Journey to the Sunnyside

Mike: 00:00

Welcome to Journey to the Sunnyside, the podcast where we have thoughtful conversations to explore the science of habits, uncover the secrets to mindful living, and, of course, inspire your own mindful drinking journey. This podcast is brought to you by Sunny Side, the number one alcohol moderation platform. And if you could benefit from drinking a bit less, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free 15 day trial. I'm your host, Mike Hardenbrook, published author, neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert. Welcome to another one of these 10 minute episodes.

Mike: 00:38

And today, we're gonna get into something I call chasing the buzz. If you're enjoying these, the best way you can support the podcast, and it would really mean a lot to me, is to leave an honest review, whether it be Apple, Spotify, or wherever you're listening. I would really appreciate that. And so without further ado, let's jump into today's topic, which is chasing the buzz. So let me paint a little picture for you, and it might sound all too familiar to you or you've definitely heard it from somebody else.

Mike: 01:07

And that is you get invited to go out. You say, hey. You know what? Tonight's not the night, but hey. What the heck?

Mike: 01:14

I'll go out for 1. And then the next thing you know, you're waking up the next day, and you're saying, what in the heck happened last night? I said I was just gonna go out for a drink, and here I am hungover, feeling bad about myself. I definitely went off the rails last night, and you're wondering why did that happen. And one of the reasons that I think that this happens and it did for me is something called chasing the buzz.

Mike: 01:40

So us as humans, when you're feeling good, we want more, more, more of that feeling. And you go out for a drink and you know what? All of a sudden, you start to feel good. You start to feel loosened up. Alcohol is a depressant.

Mike: 01:53

So all these things that maybe were worrying you that day are sort of melting away. You're in the moment and somebody says, have another round. Sure. Why not? And then another round.

Mike: 02:03

And then all of a sudden, you sort of get caught up in this because you're feeling so good that your instincts tell you, I want more of this. I want more of this good feeling. And what the reality with that is, there's a diminishing return on the feel good, the euphoria that comes from alcohol after a certain point. And then after you've reached that point, it really just doesn't get much better than that as far as euphoria and instead more of the negative consequences physically, potentially, emotionally, or your mood regulation while you're drinking. And then, of course, the next day, there will be higher consequences.

Mike: 02:43

And so I wanna talk about this concept of chasing the buzz, that there is a level that you get to and what that level looks like so that you can recognize, okay. I'm at the point where I'm probably only gonna feel as good as I do right now. And anything after that is just gonna have a negative consequence for me to deal with later. So science has this BAC, blood alcohol content level, that says basically in some estimates that the sweet spot is 0.06. And that's really gonna depend on your body composition, your gender, but that's somewhere in the vicinity of 1 to 3 drinks.

Mike: 03:27

And I think we all sort of know that. But to really hear it and say, you know what? Past this point, I'm probably only gonna have negative consequences, and the rest is just gonna be diminishing returns. And this is as good as it gets. Sort of has a little switch light bulb that goes off when you realize that, when you actually analyze it instead of just saying to yourself, 1 to 3 drinks, you know, I'll have it.

Mike: 03:53

I usually feel pretty good. But to realize that past that point, it's just not gonna be any better, has a positive effect when you're trying to do moderation and be mindful with your drinking. And going back to that story, there's a few other things that are going on with that. Not only do we wanna feel better and, you know, we want more of this, but after an entire day, and I've talked about this before, there's something called decision fatigue. And so throughout the day, we make thousands of conscious and unconscious decisions.

Mike: 04:26

And by the end of the day, literally at a physical level as well with glucose diminishing, our abilities to make better decisions go way down. This is why, you know, you have things like the witching hour. You hear about couples usually fighting in the evening. You're making bad decisions. And so not only are you maybe trying to feel better, but you're also making poor decisions.

Mike: 04:52

So I'll pour one more thing on top of this that's working against us that lends to why this happened in this story, and that is our prefrontal cortex. This is responsible for many things, but definitely for decision making, which is why you always hear about people doing stupid things when they drink. And when I say doing stupid things, we've all done that. Right? And so when that's diminished as far as its capacity, we also have a diminished ability to make good decisions on whether or not we should have another drinker.

Mike: 05:26

And so what does this mean? How do we solve for this? Well, I'm alluded a little bit to it in the thinking of it doesn't get much better than this. So that's one thing that I have learned to do with myself. So when I have a drink or 2 and I'm thinking, you know what?

