April 21, 2024 • 23 mins
Do you drink to feel better, only to end up feeling more anxious and tired?
Alcohol has many consequences on our health. And as of recent years, more people are ditching booze and embracing the sober life. Including big names like Adele, Lucy Hale, Miley Cyrus, Kyle Richards, and Blake Lively.
In this juicy episode, we dive deep into the world of the 'sober curious'. Unveiling the secrets behind why some of your favourite celebs are saying "no thanks" to booze. And spilling the tea on their sober journey - from the health perks to the battle against societal pressures.
Their stories, much like my own, delve into the personal growth glow-up that comes from building a healthier relationship with alcohol.
Ready to be inspired? Tune in and let's get real about going alcohol-free—it's cooler than you think!
Still not sure if this is for you? Take my free quiz to see what type of drinker you are.
And if you're ready to build a healthier relationship with alcohol - jump over to the Booze Break website and listen to the first episode for FREE. Whether it’s forever or just right now. It's just a booze break - not a life sentence.
Want to feel more in control around food? Check out my Stop Struggling With Food Guide, currently on sale for 40% off.
You’ll also find 50 of my favourite recipes to get you inspired!
Looking for more support to feel in control around food? I'd love to support you in my Binge Free Academy.
Come follow me on the gram at @nude_nutritionist (no nude pics, sorry).
Want to share some feedback or have an idea for an episode, I'd LOVE to hear from you - hit me up at hello@lyndicohen.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey everyone, before we kick off this episode, I
wanted to let you know about mynew Stop Struggling With.
Food Guide.
It's loaded with 50 of myfavourite balanced recipes, but
much more than that.
It'll teach you how to go froman impulsive all or nothing
eater to someone who actuallyknows what hunger feels like and
who can eat slowly andmindfully.
(00:23):
If it sounds good to you, thencheck the description to learn
more.
So I haven't been drinkingalcohol for about a year and a
half, but the other night I hada glass of red wine.
It was my anniversary eightyears married, hooray for us.
(00:46):
And this Pinot Noir ended up inmy hand and I thought, sure,
why not?
And I drank it and I enjoyed it, because I do love the taste of
wine.
I'm not gonna lie.
I grew up with my dad drinkingShiraz, teaching me how to
discern the different flavors inwine.
I've always considered myself abit of a wine person.
We have a pretty epic winefridge in our garage, which my
(01:10):
husband's pretty into.
But as I drank my glass of PinotNoir, what I noticed is that,
instead of feeling less anxious,I started to feel a little bit
more stressed, more uneasy.
I guess that was as the alcoholwas hitting my system.
It definitely felt fun, but asit started to wear off, I felt
(01:30):
those familiar feelings offeeling not so good.
And I had a realization thenext morning when I woke up.
Alcohol certainly makes yourreality more grim and more
anxious, so you become morelikely to drink in order to
escape your reality, which thenmakes reality worse, and then
you're even more keen to escapeit.
And I think I used to be inthis cycle where I was so
(01:53):
anxious as a result of drinkingthat I had to drink again and it
kept going like that.
I would drink to make myproblems better, and then I'd
wake up the next day and I'd beanxious and tired and dehydrated
and my problems were simplymagnified.
So there are a whole bunch ofreasons why I went booze free,
which I'm going to talk about intoday's episode, and I was
(02:13):
going to be talking about thepopularity of going booze free
or even just drinking a littlebit less, because you don't have
to commit to the word sober orsaying I'm never drinking
alcohol again.
As you can see from me, I don'treally drink that much, but
every so often, if I feel likehaving something, I will, and I
love that freedom and I lovethat flexibility.
We're also going to be talkingabout the rising trend in the
(02:35):
sober curious movement and how Ithink there's a growing number
of people who are aware of howalcohol is impacting our health,
our mental health, and howdrinking a little bit less can
start to make us feel a bitbetter.
So let's get into it.
Hey everyone, I'm Lindy Cohen,dietician, nutritionist and host
(02:56):
of this podcast, no WellnessWankery, where we talk about the
science behind nutrition.
So you don't get bogged down onall the stuff that doesn't
really make a big difference toyour health, a bit overwhelmed
by what is wellness and what iswankery behind nutrition.
So you don't get bogged down onall the stuff that doesn't
really make a big difference toyour health, a bit overwhelmed
by what is wellness and what iswankery.
