Alcohol Minimalist: Change Your Drinking Habits!

You're listening to breaking the bottle legacy with Molly watts, Special Edition. Well, hello and welcome or welcome back to breaking the bottle legacy with me your host, Molly watts. This is a special edition and I am coming to you still from a very warm and beautiful Oregon right now it's in the mid 80s. So it's really kind of perfect here. Not going to gloat about that, because just last week, we were at 115 degrees for a couple of days. Absolute craziness. And even me, a professed Sun lover, that was just a little too warm for Oregon folks. Not gonna lie. But we're back to beautiful right now. And again, if you've never visited the Pacific Northwest, this is the time to come. So make a trip to Oregon and Washington and the whole Pacific Northwest and really check it out. It is a holiday week here in the US. And like many others, I'm taking a little time off this week. So this podcast is a special edition. It's a shorter edition. And it's actually dropping on my wedding anniversary as well. So Happy anniversary to my husband, Joe, who I want to give a real nod of appreciation to Joe is really the one that makes it possible for me to do this podcast to write my book, to build the website have a Facebook group, he basically keeps everything else in our world going and lets me off the hook with cooking, cleaning, gardening really all of these, those household chore things. It's been kind of a backburner for me for the last year and a half. And if left to my own devices, you'd have to unbury me under piles of laundry, and I'd probably be living on pretzels and hummus. So Happy anniversary, Joe, I love you. And thank you for everything. Alright, so this is a non Episode Episode, there's no episode number. It's a short special episode because of this holiday week. It's a little mini break, not a break to take time off from building your better drinking habits and not an excuse to overindulge. Just a break from regular content, mostly and with full transparency. For my benefit, I don't want to completely skip the week. So I'm going to drop in just a little bit of information here this week. And then next week, I'll be back with another full length full of content episode. So housekeeping first. Last week on the podcast, I shared some of the comments made by Cindy who's in my private Facebook group. And this week, I wanted to share with you some of the comments made by one of another member, one of the guys this time. So my group is not just for women, it's for anyone who wants to change their drinking habits and to create a peaceful relationship with alcohol. It's really all about becoming an alcohol minimalist. And we support whatever that looks like for you with the goal of adhering to low risk alcohol limits. And I will link those in my show notes, of course. And if you find that challenging, then you know, you may want to choose to be alcohol free. And either way the group is there to support you. And here's what Andy from the UK had to say in our group, he said, Only just stumbled across this lady finished podcast to now really going to embrace this journey two weeks without a drink now, but I don't want to quit permanently, just a beer sociably with friends every now and then would be perfect, especially if I didn't then go to a six month session. So later, Andy said, and I love this because this is further down the month, he said he was responding to another member and he said hi I've struggled for years only just started my new way of life. So far, everything is great really enjoying being in control of it, when and how many drinks I have, pretty much most of the time I don't drink, certainly not missing it. But if I have a few beers, it's really on my terms. And that feels so satisfying. So I just want to share those things with you because I really want you to know that it's a safe spot. And it's a great place. And I will link the group in the show notes. But you can also find it. It's a private group. So nothing you post in there and nobody has to know you're there. But it's searchable on Facebook groups. So just go to Facebook and search, alcohol minimalist, change your drinking habits and request to join. There are some quick questions to answer. And honestly I was about 5050 on approving people who didn't answer the questions before, but I'm moving towards not approving if you don't answer any, especially the one that says you agree to the rules of the group. There are just too many bots and trolls on Facebook and If you can't be bothered to answer a couple of easy questions, then I won't be letting you in. The people in this group are awesome. And I want to protect everyone and make it a safe, happy spot to connect. Okay, enough about that. I also want to encourage you to pick up my ebook alcohol truths, how much is safe, this really gets to the heart of my thinking around alcohol and how to create a peaceful relationship with alcohol. By looking at drinking in terms of your physical health, your social health and your financial health, you can grab it for free at www dot Molly watts.com. That's Molly with a Y and watts with an S. And I think it's a really valuable tool just to get you started going in the right direction. So please go check that out. As I mentioned, this is a non Episode Episode. And I really could have called it also a teaser episode. I come from a background in advertising and marketing and teaser campaigns are just as they sound designed to ask a question or pique curiosity, and then eventually answer with the product that you're promoting. Well, I'm not going to be that mysterious here. But I am going to tell you a little bit about some upcoming podcast guests that I am super excited about, and why I'm thrilled to share them with you. Many of you have mentioned to me how awesome some of my guests have been including some big names that have talked on some big stages including Dr. David Nutt, Dr. DE Jaffe, Claire Puli, and William Porter, just to name a few. I've also talked with leaders in the harm reduction space, including Kenneth Anderson, the co founder and executive director of hams, Mary Hickey Reed, the executive director of moderation management. I've spoken with researchers and tool creators like Dr. Reed Hester from checkups and choices mean checkup and choices and Nick Allen and Ian Anderson from cutback coach. Truthfully, I've been blown away by the responsiveness and willingness of some of these folks to make space on their calendars to chat with me. And recently, I reached out to another industry expert and was told by the PR team, that an interview wasn't possible until I hit 10,000 downloads per episode. So just for some perspective on that number, only the top 1% of all podcasts achieve that. So that's always out there for me. I was disappointed. And I actually then wanted to check myself on whether or not I was right in my belief on 10,000 downloads per episode