7 Years Alcohol-Free, 2 Years Weed-Free: Here's What I'm Learning

0:03 Welcome to another episode of the No More Wasted Days podcast. I'm your host, Sarah, and today will be a little different episode than you've been getting lately.

0:11 It will just be me.

0:12 I know it's been a lot of interviews lately, but I wanted to do another check-in episode on what's going on.

0:18 In my life. I know I did one of these. I think I did it mid-September. I was trying to remember. It was either right at the beginning of the school year for my kids or a little bit farther in. But anyway, I digress.

0:31 I'm going to get right into this and just start checking in with what's been happening in my life. It will all be related back to sobriety in one way or another. So if you feel like I'm going on a tangent at any time, just hold on because I will get to the point. I know that this podcast is about sobriety. Alright, so first off, we are settling into fall. If you listened to the last check-in episode, it was right at the end of summer break, and summer break is really hard for me. Summer used to be my favorite season when I was a teacher, because I didn't have to work in the summertime. And now I still work, and No More Wasted Days is going year-round, as well as our house build, which we have a

1:13 YouTube vlog all about called One Foot Off the Grid, and that's happening year-round. If those things aren't going, then... I'm not making money. So it's kind of like, I gotta, I gotta get myself to work. And it's just hard because transitioning from being a teacher for so long, for 18 years, where I had the summers off to then it being summertime and my kids are home, but I need to work. It's been hard for my kids and it's been hard for me. And I, I honestly don't know if I will ever truly settle into it, But I just have to say, like, summer is not my favorite.

1:47 And one of the parts that was really not my favorite was being weed free during the summer. Now, it was not my first time to be weed free during the summertime. It was my second summer. And I have to say, when I was alcohol free... My first summer being alcohol-free was really easy. I quit drinking in May 2019.

2:07 So it was like right at the beginning of summer. And I was still a teacher at the time. And I was really excited for my summer break. And I was nervous about myself being alcohol-free for that first summer. But I was excited. I was like, oh, okay, I'm going to make this summer be better than any other summer that's ever been. Like I was on a mission.

2:29 to make everything better without alcohol. So that first summer without alcohol, it was killer.

2:34 It was so amazing.

2:36 And my first summer without weed, I won't say that I was on this mission to make everything better, but I knew that I wanted to hit one year sober on weed or sober from weed. And I knew that that was coming at the end of September. So I was like, I have.

2:53 To keep going.

2:55 This is the, what do they say, the ends to a meet, the meets to an end, or whatever they say. Somebody, I know you're shouting it into your headphones right now while you're listening, but I was just kind of like, this is a part that needs to be done, and I need to get through this first season. And I did, and I got to where I was finally one year weed-free, and I was really excited because I was finally going to share it all on social media and on my podcast.

3:18 I wanted to make sure that I had that solid foundation before I shared, because I had tried to ditch weed before, and it did not stick. And I made it close to a year. I made it like 300 days and then I smoked again. So I was like, okay, this time I just, I just got to make it so I can share it and share my story.

3:37 I know this will help other people.

3:39 So the second summer when it happened, I had kind of settled into being weed free. And then all of a sudden, instead of being very focused on the goal of getting to a year, it's like I was just being sober through a summertime, if that makes sense. There wasn't that little bit of excitement or a little bit of driving towards a goal. Obviously, I was driving towards the goal of being two years weed free. But it was just hard because summertime obviously brings up a lot of outdoorsy activities. And outdoorsy activities are what trigger me when it comes to marijuana. And I am like, oh, I'm outside hiking. Wouldn't this be better if I had my pen with me? Oh, I'm on the kayak. What if I would have taken a gummy before I came

4:22 out here? And I've had to really rewire my brain and say, it wouldn't be better. Like maybe it would be better in the moment. But then at the end, you'd have that grogginess as you're coming down from weed usage. I was usually kind of crabby with my kids. And then if you didn't want to go through all that, then you start smoking again, which then keeps the cycle going and your evenings aren't as productive. So I had to really work.

