Episode Transcript

The Nourished Mama - Ep 23

Transcript 

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Nourished Mama Show. I'm doing a solo episode today, and it's a topic that I have wanted to chat with you guys about for a long time, and that is my last two and a half years of being completely alcohol free. I'm gonna share why I went alcohol free and the profound benefits I've experienced both physically and mentally.

I do wanna preface this episode by saying I'm not here to make anyone wrong for their choices or make anyone feel guilty or bad. I'm just here to share my journey with this, and if you have thought about going alcohol free, I'm here to share just how incredible this can be for you if you decide to go down this path or give it a go.

Now when I tend to tell people I don't drink alcohol, some people totally get it. Don't question it, but unfortunately a lot of people [00:02:00] don't get it. They either have this awkward look on their face where they think that I may have been an alcoholic, or they instantly make this assumption that I'm someone that doesn't like to have fun.

Obviously these are not people that are my close friends because my close friends are extremely supportive and have never questioned my decisions. They also know I'm even more of a good time without alcohol. I'm more talking about people I meet along the way. I'm not saying this because I'm concerned about what they think.

I'm talking about this. In order to give you a backstory on why I chose to go alcohol free and. Why it's so important to not let this type of decision be influenced by the people around you. Because the truth is, when I gave up alcohol, there was not one person in my circle that was also doing this.

My husband did eventually give up alcohol too, a couple of months after me. But we are still really the only two people in our circle [00:03:00] of friends that have done this, and even a lot of other people that we meet along the way. So you can see how easy it could have been to not do this if we were easily influenced by those around us.

When making a decision like this, it is so, important. You are in a positive mind frame, you are confident in yourself, and you completely. Back yourself. Otherwise, it's gonna be a hard and restrictive journey, which is something I don't recommend. I chose to go alcohol free, not because I drank too much alcohol and needed to stop, not because my friends were doing it, not because it was trendy, because I was so, and still am so confident in what I want out of life that nothing influences my decisions but me.

In saying all of this, it took me years of healing physically and mentally to get to this point and feel 100% confident in my own health choices, whether it was alcohol, [00:04:00] food, exercise, et cetera. And this is why it is so important. We don't take any self justification and validation from those around us.

These kind of decisions need to come from within when we go down any health journey. Okay, I've got it a bit of a tangent here. Let's talk about some of the reasons I chose to give up alcohol and why it's been one of the best decisions I've ever made for my health. I firstly looked at giving up alcohol because of my autoimmune condition.

I had seen so many incredible benefits and results when I decided to adopt an anti-inflammatory diet and some other anti-inflammatory lifestyle practices, and alcohol was really one of the last things I was still doing. That was a known cause of inflammation in my body. So I knew that giving it up would be extremely beneficial in my healing journey.

Secondly, I simply just wanted to challenge myself. I never had the [00:05:00] intention of staying alcohol free this long. I started with a three month goal. Then that led to six months and so on, and now we are here two and a half years later. I. I actually also never drank a lot before I gave it up. there was that blurry COVID period.

Mom's at home with little kids 24 7, not allowed to leave the house. That's all I'll say about that. But honestly, guys, majority of the time I was averaging maybe one to two drinks a week, and most weeks I didn't have any at all. Now, I'm not saying this to justify my drinking habits. I'm saying this because of what I'm about to tell you next.

When I tell people I don't drink, one of the first things 90% of people feel the need to say is, oh yeah, me too. I only drink when I go out. Or I only have a couple of drinks a month. And I really wanna address this quickly. First and most importantly, you never need to [00:06:00] justify how much you drink to anyone.

This reflective comment, this immediate need to minimize or explain your own drinking habits when confronted with someone else's choices to be sober or alcohol free, generally comes from a place of self-judgment on yourself. It reveals this internal discomfort or questioning about your own relationship with alcohol that gets triggered when someone else makes a different choice.

You need to recognize this pattern and really stop doing this to yourself. When someone tells you they don't drink, they're not trying to make a statement necessarily about your drinking. They're not judging you or asking you to defend your choices. But somehow many people hear an implicit criticism and feel the need to immediately establish that they're basically the same or practically don't drink either.

