‘Dry’ January Is A Thing. So’s ‘Damp’ January . Cutting out or cutting back on alcohol during the month of January is growing in popularity as drinkers look to reset their bodies and minds for the New Year.
The Washington Post reported the ‘benefits’ last longer than a month as people started drinking less the rest of the year and showed striking improvements in their health.
I think I’ll shoot for ‘damp’ and if I end up dry Yippee. Lol
You?
Heart and soul is what my show is all about and a little grit and some kick-ass attitude too. I’m trying to do my part to share the positive energy that I’ve been blessed with you to give you a little hope and inspiration that you CAN change things, do new things or finish your unfinished business this coming year and have just more fun. More fun for sure. But we all know we have more fun when we feel great.
One of my fun friends in life and in business joins me on The Debbie Nigro show. Her title is Functional Nutritionist. I’m sure there’s a big difference between a functional nutritionist and a non-functional nutritionist and since I don’t want to work with anybody’s who’s a non-functional nutritionist I stick with Jacqui Justice.
Jacqui specializes in is weight loss resistance, and many of the wellness challenges people are struggling with. She’s got her own ‘mojo weight loss program’ and she’s created fabulous “mocktail” recipes for people who want to party and have some fun without alcohol.
I thought she’d be a perfect guest for ‘dry January’ and January in general where many of us re-assess and try and do better health wise.
Jacqui texted me yesterday to say hello. We haven’t seen each other in a long while because of Covid and every other ridiculous reason.
Having both just come off being sick over the holidays, me with a blasto head cold and her with the flu, I wanted her opinion about all those immune boosters in the drugstore marketed to boost your immune system like Emergen-C and Airborne. Do they work?
Jacquie’s not a big fan of drugstore vitamins in general.
She said, “I know too much about the quality of vitamins and nutrients and stuff like that and I really only use professional. Everybody should look at, when they buy a vitamin, where it says, other ingredients. Theres there’s usually a bunch of junk right there. Artificial colors, all that stuff. But that being said, some people really do swear by that airborne, especially when they’re flying. Giving yourself a little jolt of something to keep you healthy is probably better than not doing anything at all, but there’s lots of other great stuff you can do too.”
Give you a jolt? Does that mean that you only get the immune jolt for the moment? And if you don’t take it the next day, you get no jolt?, I asked her.
Well, yeah, that’s right, she said, because a lot of those are B vitamins, which are water soluble. So they go in, then they go out. So yeah, it needs to be continuous thing.
As for 2023 Everybody’s trying to think about what they want to do better this year. Many are choosing to cut out alcohol. ‘Dry January’ is a thing. So is ‘Damp January’.
Jacqui says, When you stop drinking alcohol for a month, your liver says, thank you.
Whenever you stop doing something that’s not great for you, your body has all these great capabilities of getting that out of you. So it’s a good start. People who choose to have a ‘damp’ January, who can drink a little less or just be more aware will benefit and likely start to act differently the rest of the year.
Once you change something you start to feel better. Your cells in general are going to be healthier because, when you put anything in your body it affects every single cell in your body. When your cells are happy, you’re feeling pretty happy too. It’s not just your liver cells, but every organ is going to be working better. Your liver is the major detox organ of your body. It also stores sugar. It does a lot of things. And so if that’s working more efficiently, your whole body is going to be working more efficiently.
She said, “I have friends that I know that, you know, they drink quite a bit. And then when they go off, they cannot believe how much better they feel. And then they start exercising more, eating better. Everything gets better. They start doing everything better. That’s true with cutting back on sugar too.. All of a sudden you’re like, wow, I feel so much better. Now maybe I’ll do this. So obvious, right? ” said, Jacqui.
The Washington Post did a story on Dry January which pointed out that people who stop drinking or drink less are sleeping better. Sleep is a huge problem here in the US. for everybody in this country.
Jacqui spends a spend a lot of time helping people figure out how to get to sleep too.
Her sleepy time tips include ‘sleep hygiene’ which is up top of her list. She says, “just not being on your computer and dimming the lights a couple of hours before you’re going to be going to bed, sets the tone that, you know, you’re going to be going to sleep soon. “
One of her other big nutrition-related sleepy time tips is not having sugar at night. That wrecks sleep like nothing else she said. And, that includes wine.
