Are You Really Free or Just Chained to the Booze? The Truth About Alcohol and Performance
The lie you’ve been telling yourself
You say it’s just a couple of beers. You say you can stop any time. You say it’s just social.
But here’s the truth you’re avoiding: you’ve built your life around alcohol and you don’t even see the chains.
Every week, I speak to men who tell me the same story. “It’ll be hard not to drink — everyone else will be.” “I’ll look weird if I say no.” “My mates will give me crap.”
Let’s be honest. Most people don’t give a damn what’s in your glass. You’re assuming judgment that doesn’t exist. And if your mates do mock you for choosing health? They’re not mates. They’re anchors. You should either find new mates or tell them to stop being children.
The Australian Drinking Lie: When Culture Becomes Crisis
We’ve been sold the idea that having a beer is the way to relax, to belong, to celebrate. From BBQs to birthdays, sports to sadness, it’s always “Have a drink, mate.”
Unfortunately, it’s part of Australian culture, sure. But that doesn’t make it smart.
The Statistics Don’t Lie
This cultural normalisation is one of the most damaging social habits we pass on. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, around one in four Australians drink at risky levels. That’s not social. That’s a health crisis masquerading as tradition.
And it’s worse when our kids watch us.
Every time you reach for a drink, they’re learning what “normal” looks like. Research shows parental drinking strongly influences a child’s future relationship with alcohol. One longitudinal study found children of regular drinkers are twice as likely to develop alcohol issues as adults.
So ask yourself: what behaviour are you normalising at home?
The Physical Damage You Can’t Ignore
You already know alcohol hits the liver, but it doesn’t stop there. Regular consumption — even “moderate” drinking — interferes with testosterone, muscle recovery, sleep quality, and metabolic function.
How Alcohol Destroys Your Performance
Muscle Protein Synthesis: A 2018 meta-analysis confirmed alcohol suppresses muscle protein synthesis, directly reducing your strength and performance gains. If you’re training hard but drinking regularly, you’re sabotaging your own work.
Disease Risk: A Harvard study linked routine drinking to elevated risk of cancer, heart disease, and hormonal dysfunction. The World Health Organization is blunt about it: there’s no safe level of alcohol use for health.
Testosterone Suppression: Alcohol reduces natural testosterone production while simultaneously increasing cortisol, your stress hormone. For men over 40 already experiencing declining hormone levels, this is metabolic suicide.
If you’re lifting weights, training hard, or trying to build strength, booze is undoing your results behind your back.
Performance, Sleep, and Hormones: The Triple Threat
That “nightcap to relax”? It’s destroying your recovery.
The Sleep Disruption Cycle
Alcohol fragments REM sleep and spikes cortisol production. Studies show even small doses impair muscle recovery for up to 72 hours after consumption. So when you drink after training, you’re effectively saying: “I’m okay with undoing my own work.”
That’s not discipline. That’s conventional stupidity. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
Quality sleep is non-negotiable for hormone regulation, muscle recovery, and cognitive performance. As neuroscientist Dr. Matthew Walker states: “The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.”
Every drink you have compromises the single most effective thing you can do to reset your brain and body health each day.
Question yourself: Are you waking around 2-3 am? If yes then ask yourself did you have a drink in the evening? If yes then that is your liver detoxification process. Yes you are drinking poision that wakes you up because your liver is freaking out about getting rid of the poision. That is not smart, it is stupid.
Social Pressure Isn’t the Problem — You Are
Let’s kill another excuse: “It’s too hard at social events.”
That’s not true. What’s hard is being the odd one out in your own mind.
The Mirror You’re Avoiding
Most people are too busy worrying about themselves to care what’s in your glass. And if someone does care? That’s their insecurity talking. Your choosing not to drink makes them uncomfortable because it holds up a mirror they’d rather avoid.
So when you’re at a function and someone says, “Go on, just one,” remember these truths:
You’re not the one with the problem
You don’t need their approval
True mates respect your decisions
You don’t need to justify being healthy
If your social life requires alcohol to function, you don’t have a drinking problem. You have a life design problem.
I once coached a very senior man from the USA working for a huge financial company, he was struggling with not drinking at all his investor functions. Until one day he was on medication and couldn’t drink, he told me he actually learnt a lot not drinking, he told me people get so lose and say stupid shit when they have a few drinks. The outcome he drank soda water from then on and told me it really made him more effective at work and he could learn more about people and what they thought when they were juiced up on the sauce. It is a pity it took this for him to make the change, but he is so happy he did.