This defensive response says more about our collective [00:07:00] relationship with alcohol than it says about either person's actual consumption habits. Secondly, and this is really crucial to understand, having no alcohol at all is actually very different from having even one drink a month. This isn't about quantity shaming or creating these hierarchies of virtue.

It's about acknowledging a fundamental biological and psychological reality. Gets glossed over in these conversations Physically, alcohol can stay in our system and influence brain function for weeks or even months, whether it's one drink or many drinks. The brain's neurochemical balance, sleep patterns, mood regulation, and cognitive function can.

All be affected by even occasional alcohol consumption. When you remove it entirely, your body undergoes a complete recalibration. That simply doesn't [00:08:00] happen when you maintain any level of regular consumption, however small that might be, and mentally and socially. The challenge of giving up alcohol completely involves navigating.

Every single social situation, every celebration, every difficult day, every moment of stress or joy, without that familiar option that you once had. It means developing entirely new coping mechanisms, social strategies, and even ways of celebrating. It requires examining and often really rebuilding your relationship with relaxation.

Again, socialising and emotional regulation, literally from the ground up. Someone who drinks occasionally still has alcohol as an available tool in their toolkit for celebrations, for stress relief, for social situations, or simply because they enjoy it. They haven't actually had to learn how to exist in a world where that option is permanently off the [00:09:00] table.

This psychological work of complete sobriety, dealing with social pressure, finding new ways to unwind, navigating the awkwardness of being the only sober person in many situations, is genuinely different from someone who can choose one or two drinks in these situations. Now, this isn't to diminish anyone's relationship with alcohol or suggest that drinking less isn't valuable because from a health perspective it is 1000%

healthier and recommended to do this, but when someone chooses a complete alcohol free life, complete sobriety, comparing it to light drinking really minimises the real work and commitment that choice actually involves. I drank very little and occasionally before I decided to give it up, so I completely and totally get it.

I have been there before. Now I wanna go into some incredible benefits I have [00:10:00] experienced in the last two and a half years of being completely sober. Some of the initial benefits, number one, has to be sleep quality. This was honestly the most immediate and noticeable change. My sleep quality improved dramatically.

I was falling asleep faster, staying asleep throughout the night and waking up feeling actually rested. Even though I wasn't drinking much before, I didn't realize how much that small amount was affecting my sleep cycles. This deep restorative sleep I started getting was like nothing I'd experienced in years.

Next up is mental clarity. The brain fog that I didn't even realise I had started lifting. My gosh, my focus improved, my memory got sharper, and I felt more present in conversations and daily activities. It was like someone had cleaned the windows of my mind. Everything just felt clearer and more vivid.

My energy [00:11:00] levels, my energy became so much more stable throughout the day. No more afternoon crashes or that sluggish feeling that I used to attribute to just being a busy mom. My energy felt so much more consistent and sustainable, and my skin health, my skin started looking brighter and more hydrated.

Within weeks, I noticed less puffiness, especially around my eyes, and just an overall healthier glow that people actually really have been commenting on .Removing alcohol played a huge part in this alongside my other anti-inflammatory food choices. Now the longer term benefits that really solidified this as a lifestyle change for me were number one, emotional regulation.

This one has been huge. I have become so much better at processing emotions and stress without needing any external substance. I developed much healthier coping [00:12:00] mechanisms and found that I could handle difficult situations with so much more clarity and less reactivity. I wasn't using alcohol even in small amounts as a way to unwind or decompress, which meant that I had to learn actual stress management techniques, social confidence, contrary to what people might think.

I actually became more social and confident. I realized that any social anxiety I. Thought I needed alcohol to manage was actually quite manageable on its own. I became more authentic in social situations because I wasn't even slightly numbed or altered. I was just completely myself, and I've been addicted to this feeling. My autoimmune improvements.

