Grant Caunter lost 45kgs after he stopped drinking. Photos / Supplied
Grant Caunter lost 45kgs after he stopped drinking. Photos / Supplied
A Kiwi man who's a self-described "lifer" in the brewing industry says his life has been transformed since giving up alcohol.
Grant Caunter, 50, has worked with beer for 25 years - most recently as Heineken's global director of craft beer at the brewer's head office in Amsterdam.
"Basically my day job was talking beer and enjoying beer," he tells the Herald on Sunday.
"But then I'd come home and have a wine before dinner, another one during dinner and even some after dinner, and it was just habit.
"I was a big drinker and I didn't really even know it at the time."
But in March 2020, things "took a turn". Along with the rest of the world, the Netherlands was plunged into lockdown, and Caunter found himself spending hours on Teams calls every day instead of meeting people and talking beer.
It was at that point that he looked at himself and realised something needed to change.
"I thought, I'm 146kg, I'm not getting anything out of this job that I wanted, I'm losing my mojo, I'm procrastinating, I've got no goals at all.
"These things were just layering up and I ultimately just felt that the world wasn't going to solve any of my problems. I had to take charge of my own motivation and progress."
Caunter weighed 146kg before he decided to give up alcohol. Photo / Supplied
So in July 2020, Caunter and his wife Nicky, 48, stopped drinking alcohol. By the following year, he'd lost 45kg. And he says he never expected just how "satisfying" it would be to give up the booze.
"I just noticed the progress so quickly after I gave up drinking. Sleep changes, skin changes - I'd had what I would describe as a constant state of fog. I was blaming it on the pandemic, but then it all just disappeared," he shares.
"Maybe this is a bit deep, but everyone is born with two lives - the second one starts when you realise you only have one. And that's sort of where I was, in my late 40s, still with plenty to give, but a bit lost and lots of things happening in the world that didn't seem good. And I look back on it now and go, wow, the worst of times turned into the best of times."
One of the greatest benefits, he says, was seeing the impact his decision to stop drinking had on his kids, Grace, 20, and Leo, 17.
"Not by what I said to them, but what they could see me and my wife Nicky doing. I saw all these benefits, got hours a day back in my life and I'm a lot more present with my kids."
Ex-colleagues would ask him when he would "get back on the horse" and start drinking again, he reveals.
"And I can't even think of how or why I would. I see no benefit [to drinking] anymore."
Since giving up booze, Caunter says he's never felt better. Photo / Supplied
When he came back to New Zealand last year, he realised just how few zero-alcohol options there were on offer.
"I thought, who better to put his money where his mouth is than me? I'll give this a crack."
So Caunter created his own zero-alcohol beer brand, State of Play, sharing a name with his business consultancy company. It was inspired after he watched an All Blacks test match and said he heard Ian Foster say at half-time, "right, here's the state of play".
"I thought, I just assessed my own state of play and at that time gave myself a yellow card," he jokes. So far, State of Play has produced a naturally brewed, zero-alcohol IPA from its Hawke's Bay brewery.
Caunter says he'd love to see more people add zero-alcohol beer to their repertoire.
"The shift is happening. New Zealand is following in the footsteps of other countries where the trend towards drinking less is taking off. It's not necessarily about people giving up - some may and I applaud them for that - just understanding the impact of alcohol is the bigger issue.
"It's more than just Dry July, it's how do we get a different view on social drinking and not take the piss out of someone who's having a zero beer and actually ask, 'what's that you're drinking, because I would like some'."
