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Welcome to The Hump! Podcast … In episode 42 of The Hump! Podcast: Booze Vacation … The fellas are back with Clifford Stephan from Booze Vacation. They chat taking a break from booze, the benefits, and convincing people to do it!

The fellas continue season three, recording in person, which you can catch on Facebook… chatting all things inane and profound (have you actually listened to the show). And this episode’s Triple D: What do you call someone who gets overzealous about your vices and proselytizes their solution?
 

The Hump! Podcast Episode 42 Show Notes – Booze Vacation

If You Missed The First Two Seasons

Miss the first season or so of The Hump! Show?

In Ep. 42 of The Hump! Podcast, Brent & Chad along with guest Clifford Stephen chat about taking a break from booze and the benefits! What Craft Beers Are The Fellas Drinking?

  • Chad brought Brent a Drop Top Caddy from Central Standard Brewing in Wichita.
  • Chad is drinking a beer that was created by Omnipollo and Dougies that is from Sweden and he isn’t even going to try and pronounce the name. Both Brent and Chad complement the can art on their drinks tonight.

Booze Vacation

As part of our drink series, we wanted to invite a friend of the program onto the show … We’ve had some thoughtful guests on the past couple of weeks to chat the world of adult beverages. Now … we’re going to turn and look at a world without booze. We’re pleased to welcome Clifford Stephan who is the founder of Booze Vacation. Booze Vacation is a self-guided lifestyle experiment where one relearns life without booze and proves that we can have more fun, longer while enjoying the numerous benefits of looking and feeling better along the way.

Clifford… welcome to the show. Tell us more about Booze Vacation?

  • Clifford talks about how he was always really active playing sports with his buddies and after 30 years of drinking they were trying to get back to how they were in high school. He has always been focused on health and fitness, getting a degree in Nutritional Science and trying out many different diets. However, when he was pushing 47 he started to notice it was harder to keep pushing his body physically like he used to.
  •  After reading some books he decided to take a year off, telling his buddies he was taking a Booze Vacation. Clifford talks about how that year was really transformative for him and he wanted to get other buddies to try it after that. He talks about his frustration when none of them really wanted to do it with him. After deciding he could only annoy his buddies about it for so long he made it into a non-profit. He says it isn’t about sobriety or permanent abstinence. It is about taking an extended break. He says practically with guys it is so engrained that booze, events, and fun always go together. Many times he feels that time with your buddies becomes just about having a beer instead of being active and engaging friend time.
  • Clifford says sometimes though, it easier to be influenced by a buddy than by anyone else. Brent says it’s funny that he talks about buddies influencing you because Chad has been cutting back on eating meat and nudging Brent in the same direction.

What benefits have you seen?

  • Clifford says he saw a lot of subtle benefits over time. He says many times with alcohol people overdo it especially on the weekends and then take the beginning of the week to recoup and then start planning for the next weekend. It really just takes up a lot of bandwidth in your mind he says. He says he is a busy person and when he drank he had a lot harder time juggling it all, had a hard time sleeping, and it was just plain stressing him out. Over time he just got to sleeping better, losing weight, and feeling better overall.
  • He also talks about how it is a lot easier to be in the present which he believes is the key to happiness. Without alcohol, you aren’t constantly reminiscing about past weekends. Just in general he says you aren’t as productive which then leads to you being more stressed. Clifford mentions the book he read called “Alcohol Lied to Me.” The book talks about negative feedback loops and how being hungover at the beginning of the week can really snowball into a bad cycle. He says the major wins were with fitness, productivity, and level-headedness.

What are generally objections or hesitations people generally have in taking the vacation?

  • He would tell people they should read this book and people would just say no. He says also that as we get older there is the mindset of booze are fun and when you have fun you have booze. With this mindset in place, it’s easy to see why people don’t want to give up alcohol. Especially when you are getting up there in age and you need to start thinking about your liver health. He says some people who are under 30 already have shot livers and it will be a very bad trickle-down effect by the time they get to their 50s.
  • The fellas and Clifford talk about the harm scores of different things … meaning how negatively they can impact your life. Weed is among the lowest and Alcohol is among the highest even above crack and meth! Brent and Chad say they blame George Washington for the way we view weed as bad and alcohol as good.

What asks if there is a minimum time that people should try this out for?

  • Clifford says 1 to 2 months is a bad idea because at that point you aren’t learning life without it you are just enduring. Trying to do a 3, 6, or 12 month period so you get used it to. He said they should get through some parties and start feeling some of those benefits. They should give themselves time to have that wow moment and feel the difference then decide if they want to go back to their previous lifestyle. He started his vacation 2 years ago and in the last year has been drinking a max of 1 to 2 beers a weekend.

For you… what was the hardest part of the vacation?

  • He said the hardest part was getting himself to do it. Getting himself to make the decision which for him happened after reading the book he mentioned earlier “Alcohol Lied to Me.” Again, he said once you set the goal far enough out you don’t go only 2 more weeks, you just start living your life. He says when you are younger it can be fun but the longer you wait to reset and take that break the worst it is going to be for you.

Anything else you’d like to mention that we may have missed?

  • Clifford says they are relaunching their website in a few weeks and you should check it out at boozevacation.com

And This Episode’s Game of “Triple D” …

To close out The Hump! Podcast … Brent, Chad, and Clifford play a quick round of Triple D.

What’s Triple D?

They throw out a scenario … and discuss whether it’s a DICK, DOUCHE or DUMBASS move …

This week’s Triple D move — What do you call someone who gets overzealous about your vices and proselytizes their solution?

Clifford says he thinks it is a Dick move but it’s all about how you do it. Chad said he agrees. However, Brent has a little different take on it. Find out which one the fellas ended up settling on by listening to this week’s podcast!

You Can Catch The Hump! Live

You can watch Brent and Chad LIVE 6 p.m. CST most Thursdays on Facebook.

They’ll publish the replays on Facebook and places where good audio can be found (see below platforms — and not saying they’re good, but they’ll slum along greatness).

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