Here's How to Pace Yourself for a Full Day of Drinking Without Passing Out in the Bushes

It’s wedding season, summer is here, and all-day outdoor events call for all-day outdoor drinking — if you can handle it. And you can, if you’re a pro. Pacing yourself is a nice enough idea, but we all know, um, a friend, who has had one too many glasses of rosé by noon, devoured a tub of macaroni and cheese, and it was lights out for the rest of the day. Perhaps on the lawn or in the bushes.

But you got this: Executive chef Seth Levine of The Regal in Brooklyn tells The Feast how one can have fun involving cocktails all day long without passing out prematurely or getting way too tipsy for comfort.

“Getting ready for a long day of drinking takes some preparation,” he laughs. “Start the day off with some carbs [like the a stuffed brioche French toast Seth makes at The Regal in Williamsburg] that will keep the alcohol from getting too quickly into your bloodstream.”

Alcohol is metabolized by the liver (obvi), and according to the National Institutes of Health, blood-alcohol content is influenced by environmental factors like the rate of alcohol drinking, the amount of food in the stomach, and the type of alcohol consumed.

Timing is everything.

First and foremost you have to pace yourself. Do the math. If you have three or four cocktails before the day even really gets started, you're going to pass out pretty early. You have to start slow. One drink. One. Drink it slowly. If you start to feel buzzed, good. If you start to feel really drunk, sit down and stop drinking for a while.

“Slow and steady wins the race otherwise it's a race head first to the toilet,” Levine says.

Eat. A lot.

There is no dieting during an all-day drinking marathon. Salad isn’t going to coat your stomach or absorb any alcohol. You need carbs. Bread, pizza, pasta, the greasy stuff. Listen, you’re the one who wanted to drink all day. You wanna feel the buzz, you gotta eat the food.

Stop it with the shots.

Drinking over a period of hours is easier — that day and the next day for the hangover — when you’re not drinking straight liquor. Don’t accept any shots — what are you, in college? Stop it. Have white wine, beer, or cocktails that are lighter on the alcohol. If anyone is screaming “shots shots shots!” in your group, shouldn’t begin drinking before 10 p.m.

“Stick to one spirit, so if vodka is your choice: Screwdrivers for breakfast, Bloody Mary for brunch, Moscow Mules, for lunch and a vodka martini for dinner,” chef Levine says.

Drink water too.

You must hydrate. The commonly known rule is one glass of water per every alcoholic drink. Just do it. It helps keep the hangover headache away and spaces out your alcoholic drinks. Unless you are trying to blackout, and then by all means forget the H2O. And everything else. 

Take a nap.

If you’re going to consume alcohol all day, then plan on carrying on that night, make like a baby and take a nap. Tuck yourself in and snooze off to dreamland for a solid two hours. Hopefully it will sober you up a little so you can start drinking again. If you went down for a nap but woke up in the morning... you drank too much.

Don’t puke.

If you throw up, you did it all wrong. You shouldn’t be drinking at all, never mind during the day. Get a hold of yourself. You did shots, didn’t you? What did we say? No shots. 

You're welcome.