What Your 4th of July Really Revealed About Your Drinking
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, your own mindful drinking journey. This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, 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 fifteen day trial. I'm your host, Mike Hartenbrook, published author, neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert. Hey, everyone.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another one of these ten minute Mondays. I'm Mike Hartenbrook, and today we just came out of the fourth of July weekend. And if you're like most people in our Sunnyside community, you probably noticed a few things. Maybe you were proud. You paced yourself.
Speaker 1:You took nights off. You woke up clear headed, or maybe you went the other way. Maybe the weekend totally got away from you. But either way, there's still a lot that we can learn from these big social stretches, way more than you'd pick up maybe on a random Tuesday and a random month like March where there's nothing really going on. So today, I wanna break down why weekends like this are an opportunity because they're a little bit like a pressure test on how things are going.
Speaker 1:They are not the end all be all, so don't take it that way. It doesn't mean because it didn't go perfect this weekend that that's how things are going. Sometimes we just make mistakes, but we're gonna use it on how to look at what really happened without beating yourself up, very important, but also equally important, how to actually celebrate the stuff when you did it right. And then we're gonna get into some of the practical ways to set yourself up for the rest of the summer. But if the July 4 did present some challenges to you, it might be able to show you and shed some light on some patterns that maybe run deeper than most of us maybe stop to notice on the regular off chance weekend, and that's what we're gonna get into today.
Speaker 1:So anytime that we're in full summer mode here, we might have more back to back celebrations. We have looser routines. We're maybe not focusing so much on maybe those New Year's resolutions. Maybe there's barbecues. People are pouring drinks at 2PM.
Speaker 1:Anytime we have things like this, it sort of strips away all the external guardrails that usually keep your drinking maybe a little bit more in check. You know, we don't have the alarm set for work the next morning on these long weekends. There's no kids carpool. There's no big presentation to worry about. It's a lot of free space, and that's when your real relationship with alcohol can sometimes surprise us in not the best ways.
Speaker 1:Okay. So rewinding a little bit, let's go through a couple scenarios. So for example, maybe you caught your brain anticipating the drinks before the weekend even actually started. Like, on Thursday night, you're already thinking about that first sip or maybe what you're going to drink that evening or for the weekend. And we already know in some of our past episodes that that is really just your reward system already lighting up in anticipation because dopamine actually spikes with anticipation not only after that first drink.
Speaker 1:And it's something called anticipatory salience, and that's why just thinking about drinking can set up a craving and potentially, in some people's cases, set off a craving to go against what we actually had planned. So that might be one scenario. Another would be maybe you felt more pulled to a dream because everyone else around you was. You know, that's so so common, and social modeling is huge. Studies show that people drink up to 30% more in groups simply because it normalizes the pace.
Speaker 1:Or maybe, for example, you found it tough to slow down once you started, and we already know that's not about lacking discipline because alcohol literally lowers activity in your prefrontal cortex, and that's the part of your brain that controls planning and impulse breaking. So after that first drink, your ability to moderate automatically drops at a chemical level. And none of this means that, of course, you're weak or you're broken or you're doing a bad job. It's just how alcohol in big social settings can sometimes hijack normal brain wiring that we would never do in another environment. Then there's a few things around these big weekends to take note of, you know, even if you stuck to your goals.
Speaker 1:And that is that a few days after these big weekends, we can have a letdown because these big weekends, well, they can be a little bit rough on our body, and they can cause our sleep to get thrown off. We can cause our guts to feel, you know, unsettled, and even cravings and cortisol can spike. Even if you didn't go overboard, your body's still cleaning out that alcohol and what it leaves behind. So there is kind of this emotional drop. We build up these big holidays so much.
Speaker 1:You know? Of course, there's fireworks. We have parties. We were all in anticipation for it. Lots of food.
Speaker 1:And then it's all it's all done. And now your dopamine's dialing it back a little bit, and your body's kinda worn out. I know mine is worn out, especially after the three hour traffic jam that I was stuck in because we decided to go up to Breckenridge from Denver and drive back to Denver. And, yeah, I won't do that again. But, basically, normal life can feel a little bit flat after that.
Speaker 1:And that contrast is sharp right after these weekends. And that's why a lot of us need to take note of this because we can actually feel tempted to reach for more drinks in the days that follow just by trying to kind of smooth things out. So we need to really take notice not only what happened on the weekend, but our plan coming out of those weekends. But these big weekends, they actually could be one of the best possible times to learn because this is when you get really, really clear to look at what your patterns might be when you're out of your normal daily habits because normal weeks at home don't test you the same way as the holidays do. And like I said, don't measure everything on how you did in one weekend.
Speaker 1:Of course, everybody gets a Mulligan card. You know? Not everything's gonna go as planned, but it does give us a lot of insight. So here's what I'd encourage you to do this week is run a quick, honest postgame of your fourth of July. And when exactly did you want the drinks the most?
