The holidays are here—a time for joy, connection, and celebration. But if you’re navigating the festive season alcohol-free, you might be wondering how to handle all the challenges that come with it. How do you stay sober at holiday parties filled with champagne toasts and boozy eggnog? What do you say to family and friends who question why you’re not drinking? How do you protect your sobriety during stressful moments or navigate traditions that have always involved alcohol? In this episode,...

If you’re a high-achieving, busy mom juggling a demanding career, family, and all the other responsibilities life throws your way, you may feel like you’ve been holding it all together… but with a few drinks (or a bottle of wine) at the end of each day.  If you’re used to being “on” all the time, there are a lot of hidden pressures that make giving up alcohol as your number one coping tool and “quick fix” for stress and connection difficult along the way. If you’re a high-achieving mom,...

Have you seen the “Rosé All Day” t-shirts? Or the ones that say “This Mom Runs On Coffee, Wine and Amazon Prime”?  How about the World Health Organization’s findings that “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health”. In this episode, I’m diving into the marketing strategies the wine industry uses to appeal directly to women and how this targeted messaging is designed to encourage women to drink problematically and why the wine industry is freaking out that the World Health...

Gray area drinking is a middle ground between casual social drinking and a diagnosable alcohol use disorder, often characterized by a quiet, internal struggle with moderation. Many high-achieving women find themselves here, questioning their relationship with alcohol, yet not experiencing drastic external consequences. This space can be confusing and isolating, as it doesn’t fit traditional narratives around drinking problems.  My guest, Jolene Park, is a functional nutritionist, TEDx...

Managing anger is one of the most challenging, and often surprising, aspects of sobriety. If you're on the path to recovery or have recently stopped drinking, you might have noticed emotions like anger bubbling up more frequently or intensely than before. It's a normal part of the process, but it can feel overwhelming, especially when you’ve been using alcohol to numb those feelings for years. I asked my good friend Gill Tietz, host of the Sober Powered Podcast, certified anger management...

If you’re trying to take a break from alcohol or quit drinking it helps a lot if you can get alcohol out of your house and stay away from drinking events for a while. And it would be great if our partners would support us, especially in early sobriety.  But if your husband is struggling with alcohol he might be unwilling to stop drinking around you, try to undermine your efforts or criticize you for not drinking.   He might miss his drinking buddy or worry how your decision to stop drinking...

Being single in sobriety has a lot of advantages and some unique challenges.  On the one hand you don’t have a partner in your home who might not support your choice to be sober, may be drinking themselves or be unwilling to remove alcohol from your house. You’ll control your own environment and have more time for self-care.  But you’ll also be surrounded by a culture that promotes dating and socializing with alcohol. Being single in sobriety can stir up feelings of loneliness or isolation,...

Have you been trying to break your habit of drinking using willpower, positive inspiration or negative, fear-based motivation by trying to avoid negative consequences?  If you haven’t been successful in your attempts to stop drinking using this approach it’s actually not your fault. Instead you've likely just been trying to make a long term behavior change in all the wrong ways.  There are easy ways and hard ways to break a habit, and research into the science of behavior change shows that...

Are you thinking about taking a break from alcohol this Sober October? Whether you're curious about the health benefits, or just ready to reset your habits, this episode is for you. I’m here to help you explore how a month without alcohol can change your life, and why now is the perfect time to give it a try. Sober October is part of a growing movement, with millions of people worldwide taking on alcohol-free challenges like Dry January and Sober October. But what does it actually mean to...

Your first year of sobriety can be uncomfortable, tender, transformational, scary and exciting. As you move from Day 1 to 365 sober, you’ll have navigated a range of emotions, challenges, triumphs and changes in your life, simply because you decided to no longer drink alcohol. In your first year of sobriety you’ll struggle with cravings, worry about how others will perceive you, wonder if you’ll feel bored or be boring, invest in self-care, make new friends, re-negotiate boundaries and...

Do you fear it’ll be boring? That you’ll miss out on fun or connection? Maybe you’re worried that you’ll feel isolated or like you’re giving something up. Those fears are super common, but let me show you how sober life can actually be full of joy, freedom, and personal growth—especially for high-achieving, busy women. Living a sober life is often painted as something dull or difficult, but the reality is so much more exciting and fulfilling than most of us imagine. When you remove alcohol...

Did you know that seventy-five percent of people with substance use disorder who have sustained support recover? It’s true. And the statistic is important because alcohol is an addictive substance and substance use is the rule, not the exception, in America.  If you’re struggling with moderating your drinking, worrying about how much you drink or are struggling with achieving sobriety, you are not alone. And it’s important to know that recovery is not only possible, but likely. Individuals...

