Sober·ish Uprising

“I was educated and I had a mortgage. My life was great. How could I be an alcoholic? That doesn’t make any sense.”  Host of “I have 12 Questions - Conversations about the Sober Life”, Amanda Patton is 10 years into sobriety and has a passion for sharing stories of recovery “sans labels, dogma, stigma or shame.”  Yes please!  While our stories of drinking and sobriety/sober•ish could not be more d...

Last week I celebrated my two year sober•ish birthaversary! Don’t I look good for my age?  On September 13, 2021, I started a sober•ish journey that has evolved along the way. Just as I have continued to evolve as a woman who consistently puts her well being above everything else. This one decision made with intention and love for myself changed everything. In today’s podcast I share some of my bi...

There are so many facets of living a sober·ish life that I have discovered along the way and I continue to do so. Today I share my A-E of being sober·ish including: How I assumed the edginess I had in my life was a personality defect until I quit drinking and realized it was self-induced anxiety. How easy it is to delay quitting drinking as there is never a great time to quit drinking and how easy...

April grew up in an environment where alcohol was plentiful, never taboo and part of the fabric of her family. She had her first drink at 7 and remembers a time she went drink for drink with her dad at 14.   As she grew into adulthood April continued to see the conflict within booze. She felt a healthy fear and respect toward alcohol. She had seen what alcohol could do to someone AND that it's...

A young, sober Wendell attended more AA meetings by the age of 12 than most ever will. Wanting to spend time with his pops so he accompanied his father to AA meetings all over Queens, New York for years seeing all the different ways alcohol affected people. Those lessons and stories would stick with him AND he would still have to find his own way to being sober·ish. From drinking 8 days a week and...

Growing up the daughter of an alcoholic, drinking was never something that was appealing to Elizabeth until it became part of her job. Drinking is a part of our working culture but in this case it was literally her job as she worked in the alcohol branding industry. At the same time her career was taking off, her father was waiting for a liver transplant from his drinking.  Compartmentalizing the...

What happens when you decide to change your relationship with booze and your partner does not ESPECIALLY when it's been a big piece of your relationship? Everything. Today I share my conversation with one of my favorite humans on the planet, Dr. Tarryn McCarthy.  A former thriving functional alcoholic.  A current thriving business owner and loving human.  Tarryn has been sober for 7 years and...

Raise your hand if you ever fibbed a bit on the medical form, “How much do you drink a week?”  Envision me and my guest Thuy raising our hands.  Thuy is a heart healer, real estate investor, mother and light in this world. She radiates joy. Thuy didn't start socially drinking until 22 and even then she could have taken it or left it but the messages of “you have to drink to be fun” were loud a...

“The mental clarity and mental freedom has been my biggest surprise. Coming from a health background I knew I would physically feel better. Of course digestion and sleep would get better but I was surprised at the mental space it opened up. Looking back I was amazed at how much mental space alcohol took up.”  Today I chat with Erin Godin, a health coach, who like most of us who enter into our 40s...

In the final episode of the 4-part series of the myth, stories, beliefs I bought into that held me back from changing my relationship with alcohol, I share one that my mind could not move past so many times.  Sobriety has to look a certain way. It's a big one because even if I had worked through all the other BS I told myself, this one would have kept me stuck.  I knew I needed to quit drinkin...

“You’ve done scarier things before.  Having a baby exit out of your body is way scarier than quitting alcohol for a month. Please just give it a month. Your life will totally change and you’ll be like whoa. Just give it a try”.  Erin heard whispers since 2020 “You need to stop drinking. You need to stop drinking”  but like most of us excused them away. In January of 2023 gave the ole “Dry January”...

“The idea of sobriety is not a one size fits all. It has to be what works for you and at the end of the day you feel good about yourself, your life and you're doing what's right for you.”  Today’s Sober·ish Uprising guest is Staci who when we met said she has been 4 years sober but some may not consider her sober. I had no idea what would come out of her mouth next. She said there are some...