Speaker 1:What was it about it? Was it stress relief? Was it wanting to celebrate? Was it maybe feeling awkward moments or maybe even boredom? Maybe you didn't have much going on.
Speaker 1:And did you keep drinking just because everyone else was or because it was simply there? You know, there's research that shows that just having alcohol within reach dramatically ups how much we consume. And that's actually just kind of human wiring. So if that was one of your challenges, you know, maybe just take note of, maybe I can have that within reach for maybe as long or without a better plan in place. Now you heard me say it twice already.
Speaker 1:You know, don't make conclusions off a single weekend. These big weekends, they do give us an opportunity, especially to be pressure tested in places where we might not yet fully trust ourselves. But either way, I don't want you to overread a single weekend however it turned out. If it got away from you, that doesn't mean that you're back to square one. Again, we always say that's a data point.
Speaker 1:It's something that you can learn from. And if you nailed it the other direction and you stuck to your plan and you feel great, amazing. But that also doesn't mean that everything is magically locked in forever either. It's really your patterns over the next few weeks and months that will shape your sleep, your cravings, your overall relationship with you drinking because it's about the consistency in the long term. But this is gonna give us some information a little bit more magnified, And that's where the real progress lives is just looking at how things went and coming up with a plan moving forward.
Speaker 1:And also, don't wanna put all the emphasis on, you know, if things didn't go as planned. Because if you're listening and you're thinking, actually, did pretty damn good this weekend. Maybe you took the nights off. Maybe you alternated NA drinks or just felt way more in control. I don't want you to blow past this weekend like it was a win and just shovel it behind you.
Speaker 1:You know, most of us are wired to skip over those wins and go hunting for problems or new challenges. But there's something solid in the neuroscience around why you shouldn't do that, and it's called reward prediction error. So when you stop to actually recognize, Hey, I did differently and it felt really good, your brain then encodes that change more deeply and it strengthens those new pathways, which is going to make it easier to do it again. So if you did well, tell a friend, write it down, you know, quietly celebrate, or just pause and let yourself feel really good, I don't know, for sixty seconds. You're literally wiring the new habit when you do that.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I've been bouncing around a little bit, and you might be saying, okay. I get it. That makes sense. So what now?
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, keep tracking your nights off. Keep tracking your drinks. One of the coolest things in Sunnyside is seeing how members actually bounce back after big weekends and start stacking those wins again. Because a lot of people will think that one bad weekend will undo everything. As I mentioned a few minutes ago, absolutely does not do that.
Speaker 1:And it's all about the consistency, you know, over the next couple days, week, couple weeks, you know, your sleep's gonna improve, your cortisol is gonna get more steady, your cravings will level out. And watch for those little rebounds too, because studies on alcohol and cortisol show that your stress hormones can stay elevated for a day or two after drinking, so be mindful of that if you're feeling like not yourself or maybe trying to make these big conclusions. No. Don't do that. Don't make any life decisions about yourself or conclusions.
Speaker 1:You might feel a little bit wired at night, or you might feel like you need to take the edge off midweek. But just knowing that it's temporary is gonna make it easier. And of course, you can plan for those. You can use urge surfing, breath work, watch a funny movie, or an action movie, or whatever you like. Do something for yourself and have a plan in place.
Speaker 1:You don't have to lose the confidence and trust in yourself. You can still start thinking about the summer and the next social event. And just also alongside that, start thinking about what are the small adjustments? What can I learn for the next time? You know, it could be as simple as putting an NA option that you actually enjoy and will drink.
Speaker 1:Maybe if you're bringing your drinks, can put fewer of the alcohol beverages in there or a low alcohol option. Maybe stick closer to friends who you know don't drink as much, and just little tiny changes can lead to totally different outcomes. So the bottom line here, your fourth of July weekend was a little bit of a snapshot into how things are going under pressure. And it shows you where maybe you were strong. It maybe shows you where you still need some time to figure things out and what you might want to tweak for the next time.
Speaker 1:And that's not something to feel bad about. That's not what any of this is for. It's something to be glad that you actually are taking pause and that you can actually see and make changes for because that's where gratitude comes from. Today, I have the opportunity to do better than I did yesterday. Most people float through the summer on autopilot.
Speaker 1:You're here. You're paying attention. You're listening to this podcast. That's rare. Give yourself credit.
Speaker 1:Give yourself a pat on the back even if it's not exactly how you wanted it to go. And so I wanna close this one out with an invitation to you. You know, if you've got your own story about how your fourth went, maybe it's the wins, maybe it's the hard parts, it's the surprises, Send them my way. I'd love to hear it or even answer your questions on a future episode. Send an email to Mike@Sunnyside.co.
Speaker 1:And, of course, if you could take a minute and leave a review, if you found any value in this podcast, Again, that would mean the world to me. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a beautiful week, and cheers to your mindful drinking journey. This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, 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 fifteen day trial.
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