The Healthiest "Pint" You'll Ever Have!

If Guinness is good for you, goodness wise this pint is off the scale.

Well here it is. This is my attempt at the healthiest "pint" ever. And they don't sell THIS at your local boozer! What you see here is a handful of spinach, a fresh beetroot, an inch of broccoli stem, an apple, a carrot freshly juiced with a tablespoon of spirulina.

You can't really make it out in the photo but the colour the a very dark crimson with a creamy consistency a bit like Guinness (its even got a bit of a head). If you check out the top view photo, left, the juice was actually bubbling (this doesn't happen with Guinness!).

There is probably some scientific reason for this, but I reckon there is "something" happening in the juice - maybe its the goodness bursting out!

Juicing Raw Beetroot (and carrots, and apples, and lemon...)

Beer vs. Beetroot? Trust me - this stuff is a million times nicer better for you than beer!

You'd be hard pushed to find any as super nutritious as freshly juiced beetroot. We're talking raw beetroot here, green stalks and all - not the boiled vinegary variety that used to appear on my school dinner plate (along with a couple of slices of corned beef and and ice cream scoop of lumpy mash).

All you need to do is juice one beetroot along with a few carrots, apples and an inch or so of lemon and you've got yourself a delicious drink to pour over ice.

A glass of this is going to give you more goodness than most people get in a day. You can almost taste the health oozing out of this stuff, and within 15 minutes of drinking it it will enter your system and start doing you good.

The list of the benefits of the good stuff goes on and on and your fresh beets are full of antioxidants and nutrients, including magnesium, sodium, potassium and vitamin C.

Cyclists taking part in a University of Exeter study who drank a pint of the juice were able to cycle 20% longer than those that drank a placebo of blackcurrant juice. Wikipedia has a really good overview of the effects of beetroot juice.

Here in Scotland I buy my beetroot at Morrisons  which has probably the best fruit and veg section of any supermarket. Remember to go for the fresh stuff - I juice the green stalks too. So get juicing and here's to good health!

The Dry Boak - and Four Other Things I Won't Miss About Alcohol

1. Waking up with a mouth like a badgers...

This is when you wake up and somehow or other your tongue has been replaced by the rear end of a specific member of the weasel family (the one with the black and white face). And what's this? It appears fairies have fitted a very small Persian rug in your mouth in the night.

Its almost as if thistles, or a bed of nettles perhaps, did sprout there in the night. Then there's your tongue - it has stuck to the top of your mouth, and you make "tcha tcha" sound to make sure its not welded itself there for good. Colgate and plenty of it does the trick - but you won't see this in a toothpaste commercial.

2(a) The Boak

This has happened to us all (even those who claim they don't get sick when they drink, the liars!). It happens near the end of heavy drinking, which can actually have beneficial effect of at least a bit of that alcohol before bed. It can even happen during the night...you wake up from your peaceful slumber and "no, no, no, no!" you need to dash to the "great white telephone" (the toilet) for you have received a call! A more serious variation of the said boak can happen the morning after, which leads me on to item 2(a)...

2(b) The Dry Boak

This is the demented evil twin of item 2(a) and a gazillion times worse. You would welcome back 2(a) with open arms if you knew this was coming. Just imagine (or even better - remember) the scene - you are lying there with the drouth from hell, like a bag of washing, like a burst ball - and then suddenly you feel you want to be sick. But lo and behold, there's nothing left to come up! In certain parts of Scotland this is known as the "dry boak". But that is because you've already done your boaking - your all boaked out! I believe when this happens you are suffering from borderline alcohol poisoning. Which also happens a lot in certain parts of Scotland.

3. The "Fear"

This is related to one of my earlier posts on hangover anxiety. It is when you awaken from your peaceful slumber, a slightly odd dreamless sleep - but there is something else not right. Something doesn't add up. Something you just...can't explain. Then you remember you had a monumental skin full the night before. The small matter of that very large amount of alcohol that you consumed previously. But wait! There's other things, something worse - nagging things! Did you make a fool of yourself the night before?  Did you text someone or something you shouldn't have. Did you do a million other weird and wonderful things? You check your outgoing calls and texts...nothing. You check your Facebook status...nothing untoward. You think you were okay...but were you? You don't know for sure...and yes it is irrational...because that is the nature of THE FEAR!

