I’m 2 Years Weed Free: This Was Harder Than I Expected

0:03 Welcome to another episode of the No More Wasted Days podcast. I'm your host, Sarah, and today I'm going to be catching you up on a lot of different things. I'm going to be talking about my schedule these days and how it's changed because things are happening in my life that I never would have guessed would be happening in my life about five years ago. And I'm also going to check in with you about a biggie in my sobriety.

0:26 I'm officially two years weed free, and I'm going to talk all about that with you. And then I want to talk about a few things that are happening within No More Wasted Days, just so you know what to look forward to. And of course, I'm going to talk about a few things in my personal life that I'm going to be sharing here on the podcast that you have to look forward to as well. So it's a little bit of a different episode today. It will definitely still be about sobriety, but it's more of a personal check-in.

0:51 Before we dive all the way into this episode, I do want you to know that you can still grab my Sober October Starter Kit. This is a totally free guide that I put together. It has a checklist for you to check off the days in Sober October, and it's okay if you're starting Sober October today when this episode airs on October 6th. And there's also tips in this guide on how to manage cravings and even a really cool section where you're set up with a list of podcasts that can help you with different situations you may encounter in your first month of being alcohol-free. If you want to grab this free Sober October starter kit, just head to the link in the show notes of this episode or head to nomorewasteddays.co forward slash October. All right,

1:31 let's dive into this episode. I'm excited to talk to you about all things what's going on in my life right now. So first, I did say things are happening in my life that I never really would have guessed like five years ago. And those things actually are one thing. I started substitute teaching at the beginning of this school year. Now, if you followed me since the beginning of when I was posting on social media, I often talked about how quitting drinking gave me the courage to leave my toxic teaching job. A lot of times people will be like, tell me about this toxic job. And I have to say first, it was never the students. I loved my students so much. I still do. I still keep in touch with a few of them and I love to

2:15 see what they're up to. But I had a lot of beef with my school district. I was a music teacher and my position was cut so many different times and I was moved to different schools over and over and it really started to make me feel like I wasn't important. And honestly, my school district, you know, validated that feeling because they continually cut music. I actually found out that that school district that I left six years ago totally cut elementary music from their schools. Hearing that news was heartbreaking to me and also really validating that I made the choice I did. But now here I am substitute teaching and I'm really, really enjoying it. I only sub like one day a week because obviously I

2:58 still have no more wasted days happening and that is my first priority. But it's been really fun to go back to something that I knew so well. And I have to tell a little story that I was realizing. Like the first day that I was back in a school, I kept thinking, do I even know how to do this anymore? And it came back like nothing. Like, oh my gosh, I could remember how to teach. I'm a pro at it. I knew exactly how to do this.

3:24 And it kind of reminded me of when you quit drinking, if you go back to it, your brain wakes right back up and says, oh my gosh, I know how to do this. I know how I used to do this. And I know it's a really weird parallel. But I have to say those neural pathways are always still there, even if we're not using them, right? I haven't been present in a school with students since 2020. So to walk in and suddenly be like, oh my gosh, I'm waving at students. I'm saying good morning. I'm saying hi to other staff members. I'm teaching students. I'm standing up in front of a classroom. It all came back so easily because that neural pathway is so ingrained in me of who I am as a teacher and that part of my identity is there and it just woke right up.

4:09 That's the same thing that I always tell people when they say, well, do you think I can go back to drinking? And I always say that neural pathway of how you used to drink is still there. That's the one that's going to open up. So the moment you have some alcohol, you may moderate for a little while, but that neural pathway open right back up and all of a sudden you're drinking just like you used to drink.

4:30 So I know it's kind of a weird parallel thing, But I wanted to make that connection for you because I made that connection while I was out on a walk one day and I was like, oh my gosh, that neural pathway just opened right back up for teaching. It just feels like here I am. And then I went, ooh, that's exactly how it would be for alcohol. And then I went, ooh. So beyond that, I'm adjusting to a new schedule. So I'm subbing at least one day a week.

4:56 And that's very kind of like when it happens. I just have myself in the sub job finder and things come up through the app. I can take the job or not take the job, right? And I have picked certain days of the week where I will take sub jobs. because I want to make sure that I have days of the week that are still available for doing interviews for the podcast and making sure I'm doing everything with no more wasted days. And then also along with that is our house build has slowed way down. Also, if you've been here for a long time, you know that my husband and I have built our own house. We have a YouTube vlog all about it called One Foot Off the Grid, if you want to go check that out.

