It wasn’t a New Years Resolution, but about a year ago I completely ceased drinking alcohol. Initially I stopped because I was preparing to do another long cycle tour. I’d found on previous long tours that I feel more ride ready if I stopped alcohol consumption about six weeks before tour start and didn’t partake while on tour.

The difference this time is that I didn’t feel like drinking wine or beer at the end of the tour, so I seem to have morphed into a tea-totaller without really setting out to.
And I feel fitter and healthier as a consequence.

The question is has anyone else felt the need to give up grog as a result of cycle touring? Or has cycle touring had the opposite affect, and increased the amount of alcohol you ingest? 

Tea-totaler!  Nice, Graham.  I like that.

Not as a result of cycle touring, but I recently went from sixty to zero overnight (well, not sixty; but I’ve been a very steady 1-2 drink (strictly beer and wine)  per evening consumer at least since I got discharged from the army back in rhe Viet Nam era..  A recent health crisis has me on a high dose of prednisone indefinitely though so alcohol is suddenly out of my life for the first time since adulthood and I’m now discovering the satisfaction of a glass of water with dinner and exploring the surprising wide range of decent nonalcoholic beers I never knew existed - there’s much more than Odouls nd Heineken Zero out there, I’m happy to discover.

Surprisingly enough, I’ve had no trouble adapting to my new NA life and once I’m off the prednisone if that happy day lies in my future yet I don’t expect to go back except maybe as an occasional celebratory gesture: Let’s raise an IPA to another thousand miles in the saddle!   It’s been undoubtedly easier for me to let go than for others, because I’ve never been able to actually taste anything anyway since I was born without a sense of smell.

My daily touring routine involves riding my bike from destination to destination, setting up camp or checking into a motel, and having two or three beers while I write about my day.   I have a hard time reconciling the idea that cycling is a healthy activity and alcohol consumption is not necessarily healthy, but that's what I do.  I have to say, the harder dilemma is that I claim to be a minimalist, yet I have no qualms about carrying a few pounds of extra beer weight from towns to campsites.

For better or worse (mostly worse I imagine), beer helps me to laugh at myself and the things I write and brag about in my daily journal entry.

Scott that’s interesting we’ve converged on a non-alcohol cycle-touring path from different directions. 

I’m glad you mentioned the increased appreciation of refreshing zero alcohol drinks on tour, as I’ve enjoyed the similar discovery. In Europe especially, the availability of sparkling water on tap was a revelation.  

Kombucha is another excellent option I’ve discovered recently. As a fermented, low-sugar drink, supposedly it has other health benefits in the form of friendly gut microbes. 

Gregory that sounds like a perfectly good cycle-touring routine to me. Very similar to what I used to do, but my preference was stout or similar dark beers. For some reason I’d crave stout on tour, but never felt like drinking it otherwise. 

In New Zealand, where I’ve cycle toured often,  light red wine (Pinot Noir) which they produce in quantity and high quality, was my preferred tipple at the end of a hard day’s ride.

But nowadays I don’t even miss that delightful fermented beverage. For some reason I’ve gradually lost the appreciation for good stout and wine. I don’t miss them. Indeed I’m very much enjoying the change. 

Sparkling water!  Thanks for the tip.  I’ll give it a try.

Ah now here's a topic after my own heart! I've definitely been one for liking a drink or two, especially combined with exercise generally and cycle touring specifically: but as I kiss my thirties goodbye it's lead to something of a re-evaluation of the booze - so can definitely relate to some of the trajectories here.

Like Scott I was a solid and steady imbiber - for me ever since college (you'd be hard pushed to find any more drinking-centric culture than UK universities in the early 2000s! Everyone drank, sometimes very heavily -it was encouraged by tutors, we had tutorials in the pub etc - I gather things have changed, probably for the best to be honest). I wasn't one for getting blotto in that way - but it did leave me with a legacy of happily and habitually drink 2 beers an evening with meals or reading, and I did so for a good 18 years or so.

