutrition was worse because of my drinking, because I was drunk I was very calorie conscious. And so I was drinking my calories instead of eating my calories, but alcohol has no nutritional value. So a lot of times I find when I'm working with clients and, you know, they stop drinking for a period of time and they start eating healthy foods, they, you know, gain weight maybe a little bit, but that's because their body, like, wants this nutrition.

Coach Susan [00:06:29]:
It's like holding on to it. Like, thank you so much. Give me this you know, give me some nutrition, and it all shakes down later on. You know? But,

Coach Ruby [00:06:38]:
yeah.

Coach Susan [00:06:38]:
So I just want to make that point too.

Coach Ruby [00:06:41]:
Yeah. Yeah

Coach Susan [00:06:42]:
Yeah. So but as far as exercise and, oh my gosh, exercise and alcohol. Like, first of all, alcohol is a diuretic. You get dehydrated. As we know, that's one of the reasons why we feel so terrible the next day, is because our body's dehydrated and it makes it harder for our muscles to recover after a workout. And I really mean, I need to increase my water anyway.

Coach Susan [00:07:13]:
But also drinking a lot of water is one of the things that, you know, we do as healthy people, but then we drink alcohol and that dehydrates us. So it just also counteracts that one good, you know, healthy choice that we're making by drinking lots of water. So dehydration and then working out when you're dehydrated is really dangerous, actually. So, Yeah.

Coach Ruby [00:07:36]:
That's so true. And then you were alluding to, like, this nutrient you know, it's malabsorption. When alcohol is in your body, in your stomach, you know, those essential vitamins, nutrients, minerals, they're not being absorbed by the body. So what happens in your body is when you put alcohol in, it's gonna stop doing the normal, you know, processing of food metabolic processes of food because it needs to attack that, alcohol first. Alcohol, basically, is like a poison in the system, so it's gotta it's gotta do that first out of everything. Right? And, it's just really so you can be eating like a really healthy diet, but it's not you're not getting all the proper nutrition. In fact, people that are heavy drinkers, they can actually be malnourished, just because they're not even if they're eating what they think is a healthy diet. And so it's really important to know this.

Coach Ruby [00:08:43]:
Yeah. What other dangers are there?

Coach Susan [00:08:47]:
Well, just thinking about the nutrition, it causes your neurotransmitters also not to when you're malnutrition. Right? And so then you go to stop drinking and you feel like you need more resources. Right? Your brain doesn't feel like it's working right to get around, some of the things that we need to learn and do when we're trying to stop drinking. So that's why tackling the nutrition, tackling your nutrition or supplements in early days when you're quitting drinking is really important to get some of those nutrients back in so our brain can start working right. Yeah. Because it really damages our brain. Yeah.

Coach Ruby [00:09:28]:
And when I'm working with my clients, I really do. I have a protocol of, you know, what nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and a healthy healthy diet with high protein in the first, you know, weeks or months of your alcohol free journey. Yeah.

Coach Susan [00:09:42]:
Yeah. That's so good. Yeah. It's important, and it's not always, it's sometimes overlooked, right, the nutrition aspect of changing our drinking. So so well, speaking of dangerous conditions, which I mentioned when I mentioned, like, working out when we're hungover, like, you know, I I just I didn't do this, but I remember my husband talk talking about, like, they would go skiing, then they'd party all night, then they'd ski until they threw up, and then ski some more. Like, this this sort of macho thing about being hungover and still, you know, getting out there and doing the sports, and it's actually can you know, alcohol can increase your risk of what's called exercise associated collapse or EAC. Wow. Okay.

Coach Susan [00:10:29]:
Yeah. And it can also increase your risk of abnormal heart rhythms, which I did have. I remember just feeling a little bit of an irregular heartbeat some of the days after I had drank. And, that has completely gone away since I've become alcohol free. And then I would feel that sometimes when I was at the gym too. And, you know, so it I didn't collapse or anything, but but, you know, people have, you know, and teenagers, I you know, you hear about this, like the football kids that are out there and then they, you know, were drinking the night before and then they're playing football the next day and they collapse. 

