Choose zero-proof

What you need to do

No alcohol for seven days. Not forever, just one honest week. Keep the ritual if you like it: a glass, ice, something with bubbles. Watch your sleep and your morning energy. That is the data you are collecting.

Options that work

• Sparkling water with lime in a wine glass
• Zero-proof beer. Most have 60 to 90 calories and taste like beer now
• Kombucha or a shrub over ice
• Hot tea after dinner as the wind-down drink
• Tell one person you are doing a dry week. It makes the restaurant order easier

Part of the fundamental Sleep, water, and the rest.

Why this works

Alcohol fragments the second half of the night, and the disruption starts at about two drinks [78]. A heavy dose after training cut muscle building by about a quarter, even with protein on board [77]. Alcohol carries 7 calories a gram, about 125 in a glass of wine, and those calories do not register as food. In 2025 the Surgeon General linked alcohol to seven cancers, and the national guidelines dropped the numeric limit in favour of 'consume less' [79] [62].

Sources

78. Alcohol and sleep meta-analysis 2024, Sleep Med Rev. Across 27 studies, alcohol cut dream sleep and fragmented the second half of the night, with disruption starting around two drinks.
77. Parr 2014, PLoS One. A heavy dose of alcohol after training cut muscle protein synthesis by about a quarter even with protein on board. The dose was large; one drink is not the same thing.
79. US Surgeon General 2025, alcohol and cancer. Alcohol is linked to seven cancers, and breast cancer risk rises from one drink a day. The old 'a glass a day is good for you' claim is no longer supportable.
62. Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030. The new national guidelines raise protein to 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg for adults under 75, keep fiber and whole grains, tighten added sugar, and drop the numeric alcohol limit in favour of 'consume less'.

The fridge version

One line, seven boxes. Print it and put it where you eat.

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