4:46 This summer out.

4:47 And I know that every summer will get easier. But what I want to say is that the fall has been so easy. The fall has been like.

4:55 I'm not even thinking about weed.

4:57 Super simple. And I think it's because I'm back in a routine. I'm in a routine where, okay, three days a week, I'm working on no more wasted days. Two days a week, I'm devoting to our house build. It's just like the same schedule that it's always been. except for every now and then I am substitute teaching, right?

5:16 I talked about that on my last episode where I did a check-in. I'm subbing maybe once a week. And I really have figured out that I only want to sub for music teachers. So I'm really not subbing a lot because it does take up a lot of time and you only make $ 200 a day, which after taxes and social security.

5:35 And all this stuff, it's not that much. So.

5:38 It's really not worth my time to go do that for a day. And then that time either takes away from our house build or no more wasted days. So subbing isn't happening a lot, but it is happening every now and then. And I do like that it's injecting a little bit of like, I don't want to say normalcy into my life just because it's something I'm not doing regularly, but it makes me kind of feel.

6:02 Like a normal adult, if that makes sense.

6:06 So the subbing is still happening and the subbing for me is really something that I'm able to do and it pays for.

6:12 My student loans. So I'll be real with you guys.

6:15 I was a teacher for 18 years in the state of Oregon where I was teaching. You had to get your master's to keep your teaching license. So I have a lot of student debt and I will probably have student debt for the rest of my life. I was able to defer those payments for quite a while, but they are back now. And I am paying for them by substitute teaching. So I feel like it's kind of fitting, but it is kind of me trying to figure out finances and those everyday adults, you know, stressors, which does lead me into something that I want to talk about.

6:50 You've probably noticed that the podcast has ads now. So I am monetizing the podcast. I have had this podcast since 2023, I believe, and I've never monetized it. I have made money through the podcast because I do advertise my Daymakers community, my Push to 100 challenge, my 30-day challenge. And I know people purchase those products from me because they hear me on the podcast and they know they like me. And if you like someone and you know you're going to be able to stick to their program, it's a good fit, right? But I was not making any other money from this podcast and A podcast takes quite a bit of time.

7:30 A little behind the scenes.

7:32 I'm actually recording this episode for the second time today because I recorded this once this morning and the audio was corrupt for the first like 10 minutes of the episode. So, you know, that was like I was telling my husband, I'm like, oh, what did you do today? Oh, I recorded an episode and it didn't even record. I just wasted my time. He was like, go out and rerecord it.

7:52 But it is just that piece like recording a podcast takes time. It is free content that I'm able to put out to you.

7:59 And I love that. And I love the community that I have with the podcast.

8:03 I love that I get to come on and do these kinds of episodes. I love the people that I get to interview. So I mean, there's a lot of winning with the podcast. But I was like, I need to monetize this if I'm going to keep it going because it is part of my business. And when I'm looking at things like I need to start subbing to make some extra money when I have the podcast. I was like, okay, it's time. So I am monetizing. And what I want to know from you, I get it.

8:32 Ads are annoying, right? They're like, they're just part of it, really, right? I listen to a lot of podcasts and some are not monetized and most are. And the ones that are that I really, really like, I have joined their Patreon. And with Patreon, you pay a really small amount and then you get access to episodes ad-free. So I was thinking that that was something I could do. That would be really simple for me to upload my episodes to Patreon and you would pay something like $ 3 to $ 5 and you can listen to the episodes ad-free. It's a way to support a creator and it's a way that you can listen to things without ads. I do it with quite a few of my podcasts and definitely with the ones where I'm like, I love this podcaster.

9:16 I want to support them.