Coach Ruby [00:11:08]:
You know, it could be I'm afraid about that.

Coach Susan [00:11:09]:
Yeah. And that's so sad and terrible. So there really is a huge, huge risk to working out if you have you know, if you're hungover, have been drinking heavily. So

Coach Ruby [00:11:19]:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the other major organ that I wanna talk about is the heart, I mean, the liver. I mean, we'll talk about the heart, but, actually, alcohol affects all of us. All our brains. Organs. Our skin, our organs, everything. But, like, we do most of us have heard, you know, that alcohol causes liver damage, but, it's just like I was saying about the malabsorption also, it's just our liver is working so hard to get the toxins out, and then it forms another toxin, which we also have to get out, the a acetaldehyde.

Coach Ruby [00:11:57]:
Acetaldehyde. I always get to say that word.

Coach Susan [00:11:59]:
I had to spell it out phonetically, so I spelled it like ass acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde. I'm always, like, how

Coach Ruby [00:12:08]:
Do I say that? But, like, you know, just eating healthy foods alone, it cannot prevent the damage to your liver because it's almost double duty. Your body is processing your food, which also, you know, it's processing food and any other beverages, and now it's also processing the liver, processing the alcohol in the liver. Sorry. I'm talking all over my words. Yeah. So I just want to bring that up too.

Coach Susan [00:12:37]:
Yeah. Well and the gut. Remember when we had Emilia on as our guest about gut health, and she was likening it to, like, you're drinking, like, varnish remover that is basically going into your gut and stripping off all of the good bacteria. So, actually, when you put alcohol in your system, it does affect your digestion as well because your body stops digesting the food. Yep. It just all goes to it's like a, you know, a 3 alarm fire. When you put alcohol in your system, everything goes to your liver. Your liver stops every other function and just processes the alcohol to get it out of your

Coach Ruby [00:13:16]:
system. Exactly.

Coach Susan [00:13:17]:
That's

Coach Ruby [00:13:17]:
yeah. Exactly.

Coach Susan [00:13:18]:
Yeah. And so everything is affected, including your digestion.

Coach Ruby [00:13:23]:
I do wanna add some hope here, though,

Coach Susan [00:13:25]:
with that. I know. With the downer.

Coach Ruby [00:13:27]:
I know. I feel like we're really doing a downer, but with the liver, you guys, this is so important to understand. The liver is a very unique organ. It can regenerate. Now it doesn't regenerate if you have parts that have scarred or have cirrhosis. Like, say there's a portion, but the whole rest, maybe it's half or or or the whole thing can regenerate. So there is

Coach Susan [00:13:51]:
so much

Coach Ruby [00:13:51]:
I hope that even if you've been drinking heavily for a long time that your liver can recover. Well, your whole body can recover, but, like, your liver can regenerate. I love that. I wanna just share the hope.

Coach Susan [00:14:04]:
Yes. Yes. Don't be, like, oh, I may as well just quit right now, you know, because there's no hope for me. No. Definitely, whatever day you decide to stop drinking is the best day. Like, the best day is now, today, except for your health because it does your health will rebound. Our bodies are so amazing. Think about how they adapted to our alcohol use.

Coach Susan [00:14:26]:
Right? And we still were able to function. And when we take it out of our system, our body does repair itself, and and that's a beautiful, beautiful thing. So, yeah. So they wanna give your give

Coach Ruby [00:14:39]:
your body's a little kiss. Love yourself. Yeah. Well, you can't

Coach Susan [00:14:44]:
hate yourself to a better place through exercise or, you know, or alcohol. Like, I used that's how I sort of changed my mindset around alcohol. My workouts were a punishment versus something that I was doing as a healthy thing for my body. So when you're working out to, like, counteract alcohol, it's sort of like this punishment. Right? Mhmm. I drank so much, so now I have to go work out and work all that out versus, you know, you're not working out because of what you ate or what you drank. You're working out because it's really good for your body, and it makes you feel good. It makes you feel better, and you love so you love your body.

Coach Susan [00:15:18]:
That's why you're working out, not you're working out because you hate yourself because you drank. Right?