Mike: 05:43

That third one sitting in the refrigerator sure sounds nice right now. I start to remind myself, you know what? It just really doesn't get better than this. So if you go for that 3rd beer, you're probably not gonna feel any better, and you're only gonna feel worse tomorrow. So that's the first tip that I give is just to remind yourself that, you know what?

Mike: 06:04

Once I get to this point, I already know that some of the science says that point 0 6, whatever that is. And by the way, you can go online and find a calculator and find exactly what that is for your size, weight, gender. And you know that somewhere in that vicinity, and you can guess it, of course, that that's gonna be the best you can get. And so remind yourself, this is it. That's the best it's gonna get.

Mike: 06:29

And so that's one tip. So once we realize that, hey, we're telling ourselves this is the best it probably will get. There's some other strategies that we can use that we've talked about, but I think that this really lends itself to this story that I'm telling here. And that is we can pace ourselves so that we can maintain that level for a longer amount of time. We're not trying to exceed it.

Mike: 06:53

So first strategy would be what's called zebra striping. So that would just basically have an alcoholic drink, have a nonalcoholic drink, have an alcoholic drink, have a nonalcoholic drink. And so you're alternating between those like a zebra stripes. And so that's gonna slow it down. Another strategy you could do, if you're somebody like me who drinks everything really fast, it doesn't matter if it's alcoholic or nonalcoholic.

Mike: 07:17

I drink everything pretty fast. And that is to opt for a low alcohol content beverage. So you could drink maybe twice as much. I'm starting to see them in the shelves now, like, 2% alcohol. You could have the bartender pour you a half shot basically instead of a full shot for your drinks, or you could get in in a taller glass.

Mike: 07:38

But basically, lower the ABV on that, and you can still consume and feel like you're having as much. Maybe you're still getting that buzz, but you're lowering the consequences the next day. And then another thing that we already know here at Sunnyside is planning and tracking. So you can really plan out exactly how much you want to drink ahead of time. You're making this with your full prefrontal cortex, and you can track it as you go.

Mike: 08:06

So you know how many drinks you're having. You're not just caught up in the moment talking. You're realizing, okay. I've already had this much. So make sure that you're planning ahead so that you're making this commitment, and you don't have to make those decisions while you're actually drinking.

Mike: 08:21

And then you're tracking it, of course, so you know exactly where you are. So the final thing I'll leave you with, which is this is something I sort of came up and developed myself, and I've told some of my friends and they found it helpful. So I wanna share it here. And that is going back to our story, and I think many people here can relate. But I know for myself, when I wake up the next day if I had too much, I remember all the times that I regret having that extra shot or having that drink or going to the after hours party or just opening another bottle of wine that was sitting on the counter when I should've just turned the TV off and gone to bed.

Mike: 08:58

And so I remember all the times that I have regretted having the extra drink. But then in reverse, I try and think of when are all the times that I've gone out, and I've said to myself the next day, you know what? I really regret not having that extra drink. I really regret not taking those shots at the bar. I really regret not opening the bottle on the counter and having more before I fell asleep.

Mike: 09:25

And when I think of those, there's no instances of those. I never regret not having another drink. And so if you're finding yourself, maybe I should have another drink. Go back to that default that I told you about and just say, this is as good as it gets, and I'm not gonna regret passing on this drink. Alright.

Mike: 09:46

That's it for today. I hope you found these tips useful. I'd love to hear your feedback. Again, send me an email anytime, mike@sunnyside.co, and I hope you have a great week. This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the number one alcohol moderation platform, having helped 100 of 1000 of people cut out more than 13,000,000 drinks since 2020.

Mike: 10:10

And in fact, an independent study showed that Sunnyside reduced alcohol consumption by an average of 30% in 90 days. And as one of our members shared, Sunnyside helps me stay mindful of my drinking habits. It's not super restrictive. So if I'm craving a glass of wine with dinner, I just track it and I move on with my week. If you could benefit from drinking a bit less and being more mindful of when and how much you drink, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free 15 day trial.

Mike: 10:41

You'll get access to everything that we offer, including tracking and planning tools, coaching from our experts, a vibrant community of people just like you, and the motivation and advice to stay on track with your health goals, all with no pressure to quit. That's sunnyside.co.