Mindful Drinking and Moderation in Midlife: How to Drink Less, On Your Terms

Send me a message 🤗 Why do your moderation efforts feel like they unravel by Friday, even when you haven't had a single "bad" night?  It's rarely one big decision that undoes your drinking goals — it's the small, automatic habits you don't even clock you're doing. I'm walking through six unconscious drinking habits that quietly sabotage mindful drinking wit...

Send me a message 🤗 Is your morning slice of sourdough secretly more boozy than a 0.5% beer?  It probably is. Grapes, bread, soy sauce, kombucha, even your breakfast yoghurt all contain trace amounts of alcohol, often in higher concentrations than the low-alcohol drinks so many of us scrutinise on the supermarket shelf. I'm breaking down exactly how much alcohol is hiding in everyday foods,...

Send me a message 🤗 You know zebra striping. You've tried bookending. You've coasted with mid-strength. But what if those aren't the moderation techniques that click for you? Most conversations about alcohol moderation keep circling back to the same handful of techniques. This episode goes further — into 13 lesser-known methods that don't get nearly enough airtime but can make...

Send me a message 🤗 Is moderation really harder than quitting?  It's a question that comes up again and again in the mindful drinking space — and there's no shortage of people who will tell you, with great confidence, that the answer is yes. The problem is that most of those opinions come with a bias baked in. This week I'm taking that debate head-on.  Not to declare a winner, but...

Send me a message 🤗 Ever sipped a drink you used to love and wondered why it now tastes like lighter fluid? That's not your imagination — something really has changed. Pulled from the archives, this episode is a dive into one of the most overlooked side effects of drinking differently: what happens to your taste buds.  Your palate is changing, and if you're somewhere in your low/no or m...

Send me a message 🤗 You wake up determined. You've told yourself today's different. And then 6pm arrives, someone suggests the pub, and everything you promised yourself this morning suddenly feels very far away. Sound familiar? Motivation, discipline, and willpower are the holy trinity of self-improvement advice — splashed across every gym poster and Instagram caption going. But when yo...

Send me a message 🤗 Sometimes you have a conversation on someone else's show that covers exactly the ground your own listeners need. This is one of those. A little while ago, I was invited onto Francesca Liparoti’s Empowered Perimenopause Podcast — and what started as a chat about alcohol and midlife turned into one of the most honest chats I've had in a while.  We got into the real stu...

Send me a message 🤗 What if the hardest part of drinking differently has nothing to do with the moment you're offered a drink? Moderating your alcohol intake doesn't begin at 5pm. It begins the moment your alarm goes off — and probably even the night before. If you've ever made it through the whole day with your intentions intact, only to watch your resolve unravel somewhere betwee...

Send me a message 🤗 If your hangovers have gone from 'rough morning’ to ‘Someone call me a doctor, stat!’ there's a reason for that. Several, in fact.  And they're not just happening to you. The wellness accounts will tell you alcohol is a poison. That's not technically accurate.  But what is going on inside your body when you drink past 40 is genuinely worth understanding, be...

Send me a message 🤗 What if the reason moderation keeps feeling so hard has nothing to do with willpower, and everything to do with using the right tool for the wrong job? There are six distinct drivers behind why we drink more than we intend to — and most of us are cycling through all of them without realising it, applying the same blanket strategy regardless of what's actually going on.  C...

Send me a message 🤗 What if your reason for wanting to drink differently just isn't that interesting? No rock bottom. No car wrapped around a tree. No relationship in ruins. Just a quiet, growing sense that life could probably be a bit better if alcohol wasn't quite so front and centre in it. For years, that's exactly where I found myself — and I spent an embarrassingly long time f...

Send me a message 🤗 You're walking home after a long day. You round the corner, your favourite pub comes into view — and suddenly, every cell in your body wants to walk through that door.  We’ve all been there. But what if that pull isn't actually about the drink at all? Alcohol cravings are one of the most misunderstood parts of changing the way you drink. They're not a sign of a...

