Welcome And Why This Matters

Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer, and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. And welcome back to another episode of a Healthy Shift podcast. My name is Roger Sutherland, and I am your guide on this tour of shift work. Now, the last episode that I did was talking about sober curious. And I owe this one to Melissa, my beautiful partner, because she listened to that episode on her way home from work and she said to me, What a great episode. But what about helping people with some strategies about how to go about it? And I thought, oh my God, yes, I absolutely love this idea. Because obviously, I talk about you getting sober curious about, and we talked about it in the last episode. It's not about giving up alcohol. What it is, it's about rethinking it. It's about changing your mindset around it, how you approach it. And I obviously went into quite significant detail around the damage that alcohol causes to your system as it's a toxin. There is literally no safe level of alcohol that you can drink. I want to make that quite clear. So I got you thinking about it, not quitting it, just questioning it. And if that stirred something up in you, here's part two. Because awareness is one thing, but taking action is another. And this is where a lot of people get stuck. Now, what I hadn't considered, and this came out of this discussion with Melissa, was a lot of people, they don't know how to go about it. They don't know what to do. They think, oh no, if I give up, if I cut back, I'll miss out. Like, no one will invite me out. I just won't fit in anymore. Like if I'm going out and I'm not drinking, everyone's going to think I'm a weirdo. And social stuff will just feel completely awkward. So, what I want to do today is I want to deal with that. I want to help you with it. Because this isn't about removing alcohol and sitting at home like a boring old tart. What it is, it's about keeping your life and changing how you move through it. So, first of all, let's reframe the goal. Let's fix the way you think about this because you're not actually losing alcohol. Think of it that way. One thing that I have learned in my journey, particularly over the last six, maybe seven years since I started studying nutrition and moving forward and coaching clients in this shift working world, I never, and none of my clients will ever, ever tell you, oh, he made me stop this or he made me stop that. Because I've never taken anything off a client in any way whatsoever. I've never demonized anything. I've never told them that they can't do something. But what I have done cunningly is I've actually worked with them to insert things into their lives that actually starts to remove the things that don't serve them. Putting certain habits and behaviors in that takes other habits and behaviors out. So by adding, instead of subtracting, it's like in your diet, if you start adding more protein, you start eating less processed food. It works that way. That is quite simply how it works. So by doing it this way, let's not take alcohol off you. Let's reframe the way we think about it. Because what you're actually gaining, we are inserting better sleep. We're inserting better energy. We're inserting a much better mood and a far better recovery. Now, if you frame it as a restriction, you'll fail. That's just human nature. This is what we do. But if you frame it, if you frame it as control, you'll stick with it. You're not the odd one out. I will tell you that right now. Take it from someone who's very experienced in this, right? You're not the odd one out. What you're doing is you're the one that's actually made a decision. And you will find, and I will make this quite clear, while you think a lot of people are going to start picking on you. First of all, they don't care. The other thing is, too, you'll be surprised that they really don't give a toss in any way whatsoever, whether you're drinking, whether you're not. All right. So let's change the default in relation to this. Because most drinking isn't planned. A lot of it we don't plan. It's just automatic. Okay, end of shift, gonna have a drink. Oh, I'm home now, better pour a drink. Oh, I'm cooking dinner, better pour a wine to have with dinner while I'm cooking dinner. Oh, I'm gonna catch up with Jenny. Oh, we'll catch up and have a drink. Let's catch up and have a drink. So don't rely on willpower. Change the default. When you're at home, if you're someone who always pours a drink while you're cooking, replace that action, not the not just the drink. Pour yourself a sparkling water, put some ice in it, put some cordial in it, do whatever, and have that. Have a non-alcoholic option, have tea. Same routine, completely different input. You'll feel better and you'll make better choices. Because habits don't disappear, they actually get replaced. So by replacing them, you actually substitute what isn't serving you out subconsciously. Now I want to give you a personal story because for me, this was big. I used to associate winding down with a drink, like, oh, we're on the couch, we're watching TV, gotta get to get a bottle of wine. We grab a bottle of wine, we open that. That was the signal. So I kept the ritual, but we actually removed the alcohol. And after a couple of weeks, it just started to feel normal, like nothing. What I did do was I did swap from wine, alcoholic, alcoholic, uh, yeah, alcoholic wine, and and I swapped it out so I wasn't feeling like I didn't do anything, and