NO-ALCOHOL DIET CHALLENGE DROPPING ALCOHOL CAN GIVE MORE CONFIDENCE, IMPROVE MEMORY AND BOOST ENERGY.

By Jeannine Stein
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES -- For a group of moderate social drinkers, hopping on the wagon for a month shouldn't have been that daunting a task.
These are not just any moderate drinkers, but a handful of men and women who are exceptionally fit, as in training-for-a-marathon fit. They are used to discipline and healthy lifestyles, people who can get through a rigorous boot camp class. Yet some found that wagon trip more uncomfortable than they thought, and didn't last a month. Some didn't make it a week.
"It was really hard," says participant Lala Alvarez. "I told people I was laying off the alcohol, and there was this pressure -- 'Have a drink with us! This drink tastes fantastic!' I'm like, stop it."
The few who made it, successfully braving social occasions and surprisingly intense peer pressure, are now believers in what their boot camp instructor promised all along (although almost all started drinking again after the month was over): No alcohol means better sleep, more energy, healthier eating habits -- and improved workouts.
And while one new study casts doubt on their efforts, other research backs them up.
In control
The idea was hatched in October by their boot camp instructor, Marco Reed, who had gone without alcohol for a month and found it gave him more confidence, improved his memory and boosted his energy.
"I actually felt amazing," Reed says. "I felt more clear. I had control over my actions." And after a while, he adds, he didn't feel like drinking "was something I had to do."
Reed, 34, has developed a devoted following of boot camp students and personal training clients in his three years in Los Angeles. He has encouraged individual clients to stop drinking, especially those training for something such as a marathon or those with hefty weight-loss goals. But he's never asked an entire class to take the plunge. (By the way, he can tell if a client has downed a few the night before: telltale signs include smelling like alcohol, exercising with less gusto and seeming a bit "off.")
The holidays seemed a good time to propose sobriety again, considering it's a season filled with health-busting landmines.
"I find that people who drink have trouble getting to their fitness goals," Reed says. Drinking "is really a sabotage. It breaks down their discipline."
Sober October
So with a cautiously optimistic "OK," six out of eight members of his West Hollywood boot camp enthusiastically agreed to stop drinking for what Reed dubbed "Sober October."
Melissa Bolton already knew the price of indulgence. The L.A.-based entertainment attorney in her mid-30s says that even a couple of drinks leaves her dragging mentally and physically the next day and makes her dehydrated. Drinking the night before also takes a toll on her performance in Reed's class, especially balance maneuvers.
"None of us are getting any younger," says Bolton, who finished out the month. "It's not like when we were in college. It messes with you the next day."
Jimena Barrera, who also took the pledge, found that not indulging in her usual two glasses of wine or a martini-and-a-half resulted in more energy and earlier workouts the next morning. "Instead of running at 9:30 I'd go at 7:30," says Barrera, a 31-year-old medical office worker. "In boot camp I wasn't as tired, and I would get there 15 minutes before class started, instead of at 11 sharp."
Curtis Larsen, who socializes with clients and friends several nights a week, noticed a difference immediately. "It made me aware of my bad sleep patterns," says the 40-year-old from West Hollywood who is an account manager for Starz. When he drank, he fell asleep, but staying asleep was more difficult. Not drinking allowed him to sleep through the night. Larsen caved after five days when a tempting Cabernet beckoned, but for the record, he feels guilty about it.
More healthful eating
Fewer cocktails also meant less food for Alvarez, who works in marketing and sales for Starz.
"I found myself more conscious of my eating habits," says the 34-year-old from Burbank. "I wasn't as likely to make poor decisions. It was easier to avoid appetizers. Alcohol makes you so relaxed, so you're thinking, 'So what, I've already had these extra calories in the drink, why not try this?"' Alas, Alvarez's birthday party two weeks later proved to be her downfall.
Everyone discovered along the way that even for the occasional drinker, there's more to quitting cold turkey than saying "I'll pass." There's the Pavlovian desire that kicks in Friday around 6 p.m.; coping with social activities built around drinking; and the well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning attempts by friends and family to derail healthful habits.
Some of the pledge-takers avoided alcohol-laden social occasions, saying they didn't want to be tempted or persuaded to drink.
"I didn't anticipate the pressure," says Alvarez, who, like Larsen, dines frequently with friends or clients. "If I stated that I was staying away from alcohol, that's when I felt that people were uncomfortable with me not drinking," she says. "If I didn't say anything, didn't make a big deal of it, they were less likely to notice."
Barrera too was surprised at the pressure to drink. "I figured everyone around me is a mature adult. But it's a bonding thing, that's how they look at it." One friend was so perturbed by her lack of alcohol that she had to hold a glass of wine in her hand to make him feel comfortable.
Social imbalance
And that, says one psychologist, speaks volumes about what happens when the social status quo is disturbed.
Someone declaring he's not drinking prompts an imbalance, says North Carolina-based psychologist Charlie Brown, a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine, whose clients include athletes. It "changes the rules of social interaction, and there's an implicit tension there." The person who is drinking "begins to question, 'Is what I'm doing right? Do I need to change?"'
That shift in balance, Brown says, can prompt a counterbalance to bring stability back to the situation. Enter the dreaded peer pressure, a la "Come on, one drink won't hurt."
But it might. Some experts warn that even moderate drinkers can experience deleterious effects, even the next day.
"One, two or three drinks does affect a number of functions," says Dr. Ernest Noble, professor of psychiatry and director of the Alcohol Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Alcohol, he adds, can affect cognitive abilities, sleep and sexual functions.
And after a fitness feat such as a 10K run, says Noble, the best follow-up may not be downing a few cocktails. "The muscles have been under tremendous stress, and alcohol further damages them," he says.
One research study in 2001 found that moderate alcohol consumption after exercise resulted in adverse changes in blood viscosity. When blood is too viscous, or thick, it can damage blood vessel walls.
In favor of drinking
But there is some good news for the weaker-willed. A new study, published recently in the online journal BMC Public Health, found that moderate drinkers are less likely to be obese than nondrinkers and heavy drinkers. Researchers found that people who drank one to two glasses regularly, but less than five a week, were significantly less likely to be obese than other groups.
But don't start devising the mai-tai diet. The study's authors say that they're not quite sure why this is, but suggest further study.
Larsen might try sobriety again, perhaps with friends. "I tend to drink with the same people, so if we could do it as a group it might be easier. I'd be open to it."
That actually isn't a bad idea, says Brown, who believes a strong support system is key to fulfilling such a goal. He also seconds doing what these people did, such as avoiding risky situations until ready to handle them, and not broadcasting your sobriety to drinkers.
And if all else fails, keep in mind this revelation from Bolton: "The more sober you are, the less entertaining drunk people are."