The Sleep Destruction You’re Ignoring
That “nightcap to help you relax”? It’s destroying the most critical recovery tool you have.
Up to 30% of adults use alcohol to fall asleep. Here’s what they don’t understand: falling asleep faster doesn’t mean sleeping better. In fact, it means the opposite.
What Alcohol Actually Does to Your Sleep
When you drink, your body doesn’t rest. It goes into damage-control mode. Here’s what’s happening while you think you’re “recovering”:
Suppresses Melatonin: Alcohol blocks your body’s main sleep hormone. Your brain doesn’t fully recognize it’s time for restorative sleep, so you never fully transition into proper recovery.
Crushes Growth Hormone: Growth hormone is released during deep sleep for muscle repair, immune function, and tissue recovery. Alcohol blunts this surge. Translation: your body misses its most restorative nightly process. All that training you did? Wasted.
Spikes Cortisol: Alcohol increases your stress hormone, keeping your heart rate elevated overnight and tanking your heart rate variability (HRV). Both are markers of poor recovery. You’re not resting. You’re stressing your body while unconscious.
Disrupts Your Circadian Rhythm: Alcohol interferes with your internal clocks in your brain and liver, causing misalignment between your sleep-wake cycle and natural rhythms. Even one late-night drink can make you feel jet-lagged the next day.
Makes You Piss All Night: Alcohol is a diuretic. It overrides your body’s normal nighttime “bladder shutdown,” causing multiple awakenings. That’s not sleep. That’s interrupted unconsciousness.
Worsens Breathing Problems: Alcohol relaxes throat and airway muscles, increasing snoring and worsening sleep apnea. If you’re already struggling with breathing issues, alcohol makes them worse.
Lowers Blood Oxygen: Research shows alcohol reduces oxygen saturation by impairing how hemoglobin carries oxygen. Less oxygen means worse recovery, especially if you have pre-existing breathing issues.
The Data Doesn’t Lie
A recent analysis of over 600,000 people compared nights with alcohol to nights without. The results are damning:
What Alcohol Steals From You Each Night:
34.6 minutes less total sleep (that’s nearly 4 hours per week if you drink nightly)
15 minutes less REM sleep (the stage critical for mental clarity and emotional regulation)
5 minutes less deep sleep (where physical recovery happens)
15.6% lower HRV (a key marker of recovery and nervous system health)
8.2% higher resting heart rate (your heart works harder while you’re supposedly “resting”)
Sleep efficiency drops 2.2% (you spend more time in bed getting less recovery)
In plain English: you sleep less, sleep worse, and wake up more broken than when you went to bed.
The Second-Half Collapse
Here’s what most people don’t understand: alcohol might help you fall asleep faster in the first half of the night, but it destroys the second half.
You get fragmented sleep, delayed REM cycles, and multiple awakenings. Your body never completes proper sleep architecture. That’s why you wake up feeling like rubbish even after “8 hours” in bed.
It’s not 8 hours of sleep. It’s 8 hours of interrupted, low-quality unconsciousness while your body fights poison.
The 24-72 Hour Recovery Tax
Think the damage ends when you wake up? It doesn’t.
Your HRV and resting heart rate can take 24-48 hours to return to baseline after heavy drinking. For training performance, muscle recovery is impaired for up to 72 hours.
So when you drink Friday night, you’re not just ruining Friday’s sleep. You’re compromising Saturday’s recovery, Sunday’s training, and Monday’s performance. One night of drinking costs you three days of optimal function.
“But I Fall Asleep Faster…”
Yes, you do. Alcohol sedates you. But sedation isn’t sleep.
Optimal sleep latency is 10-20 minutes. Falling asleep in under 5 minutes (drunk or sober) means you’re overtired or your body is shutting down from poison. Neither is healthy.
Real sleep is a gradual transition through distinct stages that serve specific recovery functions. Alcohol overrides this process, forcing you into unconsciousness while skipping the mechanisms that actually restore your body and brain.
If You’re Still Going to Drink
Look, if you’re going to drink despite knowing all this, at least minimize the damage:
Stop drinking 3+ hours before bed. Give your body time to metabolize the alcohol before you attempt to sleep.
Hydrate aggressively. Water between drinks slows absorption and supports next-day recovery.