I swapped it with zero beers. Now you might think, zero beer, what's the point? Well, if you think what's the point, don't drink it at all. That's fine. But I love to have a zero beer, and uh my personal favorite is the Peroni Zero. Very hard to get at the moment, but I love the Peroni Zero. I literally feel like I'm sitting there having a beer. But it's zero alcohol, and it doesn't impact on me. Now I don't sit there slamming a six-pack. What I did, I used to drink three or four at night and just feel like I was back doing what I was doing. But you know what? Now I have one, and I just feel quite happy. I just feel like I've sealed the day, and I just have one beer. And after a while, it just starts to feel normal that that's what you do. And you go to bed, you're tired, you sleep really well, you wake up really well, and you start to really love it. There's no effort, and I can tell you now, as much as you think there will be, there is not an internal fight. This is the shift that you actually want. So, what do we do in social situations? Because most people really struggle with that. Oh, everybody else is drinking. And here's the truth all those people don't actually care as much as you think. And the ones who do, it's actually more about them than you. And I'll tell you why. I will tell you categorically, they're jealous that you don't drink. They won't tell you that, and they certainly won't admit it. But nobody wants to actually drink. They all it's just become such a habit. But I can tell you now, for me, when I go out with my friends and I go out and we go out to a restaurant together and we do this regularly on a on a during a day for lunches, I drink zero beers. No one from outside the group would even know that I'm drinking zero beers. The people within the group, because they're true friends, they don't give a toss the fact that I'm drink that I don't drink at all. And I just stroll out at the end of the day. I've had a fantastic day. We catch the train or a drive home or do whatever we do, and life's wonderful. And I don't feel three sheets to the wind later on that day or the next day. And I'm making good decisions around food, around how I feel, around my health. Everything's good. So I still go out. Absolutely, I still go out, and I still sit at the table and I've still got a drink in my hand, whether it's soda water, whether it's sparkling water, whether it's actually a zero beer. There's no big explanation, and I don't have to grandstand it and make a big speech. And if someone asks, I just keep it simple. I don't drink. It is such a power trip to say I don't drink. I've got to tell you, no one looks at you and goes, What? That's weird. They used to years and years and years ago, I would do that. But now it's become a norm. There's a lot of people that actually don't drink. You would be surprised. And I can tell you now, when you go out with friends, if you say, Yeah, I don't drink, you'd be surprised at the amount of people that it sows a seed in their head that if he can do it, maybe I could do it too. And they start to change, and it starts to change other people's behavior around you. Trust me, I'm experiencing this at the moment. I see it as a lot, right? You don't have to justify it. You don't have to justify it to anyone. Do you want to drink? No. That's that's a sentence, it's a statement in itself. I don't drink. And it's such a power trip, as I said. Now I made a decision early on, right? That I just don't want to become that person who disappears or has the drinks or makes a fool of themselves or does whatever. But I wanted to stay involved. Same people, same conversations. I just do it without alcohol. And what I realized was this, and this is the important point. You actually don't need alcohol to belong in your group. And if you do, you are the one with the problem. Not me, you are the one in the problem. If you feel like you need alcohol to socialize, you need to have a really good internal look at yourself. If you need it just to show up, stand in the mirror, have a look at yourself because you really do need to have a good chat with yourself if you need alcohol to go out or you feel like you have to drink. Now, some situations are literally built around drinking. So change that. When you're gonna catch up with friends, instead of saying, Oh, let's go and grab a drink, make it, are you up for a coffee tomorrow? Are you up for brunch? Do you want to catch up for for you know a walk outside? Yeah, of course, it feels different at first, and they might think, What's going on here? I'll play the game. But it works, I'll tell you now. Because as you're walking along, you talk more, you actually feel a lot better afterwards. You're actually working towards something, and here's something else that happens. Your whole day doesn't disappear. When you go out at night and you're on the gas and you're drinking and you're eating, the whole night disappears. You've gone all day and your whole night disappears. I catch up with people and it's always over coffee or brunch now. I don't go out at night because I just don't want to. I just don't want to. Yes, I'm older, but I just don't want to. I'm quite happy and comfortable and content in my own environment. I am a cancer, so I am a homebody, but I do love to be at home. I really enjoy my home. I love the surroundings of it. I love being around Melissa and I love actually doing that and what we do. It's just fantastic. But when you catch up with people, instead of saying, hey, let's