9:18 I don't want to listen to ads. So if you want to do that, let me know. If you could email me at sarah at nomorewasteddays.co or if you're one of my day makers and you're like, I would totally do that. I would do the Patreon. Then just let me know. It's just something I'm working it out and I'm going to work out how many ads there are in episodes and all of that stuff too. But it was definitely time for the podcast to get monetized.

9:42 And I do hope that you understand. All right.

9:45 Moving on from that, let's talk about let's see, I have written in my notes in my notes for these episodes. They're very, very brief because I really want it to be free flowing. Like I'm talking to you one to one, like we're just on a walk together chit chatting. So settling into fall, I talked about and a weed check-in.

10:04 Weed has been so much easier lately. And then at the end of September, sometime in September, I was put on estrogen and progesterone for perimenopause symptoms. You guys, Oh my gosh. It has helped me so much. I'm feeling really, really good.

10:24 So good. My hormones are feeling more balanced.

10:28 I'm not having periods every two weeks. It's like they're happening at normal times now. There's definitely been some adjustment to the different hormones and the rebalancing. But it's really been awesome for me. And I'm just feeling great. So if you are a woman and you are struggling... and you're not drinking alcohol, so you know that that's not part of the problem. You're not smoking weed. You know that that's not part of the problem. Go talk to your doctor about getting on hormone replacement therapy. Obviously, some people cannot be on hormone replacement therapy, but if you can be, I feel like this is going to make it so much easier as I finally work my way into menopause, which I feel like is never going to

11:10 freaking get here.

11:11 Get here already. I'm done with this.

11:14 But The estrogen and the progesterone is helping a lot. And along with that, I'm starting to wonder, like, could I wean off the Lexapro that I take? I take an antidepressant for anxiety. Back in 2024, my husband Ryan had an emergency appendectomy. I also had a family member suffer from a major incident with mental illness. And in that same year, My father-in-law passed away after really battling with his health for years. So it was a very, very stressful year. I think we might have moved into our house that year too, like me and my husband finally moved out of the yurt and into our house that we had been building. So it was just a lot.

12:00 And during that time, I started experiencing pretty major panic attacks. They would happen always when I was driving across bridges.

12:09 So scary.

12:10 Um, sometimes when I was just sitting at home on my couch, they were just happening a lot.

12:14 They were happening at choir.

12:16 It was making me feel like I couldn't participate in choir concerts. So I talked to a doctor and I was put on Lexapro and it helped me a lot in a lot of ways. And I also have beta blockers to help when I really can feel the anxiety coming on. And that helps with the physical symptoms. All of this has helped a lot and I am feeling really good. I feel like this is what everybody does.

12:36 I'm starting to wonder, can I go without it? And I talked to my doctor about this when I was getting put on hormone replacement therapy. And she was like, let's wait till the end of winter and then let's talk about it. And I'm glad she did that because one, it's giving me time to pause and reflect and talk to my audience about it. Like, I know some of you are on antidepressants.

12:55 What do you do?

12:56 It's also giving me time to really go, am I getting quote unquote better?

13:03 Or is it just that the medication is working?

13:06 So there's a lot of all of this surrounding it. But what I'm starting to realize is that my caffeine intake is really starting to go upward. I don't have a lot of caffeine, but for a while when I was having this major anxiety, I totally took away caffeine 100% because I was like, I got to try everything.

13:26 Okay. It was also the year.

13:27 That I quit smoking weed. It was like the year that then I detoxed from caffeine. And there was just a lot of stuff. So all of a sudden, I'm starting to notice the anxiety creeping back in. And right now I drink a pre-workout most mornings, which is 100 milligrams of caffeine. And then I have a cup of coffee.

13:48 So it's not a ton, but it's there. And every now and then I have some in the evening. And when I've been having that evening caffeine is when I've been kind of going, oh, I think I need to take one of my beta blockers. So I think I can see that a caffeine detox is coming my way.

14:03 I'm not ready for it yet. I really like caffeine.