This is obviously a big one for me. Given my autoimmune condition, my inflammation markers continue to improve. My flareups disappeared, and I have felt like I'd removed the last inflammatory trigger from my [00:13:00] lifestyle. This alone made it absolutely worth it. Another one is my relationship with food. I have noticed I always make better food choices.

Now, consistently, even small amounts of alcohol can affect our blood sugar and decision making around food and removing it has helped me completely maintain the healthy eating patterns I've worked so hard to establish. My mental health, my anxiety levels have decreased significantly, and my mood is so much more stable.

I don't have those subtle mood tips that can happen days after drinking, even from small amounts of alcohol. My mental health has felt so much more resilient and balanced. My physical performance, my workouts have significantly improved. My recovery is faster and I feel stronger in my body. My body is working so much more efficiently without having to process any alcohol at all.[00:14:00] 

And lastly, but most importantly, my business success. This one honestly surprised me the most. My productivity, my creativity, my decision making in my business has improved dramatically. I'm sharper in meetings. I'm more innovative with my ideas, and I've had the sustained energy to work on projects that require deep focus whilst juggling kids at the same time, my business has grown

exponentially since I went alcohol free. And I truly believe the mental clarity and consistent energy levels have been a huge part of that success. I'm showing up as the best version of myself every single day, and that's reflected in everything I create and every interaction I have with you guys, with my clients on social media, with everything that I do.

I wanna be really clear about something. I don't think that everyone needs to be completely alcohol [00:15:00] free to be healthy. What I do think is that most people should probably benefit or would benefit from examining their relationship with alcohol and potentially reducing their consumption. It is a huge inflammatory marker, but for me, the complete elimination was what worked best.

And here's why I think that is, there's something so powerful about making a complete commitment rather than trying to moderate. When you remove something entirely, you are forced to develop new habits when you remove it. Completely. Your new coping mechanisms and new ways of celebrating and socializing need to completely change.

But when you are still moderating, you can easily fall back into old patterns during stressful times or social situations. Really the all or nothing approach also removes the mental [00:16:00] energy of decision making around this. I see this happen time and time again. I don't have to think about whether this is a good day to drink or not.

Whether I've had enough this week, or whether this social situation calls for it, the decision is already made, which is incredibly freeing. I also think there's something to be said for experiencing your life completely unfiltered. Every emotion, every celebration, every difficult moment. Experiencing it all with complete clarity has been incredibly empowering for me.

If you are thinking about going alcohol free even temporarily, here's some of my advice. Start with a clear intention and specific. Timeframe. Don't make it about restriction or deprivation. Make it about what you want to gain. Focus on all the benefits you're going to experience rather than what you are giving up, which I see so many people do when they [00:17:00] go alcohol free.

It is so focused around restriction and giving up and willpower and all of that. Just think about all the beautiful benefits you are gonna gain from it. Prepare for social situations in advance. Have your responses ready for when people ask questions, but also don't feel like you need to overexplain your choices.

Find new ways to celebrate and unwind. This is absolutely crucial.You need to replace the habit with something else that serves you better. For example, for me From a physical perspective, it's kombucha. I will always have a kombucha with me. Be patient with yourself. The benefits really do compound over time, and some of the best ones don't actually show up immediately.

Some of the most incredible benefits I started to experience was six to nine months down the track. Okay, and remember, this is your journey. Don't let anyone [00:18:00] else's opinions or reactions influence your decision. The people who matter will support you, and the people who don't support you probably aren't as important as you think they are.

For me, going alcohol free has been so much more than just not drinking. It's been about complete ownership of my health, my choices, and my life. It's been about showing myself that I can commit to something that serves my highest good, even when it's not the popular choice. Two and a half years later. I can honestly say it has been one of the best decisions I've ever made for my health, and I have no intention on going back.

Although I don't say everything is forever. if you're considering this journey, I really do encourage you to trust yourself and give it a try. You are going to be so surprised at just how incredible you feel. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope it has inspired you. If you [00:19:00] know any other mamas that would benefit from tuning in, please send this link over to them.

Bye for now. I will see you next time on the Nourished Mamas Show.