The Hello Someday Podcast For Sober Curious Women

Are you caught in the relentless whirlwind of life, desperately seeking the off-switch for that ever-churning mental engine?  In this podcast episode, we're peeling back the layers of burnout with the incredible Dr. Sharon Grossman. Dr. Grossman unveils the root causes and the early signs of burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and decreased productivity.  She guides us through the stress burn...

When I first tried to stop drinking I couldn’t get much more than 4 days alcohol-free, so the idea of 90 days of sobriety seemed impossible.  Looking back I now realize that part of why staying sober for 90 days felt so hard was that the first week was miserable and I had no idea what to expect for the next 3 months. So I want you to have the information I didn’t have when I was in the drinking cy...

Once you’ve gotten a period of time alcohol-free, how do you protect your sobriety and avoid relapse? It’s a question I get all the time from my sober coaching clients and one I have personal experience navigating, both successfully and unsuccessfully. I know from personal experience and from working with hundreds of women in private coaching that coming back to sobriety after a relapse is not eas...

Have you ever wondered why you drink what you drink?  Why is red wine best paired with steak and white wine the right choice in warm weather? Why is champagne the appropriate choice for weddings and beer is best for a ballgame? What does it mean about you if you order a cosmopolitan vs. a gin and tonic at a bar and why are there entire articles written about what a woman’s drink says about her? So...

Are you trying to do it all and losing yourself in the process? I know what that’s like. When I was drinking I was completely overwhelmed by my schedule and responsibilities and saw drinking as my one reward. I felt like I was barely holding it together each day with the demands of my career and my family, paying the bills and the mortgage, trying to maintain friendships and a strong marriage, alo...

Here’s something that I get asked about often but don’t talk about much: why I don’t use the term “alcoholic” to describe myself or anyone else. It’s funny because as a sober coach, the host of a popular sobriety podcast and a person who has been immersed in the world of addiction and recovery for the last 10 years, I should be the poster girl for being comfortable using the terms alcoholic and al...

Sobriety can be a serious subject but it doesn’t always have to be. And I love to find real people talking about their drinking and sober journey with humor and honesty.   One of my favorite podcasts to listen to to get a dose of relatable, engaging and seriously funny discussions of life on the sober side is Seltzer Squad with Kate Zander and her and former co-host Jes. So I invited Kate Zander f...

How do you know if your relationship with alcohol falls into the category of being a “gray area drinker”? That muddy space existing between the two extremes of being able to ‘take or leave’ alcohol and becoming increasingly dependent on it in a problematic way? Before Gray Area Drinking was even a term I spent years debating if I was just a “red wine girl” who drank socially like most of my friend...

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 he...

What is Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome from alcohol and why is it important for you to understand it if you’re quitting drinking? PAWS or Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome, refers to a series of symptoms that can arise after quitting alcohol and after you successfully navigate your first few weeks of sobriety.  Think of it as a secondary phase of withdrawal from alcohol, which can hit a few weeks or...

Did you know some of the most common questions googled in early sobriety are related to how to improve your energy and mood and manage fatigue and irritability?  It’s true. Here’s a sample of what people are asking as they stop drinking… How do you get energy in recovery? How can I be happy in sobriety? Why am I so tired now that I'm sober? Is it normal to feel depressed in early sobriety? How do...

If you're ready to take control of your relationship with alcohol and embrace positive change, exploring a motivational psychology approach can be a game-changer.  Motivational psychology can help you change your drinking habits by giving you a framework to understand the driving forces behind your drinking behavior, overcome challenges, and cultivate a positive mindset.   Changing your relationsh...

Are you wondering why you should rethink your drinking, even if you're not "that bad"?  Maybe you're sober curious or concerned about your relationship with alcohol, even if you don't consider yourself to have a "serious problem."  Perhaps you find yourself in the "gray area" of drinking, where your consumption doesn't appear problematic to others, and you haven't faced external consequences, but...