14:06 I feel like I've taken away all substances. It's the one I like, but I can feel that it's coming. And I tell you all of this because when I was a drinker, I could gaslight myself. I could have anxiety when I was a drinker and then I would drink and it would mask the anxiety. And then the next day I would have a hangover and I would blame the anxiety on the hangover.

14:28 So I never knew.

14:30 Was I really having anxiety? Is this feeling real? And I could gaslight myself and say, it's not even real because then I would drink and I would feel better and it would be momentarily gone and I could blame it on other things. When I quit drinking, my anxiety decreased a lot and my hormones balanced a lot. I was 40 at the time.

14:51 Now, you know, in 2024, I'm 45. Things started changing. Now I'm 47.

14:57 Hormones have really changed at this point. And the cool thing is through all of this, I have not once felt like I was lying to myself about how I was feeling. I was like, I feel anxious. I can feel it coming on. I feel overly stressed with my family and it's not them. It's totally me. I was able to see it and I never gaslit myself, which I did when I would drink. And I was able to then say, it's time to talk to a doctor and figure out hormone replacement therapy.

15:26 Like It is time. And I had to make it happen. And that's what I want you to know.

15:32 When you are sober and you're showing up to life sober, you can truly evaluate your emotions. You no longer gaslight yourself with those emotions. You no longer drink to mask those emotions.

15:46 And you can really say, this is what they are.

15:48 It's really happening. So that's why I wanted to tell you all of that. Now I want to talk to you about how I've been doing 10,000 steps every single day since September 24th. My Push to 100 kicked off on September 24th. The members of the Push to 100 are going through to January 1st. They will hit their 100th day of sobriety on January 1st.

16:09 I wanted to do something in solidarity with them. So I added in a habit.

16:14 I added in 10,000 steps a day, which for some people you might be going, well, that sounds really easy. It has not been easy for me. I am a, before I did this challenge, I was typically 4,000 to 5,000 steps a day. I have a desk job. Like I record a podcast. I do make content and that includes movement, but not a lot, not 10,000.

16:36 Steps a day worth.

16:37 So I wanted to tell you all the correlations I've started to make with adding a new habit in. Because Quitting drinking was ditching a habit, right? And now I'm adding a habit in, but I'm seeing that I am using a lot of the same tools that I used in early sobriety. First, I am noticing that in order to hit my 10,000 steps, I have to plan. And when I was new to my alcohol-free journey, I had to plan. I had to look at the day and go, is there anything in this day that's going to trip me up? Is there any point in this day where I'm going to want to drink? And sometimes in those days, it would be, yeah, when I get off work, I'm going to.

17:13 Want to drink.

17:13 Okay, well, what am I going to do instead during that time? And I would make a plan. Now, with getting steps in, I go, is there anything in this day that's going to make it hard to get 10,000 steps in? And so for today, it's actually October 30th. You're going to listen to this, I think, on November 3rd.

17:30 So I'm thinking, OK, I'm going to sit today because I'm going to record a podcast episode. If I could walk on my treadmill and record these, I would. I think the noise would be too much, though. But.

17:40 Okay, I'm going to sit. So I knew I needed to get enough steps in this morning.

17:44 I know that I need about 3,000 steps by breakfast, by the end of breakfast and the end of the dog walk. So that's where I was today. Then at lunchtime, after I had recorded the first round of this episode that totally got lost, but When I got done with lunch, I was like, OK, I'm at 5000. So I started editing the first round of this episode and I got on my walking pad and I knew, OK, from planning, I'm going to record this episode. I'm going to edit this episode. When I edit, I can walk on the treadmill.

18:14 So I did that and it took that planning, but I knew I could do it. And now I'm sitting at, I don't know, 6,000, 7,000 steps right now. And I know when I get done with this, I'm going to pick up my son. I'm going to make up a casserole that I'm bringing up to my parents' house. While the casserole is baking, I'm going to take my dog on a long walk. And I will be at about 9,000 steps before we get to my parents' house. And I always know that if I'm at 9,000 steps before dinner time, I'm good.

