Tis the season to “Eat, Drink, & Be Merry!”
A couple of weeks ago in the newsletter and on the blog, we spent some time unpacking mindfulness for the holidays as it pertains to food, and any outdated or negative thought patterns that may translate to stress around the holiday table. As much as food is an integral part of holiday celebrations, alcohol and your mindset around drinking can also present a challenge for some, causing the “Drink” part of “Eat, Drink & Be Merry” to be less merry and more scary.
With less structure and planning, the holidays can spark anxiety for athletes and highly active people.
The holiday season often requires you to be a bit more flexible with your nutrition and training plan. However, alcohol does impact training, and can have some acute negative effects on your performance. This includes decreased reaction times, decreased accuracy and balance, slowed cycling and running times, quicker rate of fatigue during high-intensity efforts and significantly reduced aerobic performance. It also leads to dehydration through its diuretic effect, which can cause a host of issues as well. (Volpe, et. al, 2010) Additionally, exercising when hungover can cause up to an 11% decrease in aerobic capacity. (Berning, 1996)
This doesn’t mean you should never enjoy a cocktail at your holiday party, or that glorious post-long run beer (but please hit up your post-race nutrition first!).
We respect anyone’s decision to drink or not drink alcohol. However, if you enjoy alcoholic beverages, you don’t have to take drinking to the extremes of an all or nothing mentality. Just like with food, a balanced approach to enjoying alcohol if you choose to do so allows you the freedom to develop a positive mindset around drinking that doesn’t significantly impair your performance goals.
As with food, the key is to have some tools that you can rely on to help you frame your drinking consumption in a way that keeps it in alignment with your goals.
How to be intentional about drinking around the holidays:
Think about what moderation means to you.
This looks different for everyone. Being honest with yourself about what is realistic and what your motivation is behind your choice to drink may help you refine your personal definition of moderation. Maybe this means abstaining from alcohol while training. Or, perhaps it means having “x” drinks when out with your friends. Moderation looks different to everyone. Not drinking all week just to binge drink on the weekends is going to impact how you feel in the coming days and how you perform. As mentioned above, alcohol can have a suboptimal impact on coordination, balance, and aerobic performance. Additionally, the risk of injury increases significantly with excessive alcohol consumption, as well as decreasing the rate of recovery from injury. (Volpe, et. al, 2010) If you work to apply moderation and mindfulness to your consumption of alcohol, you can reduce the negative impact of drinking on how you feel and perform by simply increasing your awareness around drinking behaviors and goals, and adjusting accordingly.
Focus on food, not alcohol after your training.
There are few things more glorious than that first post-long run beer. However, before you crack that can, focus on replenishing carbohydrates and protein from food first. Though alcohol does provide 7 kCal/g and some alcoholic beverages do contain nutrients, beer (or whatever your post training sip of choice is) is not an effective recovery drink. Studies show that alcohol post-training increases cortisol, reduces testosterone and reduces muscle protein synthesis (Lakićević, 2019). Instead, choose a meal that includes sources of carbohydrates, proteins and fats post- training. By choosing a balanced plate, you are setting yourself up for success in the next training session.
Avoid dehydration by increasing fluids.
Dehydration is often a side effect of alcohol consumption, as well as exercise. By training after drinking or drinking immediately after training without replenishing fluids & electrolytes first, you are amplifying the dehydration effects of the alcohol. The American College of Sports Medicine’s position statement on the use of alcohol in sports recommends that athletes should consume water and electrolyte rich beverages (we love Nuun and Skratch!) to rehydrate prior to consuming any post-exertional alcohol.
Mindfulness applies to drinking, too.
Ultimately, much like nutrition, the choices we make around drinking are multifactorial and have social, cultural and personal influences. As athletes, it is best to consider alcohol consumption, if you choose to drink, with the same mindfulness that we direct towards our nutrition and training plans. Adopting a balanced approach to alcohol can allow us to time drinking so that it doesn’t negatively impact our training or our performance goals.
It’s also worth noting that there are some companies out there making great tasting, craft influenced non-alcoholic beers with athletes in mind, like Athletic Brewing Co., which might just help fill that cold-beer void if you are looking to explore a non-alcoholic option.
As always, if you are looking to dive deeper into the relationship between what you consume and how it impacts your performance, be it food or drink, I am here to help and feel free to contact me today! Cheers!
References:
- Volpe, Stella Lucia Ph.D., R.D., L.D.N., FACSM Alcohol and Athletic Performance, ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal: May 2010 – Volume 14 – Issue 3 – p 28-30
doi: 10.1249/FIT.0b013e3181daa567 - Berning J. Coaches’ Corner: Alcohol and Athletic Performance. Gatorade Sports Science Institute 1996. Available from: www.gssiweb.com.
- Lakićević N. (2019). The Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Recovery Following Resistance Exercise: A Systematic Review. Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology, 4(3), 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk4030041