5:34 We built our house from foundation up all on our own. We now live in that house and our life is pretty normal. I wouldn't say it's 100% normal because we still have a lot of projects we need to do. Like if you came into our house, you would notice there are a lot of unfinished items and we're slowly working on those. But we no longer have that push that we have to get done with the house build.

5:56 We have to get the roof over our head. Like we have to get the county off of our back and get our building permit closed. All of that is taken care of. So that's a big change for us as well. And then our kids went back to school and this year they will officially get their driver's licenses. I have twins. I'm so excited for them to turn 16 so they have that freedom to drive wherever they want to, whenever they want to. Because we live really far out in the country and as a parent trying to get your kid to and from school, There's social activities when you live out in the country. Oh, my gosh.

6:32 It's a lot. I get to listen to a lot of podcasts, and I guess the positive is I get to spend a lot of time with my kids in the car. And I know that that will go away soon, but I'm pretty excited for them to start having this freedom. So a lot of things have changed up this year with all of that. We're readjusting to our schedule, but I'm feeling really good about it. And I have to go back one more time to being able to drive my kids places. Like this weekend, my son is going to homecoming, and my husband and I are going to drive him out there, and we're going to go out to dinner or whatever. And I thought, how cool that we are able to drive. There's no question in our brain of will we be able to pick him up?

7:10 Is this going to get in the way of our drinking schedule? Because obviously we would have been able to pick him up when we were drinkers. We just wouldn't have drank or one of us wouldn't. There would have been a lot of resentment there. There would have been a lot of us going, we have to like not party the way we want to because our son is getting to be out living his life. And now we get to make this really all about him. Like, I think I'm going to talk my husband into us going out on a date while Owen's off at homecoming, but it's really all about him. It's really all about my son getting to go to his first homecoming experience and just have fun. Okay, so moving off of my schedule and the thing that I never thought I would do

7:49 five years later going back to teaching, and I want to talk to you about being two years weed-free. I'm officially two years THC-free. I've got to tell you, being THC free has been way harder for me than being alcohol free. Being alcohol free, I don't want to say it was easy to quit drinking because it's not because we live in a society that normalizes alcohol so much and it's so in our face. And becoming alcohol free was a huge identity shift for me. Major, right? I went from the person who drank every single weekend and every single day, let's be real, to someone who didn't drink at all. It was a huge part of how other people saw me. It was a huge part of how I saw myself as a drinker. But then when

8:34 I quit weed, that was more quiet because people didn't know I was doing it. Definitely on my social media, I didn't talk about it because I didn't want people to think that I endorsed being Cali sober, which means you're a person who doesn't drink but does do THC products. But I didn't want people to think that I endorsed that.

8:53 I didn't want that to be my coaching method with people. I didn't want to say, hey, well, you can quit alcohol and you can just start smoking weed and it's really easy. I didn't want that to be my platform. So I did not share it. I just always simply shared that I was alcohol free and I left it at that. I also shared that I felt like if you were going to use THC products, but be alcohol free, that I felt like that was a fine path for you.

9:17 But I was never going to give that as advice to people. I was never going to say like, here's my method. So I was really quiet about it. I didn't talk about it on social media. I didn't talk about it like to my kids. But I mean, I didn't talk about my alcohol to my kids either. But I was definitely hiding it from them. I started hiding it from my husband because he no longer smoked weed products or did weed products. And I didn't want him to know the level that I was doing it. He knew that I still did it, but I didn't want him to know that I was doing it daily and, you know, more than once a day. And I didn't share it freely with my friends. It's not something, even though it's legal in so many states, it's still not

9:58 something that you bring up. And it's interesting. now that I don't smoke, I will bring it up because I'll say, Oh, I'm actually two years sober from weed as well. And when I say that to people, they're like, Oh my gosh, me too. Or Oh, that's something I'm struggling with. I actually ditched alcohol, but I still use THC products. And they're interested and they want to know more. So I don't talk about it a lot on social media still.

10:24 Like in the beginning of being THC free and once I hit that one year, I was really like, I'm going to talk about this all the time. But I didn't. I talk about it every now and then. I share my story and I am trying to share it more frequently. But I will be 100% with you. It is an area where I do not feel strong. I know I'm not going to smoke weed today. I know I'm not going to smoke weed this week. I know I'm not going to smoke weed like while my kids still live at home. I don't know if I'm going to be weed free forever. I do feel like with alcohol, I'm most likely going to be alcohol free forever. Maybe like when I'm 80. Maybe when I live in a retirement community.