Coach Ruby [00:15:23]:
I love that. And my workouts are so much better alcohol free. Like, I just love my workout. You're right. I think I just had a more negative mindset or something when I was working out before, and now I'm just all those real endorphins and, you know, really come out, and I have that zingy, like, good feeling after a workout. I love it. Yeah. Yeah.

Coach Ruby [00:15:47]:
So what's another one? What do you think?

Coach Susan [00:15:49]:
Well, I mean, just in the, you know, the final one that I'll just put out there is, like, it does not counteract. You know, healthy eating or drinking or alcohol you know, exercise does not counteract, you know, alcohol use or your drinking. Alcohol actually counteracts the exercise benefits because, again, like I mentioned in the beginning, your body stops burning fat. Hello. Who wants that? And, you know, it slows your weight and fitness goals, period. Your workouts aren't as good. Your muscles aren't, you know, recovering as well, and it's empty calories. So, you know, it's not helping you in any way.

Coach Susan [00:16:34]:
Yeah.

Coach Ruby [00:16:34]:
And that's a perfect segue to my last one is about, like, just it's empty calories. Right? When your alcohol is empty calories in your diet and there's no real nutritional value, this can lead to weight gain. Even if you're exercising a lot, it can still lead to weight gain for all the reasons we talked about earlier in this episode. But, yeah. Healthy eating just alone cannot offset the extra calories and potential weight gain. So, just even for that alone, it's so important to that mindset. You know? I'm just going to play hard and then work out harder or, you know, drink alcohol and then I'm just gonna eat super, super healthy, you know, the rest of the whole day. Yeah.

Coach Ruby [00:17:19]:
That doesn't it doesn't work that way, you guys. So, I I had one kind of funny story that came to mind before we

Coach Susan [00:17:27]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Coach Ruby [00:17:29]:
O m g. I just remembered, so it's interesting to think about this. I never knew this at the time. I thought when I drank heavily that if I fell asleep, slept for a night, that when I woke up in the morning, I could not be drunk or I could not but that's not true. And I think that sometimes I did early morning yoga, maybe drunk. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I just thought about that before and that, I just want you all to think about that.

Coach Ruby [00:18:04]:
What do you think about that, Susan? Do you think you are still? You know? Because it takes longer than we think.

Coach Susan [00:18:11]:
Yeah. I'm not sure. Well, I just think also, well, now, I can smell people. I don't know about you, and I, you know, smell the alcohol coming off their bodies, especially, like, sweating, and I'm just thinking, oh my god. Did I smell? I think I did. I actually one time,

Coach Ruby [00:18:26]:
I'm like, what's that smell? Then I'm like, oh my god. I think it's me. You know? Like, it's my alcohol. Because I can now smell people if they're working out. Like, you can smell, like, garlic or you can smell alcohol. You really can't.

Coach Susan [00:18:39]:
Coming out of their pores.

Coach Ruby [00:18:40]:
So people might have smelled me. Yeah. I think back and

Coach Susan [00:18:46]:
Yeah. Well, it was also what came to mind too when we were talking about when you were talking about, racing and having beers at the end. I totally agree. That's just so counterintuitive, but then that's where, like, athletic brewing was born, is these guys were, like, these Uber, you know, exercise people, you know, the triathletes and all that kind of stuff. And they knew they wanted to be able to train, but also still have beer because they like the taste of beer, and they created this amazing alcohol free beer.

Coach Ruby [00:19:17]:
Yeah. I love that. I love that. Food, yeah. Which is so great.

Coach Susan [00:19:20]:
And they're usually yeah. Yeah. Because they're at the end. Yeah. My son is

Coach Ruby [00:19:27]:
a sprint triathlon, like, many of them. And they literally run through the end line, and they put, like, beers in your hand, practically. It's so interesting to me. So that's so cool that I didn't know that story about athletic brewing. I love that story.

Coach Susan [00:19:41]:
They're located, they're originally from Connecticut, and we've been down to their brewing place and their tasting room and had, like, a little taster of all their beers, which is pretty cool and really fun and we heard their whole story. So Oh, I love

Coach Ruby [00:19:56]:
that story. Great. Yeah. Well Yeah. We're at the part of our episode where I love to ask Susan. So what are you doing to feel lit in your life alcohol free?