Send me a message 🤗 What if low and no alcohol drinks just... aren't for you?  Before you close the tab — hear me out. Not everyone is ready to make the switch, and that's not a criticism — it's a reality check. There are some very specific reasons why low/no drinking might not be the right fit for certain people, right now.  From expecting a perfect like-for-like replica of your f...

Send me a message 🤗 What if the thing standing between you and a healthier relationship with alcohol isn't your social life, your job, or your partner — but the beliefs you've been carrying around for years without ever questioning them? In this episode, I get personal about some of the most common — and most stubborn — limiting beliefs that keep people stuck in drinking patterns they&a...

Send me a message 🤗 Have you ever had that quiet, nagging feeling — not a dramatic rock-bottom moment, just a low-level sense that something's a bit off? A voice in the back of your head that you keep brushing aside, telling you that maybe, just maybe, alcohol has something to do with it? For most of us, the realisation that we want to change the way we drink doesn't arrive with fanfare...

Send me a message 🤗 Are you waiting for the big lightbulb moment that finally makes changing your drinking feel easy? Five years in, I can tell you that moment probably isn't coming. And honestly? That's fine. Because it turns out it's not the sweeping life overhauls that make the real difference. It's the small stuff.   To mark five years of drinking differently, I'm sha...

Send me a message 🤗 There's nothing quite like a proper pint. So why is it still so difficult to find a good alcohol-free one on draught at your local? The answer comes down to more than just slow adoption — there's real science and real commercial pressure behind it. The good news is that things are moving, and there's actually something practical you can do about it right now. 1:...

Send me a message 🤗 What if the biggest obstacle between you and actually drinking less isn't willpower, habit, or social pressure — but the words you're using to talk to yourself about it? This episode borrows a little wisdom from the world of NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) to shine a light on five ordinary, everyday words that are quietly working against your moderation goals.  The...

Send me a message 🤗 If you've ever hesitated at the bar or in the supermarket over a 0.5% beer, wondering whether it counts as "really" alcohol-free — this one's for you. The labelling around low and no drinks can be genuinely confusing, especially when the UK and most of the countries we import from aren't working from the same rulebook. There's actual science behin...

Send me a message 🤗 Have you ever dipped a toe into the world of mindful drinking, decided it wasn't for you, and quietly slipped back to your old habits — only to find yourself here again, months or even a year later? That's exactly what happened to H. She found this podcast, subscribed, then walked away. A year on, she came back — and this time, something had shifted. Her story isn&ap...

Send me a message 🤗 Ever picked up a bottle of alcohol-free wine or a non-alcoholic spirit and wondered why it costs as much — or more — than the full-strength version? You're not alone, and the answer is more interesting than you might think. Alcohol does a lot more heavy lifting in a drink than most people realise, and replacing all of those functions doesn't come cheap. Find out ever...

Send me a message 🤗 If you ever find yourself stuck in the planning phase, endlessly researching moderation techniques but never quite knowing which one to actually try, this episode is for you.  From zebra striping to bookending to coasting, the sheer number of approaches to cutting back can feel overwhelming—especially when you're not sure if what worked (or didn't work) for someone e...

Send me a message 🤗 Worried CBD drinks will get you high or trigger a case of the munchies? I'm clearing up the confusion around cannabidiol—the non-psychoactive ingredient from cannabis that's showing up in supermarket-friendly brands like Trip and GoodRays. From how it actually works in your brain to why it won't cause intoxication, I'll explain what CBD drinks really do and...

Send me a message 🤗 You've made a clear decision about your drinking trajectory for the night, you’re feeling comfortable and confident about it, yet some people can’t quite seem to accept “No thanks” for an answer. It’s not about you. This is their issue… but why? These are the five personality types you'll encounter when you start drinking differently. From the Validator to the Contro...

Send me a message 🤗 Think coffee is your only pick-me-up? I'm unpacking nootropics—the brain-boosting compounds showing up in your alcohol-free drinks that enhance everything from memory to concentration. From the caffeine in your morning brew to lesser-known ingredients like L-tyrosine and ginkgo biloba, I'll explain what these cognitive enhancers actually do and why you definitely don...