11:05 Maybe then I'll start drinking. But that's really far off, right? But with weed, that one's been really hard to close the door 100% on. And I definitely still romanticize weed. I romanticize my kids both moving out of the house and me getting to live out in western Washington on five acres and, you know, go out, take a gummy and go garden. Like, that sounds so fun to me.

11:32 And I have to really, really work on that. So the full identity shift that took place when I ditched alcohol has definitely not taken place with THC. And it is something where I definitely have to make the commitment every single day to myself. I have to remind myself that I can still have those fun, hippie vibes. I can still be that girl wearing the flowy clothes, doing all that stuff. And weed doesn't have to be a part of that. Because those things went so hand in hand for me that it has been very, very hard for me. It has not been hard for me to be weed free as a way to check out. There's no part of me in the evening that's like, oh, man, I'm so stressed tonight, I wish I could just go upstairs and hit the pen. I never, ever think that

12:19 because I can clearly see that being THC-free has helped me so much with my anxiety levels. It has helped me so much with my productivity. My brain feels clearer. I am in perimenopause, and I have a hard time remembering words to things right now, okay? It's really frustrating. But at least I know it's not because I consume weed or because I consume alcohol. I know that that is a perimenopause symptom. There are so many pluses to being weed free. I will say there have been less pluses and positives to being weed free than there were to being alcohol free. And I think that's because I got to see all those pluses with being alcohol free.

13:04 So when I took away weed as well, like I was kind of like, well, I already had that. I already had that win. It also took a long time to, I guess, go through the withdrawal period of cannabis. It took a long time for me to feel dopamine again in my body, to get natural dopamine, to feel good. And if you know part of my journey, I quit smoking weed in September. I pulled up my calendar because I was like, oh my gosh, I got to pull up my calendar so I can see. I quit smoking weed on September 16th, 2024. In May 2025, I went on an antidepressant because I was dealing with such high anxiety, having panic attacks, and being kind of low. And antidepressants helped me a lot. Now, here's the thing. I don't

13:57 want you to be like, well, if you quit everything, then you get depressed. No, those symptoms were always there. But being 100% sober allowed me to finally go, oh, this is a thing that I have and I need assistance with it. I need to talk to a psychiatrist and figure this out and figure out if there is a medication that can help me. I think that quitting weed allowed me to finally see the underlying things that were there. And it finally allowed me to really strip it all away and really start doing all the work.

14:34 I don't feel like my true emotional sobriety started until I stripped away weed. So as hard as it is for me to be weed free, I know that it is worth it. And when I say that it's hard, I want you to know that I'm not going through each day white knuckling it. Not at all. It's more that I still romanticize it from time to time. But it is very easy for me when I romanticize it to go, no, that's not how it really is. It's not really me sitting out in nature, being out in my garden with my ducks and my chickens and being stoned.

15:06 That's not what it is. Because I'm a parent. I run a business. I'm now a substitute teacher. Like I have a lot of responsibilities, right? So it could be that when I was high before... then I needed to have dinner with my kids and make them food and I would be irritated with them. And I don't have that as much anymore. Like I still get irritated with my kids. I have two teenagers, okay? But I am so much more patient with my kids. So the pluses far outweigh the negatives. It's just been that identity shift for me that's been the hardest, but I'm really happy that I'm able to do So much work on it and so much work in my sobriety on that way.

15:44 And I'm super proud of myself for being two years weed free. I will say that maybe the hardest thing of it is that I had 300 days before this two year streak. And I always get so mad at myself that I went back. So because I could be so much farther. I could be like, oh, my gosh, I'm like four years weed free or something like that now. Right.

16:03 So that does make it kind of hard, but it's the way I did it. It's the way my journey worked for me. And if you guys, when I talk about weed on this podcast, I get a lot of feedback. It's where one of my most downloaded episodes is where I talk about it. So I will try to discuss it more. It's just that I love helping people be alcohol free. That's where my first love is. And I don't know if I'm quite ready to be like, and be THC free. So that's where I'm at at that.

16:33 I hope that makes sense. Okay. So recently, let's talk about what just recently happened in my life. We just, I just did the big push to 100 launch and it went pretty awesome. I had a goal to get 50 people into the Push to 100. I wanted 50 people that were ready to quit drinking and were ready to do it at the end of the year to have this season where a lot of people amp up their drinking, but they're like, no, I'm going to quit during this time. I was like, oh, this would be so cool. I ended up having 17 people join, so I way missed my goal. But I have to tell you one thing. I'm going to tell you a lot of things, but the first thing I'm going to tell you is that the people in my Push to 100 are badasses. Oh my gosh. Our group chat is on fire.

