But, think about it for a minute. Are you rewarding yourself, or just being self-destructive in your efforts to get healthy, fit, and in the best shape of your life? Are you really committed to a healthy life, or are you just being ?trendy?.

Let us not forget that tomorrow morning will come, and when it does, like any other day, you must workout and you must exercise. Exercise should already be a habit in your life, like brushing you teeth, or eating breakfast. It is a good habit. But drinking alcohol can be fun, and I'd like you to take a moment and consider how drinking can affect the good habits you've worked so hard to create in your life.

Research has proven that very small amounts of alcohol increase muscular endurance and strength. Sadly, these types of benefits are short lived. We need to know this because after less than 30 minutes of consuming an alcoholic beverage the negative aspects of alcohol surface as side effects. These side effects overwhelmingly outweigh any possible benefits that drinking might bring and no matter how you look at the issue, alcohol is a poison that can harm your body.

Alcohol can reduce strength, endurance, aerobic capability, recovery time, halt your ability to metabolize fat, and even stunt muscle growth. Alcohol has a detrimental effect on your brain and central nervous system.

Consuming alcohol over time can cause severe damage and deterioration of your central nervous system. Even with short term use in small amounts, interaction between muscle and the nervous system can be compromised causing various long term health problems.

Alcohol may also cause damage to blood cells and circulatory functions, muscle soreness, sleep problems, digestive system issues, slowed muscle reactions, and organ damage. If all that is not enough, alcohol also causes a release of insulin that tells your body that it needs to store more energy in the form of fat. Exactly, what you want right? I didn't think so.

Wait! There's more. Due to alcohol interfering the body's key nutrients, you can also become nutrient deficient to the extreme. Because your liver is forced to work over-time to filter the alcohol from your body, you can cause serious damage and even destroy your liver to the point of failure.

And since alcohol is diuretic, ?party-time? can put a massive amount of stress on your kidneys, and even heightened water retention can be the result.

So let's get down to the short and narrow of it all. If you must drink alcohol, you should so in moderation and never drink before you exercise, as it impairs your balance, coordination, your judgment, and any potential benefits of your workout.

Think about what you put into your body - look at things from a new prospective and reap the rewards of making good decisions.