You are in the right place.
I talk to experts and guestswho share their best tips with
us.
Plus, I speak to real peoplejust like you who are on their
(03:19):
way to recovering from foodobsession.
Now let's get into today'sepisode, which is all about
celebrities who are goingbooze-free, and I guess what we
can learn from them.
Firstly, there is an increasingbooze-free moment at the moment
, and it is largely led bymillennials, which I fall into,
and our Gen Z generations, whichI think surprise people that
(03:39):
the young people are the onesreally pushing for a little bit
less drinking.
And last year 400,000Australians went alcohol free
and most of those people wereactually millennials.
And I think this is largely dueto the fact that if you turn up
to a social event and you sayI'm not drinking alcohol, you're
not shunned, whereas perhapswhen I was in university it
(04:00):
certainly felt a whole lot moreuncool to not drink alcohol.
There has also been a hugeincrease in the amount of
non-alcoholic drink options, sonowadays you can't go to a
restaurant and typically theywill have a non-alcoholic menu
on their drinks menu thatextends beyond just soft drinks,
which I think is brilliant.
(04:20):
And for me personally, beingsomeone who does like the taste
of alcohol, having those alcoholfree options whether it's my
pretend mojito or my no espressomartini certainly makes not
drinking alcohol so much easier.
I was at a party the other day.
I looked around and I'd say atleast half of the blokes, the
men in the room, all millennialmen, they were all drinking
(04:43):
non-alcoholic beer and no onewas batting an eye.
And we're also seeing morecelebrities who are talking
about the fact that they're notdrinking or they're not drinking
that much.
So let's talk about it.
Let's start with Adele, someoneI really love her music.
She's very lovable and inOctober 2023, adele talked about
(05:05):
how she had stopped drinkingfor three and a half months.
She's kind of always been onand off with her alcohol and the
reason she said she stoppeddrinking was because, after her
divorce from her ex-husband andafter her estranged dad's death
in May 2021, she wanted to goonto a self-discovery journey.
She said that's one great wayof really sort of getting to
(05:26):
know yourself is just drinkingwater and being sober as
anything.
Now, I wish I could have donethat in an Adele accent, but
you're going to have to pretendit was her saying it.
Adele said I mean, I wasliterally borderline alcoholic
for quite a lot of my twenties.
I miss it so much and I thinkthat's an interesting idea.
Firstly, that you get to knowyourself by not drinking alcohol
(05:53):
.
I certainly felt that way whenI pulled back from alcohol going
.
I don't even know what adult meis like, because I have drunk
so much alcohol so frequentlythroughout my life that it'd be
lovely just to know who theperson is who doesn't drink
alcohol.
How does my brain function?
How does my body feel and, ifanything, just at least once in
your life, creating a gap, alittle booze break where you go.
I'm just going to try notdrinking alcohol and see how it
(06:14):
feels.
The other point she raises hereis that she really missed
drinking alcohol and likes thetaste and likes the feeling, and
I think that is totally validand totally okay.
Personally, for me I feel likemy life is so much more
enjoyable without drinking thatmuch that I can't say I would
swap how good I feel for thethings I do miss about it.
But there certainly are thingsI miss about drinking, about the
(06:36):
ease of not having to thinkabout what non-alcoholic options
you can have when going out toa friend's place, to being part
of something and just going withthe flow.
And even the taste is somethingthat you know that Pinot Noir,
once it touched my lips I wasgoing hello, old friends, you
are very delicious.
But I think the main thing Iwant to take away from Adele's
story is how she used alcohol asa coping strategy, and so often
(07:00):
alcohol is a way of numbing, ofcoping, of dealing with life In
the same way.
It's kind of like emotionaleating We've had a hard day, or
even sometimes a good day, andwe're either celebrating or
trying to drown out whatever itis that we are feeling by
drinking alcohol.
Now, there are so many possiblecoping strategies that we can
turn to that don't includealcohol.
(07:20):
So things like going for a walk, meditating, speaking to a
psychologist, even talking to afriend, taking a moment for
yourself and yet I think for me,from a very young age, whenever
I was stressed, alcohol wasalways there.
For me, it was something easy.
But once again, rememberingthat drinking alcohol can feel
like throwing gasoline onwhatever it is that you are
(07:40):
feeling.
So, while you might feel likeit's taking it away temporarily,
it will probably come back inthe aftermath and come back more
intense, and the research backsme up on this.