4. Pockets Full of Shrapnel

Pockets overflowing with coins. Not just a few ten and twenty pence pieces - this is copious amounts of inconvenient change clanging around your pockets, strewn across tables and the bedside cabinet, in your wallet...everywhere. Now lots of change lying around wouldn't normally be such a bad thing. But only hours before these little emblems of Her Majesty were in their original paper form - lovely crisp green and pink notes - hard cash - with eh, slightly bigger pictures of the Queen on them. And now there's tuppence, a bitter sweet reminder of how much you spent last night.

None of the above are particularly pleasant. But then drinking way too much is not a pleasant business:

Who are the people who are always crying the blues?

    Who do you know who reeks of self-pity?

Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all?

    Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?

It’s those who spend the night with a bottle,

    for whom drinking is serious business.

(Proverbs 23:29-30, MSG)

Teetotal Celebs

I didn't realise I was in such good company!

Wikipedia's list of "celebrity teetotallers" is a bit of an eye opener. Among the celebs listed are Ronaldo, Elton John and Jessie J. Billy Connolly, Fearne Cotton and even John the Baptist are on the list.

Adam Clayton, the bass player from U2, gave up booze in 1993 when he was so hungover he had to miss a gig in Sydney. Meanwhile former US president George. W. Bush says he quit drinking after alcohol began to zap his energy (he also goes for a good long run every morning).

Scottish tennis player Andy Murray also doesn't touch the hard stuff - and he won Olympic gold and silver medals last year. Good health and clarity of mind are obviously an advantage out on the tennis court.

So its good to know that I've joined this prestigious list of the rich and famous, at least until the end of 2013!

Hangover Anxiety

What I call "hangover anxiety" is one of a number of key reasons why I have made the decision to kick the booze for 2013.

I believe that unless you've really experienced true anxiety they day after heavy drinking it is difficult to imagine what it is like. It's also difficult to explain, especially as most of the feelings are often completely irrational!

Imagine your worst feelings of the post alcohol blues and multiply them by a hundred!

I would describe it as, after heavy drinking:

- Intense anxiety and depression that come in waves, especially after waking.
- Feelings that you've said/done something daft, silly or otherwise embarrassing under the influence of booze - even when you know you haven't.
- Feeling really guilty about the amount you drank, the amount of money you spent, or the time you've wasted drinking and being hungover.
- Waking up very early the morning after drinking with feelings of worry.
- Loss of confidence.
- Feelings of despair, fear or panic.
- A combination of the above!

Add to this the physical exhaustion caused by heavy drinking and you have a truly miserable combination, lasting sometimes more than a day.

I didn't experience this every time I drank, but every now and again I did experience anxiety to different extents, usually after particularly heaving drinking that went late into the night (I believe the lack if sleep was also a contributory factor).

I also felt it worse after drinking darker coloured drinks e.g. Guinness or red wine, or after mixing drinks.

If you are feeling hangover anxiety right now, know that it will pass. Drink lots of water, eat something healthy and rest as much as you can.

If drink causes you to feel like this regularly maybe it is time to quit. Imagine if, take for example - eating too much cake - made you feel this way, you probably wouldn't eat cake.

But alcohol is a different entity all together!

So I'm looking forward to a year of being free from the dreaded hangover anxiety!

Day Four

Just a quick post to say that the year without beer continues, and much easier than expected so far!

I'm looking forward to being booze and hangover free for 2013!

Are you thinking of giving up alcohol for 2013?

Make a public commitment to staying off the booze. Tell your friends on Facebook or start a blog.

But don't let anyone persuade you to that its a bad idea or that you somehow can't do it. If you want a break from alcohol go for it!

Day One...

Here we have a photograph of my last beer, consumed at 23:59 on 31st December 2012. I don't usually take photos of my drinks but this unassuming can of Fosters represents my last indulgence in the amber nectar until 2014.

I actually drank four of these on New Year's Eve, and as the world charged their glasses for 2013 I was draining mine, drinking the last drops seconds before the bells, and setting the empty can on the coffee table on the stroke of midnight.

And that was it. No more beer for a year.

The reasons? Basically this is all down to health and hangovers. I want more of the former and none of the latter. I'm feeling good about this decision, but I know it won't always be easy.

Yesterday, while preparing New Year's Day dinner and getting ready for a family visit I, had the first familiar twinges of "fancying a beer", I had stacked a few to chill in the fridge for guests, and with it being holiday time the fact that it was two in the afternoon wouldn't usually have stopped me. But within a minute or two the thought was gone, the year without beer continued!

So an evening of partying with family. Lots of food and the drink flowing. My first challenge. But I kept on the soft drinks and fruit juice, and I felt great at the end of the evening with events finishing up in the early hours.

So that was it! Day one of no booze ended on a healthy and sober note, so far so good!