Being Cognizant: Alcohol

A series about the ways I work towards being cognizant through decisions that make me more mentally engaged with various facets of my day-to-day life.

Cognizance (noun): Awareness, realization, notice, knowledge, perception.

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I've had a fairly active social life over the past three months.

This is a significant change of pace after a good two or three years of going-out dormancy, for the most part. I took pleasure in the recluse lifestyle and recoiled at invitations to stay out past 11:00pm - 11:00pm is when one should be lying down in bed, not getting down on dance floors.

Three years ago I took full advantage of the part-time employment schedule and spent many a night out on the town, and experienced little distress when this changed. However, these past months have reminded me that I have a dancing bug inside me that infects me with pleasure and wiggling hips when it is awoken. Often, this bug is triggered by a few drinks in preparation for going out.

I consider myself to be a health-conscious individual: I go to the gym regularly, I eat my fruits and vegetables and protein and all of that good stuff, I drink whole lot of agua, I avoid overly sugary things (80% of the time). However, alcohol is something that defies all of these other principled decisions I make for my body and mind - it is not healthy in any way! So, if I am to consume it - especially in more-than-just-social quantities, I take care to do it with cognizance.


1. WATER. I drink water most of the day every day all the time - I do not stop when there is alcohol. At least every two drinks I throw back a full glass to keep my body hydrated and to prevent terrible headaches and nausea the following day. Alcohol does not exactly quench thirst, and water helps to counter its effects to a degree.

2. MOVE. Most of the time, I don't want to bother having any alcohol if I am not going to do a great deal of moving around - walking all over the place is one way to do it, but my favourite is to dance. Sitting down and drinking can be fun, but it often leads to unexpected levels of intoxication and it just sits inside you and doesn't go anywhere! With water and movement I keep the alcohol moving through me and often avoid rough mornings. Plus, dancing is basically leg day at the gym AND cardio combined - I actually refrain from exercise on days when I am to go dancing later, because my muscles will be sore.

3. STOP. Eventually. There comes a time when I can just ride on the energy level that I've reached, and drinking anything additional will make me sleepy or sick. It is a rare scenario when I don't recognize that I have reached a certain point, so I am usually in a perfect position to stay pumped throughout the evening and then fall quickly asleep upon arriving safely home.

4. OBSERVE. Keeping an eye out for weird or dangerous people is a key component of drinking alcohol, in my opinion. People might assume you are vulnerable if they recognize you've been drinking, and may try to take advantage of you in any number of ways - so watch out. For yourself, your homies, and even that stranger across the street/dance floor/parking lot that you notice is in a situation that doesn't look comfortable or normal.

5. REST. Take a day! I give myself at least half a day after a night out to drink water, eat a good breakfast, and just sit or lie around before I do anything too strenuous. Sometimes I'll take a whole day off from doing anything too demanding, just to give my body time to recharge. However, going for a jaunt to the gym or a jog around the neighbourhood is a way I like to burn off any of the grossness (greatness?) from the night before.

Those are the ways I stay cognizant when I'm thinking about drinking.

** For a neat article on how to survive a "day drinking" event, check out this article, "How to Drink All Day and Not Pass Out" **

Thinking and Eating

I do both of these things quite often.

Quite often, I find that the first (thinking) gets a little too muddled in the second (eating) at certain times. 

As an individual that tends to get emotional (excited, anxious, stressed, frustrated, morose) when it comes to thinking about any one thing for long periods of time, having myself mulling over something as simple-yet-complicated-and-important as eating always leads to a bit of a mental mess.

This post is not the first time that I have entertained these thoughts, but every so often it feels like I make a shift in my thinking, and things make a little more sense, feel a little more right, and get a little less frustrating; in the last week, I had a shift of this sort. Just a small one - but enough to decide to write about it! As I repeated my belief to someone that they should probably have some protein following their vigorous workout, and as I myself was mixing up a protein-y beverage to consume, I was met with a simple enough response: "I'm not hungry right now."

Hm. That's interesting, because my body craves food immediately after I exercise vigorously on most occasions - and I find that many people I encounter share similar sentiments. While I still believe that protein (amongst other nutrients) following vigorous exercise is important for re-building torn muscles and providing your body with a great deal of goodness, an oft-repeated message seemed to ring more true than usual: Not every body is the same.
Not every body feels the way mine does after I work out, or has the same cravings, or enjoys the same food, or is structurally the same as mine, or is going to build muscle or gain/lose weight the same way that mine does.

