Before quitting alcohol, you need to know this (before it's too late)

So I'm not even quite sure how to say this , but the other day I was this close to just crying , throwing in the towel , saying fuck it , all , I'm done . And listen .

If you're trying to stop drinking alcohol right now , you need to listen to what just happened to me , because I can assure you of one thing what I've just experienced is exactly the same as what it's like to stop drinking Now . I did stop drinking six years ago and I've helped hundreds of people do it in a coaching program . But listen , I'm not perfect .

I'm human , just like you , so let me share what just happened . So I live in Dubai and right now it's summer and it is hot . It gets seriously hot . You can't walk outside . I can't anyway . My skin is way too fair . If I go outside for more than five minutes , I'll come back looking like a lobster , and I'm not going to lie .

All you can really do in the summer here are indoor activities , or at least that's what I thought . So in Dubai there's a lot of air conditioned things that you can do .

I mean , people go to malls where there's cinemas , there's restaurants , there's even an indoor skiing area there know , there's things to do , but not spending much time outside kind of gets you down . And I'm in a relationship , so my girlfriend lives with me here in Dubai and she doesn't work , she stays home , she takes care of the house .

That setup just works really well for us . But this time last year we actually lived in an apartment and we stayed for quite a lot of the summer last year as well , and it just got miserable , like being stuck indoors all day . But what we realized is that if we don't get out of the house at least once per day , we get this cabin fever right .

We don't like it , we annoy each other and so on and so forth .

So my girlfriend and I have done CrossFit now for a few years and when we chose the place that we lived , we looked at where the best gym was and we actually got the place that we live right now to be be close to the gym , because everything just goes better when we're in a gym that we like , where we like the staff , we like the clients , we like

everybody else in the gym , especially with something like CrossFit , where it's a lot of group exercise , there's classes , there's people training with each other . When we have that , our life is just so much better . We're happier , our relationship is better , everything's better when we're living close to a gym .

And what we decided to do is we decided to start resetting our sleep schedule so we're waking up at 5.30am to get to the gym at 6.30am , so we're getting some more time outdoors when it's not so uncomfortable .

See , if you go to the gym at 12 o'clock , even just driving there , it's like you get in the car and I'm telling you , your back's stuck to the seat , you're instantly dripping in sweat the moment that you step out of the house . So at least going early in the morning it's a little bit more comfortable , especially if there's any kind of running outside .

You know , today we were up at 4.45am and then we drove 30km away from our house to a lake and then we did a 10km run at 5.30am in the morning . And you know , listen , I've never done this before . I'm not trying to say like I'm one of those crazy people that does this their whole life .

I've never been this guy to get up early , but everything just feels better when we get a bit of time outdoors .

But I'll be honest with you , when we decided to do this , when we decided , right , let's wake up 5.30am , let's get to the gym , and then , you know , do what we've got to do after that , those first few days that I was resetting my sleep schedule , it was hell , like there's no other way to put it .

I was cranky , I was overly sensitive , I was sleep deprived , I couldn't fall asleep . And then , to add on to that is I'd stopped drinking coffee . So I was getting some crazy insomnia where I'd wake up three or four times a night . And , you know , I'd get to like 3pm and I was just sat on the couch like I can't even think . I'm just broken .

But I knew what I was going through . I knew that , even if I didn't feel 100% , I gave myself a bit of leeway . I didn't go hard on myself , I didn't try and make myself , you know , make a bunch of YouTube videos or something like that . I just said , okay , it's all good , but that trade-off , those few days of discomfort , have been so worth it .

Today I'm on a bit of a high because I've been up , I've ran , I've done 10 kilometers and I just feel awesome . But doesn't this story sound kind of familiar ? Because it certainly does for me . This isn't the first time I've gone through a period like this . See , when it comes to stopping drinking alcohol , we're doing the exact same thing .

There's an outcome that we want , there's an ideal , there's a version of us that we want to be , and then there's this barrier , which is alcohol , which is actually giving up alcohol , that we need to get through to become that person , and we have to make some trade-offs . But don't you realise that when you stop drinking alcohol , the same thing happens ?

Right , we don't feel great for a few days . You know , for some people they feel a bit sick . Right , they feel like they've got the flu . They just don't feel 100% . And listen , I'm not talking about severe withdrawal here , but most people that give up alcohol have some level of withdrawal .

Obviously , people that are getting severe withdrawals , it's going to be even worse . They might have to do it under medical supervision at a detox facility , and then it can continue . We can get a few weeks where we're not falling asleep .

We can just lie there in bed , staring at the ceiling , sleeping an hour a night , and those first one to two weeks we feel defeated . It just sucks . I'm not here to sugarcoat that . I'm not here to say that the first few days , the first few weeks of stopping drinking is going to be a walk in the park .

Now , I was lucky that most of my drinking was binge drinking . It wasn't a high amount of alcohol drank sustained for a long period of time . So when I drank alcohol it was just maybe one or two days where I felt terrible and then I was better .

But those one or two days or maybe for you it might be one or two weeks , I don't know but that trade-off that you make those few days , do you understand the gain that you get from that trade-off ? Look , I spent a few days resetting my sleep schedule and not drinking coffee and feeling bad to just be able to go to the gym in the morning .

There's a pretty good gain . But that gain is nothing compared to the gain that you get when you stop drinking alcohol . The few days or weeks that you spend detoxing and withdrawing and just getting your sleep back on track after you stop drinking alcohol , the gains that you get dwarf anything .

See , when you drink alcohol , I don't think that there is anything else that you can do , whether it's cleaning up your diet , starting an exercise regime , starting a business , anything that you can do that could improve your life .

I don't think there's a single thing that an alcohol drinker can do that's going to get bigger benefits in two to 14 days than quitting drinking . Seriously nothing . And if you think there's something better that a drinker could do to improve their life , then leave me a comment , put a comment down in the description . I would love to hear from you .

But when I drank alcohol , there was nothing I could do to get bigger gains than quit drinking . But I just want to promise you I know it can be scary , it can be hard , there can be a lot of fear , but you can do this .

And that version of you that you want to be , the version of you that's happy , that's lean , that's clear-minded , that's fun to be around , that people want to be around , that's putting out these great vibes all the time , the version of you that's leading others , that's crushing life , that version of you exists on the other side of this little period of discomfort

and it's so worth it , it's so , so worth it . And , like I said , if you want help doing it , I'm accepting new clients right now . So if you click the link in the description , you can watch a short video and then book a call and we can see if the program could be helpful for you .

But I promise you one thing you can do this If you've made it this far in this video . I believe in you so much . Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking podcast by Sober Clear . If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking effortlessly , then make sure to visit wwwsoberclearcom .