Coach Susan [00:20:11]:
Oh my goodness. So lately, I have gotten into pickleball and my sister is really good. She used to play tennis in high school, and she's actually really good at pickleball. She plays a lot. And I have visited her twice now. We were in San Diego together over the summer. And then recently, at the beginning of September, I was visiting my parents, and she lives near my parents. And so we played a lot of pickleball together, and she's been so great to teach me.

Coach Susan [00:20:37]:
And so then I also did a lesson here in Connecticut, and there it's all the craze here. I mean, they're building indoor pickleball places here in Connecticut all over the place because we can't play outside all year round or even in the summer, we get rain and stuff. So, it's called the pickle spot. I actually just got a text from them about an event they're having. And, Yeah. I'm like, I think it's something I was never especially good at sports. I was always the singer, dancer, or actor in the family. And I think I can actually get good at this.

Coach Susan [00:21:12]:
I'm not good yet, but, and it's fun to have an extra.

Coach Ruby [00:21:18]:
I wanna try it.

Coach Ruby [00:21:19]:
You just talked me into it. I really wanna try it. I've heard, you know, people keep talking about it, and I can't wait to try it. I I heard it's a little bit like tennis, but more like, maybe table tennis or, like, ping pong or something.

Coach Susan [00:21:34]:
Yeah. But you're playing with your body, so it's not like it's it's the yeah. I think I play because I have played tennis. I wasn't great at tennis either, but I played probably too much like tennis. So you can get into this really fast pace, which is maybe like the ping pong where you didn't get back. And so it's really about more versus in tennis where you're really hitting it across. Like, this is sometimes very rapid fire, which scares me. The ball's, like, coming right at me.

Coach Susan [00:22:02]:
And sometimes, though, if I don't think too much, I just, you know, pull up my racket and, oh, I hit it back. So I'm getting better at it. But, yeah, what's good about it is you can catch it and you can play pretty quickly. Like, you may not play great, but you can hit it back and forth and have a game. Like, you and I could play a game pretty quickly after just trying it. You know? And it's fun,

Coach Ruby [00:22:28]:
and it's really fun. So it's fun. What else is, like, what else makes you feel lit? Like, what is it about pickleball?

Coach Susan [00:22:37]:
I do well, especially spending time with my sister. Yeah. That I just love, like and she's good. And we're like sisters, and we're on the same team, and we're just having so much fun So what's team? Spending time with her. So it's a team. You play doubles. You do play doubles. So the scary part for me, and then I did this the first time with her. She took me to a couple of her pickle spots in Northern California.

Coach Susan [00:23:02]:
And, the scary thing is playing with somebody you don't know. Okay. That's because then you're with our partner and, like, you hope that you don't suck, you know, like, ruin the game. And so she took me to this place, and she said, you know, sometimes they're kind of snobby there, and they don't wanna just play with, like, new people and especially people who may not be great players. And so we were sort of standing around trying to find people to play with, and and and Carla was right. They kind of are this group, and what's supposed to happen is you end a game and then the 2 the losers leave, and then 2 other players come on the court and play together. And you can mix it up, and you have different partners. So we're just sort of hanging around, and nobody was playing with us.

Coach Susan [00:23:43]:
And then these 2 guys who are obviously good players said, hey. We'll play with you guys. So I was on the team with 1 guy, and my sister was on the team with the other guy. And, actually, it was so sweet. My guy likes it, it's sort of I felt like it was, like, dancing. Like, I played up and played so much better playing with another good player, and he was so nice to me. He was like, these are young guys. They're, like, in their late twenties or early thirties or something.

Coach Susan [00:24:07]:
And he was so sweet and, like, always giving me kudos and wanting to, like, you smack or you kind of tap your paddles when you have a good shot. You're like, tap your little paddle.

Coach Ruby [00:24:17]:
Now I know what to do.