It seems so obvious, and I have shared these thoughts with others in the past - you can't expect the same results you see in someone else if you do exactly what they do, because you and that person are not the same! I get very caught up in thinking about how much I've exercised and what I'm eating and how I'm feeling and often realize (too late) that I've been subconsciously relating my own journey to someone else's (exercise regimen, dietary choices, muscle bulkiness, etc.).

My process of really thinking about what I ate began when I became a vegetarian, and then four months later began to exercise regularly (and vigorously) and improve my overall diet and think about what I need for a balanced lifestyle. Unfortunately, in my healthy decision making, I developed a tendency to decide a little too carefully about the aspects of my life that were improving my health, such as exercise and my eating choices. What I mean by this "overly-careful decision making" is that I would sometimes feel I hadn't "earned" certain treats if I hadn't worked hard enough that day (in my own eyes) or that I would become reluctant to enjoy snacks that looked as though their calorie count was "unreasonable" (I never counted calories, mind you, but sometimes one snack's worth of calories seems a little crazy, y'know?).

While I've not entirely escaped those ways of thinking, I have started to recognize that I don't need to be self-conscious if I want to have a snack but someone else doesn't want to have a snack at the same time - I am not glutinous for eating when someone else is not. Nor am I out of shape or unconditioned if my body is responding to exercise and food in a different way than someone else who is doing something similar to me - or even something entirely different. I cannot allow myself to think that a snack will automatically turn into unhealthily stored fat if I eat it without exercising extra to "earn it." It is not fair to me, when I work hard to be good to my body and my health and my well-being, to criticize myself for doing things that fall outside of the realm of "healthy lifestyle" once in a blue moon - or even more often than that. 

None of what I do for myself is going to be worth it if I cannot be happy along the way. Happy with me, and for me, and for others who are on their own journey that is different that mine. I deserve to be happy, and to share in my love for eating and exercising and achieving peace of mind with those that I care about - and those that I have not even met yet.

I would not say that I have ever been truly unhappy, but there have been dark patches in my healthy journey that left me with certain unhealthy mindsets that I have worked on and made brighter opportunities for learning and improving myself.

My goals have become healthier ones, and are less shaped by thinking that I have anyone to be accountable to other than myself. I cannot say that I do not think of others as I work to better myself, but I am becoming better at thinking of myself first.



This has been a somewhat long and potentially ramble-y post, but it felt like something I wanted to share and put into words I can look at in order to establish them more clearly in my mind! Thanks for taking any amount of time to read any number of the words here, and perhaps some of them will help you with your own "shift" in your thinking along your own journey.

Summer To-Do List (Ongoing)

Every day, I make a to-do list on my Brookstone Boogie Board:

I can easily write and erase my lists for
environmentally-friendly prioritizing!

I check off items as I go throughout the day, and it is a very simple way that I love using to stay organized, reflect on what needs to be done (and in what order), and to feel satisfied with each "check!" placed beside an item.

For the summer, I think an ongoing list would be nice to upkeep, so I shall endeavour to do so and see how many items I can cross off. For starters, I have a few basic items and a few that are unique to this summer:

1. Get outside for at least an hour each day!
   It may sound simple, but it's easy to stay inside when it is hot and bright all the time.
2. Develop a new healthy food routine to work around flexible summer schedules.
3. Stay on top of an exercise routine or schedule.
4. Try a 30-Minute Hit women's kickboxing class.
   Free trial has already been booked! Will cross this one off early on in May.
5. Go to my 3rd Calgary Stampede! 102nd anniversary.
   Timing of this event will fall near another related to-do list item...
6. Celebrate my 21st in some sort of exciting way.
   I definitely want to use this as an excuse to cross off #7.
7. Road trip for a day or two across the border!
   G's parentals have kindly provided us with the A-OK to spend the night in their extra space!
8. Visit UBC a few times and become familiar with my upcoming role as an RA
   i.e., visit the PRC and have fun times
9. Read two new books.
   I would like to finish An Abundance of Katherines and read into my Body Language for Dummies and 30-Second Psychology books - plus a new novel I may come across!
10. Get back into writing.
    Ideally, I would be making that more of a reality with the blog... But physical pen-to-paper writing would be very soothing to return to often.

This list will be on-going throughout the summer vacation!

"What is intuitive eating?"

This is an interview with my friend's mom (who is a registered dietician from Edmonton, AB) - here, she speaks on something that I have been actively trying to incorporate into my life for the last couple of years. I think it is important to listen to your body! Sometimes guidelines need to be set in more extreme circumstances where one's life is in jeopardy, but on average, I think that "eating intuitively" can be beneficial in the long-term for anyone and everyone.