Skip sugary mixers. Sugar and caffeine compound the nervous system stimulation.
Track your sleep. Use a wearable device or journal to compare your sleep quality on drinking vs non-drinking nights. The data will show you what your excuses are hiding.
But here’s the truth most won’t tell you: there’s no “hack” that makes alcohol compatible with optimal recovery. You’re either serious about performance, or you’re not.
The Cost to Our Kids: Breaking the Cycle
We tell our kids to be healthy, to make smart choices, and to respect themselves. Then we pour a glass every night and call it “winding down.”
That’s hypocrisy in plain sight.
The Real Impact on Children
The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) reports that more than one million Australian children are negatively impacted by someone’s drinking each year.
Kids don’t just hear what you say. They model what you do.
If your child’s image of adulthood is “Dad with a beer every night,” what message are you sending? That health is negotiable? That alcohol is the only way to relax? That strength comes from a bottle?
We talk about breaking cycles. This is where it starts.
I was coaching a father and 2 daugthers (19 and 21) the father and wife had a ingrained habit of having wine as they prepared dinner pretty much 7 days a week. Every function or gathering that had a huge focus on grog. When I started working with the girls I noticed that they were essentially borderline alcoholics, they could not go out with their friends without drinking, they would tell me that their friends tell them they are no fun if they don’t drink? Even worse older people and relations would bully them becasue they would choose to not drink at family gatherings.
The girls thought it was completely normal to drink 5-7 days a week and get blotto on a Saturday night. Why? Because their mum and dad set the behaviour.
Is this what you want for your kids?
What Alcohol Is Really Costing You
Beyond the obvious health risks, consider what alcohol is stealing from you:
Energy and Vitality: Alcohol disrupts blood sugar regulation, promoting fat storage and destroying metabolic flexibility. Those afternoon energy crashes? That’s partly your Friday night drinks still affecting you.
Leadership by Example: Your family, your team, your kids — they’re watching how you handle stress, celebration, and relaxation. What example are you setting?
Mental Clarity: Alcohol impairs cognitive function, decision-making, and emotional regulation. In high-performance roles, these are non-negotiable assets.
Physical Performance: Every training session becomes less effective. Every recovery period becomes longer. Your body composition goals become that much harder to achieve.
If You’re Serious About Change: The Action Plan
Stop hiding behind excuses. Stop saying it’s “just social.” Stop pretending it’s not affecting your health, your performance, your kids.
You want to be stronger? You want more energy? You want to lead by example? Then act like it.
Your 30-Day Challenge
Week 1-2: Elimination and Observation
Cut out alcohol completely for 30 days
Track your sleep quality using a wearable device
Monitor your energy levels throughout the day
Record your training performance and recovery
Week 3-4: Strategic Replacement
Train smarter with focus on Maximum Aerobic Function
Fuel recovery with proper nutrition (prioritize protein and healthy fats)
Lift heavy with appropriate rest between sessions (if your have the appropriate experience) If not just make sure you get 15,000 steps in a day
Hydrate properly — start your day with water and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt
Beyond 30 Days: Sustainable Health
Surround yourself with the right people — those who push you forward, not pour you another drink
Own your choices; remember that health is leadership
If you need accountability, get it. That’s what coaching is for
FAQ: The Questions You’re Actually Asking
“Is weekend drinking really that bad?”
Yes. You’re not “moderate” if you need alcohol every weekend. Weekend binges spike cortisol, trash your sleep, and suppress testosterone and muscle recovery for 72+ hours. That means you’re sabotaging Monday through Wednesday trying to undo what you did Friday and Saturday.
If your training happens Monday-Friday and your drinking happens Friday-Saturday, you’re working against yourself 4 days a week. That’s not balance. That’s self-sabotage with a schedule.
“What about red wine? I heard it’s good for heart health.”
That’s marketing, not science. The World Health Organization is clear: there’s no safe level of alcohol for health. Any antioxidant benefits from red wine are cancelled out by the liver damage, hormone disruption, and sleep interference.
You want antioxidants? Eat berries. Don’t poison yourself for resveratrol you can get from grapes.
“How do I handle social pressure when everyone’s drinking?”
Stop caring what they think. Most people don’t actually care what’s in your glass. Order sparkling water with lime. If someone asks, say “I’m not drinking tonight” and move on.
If they push back, that’s their insecurity, not your problem. Your choosing not to drink makes them uncomfortable about their own habits. That’s their issue to fix, not yours.