Coach Susan [00:24:19]:
Yeah. And so he was really encouraging, and, I felt like, wow, I played a lot better playing with somebody with good people. So I get it why you don't wanna play with newbies, but, but they had a really good time playing with them, and I like that I'm very competitive, so I like winning. Alright. So I have to get better at this so I'll Well feel even more lit, but

Coach Ruby [00:24:46]:
When you come to California again, maybe we can play pinball. Yeah. Yeah.

Coach Ruby [00:24:51]:
I would totally come to you. Yeah. 

Coach Susan [00:24:53]:
I want to try it. And just hitting a good shot. Like, I don't care about necessarily winning. I'm not that crazy of a person, but it's nice to hit a good shot and feel like, oh, I hit it good and learn something new. I love learning new things. So that's another and being outside and I love just I love exercise or I just love being outside and moving my body. You know? So that was, so it was really, really fun. You are an inspiration.

Coach Susan [00:25:15]:
Was, so it was really really fun.

Coach Ruby [00:25:17]:
You are an inspiration for women to live an alcohol free lifestyle. I'm so proud and impressed with you, Susan. So are you. Oh my gosh. We're doing it. And you guys are next, you listeners. So we, yeah, we are just sharing, that life is life is so good, alcohol free. I mean, it's still life y.

Coach Ruby [00:25:40]:
Stuff still happens to both of us, I mean, to everyone. But, it's just that I can handle things better. I think that's the bottom line. I I go to more hopeful thoughts more often, I think, is kinda one one thing I

Coach Susan [00:25:53]:
hear. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and one thing I forgot to mention that just reminded me is everything that we just went over, you know, about alcohol and exercise and food is this external evidence. So when your brain is telling you, oh, it's okay. I'm not that bad. I'm counteracting your drinking with exercise. The way that we turn those thoughts around, that's a subconscious thought, is by using evidence.

Coach Susan [00:26:24]:
Evidence. And so this is external evidence that we've all that we've gone through. And then there's also the internal evidence, which is kind of the stuff where you feel your heart, like, have that you know, have a little funky heartbeat, and you're kinda like, no. This probably isn't good for me. Like, you really do know when you know her that it was not good to go work out, hangover. But and so you kind of so that's the process, right, of turning those thoughts around is getting that external evidence and then going, wow. That really isn't true. So the next time your brain says, you know, says that to you, your subconscious, you can go, that's not really true because you it starts to change that thought.

Coach Susan [00:27:02]:
Once I learned that you'd stop burning fat when you, drank after exercise, I mean, it didn't stop me from drinking right away, but it was definitely a deterrent, you know,

Coach Ruby [00:27:13]:
Yeah. What you and I are doing with the podcast too is planting seeds. Like, if people are just sober curious, or even gray area drinkers, we're planting seeds that, you might wanna think about things a little differently, see things differently, get the real truth. Right? So for so long, alcohol's gotten this free pass. You know? It's a and and we're bringing this out into the open that, that and and I'll go back to the car that, you know, eating healthy foods is what you want to fuel your body, and that drinking alcohol is like putting that oil that yeah. So it doesn't actually counteract anything. So yeah.

Coach Ruby [00:27:55]:
Anyway, what a great episode. It was so fun just so fun to hang out with you, Susan. And, yeah. So please join our Facebook community,

Coach Susan [00:28:07]:
Feel It Alcohol Free. It's so fun. I just let two new people in today, and I'm so excited. And, yeah. And people are sharing and sharing their days and and supporting each other on getting alcohol free in the Facebook group. So if you need support, that's the place to be for sure.

Coach Ruby [00:28:25]:
And if you wanna see our faces, go to the YouTube channel. Yeah. So you can just listen or you can watch, you know, whatever you prefer. Yeah. Okay. Alright. I hope you are feeling lit today, everyone. Yes.

Coach Ruby [00:28:39]:
Bye bye.

Thanks so much for listening to the Feel Lit Alcohol Free Podcast. Do you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show? All you need to do is head over to Apple Podcasts and do 2 simple things. Leave a rating and review telling us what you think of the show. And in that review, ask us any questions you have about breaking free from wine or living an alcohol free lifestyle. That's it. Then tune in to hear your question answered live. Don't forget to grab your copy of a wine free weekend at www.feellitpodcast.com
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