18:40 I'm going to get in those.

18:40 Last 1,000 with the little bit of stuff I do around the house after then.

18:44 So it takes time. planning. And that is the same way being alcohol-free was in the beginning. It has also taken routines.

18:53 I am having to go, oh, I got to have this in my routine every day. Every day when I wake.

18:58 Up, I come down the stairs. I put on my watch immediately.

19:02 It's part of my routine now. When I was alcohol-free, I would wake up each morning. I would go downstairs. I would write in my journal. It was part of my routine to practice my daily gratitudes. And I had to get those new routines in place. So if you are trying to either ditch alcohol or weed or caffeine, or you're trying to incorporate a new habit, use these skills.

19:25 First, there's planning. Then there is incorporating in routines. And then the next one.

19:29 I'm really noticing is instant gratification versus long-term gratification. Now, when I had first quit drinking, this is so important when you first quit drinking. you start telling yourself, I'm going to honor the long-term gratification that I'm going to get for this. When you drink, you get instant gratification.

19:49 You wanted the buzz, you get it, you get it fast. Instant gratification. But when you choose not to drink, you get long-term gratification because the next day you wake up without a hangover or that evening you're You're able to do things because your head is clear. And the next morning you wake up, you remember what you did. There's a lot of long-term gratification, even health-wise, right? This is how it is with the steps too. Every single day, I don't want to do it. I'm totally like, I don't want to walk on the treadmill. It is so boring.

20:23 Or I don't want to go on this walk. It is so hard because we live on a steep hill.

20:29 I'm like, I don't want to do it.

20:31 But I go out and I do it because I know in the long term, like morning me isn't going to like going on that walk. But evening me is happy. And then like when I started on the first day, I knew that day 30 me was going to be so proud of myself for doing it.

20:45 And I was.

20:46 And now I'm working towards day 60. And then it'll be like going to day 100. So it is that I can see the long term gratification coming my way. Also, It's making my heart healthier. It's making my legs healthier. It's giving me longer term mobility for myself, which is really important for me. And, you know, same with being alcohol free. It gives me a ton of health benefits.

21:08 It lowers your risk of Alzheimer's. It lowers your risk of cancer when you're not drinking. All of those things, that's a long term gratification. And I mean, it's not even guaranteed, right? But you know, you're doing the things that could help you. So lastly, with the 10,000 steps, and I.

21:24 Kind of mentioned this is I'm doing it even when I don't wanna. And that's how it was when I quit drinking.

21:30 I knew I was gonna quit for at least 30 days, even if I didn't wanna, I was gonna do it. And there would be days where I was like, this is hard.

21:38 And I'd be like, you know what? Then just go to bed. And I would.

21:43 And it's like the next day I would wake up and I'd be like, good for you. You did the thing you didn't want to and now you're really proud of yourself. So that one kind of goes hand in hand with the instant long-term gratification. But there's so many times where I just don't want to do the steps.

21:56 I'm like, oh, my gosh.

21:57 And I've had a few days where I put it off. I procrastinated and I'm looking at my watch and it's saying 3000 steps and it's five o'clock. And I'm like, well, family, I'm off to walk for like an hour because I didn't want to do it.

22:11 And then I do it and I'm happy. I'm like, oh, you did it. Good for you.

22:15 So I'm proving to myself that I can do things even when I don't want to, when there's that little bit of resistance. and I will still feel good.

22:22 In the end. So will I continue the 10,000 steps a day after the 100 days? Well, here's the thing.

22:28 I have really, I have some really big goals for my health and fitness. I have a big weight loss goal for 2027. I'm working on it right now in 2026, and I have something kind of big that I don't know if I'm ready to share yet, but there's something that I want to do. It's going to take some long-term planning, but I'm like, I'm putting in the work now and the 10,000 steps is definitely part of it.