Do you ever look at your life or in the middle of a moment, good or bad, stop in disbelief and think “Is this my life?” ? It still blows my mind that I am a non-drinker. At least once weekly I think back to the past year and half and am still a little shocked that I no longer identify as a non-drinker. Because that identity was a big piece of my life for a long time until it wasn’t.  In today’s ep...

“When I talk about being sober·ish, I am talking about me really paying attention to how I am paying attention to me. It’s a choice, not a label.”   Today’s episode is with my dear friend Dana Kaplan who shares how sober·ish not only applies to booze but to food, exercise and other things that we can use as a coping mechanism. The core memory of feeling so loved and vulnerable that she turned to b...

For years I waited for the right time to quit drinking. A time where I didn’t have a social engagement, a trip,a happy hour, a Tuesday. Oddly enough that time never came. Strange. There is never a good time to change your relationship with alcohol and it's ALWAYS a good time. If you wait for the right time, you'll never start. And this goes for most changes we want to make in life. It'...

“But you don’t have a problem,” is often what you hear when you tell people you aren’t drinking or are reassessing your relationship with booze.  In fact it was one of the top things that held me back from redefining my relationship because according to everything around me I didn’t have a problem but everything in me knew I did.  I share the three areas that influence how we define a problem and...

My brother was the first person in my life that I was close to that I saw choose sobriety and do it as a power move. It felt like it came out of nowhere but also not as I knew he wanted more for his life He quit drinking on February 6, 2020, a month after he moved into our house to take care of it and our two pupsters while we lived abroad and a month before the world shut down. He knew it was an...

Welcome to the first episode of Sober·ish Uprising, a space where we share all versions of sobriety. We believe labeling sobriety as black and white is a limitation to those who know they want to do things differently. In Sober·ish Uprising we share sober·ish stories and the freedom that comes when we say no to booze. In this inaugural episode I'll share my story of finally becoming sober·ish...

Tracie is one of those people I met years ago and knew I would always want to keep track of. We met more than 10 years ago when we both worked in athletics and I have always been inspired by her joy for life and ability to beat to her own drum.  We both have a career path that is diverse and may not make sense on paper but every stop and decision has a single thread through it. We trusted our...

“We all have a story. Either we don’t give value to our story or we let our story have power over us because of past experiences, shame, guilt, etc. I want to show women how to flip the paradigm for themselves and harness the power of their own story so they can shine a light out in the world.” In today's episode I spent time with certified  coach April Pertruis and founder of Light Beamers,...

This is a bonus episode of Chill & Grace where you can experience first hand coaching! I was inspired by Esther Perel's podcast, Where Should we Begin?, where she shows real-time counseling session. What I love about her podcast is listening to the power of questions and listening to create aha moments and meaningful change. I wanted to show the same in coaching.  Coaching is so powerful....

Laurice had it all. Loving husband, four healthy kiddos and living in a beautiful community. She loved her life AND felt like there was something more out there for her. It wasn't until tragedy struck that she acknowledged the nudge for something more which helped her not just survive but thrive during the hardest time of her life.  Laurice shares the journey of losing her husband and how rea...

“In the South there was a strong sense of what your future should look like. I remember thinking ‘I don’t even want to be here’. I had a hard time imagining what it would be but I knew it wasn’t what I saw around me. But It was easy to be religious and get married young. I actually don’t think I gave it much thought. I just looked around and thought that’s how we do it.”  Patti is the Founder...

Sarah is a childfree woman from the UK who reached out in February to share her story on the podcast of being childfree. After reaching out, fear and unease and worry set in and it wasn't until May that we sat down for the podcast. Despite being firm in her decision to be childfree the overwhelming feeling of judgment sat heavy and it wasn't until she realized the power of the stigma that she...

Remington is an ordained Presbyterian Minister and Healthcare Chaplain. She currently works with the sick and dying as well as with their support system as a hospice chaplain. She is one of the kindest, most compassionate and courageous people I know. She was also born a male.  When I met Remington about 5-6 years ago she was presenting as a man and I have witnessed her journey as she do...