and what that number means. So I reached out to a podcaster author coach who I respect a ton and who was really instrumental in helping me change my relationship with alcohol. And I know because I've looked it up on Listen notes, which is a great resource, and I will link that in my show notes as well for finding podcasts. I know that she has an incredibly successful podcast ranked in the top point 1% of all podcasts, point 1% Top All right. She's been podcasting since the beginning of 2015. So just based on her longevity, I know she has big download numbers. And she's someone who's engaged with her audience and regularly encourages people to DM her. So I thought I would send her a message and just ask her if she would share her numbers with me so I could validate what I thought was true. She really responded super quickly and was so gracious and encouraging and basically told me that she's been on about 100 podcasts and has never asked about how many downloads they have. I thanked her and said maybe someday she would even consider being on mine. And she said I would be happy to anytime and told me exactly how to get that setup. So of course, not being dumb. I took that option immediately. And that is why I'm super excited to share with you that her episode is upcoming this summer. And I hope you will love hearing from Elizabeth Benton as much as I will enjoy talking to her. Honestly, I'm so excited. I'm having a hard time deciding on how to use the time best. I've got so much I could talk with her about I'm really going to have to just focus and structure myself or I could get fan girl ugly. Anyways, another conversation that I've already recorded, and will actually be coming out next week with another podcasting guru who I truly did not realize just how much of a podcast guru she was until after the fact, which may have been a good thing. And that's Monica Ryan Nagel. Monica hosts the nutrition diva podcast as well as another podcast. She's a co host on that Ange Academy, and Monica has been podcasting get this since 2008, which is absolutely amazing because in 2008, like no one was podcasting. And Monica is a midlife woman. Yeah, we're the same age. And women have been really slow to adapt to the podcasting medium. So honestly, it's just awesome that she was doing it back then. And Monica and I had a wonderful discussion about alcohol and nutrition. And she also inspired me to keep going with this whole alcohol and series that I sort of inadvertently started on the podcast. So you can go back and check out episodes 25, alcohol and your liver, Episode 18, which is alcohol and sleep. And lastly, Episode 14, alcohol and anxiety. And I'll be adding on to these in the next few months and creating a playlist of the quote unquote, alcohol and series. So thanks, Monica, for that great suggestion. As a part of that series, another upcoming guest is Janet grond, who is the leader and founder of tribe's sober. And we're going to be talking about alcohol and aging. Janet is a real inspiration because she gave up alcohol at 63. And has spent the last five years helping other people change their drinking habits and develop an alcohol free life. She's approaching 70 and not slowing down anytime soon. And according to her, she believes quitting alcohol altogether, gave her a second chance on life. So it will be a great conversation. Because if you've listened to this podcast, you know that my mother actually kept abusing alcohol in her senior years, and died of an alcoholic binge just after her 81st birthday. So I think there's a lot to talk about in terms of alcohol and aging. And I'm really just excited to talk to Janet and I think it will be a great addition to this series. So be on the lookout for more alcohol and topics including alcohol and relationships, alcohol and sports performance, and more. That's a teaser. The last one I want to tease about, we'll have to wait a little for it to be to get here. But I know it will really be worth it. I'm thrilled to be talking to Dr. Joe bowler. She is a British author. And the no Malini and Olivier, Professor of Education at Stanford University. Joe has written 18 books, including Her most recent book titled the limitless mind. And though Dr. Bullers focus is her personal focus is on mathematics education reform, her message and the six keys to learning that she shares in this book, and especially the brain science of genetics, is going to be such a powerful conversation. For those of you who believe you're just hardwired in any way. And specifically to just want alcohol more, you'll also get a new perspective on struggling and why you should want to struggle more. Again, Dr. bowler has been on some big stages, including TEDx. She's been interviewed by the BBC. And it's just pretty awesome that she's willing to take time out of her busy schedule to talk with me. So that will be coming up in September later. Hopefully, I've piqued your interest. And you'll be tuning in for those future interviews. Of course, I'll be adding in solo episodes and talking to you more about the science and behavioral aspects of changing your relationship with alcohol. And to that end, I want to leave you with a quote I heard recently that I just loved and I want you to really think about how this applies to creating a peaceful relationship with alcohol. The source is pretty random, I have to say, but it's an example of how messages reach you and you have to choose to focus your attention and hold on to them, not just let them go in one ear and out the other or get excited about it for a day or two and then fall back into your old same old, same old. This is one of the ideas that I want you to stick somewhere and keep it front and center as you work on changing your life. This quote comes from Bjork. Yes, Bjork, the Icelandic singer songwriter who wore the swan dress to the Academy Awards in 2001. But regardless of whatever you think, or don't think of Bjork, this quote is pretty amazing. She's talking about the future. And I know so many of us, me included, gets stuck in our old stories and our past behaviors and it's hard to imagine a different future. But I just want to leave you with this thought and I want you to hold on to it. Keep it front and center as you're working on changing. Here's the quote, it's not going to be given to you because you deserve it. It doesn't work that way. You have to imagine something that doesn't exist and dig a cave into the future and demand space. It's a territorial hope affair. At the time that digging is utopian, but in the future, it will become your reality. I love the idea of digging a cave into the future and demanding space. be demanding about what's possible for you and your future. Keep digging until the future is your reality. All right. I hope those of you listening in the US have enjoyed a safe and happy independence day this week for all of you. I will see you next time. And until then, choose peace