In 2012, a study found thatthose who rely on alcohol as a
coping strategy for stress endup drinking a larger amount of
alcohol, and that's compared topeople who have a bunch of those
other stress coping mechanisms.
(08:01):
So you know meditation, running, yoga, breathing exercises,
reaching out to friends ortherapy.
Now, moving on, let's talk aboutLucy Hale.
She's an actress from PrettyLittle Liars.
I don't know if you know her.
She kind of resonates with thatmillennial and Gen Z crowd, but
she's 34 years old, so amillennial herself, and she
talked about her decision to getsober after being a what I
(08:22):
guess a textbook binge drinker.
She said being sober is ahundred percent the best thing
I've ever done for myself.
But it doesn't mean it's easy,and alcohol quieted my mind.
My brain just didn't shut offand it's exhausting.
I was a textbook binge drinker.
Blackout wouldn't remember whatI did or what I said, which is
scary.
Now I think blacking out fromalcohol is incredibly scary.
(08:45):
Or even not remembering whathappened, being hazy after a
night of drinking, of feelinglike you are a textbook binge
drinker, where perhaps you don'tdrink during the week and the
weekend rolls around and youdrink huge amounts.
Now what we know from theresearch is that typically
people who spread their alcoholconsumption out over the week
are healthier than those who dobinge drinking.
(09:07):
I guess it allows your bodytime to process through the
toxins and get them out of yourbody, and it probably would have
a much lighter effect on yourmental wellbeing as well.
So I think, if this is you, oneoption is to try and do that
reduction in alcohol consumptionwhere you go.
I'm going to go on a littlebooze break, I'm going to see
what it's like, and the otheroption is to change how you
(09:27):
drink alcohol.
So, instead of always drinkinga large amount on the weekends,
seeing whether or not it can bespread out, even that small
change is going to make animprovement to your health and
wellbeing.
Now, as I talked about, there isa decline in alcohol drinking
in Australia over the past twodecades and that is largely
thanks to the teens and theyoung adults, and a 2019 survey,
(09:49):
which was from the NationalDrug Strategy Household, found
that the number of people intheir 20s who are abstaining
from alcohol more than doubledbetween 2001 and 2019, from 9%
to 22%.
So I like to think of this asthis generation, the next
generation coming through isvery much about self-care.
They're trying to care lessabout what other people think,
(10:11):
and I think not drinking alcoholor not drinking as much alcohol
is very much an act ofself-care and self-acceptance.
So often a lot of the drinkingI used to do was because
everyone else was drinkingalcohol, and sometimes I think
to myself if none of my friendsdrank alcohol no one drank it,
would I still opt into thisdrink?
And I don't think I would andtherefore it kind of reminds me
(10:33):
that quite a bit of my drinkingalcohol has to do with the
social situations and that if Iwere to hone in on what
self-care feels like me, itwould be not drinking all that
much.
Let's talk about Miley Cyrus.
Now.
She is pretty much known as anultimate party girl, but she
said that she'd never had adrinking problem.
(10:54):
However, she did say that shedidn't think that moderation was
her thing.
She's like I'm not a moderationperson, and it's good for her
to be able to recognize that.
She has been using her platformto spread the word about sober
living and the benefits she hasexperienced since she hasn't
been drinking alcohol.
The reason she originally wentalcohol free was in 2019, for
(11:14):
vocal surgery, and that's whereshe said oh, actually I really
like this.
I love not waking up feelinggroggy and I love that it allows
me to live my best life.
She went booze free afterthinking about her parents and
her family history.
She said my mom was adopted andI inherited some of the
feelings she had of abandonmentand proving that you're wanted
(11:35):
and valuable.
And she said my dad's parentsdivorced when he was three, so
raised himself.
His family history has a lot ofaddiction and mental health
challenges, and I think forMiley, she experienced two
things.
One I like this version ofmyself, but I'm not drinking.
I can still have fun.
We still think of Miley Cyrus asthe ultimate party girl, even
though she hasn't been drinkingsince 2019, which just goes to
(11:57):
show you can party and you cannot drink alcohol if that's your
jam.
And the other thing is she hasthis family history and we know
from research around some familystudies that have consistently
demonstrated that there is asubstantial genetic link to
alcohol dependence.
