Eighty five percent of Australians experienced long term improvement to their overall health and wellbeing after taking just one month off alcohol in February, according to a new national survey commissioned by VicHealth in 2011.

The 1,300 febfast participants surveyed named saving money, getting more sleep and losing weight as the leading benefits and nine out of ten participants said they would do it all again.

Wellness expert and febfast patron Sarah Wilson believes the research reinforces what we already know about alcohol consumption.

“Alcohol can have a huge impact on so many facets of our life so why not try life without booze for 29 days and see what happens to your skin, waistline, mood and energy. You’ll get something back, whether it’s money in the bank, fitting back into that favourite pair of jeans or a better night’s sleep.”

There are a number of reasons why giving your body a break from alcohol can allow you to reach your health and fitness goals sooner, according to Fernwood National Fitness Manager Freddy Warren.

“The first thing to keep in mind is that all types of alcohol are essentially liquid food. Unfortunately they contain few useful nutrients and negatively contribute to body composition.”

“The alcohol contained in beer, wine and spirits is a chemical called ethanol and is fermented from the sugars contained in grapes, hops, barley or other types of natural grains. In fact in the production of sparkling wines, straight sugar is added to the bottle to cause the effervescent bubbles! Ethanol is the most easily broken down type of energy by the body because much of the sugar breakdown has already been done in the fermentation process. This means that when we drink alcoholic drinks we are not only ingesting concentrated calories, but very easily processed ones. Our bodies use these calories for the immediate body functions such as walking, dancing or barracking at the tennis!”

“Often any other calories we take in from ‘real’ foods are more complex and require more time for the body to process, so these become excess to the immediate fuel needs of the body and are stored as body fat. So in addition to the concentrated calories we are taking in through alcohol, we are also causing our bodies to store the other energy from food as fat.”

Freddy explained that alcohol actually tricks our bodies into wanting more food by activating our metabolism when we don’t actually need energy, hence the late night binge after a night out on the town.

“Alcohol consumption can also affect our energy levels and motivation to exercise, by acting as a depressant on the central nervous system; often the lethargy we feel the day after drinking even only a few drinks is not just from lack of sleep or eating too much, but also due to the ongoing affects of the alcohol on the nervous system.”

So even though alcohol can be a great social lubricant and often enhance our enjoyment of food, like anything, too much is not a good thing for our fitness, wellbeing or longevity. It can be easy to lose track of how much alcohol we actually consume when we form behavioural habits. Four standard drinks in one sitting is the level associated with harmful consumption and can have long term affects such as cardiovascular disease, liver disease, mental illness, cancers and diabetes. Febfast is a great opportunity to refresh habits for the beginning of a new year, like catching up for tea instead of a wine, or going for a walk or jog at sunset instead of a drink at the pub.

Abstaining from alcohol for the month of February is a great way to see what your body is capable of, is an opportunity to enhance your health and fitness, and could potentially reduce the amount you drink year round. In fact, following febfast two thirds of participants set aside alcohol free days each week, half cut down on alcohol consumption and 70 per cent said they are now more conscious of how much they’re drinking. Women represented 75 per cent of last year's febfast participants.

At Fernwood we’d like to encourage everyone to send booze on a holiday this February and help promote a healthier lifestyle. If you’d like to help Fernwood raise funds to help young Australians take control of their lives and address alcohol and drug problems, you can donate here and/or join our febfast team here (password: f3rnw00d).