17:18 People are in there every day being like, oh, I just did this alcohol-free. I'm so proud of myself. I just did this. Oh my gosh. We're on day 12 today as I'm recording. People are amped that we're almost to our two-week mark. Like, The group is on fire. So it's the way it turned out. That's great. But I am hoping for these to grow and grow and grow because I am having so much fun with this group.

17:44 I am like, oh, this is so cool. We don't have a group call until probably for another two weeks. And I am so excited to get on a group call with them and see all of them because I'm getting to chat with them in our private text message. And I'm like, oh, I want more of all of you in my life. So it is going great. It did feel like it just took up like everything with no more wasted days. Everything was pushed to 100 and I'm very happy to be out of that period, out of what a launch period is. If you happen to own an online business, you know that launch time is really intense and you feel like all you're doing is talking about this thing. And I'm happy to just be like, oh, now I get to talk about Being alcohol-free, being weed-free,

18:24 having more freedom with that. That being said, I am never stagnant in No More Wasted Days. I am always looking for ways I can help people more in No More Wasted Days. Like, what do people really need? So I am working right now on doing a pretty big Daymakers revamp. A lot of it's going to stay the same.

18:43 And if you don't know, Daymakers is my online community. It is for anyone at any point on their alcohol-free journey. We have people in there that are even sober curious and they're lurking and they're reading the text message thread and they listen to the call recordings and they're just not quite ready yet, but they want that piece. And they're like, and then I have people in there who are five, somebody just hit five years alcohol free. That means, and I was figuring it out. I was like, that means this person was like, in my second or third 30-day challenge that I ever ran and has been with me this whole time. And it's just, you know, it's so cool for me that that's happened. And this person's

19:21 been part of my journey and I've been part of their journey. And if you're listening to this episode, you know who you are. Congratulations. And then I just had somebody hit a thousand days and that person started with a dry January and then pushed to 100. So the Daymakers is for people at all different levels at their journey.

19:41 And they are They are my favorite part of No More Wasted Days, okay? Because these are the people that I get to be with for a long time, and I get to be with them on weekly group coaching calls. We're a small sober family. And I'm just feeling though, like, okay, if I keep it all the same all the time, I get bored. If I'm getting bored, I know my members that have been there for a long time are probably getting bored. So I'm working on a big daymakers revamp and I got some really cool ideas. Yeah. Can't share too much because they're all just starting. But continue to listen to the podcast so you know. But I will tell you too, the revamp is really being driven by the members. They've just gotten done filling out a

20:21 survey on what they love about the Daymakers and what they hate. So I can take it out and really go into this. So I'm excited to spend the last half of this year really working on that. And talking about the last half of this year... I am doing something so cool. Okay, so I've got my people and my push to 100, right? So personally, I was like, I need something. So while these people are doing the push to 100, I'm doing 100 days of 10,000 steps.

20:48 I'm 12 days into this. I think today is day 12. It's hard. It has been, it has taken up a lot of brain space for me to be like, oh man, I gotta remember to get my steps in. When I'm editing my podcast, I used to sit on the couch while I'd edit it. Oh, nope, can't do that anymore. I'm walking on my walking pad. listening to the podcast episode, editing it, making sure it's ready. I'm taking a lot more walk breaks in my day. There have been a few days where I've walked around my house at the very end of the day to get the last few steps in. But honestly, that hasn't happened very often because I have been so focused on it and been like, oh my gosh. And this is something I have tried to do before and never been able to. I have

21:26 the accountability of my push to 100 people. They know I'm doing something hard with them. I don't think it's as hard as quitting drinking for 100 days, but I'm doing it. And I think it's really cool that on January 1st, I get to wake up and it will be my 100th day of getting 10K steps in. Then I decided I'm going to amp this up a little bit.

21:45 I like this challenge, but one of my goals for 2026 was to lose some weight and I have. I've lost 10 pounds and which is not nothing, right? But I want to lose more. Like I was like 10 pounds in one year and I just got on hormone replacement therapy. I think that'll help. But I signed up for a momentum challenge with a coach that I follow.

22:06 And she was like, I want to take people through the hardest part of the year. I want to take them through the end of the year. And I was like, you are speaking my language because this is what I'm doing with the Push to 100 people. So I get to work with her and the group seems like it's going to be pretty small, which I... really happy about.