And I know for myself in myfamily history I have mental
health conditions that go backat least on one side of my
(12:19):
family, and noticing thedifference it has on my mood has
certainly been motivating.
So I guess for you considering,is there any genetic link,
genetic history that you canfind with alcohol dependence,
remembering the differencebetween alcohol and food and why
we can kind of go cold turkeyon it.
Food is something you need forsustenance, for survival.
You would literally die if youdid not have food.
(12:40):
Alcohol, on the other hand, isnot essential to your survival,
and that's why I think we cankind of think about these two
things in a different light.
One is something thatultimately poisons you and one
is something that you need tobreathe and live.
So if you have that history ofalcohol dependence in your
family, you might want toconsider going for a little bit
(13:00):
more of a I guess extremeapproach where you go, I am not
going to have any alcohol andsee how that makes me feel and
see whether or not that is alifestyle that I can maintain
and to prevent myself fromhaving to deal with the risks of
alcohol dependence.
I will also say on the partyfront, that the other weekend I
went to a festival yes, afestival.
(13:21):
I put glitter in my hair, I gotstomping boots on and I did not
drink alcohol.
I partied all night.
Honestly, it was about sixhours of dancing straight and I
didn't have anything to drink.
I have since been to a fewother parties.
I went salsa dancing the othernight no alcohol.
Dinners out with friends noalcohol.
(13:42):
No one even realized I wasn'tdrinking alcohol, even when I
went to the club.
I went to a club, I don't knowhow, but I did, and I had a
great time and I didn't drinkalcohol.
Mind you, I've got to say around11, 12 PM I start getting tired
, and I noticed the peoplearound me who were drinking
alcohol.
They don't get tired.
So that is probably my biggestlimitation and the fact that I
(14:04):
get sleepy.
But ultimately you know what myfriends, I do have to wake up
and parent the next day, so Ihappily get into bed and if I
start the night early enough,I've still had several hours of
lots of fun and I can also get agood night's sleep and wake up
feeling fresh.
Let's talk about Kyle Richards.
Now she's from the RealHousewives of Beverly Hills.
(14:26):
I personally am not really intoreality TV, but it is a thing
and people love it and they loveKyle Richards, and she has
recently talked about her moveinto sobriety.
She said before I would havefelt like, well, I have to go
and have drinks because everyoneexpects that from me to go and
have fun.
I don't feel like I need to dothat anymore and I think that's
(14:47):
the thing is.
Once you've experienceddrinking less alcohol, you go.
Oh, okay, I see how this couldwork.
Maybe you have a few moments oftroubleshooting where you're
going.
Okay, I'm just trying to makeit work.
I'm experimenting withdifferent ways of drinking less,
or what I could try to say topeople who ask me why I'm not
drinking.
And it starts to get easier andeasier and easier.
So she doesn't feel thatpressure anymore.
(15:09):
Alcohol made me feel depressedthe next day.
This is what she says, nomatter how much fun the night
was before, and, honestly, lifeis going to throw us some
difficult days.
I certainly don't need to beadding any extra ones to that
list, and let's talk about thisidea.
The lesson we can take awayfrom Carl Richards is this idea
of alcohol can be a trigger foranxiety and depression.
I mean, we know anxiety thenext day is so intense.
(15:32):
Now this is from the Alcohol andDrug Foundation and they
explain how alcohol works on thebrain's GABA receptor and
basically releasing the GABAwhich makes you feel more
relaxed.
When you start drinking, you gookay, cool, this is fun, I'm
having a great time Now as youcontinue to drink alcohol.
Now, what also happens as youcontinue drinking alcohol is
your brain shuts down glutamate,which makes you feel anxious.
So if you don't have the stuffthat's making you anxious, you
(15:55):
start to feel more calm, morerelaxed, and this is where your
inhibitions start to lay to restand you end up saying things.
I end up saying things I oftenregret is because I don't have
this control section of my brainactivated.
But as your alcohol starts towear off, your brain tries to
restore the normal chemicals.
So it wants balance again,right.
(16:16):
So it wants to reduce thebrain's GABA, so you start
feeling less calm and then ithas to re-increase the glutamate
, which means that you startfeeling anxious again and what
goes up must come down and Ithink that's the important thing
the equivalent reduction inanxiety that you experience
after you start drinking.
You will feel that on the flipside, in increase in anxiety as
(16:38):
you come down from the drug.
For me, I certainly felt this.
