If you enjoy a glass of wine, beer or spirits every now and again that is fine, you don’t have to remove it entirely from your diet if you don’t want to (please note that alcohol is a toxin). However, don’t complain you don’t have money to change your body if you won’t remove large expensive drinking sessions from your diet. They are not only costly and dangerous, but are high in calories, not to mention are toxic and can have irreversible effects on your body.

Now don’t get me wrong here, I am the first one to enjoy a glass of wine, however I don’t drink a bottle a night. I used to drink alcohol nearly every night, my social life was very busy and very drinking orientated.

However I soon began to look at the negative effect this was having on my body. I was always sluggish and didn’t feel like exercising, my complexion had diminished, my hair was dull, and yet I was doing it to myself!

What is a standard unit?

Today I still enjoy a glass or two and I still go out and have big nights every so often, not every weekend. Assessing your weekly alcohol consumption is pretty scary, you may find that a lot of the time you thought you were having 1 standard drink, you were actually having two. Check out what a standard unit of alcohol is HERE and start adding them up.

How much alcohol are you eating?

Many people also don’t realise that alcohol is laden with calories and sugar. So you might start off you day with fruit, have a salad for lunch and a healthy dinner, however then you head out to a bar and have 4 or 5 drinks and everything has been undone. One large glass of wine can have over 120 calories!

Write down the fluid measurements of everything you drink for a week or two and have a closer look as to what you are putting into your body. I am not saying you should cut out drinking altogether (although it won’t hurt anyone) however you might want to limit it to two nights a week or to under 8 units per week.

According to the BBC article "Alcohol: How Much Is Too Much?", the recommended alcohol intake for men and women are 3 – 4 units per day for men and 2 – 3 units per day for women.