In general this was actually ok: as a young man I don't think it really impacted on my health, it wasn't too expensive, I sipped high quality stuff and it was enjoyable and sociable - I basically never got drunk, and the state of "tipsiness" is highly underrated. After exercise it was great, as - correctly or not - the sensation of muscle relaxation and light sedation would give a few good hours of contentment and make me sleep well. Like Greg, having a beer after day's touring is a delight, makes me feel light hearted and I think actually seems to help with recovery. On tour on the Continent, the beer and wine is so good quality and cheap it's still a big part of the experience.

It was actually more the day-to-day tippling that I decided to knock on the head. Part of it was during the pandemic it had become a bit automatic, a bit rote and habitual, and I'd sometimes realise I had drank a pint of beer and not really enjoyed it. 

The big thing though was it did start to make a serious impact - on my weight! Now I'm a tall skinny guy, always have been a bean-pole, and had actually been the same weight (75kg) since I'd been 18. After xmas 2023 I was horrified to weigh myself and find I was almost 100 kilos and actually "overweight"! After years of joshing my Dad about his "century" of mass my chickens had come home to roost. Not good for riding and not good for my back.

Now years ago I was a biochemist so the cause wasn't so mysterious - but it doesn't take much background to see that two ales a night, at 300+ calories each, is a massive amount (25% daily!) of empty calories. So the beer every night had to go. For a while I substituted for slimline G&Ts and perfected my Noel Coward impression - I really like G&T as a drink but it's just too astringent to sip all night. So I got some good non-alcoholic substitutes to fulfil the feeling of having a cold drink in hand - and knocked out booze entirely during the week.

This worked, almost too well. I'm back down to 81kg, and that's after 3 months of no riding and after xmas. My stomach thanks me, I get less headaches, and I think I sleep better too. I used to use it to make myself sleepy - insomnia's always been a problem - but have found way better ways to bring that about which I'll tell you all about some time (melatonin is a revelation!).

So I'm now at the point where I still drink, don't dislike it, but have knocked it out the routine. I go to the pub or brewery once a week and have a couple of drinks there, and will have a drink of an evening every day when on tour or on holiday. Generally pretty happy with this!

Jon thanks for such a comprehensive, thought provoking post. Almost all of the points you make resonate strongly with me, especially the relevance of the heavy drinking culture in university and beyond.

Australia is probably one of the most alcohol soaked cultures on the globe, which adds another dimension to choosing to not drink alcohol in social situations.

In my early career, I noticed how deeply embedded grog was in work functions. Free drinks were normal at almost every work event. I also noticed that employees mirrored the behaviour, good and bad, of their bosses. And all too often, too many drinks resulted in mischief or worse.

So as I rose up the ranks I ceased drinking alcohol at any work function. I didn’t make a fuss about it. I just quietly never accepted a free drink or drank alcohol in any work context for about 35 years while I was responsible for other staff. Lo and behold, I noticed that many of the younger staff I was supervising starting doing the same.  

Similarly, I almost always cycle commuted to /from work. I even refused a salary package which included a carpark. I didn’t need it. Inevitably, more of the people in my work teams also began cycle commuting. Bingo! The power of role modelling. 

Like you I studied science (biochemistry, microbiology, zoology etc) so I have a basic knowledge of physiology. As I’ve aged, I became more concerned about the growing medical evidence of alcohol as a carcinogen. The correlation and causation evidence for alcohol causing cancer is pretty solid. Especially mouth, throat and gut cancers. Not a pleasant prospect.

I love top quality red wine, but I came to realise that alcohol in a $40 bottle of smooth wine is just as carcinogenic as alcohol in $5 cask of plonk. I might be lucky in the genetic lottery and have built in protection that seem to enable some to drink and smoke into old age, but I’ve decided the pros aren’t worth the cons.

Disclaimer, we have not cycle toured for a number of years due to Mary's health which is now much improved so we may get out again this year. I used to have a screw top bottle of Aldi budget red on hand and partook of at least a glass sometimes two daily. I just stopped and really did not miss it. I will still have a beer when eating out but unless on holiday this is not a very regular occurrence.

It is the cakes at the coffee shop which maintain my excess fat around the stomach area now.