The reason I don't drink thatmuch alcohol anymore is because
of my anxiety.
I used to have very intenseanxiety, which I talk about on
this podcast and elsewhere, andwhen I stopped drinking alcohol
especially as each month went onthat I didn't drink alcohol I
was like, oh, this is what it'slike to not doubt everything I
(17:00):
say, to not go through all myworst moments and replay them in
my brain for hours before I tryand fall asleep.
It was so incredible to meafter all the things I had tried
to try and manage my anxiety.
That I mean I say simply notdrinking that much alcohol, but
changing my relationship with it.
It is a big deal, but that onechange alone basically took away
(17:22):
my anxiety.
That was incredible to me andit still is incredible to me.
So if you're someone whoexperiences anxiety, depression,
you're struggling with yourmental health.
I think you owe it to yourselfto go.
What could life be like if Iwent on a little bit of a booze
break?
I temporarily pulled back fromalcohol?
It's just an experiment.
I think this idea of saying toyourself I am permanently going
(17:45):
to stop drinking alcohol, I cannever drink again, is incredibly
scary.
It makes me feel like a trappedanimal, and the way I do it is.
I tell myself I can alwaysdrink and I truly do mean it.
Anytime I want a beveragethat's got alcohol in it, I can
have that drink, but I choosenot to, and knowing that it's
always there for me, that justmeans I can continue to be
(18:05):
relaxed around drinking and notfeel like it's a punishment.
Now let's talk about BlakeLively.
She's divine, isn't she?
We know we love her and we loveher husband, ryan Reynolds, and
, funnily enough, she doesn'tdrink.
But he invented and runsAviation Gin, which is a pretty
huge gin company.
But she basically says I don'tdrink because I don't like the
(18:26):
effects of alcohol, but I likebeing part of it, I like being
social, I like people comingtogether.
It's just that I genuinelydon't have a desire for.
It's not like I decided on thesestrict lifestyle choices and
I'm enforcing them.
And I think, like food, this isa very interesting thing where
we kind of go, once we start toapply all these rules to food,
we start going oh my God, I'mnot allowed to have it.
And then we eat it and then itfeels it tastes so good.
(18:48):
For example, I used to do thiswith peanut butter.
I'm not allowed to have anypeanut butter.
And then next thing I know I'msecretly shoving teaspoons of
peanut butter into my mouth.
And the other day I went and Iactually had a teaspoon of
peanut butter and I put it in mymouth and I was like it's kind
of dry.
It makes my mouth like I need alot of water and if I had the
choice of all the things, Icould eat peanut butter out of a
(19:10):
jar like this.
Just it's not doing it for meanymore, and I think that we
sometimes do this to alcohol.
If we say I'm not allowed todrink any of it, we put it on
this pedestal and it becomes thesecret thing, which is, once
again, why I say we don't justsay I'm not allowed to have it.
We do allow ourselvespermission, but we go.
Do I even like it?
And therefore it starts tobecome a choice and not
(19:31):
something that we feel like wemust do.
What we can take away from BlakeLively as well is that alcohol
can have an impact on yourfamily, on your relationships
and the people that you areclosest to.
If you are considering drinkingless alcohol, you are going to
get questions from people whoare going to go why aren't you
drinking alcohol?
You're pregnant.
I bet you'll get at least onepregnancy question in your
(19:52):
lifetime of not drinking alcohol.
I think it's useful to havesome default responses to people
so you know what you can saywhen people inevitably ask these
questions and you don't feelpeer pressured.
And what do you do if you doget peer pressured by people and
you feel like you're beingjudged for not drinking alcohol?
How do you go from a defaultdrinker who's automatically
saying, yes, I would like somerosé to the kind of person who's
(20:15):
automatically opted out, andyou can always opt in to have
that rosé.
What I'm talking about is howdo you become a mindful drinker
and not someone who just drinksbecause the bottle of wine needs
to be finished?
Now, if you're curious to learnmore about how to drink less or
how to have a healthierrelationship with alcohol,
whether or not you want to notdrink alcohol ever again or you
just want to go on a littlehiatus from booze then I highly
(20:38):
recommend you check out BoozeBreak.
Booze Break is the ultimateaudio guide to help you change
your relationship with alcohol,whether you want to break the
habit or you want to learn howyou can still be fun and have
fun without alcohol, or you wantto learn how you can still be
fun and have fun without alcohol.