22:24 It doesn't actually kick off for two weeks. So right now it's small. I know it'll get bigger, but it means we get more coach time if it's a small group. So I'm very, very happy about that. And I'm actually going to have this lady on the podcast because she is alcohol free and has also recovered from an Adderall addiction.

22:42 So I get to have her talk about that too. But you guys are going to love it. She talks identity shift like, oh, it's so good. So I'm doing this little momentum building time of the year is how I'm looking at it. I'm going to build momentum going into the new year with my health and fitness goals. And I am so excited about it because I feel like I've laid a lot of groundwork this year. I've learned how to be really consistent with my food tracking.

23:09 Then I just started this step challenge. I'm really good at getting 100 ounces of drinking water in each day, which I used to be terrible at. And I've been better at getting my weight training workouts in. So I'm really excited to take this challenge and know that I put some skin in the game by joining it, paying some money, and really seeing this end of the year as like my ramp, my on-ramp into 2027. So that is my big thing that I'm doing. And I will be sure to give you guys updates. And you'll get to hear my coach, Ashley Beeman, on next week's podcast episode.

23:43 We were going to be able to record today, but she had to change her schedule. So we're recording later this week, but that means the episode will come out to you next Tuesday. Talking about episodes that are coming up, I got some cool, cool guests coming on. I know I haven't had guests on a lot over the summer.

23:59 It's because my schedule was so weird. Having my kids at home full time and they were doing driver's ed. Life felt really chaotic over the summertime. But I'm doing an interview with Stephanie Wilder-Taylor this week, who I just love to talk to. She's so fun to talk to. And she's going to talk all about her experience with AA.

24:18 Because AA is what has helped her have, I think she's got 20 years of sobriety. So I will have to ask her. And I think we might talk about me and my maintenance marijuana program that I practiced for the first, what, five years of being sober? And then I know we're going to talk about other things. So she will be so fun to listen to. And then I have, oh, I have to look up his name because I'm really, really excited about this guest. You know, I'm not super comfortable talking yet about ditching cannabis. I know that so many of you want this information though.

24:55 So I was, you know, searching on Instagram as you do. And I love to have weed-free things in my newsfeed. That's what I want to see when I'm looking. So I found this guy. His name is at The Private Protocol, but his first name, his name is actually, let me find it. It's so hard. Oh, his name is actually Frank Mikulski. He talks all about ditching cannabis. He's going to come on and talk about how the addiction of cannabis works, how we can take it out of our lives.

25:26 And I'm sure he's going to talk about the people that he's worked with, like what has happened in their lives because they've taken it out. I'm so excited for him. I'm not interviewing him until I think two weeks from now. I have a member of my Push to 100 and Daymakers that I'll be interviewing. And I will also be interviewing Casey Davidson, who is the host of the Hello Someday podcast. And she's been alcohol-free. I would say she's been sober for nine years. And she is so fun.

25:53 I did a podcast episode with her and Stephanie Wilder-Taylor that you probably listened to right at the beginning of summer. But I'm really excited to sit down and hear her story and really hear everything she brings because it's just so fun to talk to all these baddies. So you have a lot to look forward to as far as No More Wasted Days, what's coming up. And of course, we are in Sober October, so I want to make sure that if you're starting your alcohol-free journey this month, grab that free Sober October starter kit. Remember, you can go to nomorewasteddays.co forward slash October, or you can head to the link in the show notes of this episode.

26:33 And then along with that, I have one other thing. I have a $ 19 pass to the Daymakers for October. you can get access to the Daymakers for a one-time payment. It will not rebill. I know people don't always like subscriptions. So you can check out the group, see if it's for you, hop on calls all this month, and it pairs really well with the Sober October Starter Kit. So download that Sober October Starter Kit. You can check out the link all about that Daymakers Sober October Pass and see if that's a good fit for you. All right.

27:04 I really hope that this episode was enjoyable for you. Maybe you were doing some chores or something around the house while you were listening to me. And it felt like having a friend in your ear telling you about what's been going on in our life. So I hope that's what it felt like. And I'm really happy to share with you that I'm officially two years weed free.

27:20 And I'm sure I'll talk more about that as we progress through the end of this year. All right, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you have not already, be sure to leave a rating and review on whatever platform you listen to. And if you haven't subscribed to this show already, be sure to do that as well. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, life is short. Don't waste another day of it to alcohol.