Pausing drinking — to get results
There’s no better feeling than accomplishing your goals in your sport. Whether it’s climbing a mountain that you’ve trained months to scale, or crossing the finish line at the NYC marathon, the sensation can’t be beat.
In sport, there are endless decisions we have to make, and many sacrifices we can choose to make, as well. One of which, is to shelve drinking alcohol. Either for a short while, or all together.
Canning booze
In rock-climbing, there is a tricky interplay between your weight, and your finger strength. Most serious climbers train like crazy to increase their finger strength. And cutting calories in strategic ways is the other pragmatic solution. To stop drinking for the sake of your sport, I’ll admit, is extreme, but so is the nature of extreme sports.
When I stopped drinking alcohol, I was doing it because I wanted to up my game in climbing. I knew that it would be tough, but for me, I was ready to make that change. What came from it, was horrible in some respects, but amazing in other areas. For example:
- BAD: my bar buddies just stopped hanging out with me. It was so sudden, that I wondered what have I been doing with these people.
- BAD: my boredom in the evenings was excruciating. I’ve never known such boredom. (Would it ever end?)
- BAD: I stopped caring about money. Previously, I needed money for all life’s necessities, but also for things like going out partying, brunch-ing, etc. Now I have a pretty relaxed relationship with money, which is tricky when you live in an expensive metropolis.
And some of the goods (of course):
- GOOD: I got more fit.
- GOOD: I got better sleep.
- GOOD: I became a better human being.
That last point probably deserves its own post entirely. But I mean it! Even though it took a while, the drinking was stunting my development in huge ways.
Lean ’n’ mean
As I indicated already, all this ‘stopping drinking’ was to get better at rock-climbing. Well, guess what? It worked. And it did so, almost immediately.
First, I lost a good deal of water weight. Then, my puffy cheeks went away, and so did my little beer belly. I had less joint pain in my fingers from training — after all, alcohol is a diuretic, so that adds up — and my will-power when climbing spiked, too.
All in all, stopping drinking was a winner, and I reached my climbing goals within a couple years of putting the bottle behind me.
Yum
One thing I did miss, was the taste of all the many different beers I would normally get when out with friends on a Friday night, or sipping on my couch after a long day. And it was a good long while until I purchased some non-alcoholic beers.
Just like my drinking days, I got excited about exploring the flavors of this market, and soon fell in love with Guinness, Clausthaler Premium, and Erdinger, to name just a few.
I am overjoyed to discover that this market is growing! If you are interested in this burgeoning market, want to explore the latest beers, or just would like to hear inspiring stories from sport-loving non-drinkers, then stay tuned as more is coming your way.