Have you ever felt like something was missing from your childhood, even if everything seemed fine on the surface? You’re not alone. Many of us carry wounds from our early years, often rooted in what’s called "mother hunger"—the deep, often unfulfilled need for nurturing, protection, and guidance from our mothers. When those needs aren’t met, it can leave us feeling incomplete, even as adults.  I asked Cybele Botran, a Professional Certified Coach, and a Mother Hunger® Trained Facilitator to...

What do you want to know about sober travel? I just got back from Provence, where I spent two weeks with 3 sober girlfriends and we’re here to share everything you need to know to plan and enjoy an awesome sober vacation. Provence is a beautiful area of France known for its small hilltop villages, river valleys, markets, food, lavender and wine. All the wine. They’ve made wine for 2,600 years and have over 600 producers in the region.   But don’t let that scare you off! Even in an area...

How do you get and stay sober when you have a partner or family member who drinks problematically?  While quitting drinking can be difficult for everyone, it can be especially difficult if you don’t have the support of your spouse, partner or the closest people in your life.  And if someone in your family has a drinking problem that they’re not willing to address or admit to, it can make your home, emotional and social environment a minefield of triggers to navigate. I asked Erinn O’Neill, a...

What is life like after you stop drinking?  How do you stay motivated and committed to sobriety after the novelty wears off?  Where do you find fun and purpose as you build up your new identity as someone who no longer drinks?  And how do you explore new interests in life after alcohol?  If you’re wondering what alcohol-free life looks like after you get through the first few months and the first year, I’ve got you covered.  I asked Nicole Pietrandrea Hough, the founder of AFTER Alcohol-Free...

Why do you crave alcohol and why is it so easy to go from drinking casually to habitually?  Why is it hard to moderate your drinking? How does alcohol affect your sleep and why do you wake up at 3am after drinking? Why does alcohol make you feel relaxed and then more anxious the next morning? How does alcohol affect your brain, body, mood and stress hormones?   Is it true that alcohol can be good for you in small doses? What are the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal? If you have questions about...

In a boozy world it can be pretty daunting to socialize sober when you stop drinking.  When you go to a restaurant the first thing they hand you is the drinks menu with all the wine, beer and cocktails offered.  When you walk into a party someone will immediately ask you what you want to drink and tell you where you can grab an alcoholic beverage.  And it seems like every sports event, dinner, holiday, concert, picnic and kids’ birthday party is a drinking event these days.  So I asked Susie...

Did you know that stepping away from your smartphone can help you lead a more peaceful and fulfilling life?  These days the devices in our pockets make us constantly connected, always available, overstimulated and interrupted by pings, reminders and vibrations.  Our phones have increased the pace, efficiency and convenience of our lives, but studies show they’ve also increased our anxiety, depression, and loneliness. I remember the days before smartphones as a slower and more peaceful time...

If you're not feeling 100% happy in your life, you might be surprised as to the reasons why.  It turns out the "science of happiness" has found that a lot of the things we've been told will make us happy, don't actually bring us joy, contentment and satisfaction. And if you're a woman in midlife you might suspect that's true.  We've been taught that if we accomplish and achieve the things on the external "measures of success", then we'll be happy. It might be climbing the corporate ladder,...

Early sobriety is an emotional and tender time, so I wanted to share with you my diary of my first 30 days sober, which has somehow turned into 6 continuous years alcohol-free. 6 years ago I woke up on the couch at 3am after drinking a bottle of wine. I came upstairs to crawl into bed with my husband filled with anxiety and unable to fall back to sleep.  In the morning I had to get up, get ready and take my kids to school with a headache, bloodshot eyes and a hangover while trying to ignore...

Are you ready for an awesome Dry July and incredible sober summer?  I’m betting you probably have a ton of drinking memories, rituals and events tied to the summer season. I know I did!  It might be beer at ballgames or camping, drinks out on a boat or hanging out at BBQs with friends. Maybe you love dive bars on road trips or European vacations with the wine flowing. But right now I’m going to help you do something new, energizing and exciting: you’re going to rock Dry July and experience...

Have you been thinking about taking a break from drinking, only to decide that you’re “not that bad”?  Most women who wonder if they’re drinking too much can look around and find lots of reasons why it’s not a “real issue”.  We’ve been told that having a problem with alcohol is black or white. Either you fall into the category of someone who is “an alcoholic” or who has a “drinking problem", or you don’t. But in truth binge drinking among women has become so normalized that it’s easy to...

Is your home set up to support your sobriety or sabotage your efforts to lead an alcohol-free life? If you’re used to opening a bottle of wine the minute you walk in the door, having a cocktail on the back deck or curling up on the couch with your laptop or netflix after the kids go to bed, your home environment can be a powerful trigger to drink.  But it doesn’t have to be that way. The way you live and design your environment can make it harder or easier to be alcohol-free. And especially...