Day 7/28

Congratulations! We’ve made it to the end of week one, and (nearly) the end of our first week back at work. How are you feeling? Take a minute to think about it, I believe it’s important to really connect with yourself and allow yourself to feel however you’re feeling.

The end of week one marks a few changes that you should start to see in both your physical health and the way in which your body is responding to your change.

💦 Hydration

It’s a well known fact that drinking alcohol dehydrates your body. When alcohol is metabolised by our liver, it suppresses the creation of a hormone called vasopressin. Vasopressin is used by our body to limits how much urine we make. This means we’re more likely to wee more and therefore “break the seal” which then leads to dehydration. When we stop drinking alcohol our body’s balance and control of this hormone returns to normal and allows us to remain more hydrated.

💤 Sleep

You should also hopefully notice you’re starting to sleep better. Whilst many people believe that alcohol improves your ability to sleep, it actually reduces your bodies ability to fall into REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep which forms the most restorative part of your sleep cycle.

Alcohol may indeed help to induce sleep, hence the phrase “nightcap” but in our REM sleep, the part of our sleep cycle in which we dream, alcohol disrupts our ability to fully drift off and as a result we wake up feeling more lethargic and are more prone to lapses in daytime concentration.

💄 Skin

Another benefit of ditching alcohol is that our skin will start to look healthier. Our skin is our body’s largest organ, constantly regrowing and regenerating itself, working hard to repair those cuts and scratches we got last time we took a tumble whilst half cut, all whilst we force more toxins into our system and make it’s job harder.

Dehydration cause your skin to loose it’s glow and begin to look tired, and as a result, our pores and wrinkles become more prominent. Everyone knows that the sun is the number one ager for our skin, so whenever we go outside we’re told to lather up with our protective SPF moisturiser or cream. What people don’t realise however is that inflammation comes in second, and consumption of alcohol causes our blood to rise in our tissue, creating inflammation and resulting in blotchiness, redness and yet more dehydration.