I haven’t had alcohol in 4 or 5 months over her (except when I was sick and ran out of Nyquil…then I had a beer to help put me to sleep). I have to admit; in a lot of ways it sucks b/c not drinking assuredly decreases the ?fun level? of college. I know I can maintain my grades if I drink but I know the effects of alcohol and it keeps me from drinking. It’s kind of a conundrum; the more we know about the harmful effects of something; AND HOW TO COUNTER it; the less we do it (well not in the case of everyone). For example; through trial and error I’ve found it’s extremely easy to counter getting hangovers.
To illustrate this I am going to present my little case study.
When I came back to school this semester before I bought my house I stayed with a few friends at their apartment. Regardless I ended up not lifting or following proper nutritional habits for a period of 2 or 3 months. I also drank quite a bit more than usual during this period. Further; I had never had a serious hangover or anything more than thirst the next day post-drinking prior to this. Strangely though I started getting hangovers almost every time I drank from this period on; even from minor alcohol consumption.
From this I started analyzing why this was happening. I noticed that for one I was only generally eating one big meal a day and then some horrible junk food thereafter. Also b/c of my lack of drinking protein shakes during this period (I generally go through 6lbs of protein powder a week…so 5 or 6 shakes a day with 16-20 oz of water adds up); I wasn’t obtaining enough fluids and my urine was neither voluminous or light in color.
Fast-forward a few months later upon which moving out I took my nutrition back to its baseline, good-habit level. I went from emptying my bladder once or twice a day to emptying it 10x a day (as I normally do b/c of my fluid intake). I also had dramatically increased my protein consumption (if you’re vegetarian and don’t eat soy or drink shakes your protein intake is going to be very low as it was during my “bad” period). I drank on two more occasions during this period before I completely forsaked alcohol. The end result was that even though I was drinking even more alcohol on these nights compared to the other period I was not getting hangovers.
So after this I started analyzing this because our bodies are our own little pieces of data (or at least I like to consider my body a piece of data for my mind). I thought about why alcohol makes us drunk, etc. I came to this theoretical conclusion:
For one, alcohol lowers protein synthesis. Thus if you have inadequate protein intake during the day you’re much more likely to acquire a hangover; whereas too much protein should compensate for the lowered levels. Also due to alcohols effects on vasopressin (ADK) (aka anti-diuretic hormone), you lose extra fluid to decreased levels of it circulating in your system. So if you don’t have enough fluid in your system and am not eating a proper diet with enough minerals to maintain a proper osmotic concentration in your blood plasma you’re screwed. So basically you can counter the effects of a hangover with proper planning.
Plan ahead before you drink; if you’re cutting approximate how many calories you will be taking in with alcohol ahead of time.
Eat protein at regular intervals.
Eat whole foods before you drink and while you drink; e.g. maintain your normal diet while you drink (this will also help prevent drunk munchies) for this will lower the rate of the digestion of alcohol…sort of like eating a lower glycemic-index of a food and thus spreading the effect of it out over time.
Drink a protein shake before you go to bed. This is pivotal.
Maintain proper fluid intake while you drink. Do not count beer as having water. Sorry
Since alcohol prevents you from entering deep sleep stages it is probably a good idea to take zinc and magnesium to help counter this. Also b/c of alcohol lowering Testosterone output (therefore in turn increasing LH output making you horny); ZMA might be a really good idea to help restore baseline testosterone levels.
I still occasionally drink with friends but limit the amount far more than I used to. At most I will have around 4 drinks but that will spread out over 4 to 5 hours.
I think the main thing is to get pletny of water and to get protein before bed instead of a Roberto’s run.
I wish I had my friend’s genetics. He went from about 205 at 20% bodyfat to 200 at 5% bodyfat (caliper measured) while increasing his bench by about 100 pounds in a little over a year. He did this while sleeping about 5 hours a night and drinking about 10 drinks every other night. His advice to me was to drink whisky instead of beer as it contained fewer calories. Amazing recovery abilities.
Interesting observations. Heres mine.
I have never known anyone to suffer a negative consequence from not drinking.
I have known several people who have died because they wouldn’t stop.
If you are trying to avoid any negative side effects of drinking but still drinking, you need to seriously consider why you drink.
I go to meetings with doctors and other health professionals that would put your observational abilities and knowledge to shame. They knew what was happeening but were powerless to stop.
You can think yourself into it, but you can’t think yourself out of it.
Draw your own conclusions.
So if I get really smashed and somehow remember to have a shake before bedtime, and somehow remember to have my ZMA at least 30 minutes separated from my shake (assuming you take Low-Carb Grow!) then you’re telling me that no matter how much booze I have, I won’t have a hangover?
What happens if you’re so drunk that you puke this stuff up before you even go to bed? And I don’t know about you, but when you drink a lot, you never really “plan” when you’re gonna go to bed. What if you’re walking to the kitchen to make your shake and your body decides to go to bed right there in the hallway (this is called passing out)?
I have an idea, if you’re too dumb to know when to stop drinking, you’ll be hungover, if you know your limit, you won’t have a hangover. Simple? I thought so.
BTW, I don’t think “forsaked” is a real word. “Forsook” is the one you’re looking for.
If you need to plan things out before you go out boozing then perhaps you need to take a step back and evaluate your habits. I am not saying that you are an alcoholic but if you feel that you have to do a bunch of things to counter the side effects of alcohol consumption then you are probably not on the right track.
When i drink my thought process tends to be less supplement related. Its more of a “I gotta find a girl and put the pipe to her” kind of thinking. Which leads me to another thought. if one were to bring a young lady home after a night of drinking, would one really give a shit about supplementation. If i am ripping clothing off a buxom blonde, taking a break to pop some ZMA and drink a shake would not be number one on my list of priorities. Just a thought
OK! I think I was misunderstood a bit…I don’t drink! This is for everyone else that does. The last time I even had alcohol was like 4 or 5 months ago…and even then I think I drank 4 or 5x total last semester. Normally if I ever drink it’s 2 or 3x a year. I was never a big drinker to start with and as soon as I read Berardi’s Big T article I pretty much stopped altogether.
There
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but give PP a break! He’s trying to be helpful and share the things he has found work for him if he is going to get shitfaced drunk and wants to avoid a hangover the next day.
Sheesh, some of you guys need to chill out a little. I enjoy getting hammered every now and then, it’s fun and it helps with banging the fat girls.
These other guys are haters. I personally appreciate what you wrote. If I could find a way to drink, yet stay lean, big, strong, and not gain fat, I would be all about it.
Also, these guys are totally wrong. If they believe that you cannot “plan” your drinking, than maybe they are drink too much. I can totally plan my drinking.
[quote]jakewnet44 wrote:
When i drink my thought process tends to be less supplement related. Its more of a “I gotta find a girl and put the pipe to her” kind of thinking. Which leads me to another thought. if one were to bring a young lady home after a night of drinking, would one really give a shit about supplementation. If i am ripping clothing off a buxom blonde, taking a break to pop some ZMA and drink a shake would not be number one on my list of priorities. Just a thought[/quote]
Do you need to get drunk, or have a drunk girl to get laid? I know it helps . . . but just wondering. Some of us do alright without it.
[quote]Joe Weider wrote:
BFG wrote:
At which point during a fun-filled night of drinking would you suggest that one have sex with their dog?
BFG
beat me to it.
and damned if I can come up with anything else.
Oh no…has the insult well run dry?
Oh. My. God.
[/quote]
PP and Joe Weider need to start a stage show. PP just needs to be himself and Joe Weider just needs to respond to everything PP says. It would be a very funny show.
