Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Off-Season WLC Skill Practices are mini-challenges intended to help you fine-tune different aspects of your health and wellness. Offered between Challenges, these weekly practices address fitness, nutrition, stress reduction, productivity, and personal connection — because health is about far more than food and the gym (and we could all use a little practice).
We’re Taking 7 Days Off From Drinking
Simple Instructions:
- Each day this week, abstain from drinking alcohol.
- Leave the beer in the fridge, the wine unopened, and the liquor cabinet closed. Unlike the Kickstart and Lifestyle levels of the Challenge (both of which allow a relatively small amount of weekly drinking), this Skill Practice foregoes all forms of alcohol at all times.
- The intention of this practice is not to keep you from enjoying life — you’ll still attend parties, go to restaurants, and spend time with your friends. You’ll just do it knowing that you’ve made a conscious choice to keep the booze out of your system for seven days.
Why Is This Skill Important?
It seems like alcohol is everywhere we go — an accepted part of our social lives, an easy way to relax, an expected part of after-hours conduct. As a culture, we drink (and we enjoy it).
At the same time, alcohol consumption has far-reaching consequences for those pursuing calm, balance, and a wellness-oriented lifestyle. Here are some of the potential effects:
- Fat Loss: Ethanol (the primary chemical that gives alcohol its effects) has metabolic priority in the body, ensuring that it is metabolized before fat, carbohydrates, or protein — this effectively stops any ongoing fat loss in its tracks.
- Mood: Alcohol can have an impact on mood, with high alcohol consumption rates linked to depression.
- Sleep: Alcohol consumption is correlated with a reduction in sleep quality and duration, as well as an increase in sleep disturbances.
- Athletic Performance: Alcohol consumption can impair recovery from athletic activities, inhibit motor coordination, reduce muscular work capacity, and increase the potential for injury.
Going booze free for a week may seem like cakewalk (or it may be a great personal challenge). Regardless, you’ll get the chance to see the effects that abstaining has on your emotions, your physical performance, your body composition, and your sleep quality — perhaps giving you some insight into how you’ll approach drinking in the future.
Previously, he founded Again Faster Equipment, a functional fitness equipment company created to serve the CrossFit community. Established in 2006, Jon took the Company global in 2012, twice landing on the Inc. 500/5000 list of America’s fastest growing private companies.
From 2007 to 2013, he served as a Senior Lecturer for CrossFit, Inc., training aspiring CrossFit trainers at over 100 seminars, including engagements in Iceland, Afghanistan, Moscow, Holland, the United States, and Canada. Jon also served on the CrossFit L1 Advisory Board, helping establish policy for the organization’s training efforts from 2011 to 2013.
He’s also done stints in state government, gym management, and consulting — and currently teaches classes at CrossFit City Line.
Jon graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2003, summa cum laude, with a B.A. in Psychology. He also holds a Graduate Certificate in Finance and Control from the Harvard Extension School, 2006, and has completed coursework in data analytics.