True mates respect your choices. Anyone who doesn’t isn’t someone whose opinion matters.
“What do I drink instead at social events?”
Sparkling water with lime (looks like G&T)
Kombucha (interesting, actually good for you)
Club soda with bitters
Non-alcoholic beer (if you need the ritual)
The key is having something in your hand and not making a big deal about it. Most people won’t even notice.
“I use alcohol to wind down. What else actually works?”
Alcohol doesn’t reduce stress. It numbs your awareness of stress while increasing cortisol. That’s not winding down, that’s delaying the problem.
What actually works:
20-30 minute walk outside
Sauna or hot bath with Epsom salts
5 minutes of breathwork
Early night with a book
Lifting heavy (properly programmed)
You need real stress management tools, not temporary escapes that create more problems.
“How do I know if I actually have a problem?”
Answer honestly:
Can you easily go 30 days without drinking?
Do you feel awkward at social events without alcohol?
Do you use it to cope with stress or boredom?
Have you tried to cut back but couldn’t stick to it?
If you answered yes to any of these, you’re dependent. You might not be “an alcoholic,” but if you can’t comfortably go without it, alcohol is controlling you.
The question isn’t “Am I an alcoholic?” It’s “Am I in control, or is alcohol controlling me?”
“Won’t I lose muscle if I stop drinking?”
No. You’ll build muscle faster. Alcohol suppresses muscle protein synthesis by up to 37%. When you eliminate it, your body can actually use your training properly instead of spending energy dealing with poison.
Most men see faster strength gains and better recovery within 3-4 weeks of stopping.
“What if I slip up and have a drink?”
Don’t catastrophize it. One drink doesn’t erase your progress. But don’t let it become an excuse to quit entirely. The “screw it, I already messed up” mentality is how one drink becomes a lost weekend.
Acknowledge it. Understand what triggered it. Get back on track immediately. Progress isn’t perfection. It’s about the trajectory.
“What results can I actually expect?”
Week 1:
Better sleep immediately
More energy, clearer thinking
Weeks 2-4:
5-10 lbs (2-4.5 kg) fat loss
Dramatically better recovery
Improved mood and focus
90 Days:
15-25 lbs (7-11 kg) fat loss
Significant strength gains
Normalized hormones
Sustainable habits locked in
These aren’t promises. They’re what happens when you stop poisoning yourself and start training properly.
“My kids will think I’m overreacting, won’t they?”
Your kids model what they see, not what you tell them. When they watch you reach for alcohol every night, they’re learning that adults need alcohol to cope.
Research shows kids of regular drinkers are twice as likely to develop alcohol issues. Your “just one glass” is teaching them that alcohol is how adults handle stress.
If you think that’s overreacting, you’re not paying attention.
“Can I work with you if I’m not ready to quit completely?”
Yes. I meet you where you are. Some guys want to eliminate alcohol completely. Others want to reduce it dramatically and keep it occasional.
What matters is honesty. If you say you’ll cut back but don’t, we need to address that. If you’re serious about results, I’m serious about helping you get them.
But here’s the truth: most guys who cut back end up eliminating it entirely because they realize how much better life is without it.
The Two Paths Forward
You’ve got two options right now.
Option 1: Keep pretending alcohol is harmless. Watch your health, energy, and example decline. Continue the cycle and pass it on to your kids.
Option 2: Take control. Show your family what strength and discipline really look like. Break the cultural conditioning and become the leader you’re capable of being.
Final Word: Where Real Freedom Lives
Addiction doesn’t look like what you think. It’s not just the guy passed out on the couch. It’s the man who can’t enjoy an evening without a drink in his hand. It’s the executive who needs a beer to “wind down” every single night. It’s the father who can’t celebrate without alcohol.
Freedom isn’t in the bottle. It’s in the choice not to need it.
Ready to Take Control?
Your health is your responsibility. Your performance is your responsibility. Your example to your kids is your responsibility. No one will do this for you. But you don’t have to do it alone.
If you want help to reduce and curb your drinking, reach out. I help men lose weight, reclaim their strength, and optimize their health. But more importantly, I get them to think deeply about what they’re doing with their choices — including alcohol.
At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself: am I in control, or is alcohol controlling me?
Article by Andre Obradovic, ICF PCC-level Leadership Coach, Primal Health Coach, Certified Low-Carb Healthy-Fat Coach, and Certified Personal Trainer