Jacqui says, “You know, I’m sure everyone listening to this can agree that when they have a night where they’re drinking, you know, a couple of glasses of wine, they wake up. In the minute, more than any other alcohol, it’s wine because of the sugar content. They wake up in, like, two o’clock in the morning, they’re wide awake. That’s because your blood sugar crashes and then you wake up. It just happens. And so if you, you know, take a little vacation from drinking the one of the first things you’re going to see is that you sleep better. And then you feel better, right? Just sleeping better. Absolutely. “
Another REALLY BIG sleepy time tip is don’t go to bed dehydrated. Jacqui says, if you go to bed and you’re dehydrated, and you haven’t had enough water it will cause you to wake up at night. It’s not so much drinking water before you go to bed. It’s about drinking water throughout the day. That’s very, very important she says.. Drinking water, hydrating properly just that one goal will make a huge difference in your health.
We both agree people are predictable. January 1st arrives and everyone’s promising to get super healthy THIS year! They list 20 things they’re going to do to make it happen. Jacqui says, “You don’t have to do these 20 things. So start with one thing, one thing, hydration, and go from there.”
“It’s like saying, I have to go to the gym every day for two hours. You know that’s going to last two days. And then you’re going to start making excuses why you can’t go to the gym. But if you say, you know what, I’m going to pop into the gym. And I’m going to do something for 10, 20 minutes. You’ll pop into that gym, and you’ll probably stay longer than 20 minutes. It’s about not biting off more than you can chew. Everybody is just coming off having too many carbs and too much sugar. “
So how do you get off carbs?
How do you, how do you wean off instead of just slamming yourself off?
Jacqui believes in focusing on what you ‘can’ have rather than what you ‘can’t’. If you think about, oh my gosh, I can’t have any more carbs, which is the main thing everybody craves. It’s hard. It’s a losing battle.
Focus more she says, on thinking about ‘what’ you ‘will’ have. Make it look and taste delicious. “Say, I’m going to start off the day with this delicious breakfast, this beautiful omelette with some avocado. And, you know, maybe a little salad or whatever or like a green drink, which is delicious by the way. I know it doesn’t sound like it is. You’re going to get really satisfied and feel really good and be energized. And then you kind of go from there. For lunch think about making a beautiful salad with grilled chicken in it and some pomegranate seeds and make it really nice. Don’t just like have some crappy little unattractive little salad. That doesn’t really do it for most. Really just make it nice. And start doing that. And don’t think about, I can’t have carbs. Just think about, wow, I could have all of this delicious, you know, protein and healthy fats and beautiful fruits and vegetables and fiber.”
Obviously it’s a little frustrating to have to do the do-over every year for those of us and I include myself, who could have done better.
I was so proud of myself last year. I lost like 27 pounds. I must have gained back three quarters of it now. Here we go again. What I did learn when I was losing weight and feeling great (that I must have chosen to recently ignore) was not having a lot of oil or butter and all those things that make everything taste so good.
So I asked Jacqui if there was some kind of trick that she uses for cooking or and flavoring.
She likes to use like avocado oil to cook with, because you can cook at high temperatures with it. Olive oil is great but not not for cooking at a high temperature.
“Let’s say you’re making an omelette or eggs” she said, “Cook with grape seed oil or avocado oil, coconut oil if you like that. And then at the end, just drizzle on a tiny little bit of delicious olive oil or a little bit of ghee.”
I’ve introduced many people with nutrition concerns to Jacqui Justice and all have thanked me because she’s pretty spectacular and very down to earth and realistic.
When talking about keeping those New Year’s resolutions, the most important thing is you have to be is…a Believer!
If you don’t truly believe you can reach whatever goal it is that you have, she says, you won’t fully commit to it and any obstacle in your way will throw you off course.
OK staying on course for now!
Enjoy the fun conversation I had live with Jacqui Justice on The Debbie Nigro Show. Check in with her if you’re interested in some advice from a realistic nutritionist.
Follow me on Instagram @therealdebbienigro for more relevant information, humor and attitude to help get us through.