22:53 But I will say I'm not going to do it every single day. I think what I'm going to do is six days a week, 10,000 steps, one day a week, lazy AF. Because I do feel like I'm not getting a full recovery piece right now with this.

23:04 But it is part of the challenge that I set out for myself.

23:08 And speaking of my push to 100 people, I did want to give them a quick shout out in this episode. My push to 100 people are crushing it. We recently had our end of the 30 days, their first 30 days. They got through that. They're totally rocking it. And now we're going through what we do as modules. So we do six modules after this. And the first one is all about getting a lot more deeper on cravings and triggers.

23:33 What triggers us?

23:34 What does it look like? What are we going to do when it happens? Which seems like really basic work, but it is so important. You have to have these things basically memorized. So when you're stuck in a craving or a trigger, you're not having to think about, oh my gosh, what am I going to do?

23:48 And I'm just so excited. I have a call with them.

23:52 I have a call with them tomorrow morning, actually, so we can all get together on Halloween morning and be like, we're not drinking. I'm doing that with my daymakers and my push to 100 people.

24:01 But I also have a call.

24:02 With them next week that will go deeper into their four types of triggers. And it's saying like, these are your four types of triggers that I've seen as I've quit drinking, and here's how.

24:13 To manage them.

24:14 So They've just they're a kick ass crew. They're really active. It's been really fun. And it's been really cool for me to have something that I'm doing while they're doing it, having my 10,000 steps while they're doing their 100 days. And I think I might start kind of doing that every time. So I think in the 30 days in January, I will have a dry January coming up. I'm going to have all new videos in that dry January.

24:39 I'm getting ready.

24:40 To record the latest. I'm recording new videos for my daymakers for the five-day kickstart that happens when you join the daymakers. I'm re-recording those next Monday and Wednesday. And then I'm going to start re-recording all of my 30-day videos. So that means that in January, the challenge is going to be all new.

24:59 And I'm so excited.

25:01 It's going to have a lot of the same information because I think the information in it is so good. but I'm going to revamp it. So every week has a theme. I think that'll be cool. And I just have some new content in there that I want.

25:15 And also the videos right now, they just.

25:17 Don't quite look like me. I'm going to rerecord them in the yurt again, which is where they were recorded last time, but my hair will be longer. It's really short in the videos that you see now. It'll just look like current me. So I'm really excited for those changes. So there's really big things happening in No More Wasted Days that I'm super excited about. All right, that's what I have for you in this episode. I do want to remind you that if you ever want to hop into the Daymakers community, it is always open to you.

25:44 This is a community where we have weekly group coaching calls and we have a private message thread community. And if you need a community for you that just gets you, then head to the link in the show notes of this episode and try it out for two weeks. Lastly, I have a really big favor to ask. Could you please write a review for the podcast? Right now on Apple Podcasts, Maureen from NYC wrote a review, and she doesn't like me.

26:10 So I would really like it if we could get that review to go a little bit farther down.

26:17 So let me just read you Maureen's review. She did leave me five stars.

26:22 Which I appreciate. But she don't like me. Maureen writes.

26:27 I wish you didn't bring your politics into your podcast.

26:30 Not necessary. You already alienated half of your audience. Disappointed.

26:36 She wrote this after the last time I did an episode like this where I was checking in and I mentioned that I have, I was having some issues with just navigating relationships with my parents because they are MAGA conservatives.

26:50 I am a liberal.

26:50 I've been a liberal since I was in like fourth grade and we had a classroom voting and I was like, I'm voting for Dukakis. I was passionate about being a liberal even then, right? So it's just who I am, and I'm sorry if it offends, but I also know that it's just been a part of.

27:08 My personality forever.

27:10 But if you wouldn't mind, if you like the podcast and you enjoy it, go to Apple Podcasts, write a written review, just so Maureen can be a little farther down the list there. All right, thank you so much for listening, and remember... Life is short.

27:25 Don't waste another day of it to alcohol.