If you are very lucky you’ll connect with someone further along in sobriety who takes the time to show you the way. For me that person was Dawn Nickel, the founder of She Recovers, long before it had grown into the powerful recovery movement it is today.  Ten years ago, when I was 20 days alcohol-free for the first time, I shared in a group that I was nervous about going to Victoria BC for a long...

Are you craving sugar in early sobriety? If you are, you’re not alone. When I first stopped drinking I kept Peanut M&Ms in my bag so I could grab them if I really wanted to drink.  It’s normal to crave sugar in early sobriety for the simple reason that alcohol contains a lot of sugar. Your body has gotten used to the regular influx of sugar from drinking.  There are a lot of (very real) reasons yo...

If you’re sober curious, worried about your drinking or want to take a break from alcohol this episode is for you.  I’m going to share my story of drinking, why I stopped drinking when I turned 40 years old and what my life has been like since I went alcohol-free seven years ago.  For years quitting drinking was my absolute worst-case scenario and it’s turned out to be the best decision of my life...

In this episode, we explore the topic of how to identify your personal core values and use them to reinforce your decision to live an alcohol-free life in a positive and meaningful way that sustains your sobriety over the long-term.  Core values are fundamental beliefs that can guide our behavior and decision-making in life. They serve as a compass, giving us direction and helping us to prioritize...

When you’re ready to stop drinking it’s important to learn not only how to quit alcohol but also how to sustain an alcohol-free lifestyle over the long term. Because many of us drink to relieve feelings of discomfort, social anxiety or self-consciousness, the work to quit alcohol requires understanding the uncomfortable feelings that drive us to seek self-soothing through alcohol. Because drinking...

When you stop drinking, recovering from drinking and thinking about drinking you might find yourself with an unsettling amount of spare time in your (usually) busy schedule. This is the perfect time to create new healthy habits to support your recovery. Today Sober Coach Casey McGuire Davidson and Yoga Teacher and Sobriety Podcast Host Ash Butterss share 6 healthy habits that will strengthen your...

Parenting young children can be wonderful, fulfilling, frustrating and exhausting.  People will tell you “the days are long but the years are short”, but when you’ve got a toddler melting down at the end of the day it’s easy to want to escape by opening a bottle of wine.  Wine mom culture exists because being a mom is hard.  For a lot of us pouring a big glass of wine is the “easy button” to numb...

If you've ever wondered whether alcohol helps you sleep, why you wake up in the middle of the night after drinking or how much alcohol messes up your sleep, this episode is for you.  Some people believe that drinking helps them go to sleep. Since alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, it causes brain activity to slow down which can feel relaxing. But while alcohol may make you feel sleepy...

10 years ago, when I was first questioning my relationship with alcohol and trying to stop drinking, I discovered The Bubble Hour Sobriety Podcast. On The Bubble Hour I heard real people, telling real stories about addiction and recovery.  When I was first trying to get a handle on my nightly bottle of wine drinking habit, I didn’t know a single person who was sober.  All of my friends drank, my h...

Why do so many self-described perfectionists, bright, ambitious and hardworking women, feel like something is wrong with them?  Why are women taught that perfectionism is a flaw to be managed? Why are perfectionists so hard on themselves? And how can ambitious achievers, striving towards the ideal, find peace and self-compassion while continuing to embrace their perfectionism?  I wanted to dive in...

Let’s dive into a hotly debated topic: Is moderate drinking good for your health? If you google this question you’ll likely find articles with titles like “surprising ways alcohol is good for you” with outdated information based on flawed studies that imply there are both health benefits and risks to drinking, or that it’s an open question if moderate drinking is good for your health.  Here’s the...

If you've ever talked with a doctor about trouble sleeping, you may have been prescribed Ambien, one of the most popular insomnia medications. But most people prescribed Ambien are not aware of the addiction risk that comes with long-term use. In this powerful episode, we dive into Laura Cathcart Robbins' moving memoir, Stash, in which Laura shares her personal story of addiction to Ambien and alc...