go and grab a drink, just say, Do you want to do coffee? You've laid the foundation from the outset. You will be surprised at the amount of people who go, Yes, yes. Because when you're trying to organize a night out, it's a lot harder. But when you say, Do you want to grab a coffee? People know that coffee is a short-lived catch up, but you're still establishing contact with your friends and things like that. You still get breakfast, you can still have your brunch, you can still go for a walk. You you're gonna go for a walk anyway. Set the precedent, grab somebody else, take them for a walk. It's fantastic. And you'll be surprised at how much better you feel because of it. Swapping nights for morning catch-ups with a coffee and a walk, honestly, it's so much better. You are so much more present, you actually remember the conversation, you go home feeling good. It's not as long as it would have been if you went out at night. And guess what? You sleep properly that night, and you've actually worked towards your goal and what you want to achieve instead of working away from it. So let's make it easy to win. Don't start with extremes, just pick moments. A few nights a week, certain social events. Pick a social. I dare you. I dare you to pick a social event and go and say, I'm not gonna drink tonight. And feel how that feels the next day. Feel it. You'll still have a great time because you're still around those people. And if you can't, then you need to have a look at that. Start to build momentum because once you start to feel the difference, it actually starts to really reinforce the behavior. You'll get better sleep after one night. You'll have much better energy the next day. You're not wasting the whole day, and that is literally what drives the change. This is what people notice when they reduce alcohol. They start to wake up clearer. No headaches, no wasted days, no wasted all-nighters. They save money. There's no Ubers, no big nights actually blowing out. Do you know how good it is to have the keys to your car in your pocket and be able to just get in the car and drive off without having to think about it? Not, oh, have I had too many? I've probably had too many. I'll have to leave the car here. I'll catch an Uber and I'll come back and get the car tomorrow. Just being able to get in the car and drive because you don't drink, it's fantastic. I've got to tell you, it is such a trip. You can actually drive yourself. You can come and go when you want. You're not relying on anybody else. And the big one, you actually feel in control. You are not relying on something external to switch off. You are self-regulating. It's an interesting one, isn't it? It's an interesting way of looking at it. I dare you to try it. For me, I'm gonna be quite clear. I gave up alcohol, and that's for transparency. I gave up alcohol on the 1st of January, 2024. It was a New Year's Eve resolution to stop drinking, and I went cull. Bang! Just like that. And for me, it changed everything. My sleep improved heaps. My mental health improved enormously. My physical health improved enormously. I wanted to do more. I felt better to do more. But more than that, my life just felt so goddamn more stable. I had less ups and downs. There wasn't the peaks and troughs. It was so much more consistency. And for you as a shift worker, that's what you need as well in your life. You need more stability. Your body is already highly stressed and confused by what you're doing with shifts. Adding alcohol into it causes it more problems. Catching up with one of your girlfriends or one of your friends and going for a walk and just walking, even like me. I have my best mate, and every single Wednesday, every Wednesday without fail, we do the gym, we go and sit in the steam room for 15 minutes, and we go and walk in the 25-meter pool for an hour, backwards and forwards, every Wednesday morning. That's not alcohol. We don't do that over alcohol. In fact, him and I, when we catch up, we never catch up at night. We always catch up at lunchtime. We always do lunch. We always do the afternoon, something like that. But we're generally home at night because it's just so much better. And it makes such a big difference. And it does, it improves your mental health out of sight. So here's what I want you to do. I do not want you to overthink this. Just pick one situation this week and just do that just a little bit differently. Whether it's at home or whether it's going out, try have a power trip. Go out. Go out with a group of friends and not drink that night. Take a six-pack of zero beers and drink those. And then get in your car and drive home and go, oh my God, that was something else. You still feel like part of the gang. You can still hold the stubby while you're talking to the people. You'll still feel like you're part of the gang. You're still tasting beer, and you will very, very much get used to a good quality zero beer. I can tell you now. Just once. Just try it. And pay close attention to actually how you're feeling and how much better it makes you feel all round. Because once you experience the difference, I'll tell you right now, you do not need convincing from that day forward. Keep that one in mind. It's a really interesting one. So thank you very much for listening. If this helped, share it with someone who may be trying to cut back or should. And I want you to follow along for more ways to take control of your health in Shift Work. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.