It is a audio series that Icreated with Maz Compton, who
hasn't drunk alcohol in eightyears which is kind of crazy and
myself a year and a half, withdrinking a whole lot less, and
(21:00):
we're sharing all the tried andtrue tips that we've learned the
hard way, so you don't have tomake the same mistakes that
we've done If you want to go ona little hiatus from booze or
stop drinking altogether, itdoesn't matter.
Booze break is a great way toexperiment with drinking less or
no alcohol, and if you'recurious to learn more, then
check the description, becauseI'll leave a link there.
(21:21):
And that's the end of today'sepisode.
I really hope that you'veenjoyed listening to it.
If you like this episode or youlike this podcast, please share
it with someone who you like,or even an enemy, I mean, share
it with them as well.
They need some love as well.
And, of course, please considerreviewing this podcast wherever
you listen to your podcasts.
(21:42):
I'd be so, so grateful.
It really is very motivatingfor me to see that someone out
there is listening other thanjust my mum, and it will
encourage me to create more freecontent for you.
Just like this.
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyedthis episode and I'll see you
next week.
Hey everyone, before we kick off this episode, I
wanted to let you know about mynew Stop Struggling With.
Food Guide.
It's loaded with 50 of myfavourite balanced recipes, but
much more than that.
It'll teach you how to go froman impulsive all or nothing
eater to someone who actuallyknows what hunger feels like and
who can eat slowly andmindfully.
(00:23):
If it sounds good to you, thencheck the description to learn
more.
So I haven't been drinkingalcohol for about a year and a
half, but the other night I hada glass of red wine.
It was my anniversary eightyears married, hooray for us.
(00:46):
And this Pinot Noir ended up inmy hand and I thought, sure,
why not?
And I drank it and I enjoyed it, because I do love the taste of
wine.
I'm not gonna lie.
I grew up with my dad drinkingShiraz, teaching me how to
discern the different flavors inwine.
I've always considered myself abit of a wine person.
We have a pretty epic winefridge in our garage, which my
(01:10):
husband's pretty into.
But as I drank my glass of PinotNoir, what I noticed is that,
instead of feeling less anxious,I started to feel a little bit
more stressed, more uneasy.
I guess that was as the alcoholwas hitting my system.
It definitely felt fun, but asit started to wear off, I felt
(01:30):
those familiar feelings offeeling not so good.
And I had a realization thenext morning when I woke up.
Alcohol certainly makes yourreality more grim and more
anxious, so you become morelikely to drink in order to
escape your reality, which thenmakes reality worse, and then
you're even more keen to escapeit.
And I think I used to be inthis cycle where I was so
(01:53):
anxious as a result of drinkingthat I had to drink again and it
kept going like that.
I would drink to make myproblems better, and then I'd
wake up the next day and I'd beanxious and tired and dehydrated
and my problems were simplymagnified.
So there are a whole bunch ofreasons why I went booze free,
which I'm going to talk about intoday's episode, and I was
(02:13):
going to be talking about thepopularity of going booze free
or even just drinking a littlebit less, because you don't have
to commit to the word sober orsaying I'm never drinking
alcohol again.
As you can see from me, I don'treally drink that much, but
every so often, if I feel likehaving something, I will, and I
love that freedom and I lovethat flexibility.
We're also going to be talkingabout the rising trend in the
(02:35):
sober curious movement and how Ithink there's a growing number
of people who are aware of howalcohol is impacting our health,
our mental health, and howdrinking a little bit less can
start to make us feel a bitbetter.
So let's get into it.
Hey everyone, I'm Lindy Cohen,dietician, nutritionist and host
(02:56):
of this podcast, no WellnessWankery, where we talk about the
science behind nutrition.
So you don't get bogged down onall the stuff that doesn't
really make a big difference toyour health, a bit overwhelmed
by what is wellness and what iswankery behind nutrition.
So you don't get bogged down onall the stuff that doesn't
really make a big difference toyour health, a bit overwhelmed
by what is wellness and what iswankery.
You are in the right place.
I talk to experts and guestswho share their best tips with
us.
Plus, I speak to real peoplejust like you who are on their
(03:19):
way to recovering from foodobsession.
Now let's get into today'sepisode, which is all about
celebrities who are goingbooze-free, and I guess what we
can learn from them.
Firstly, there is an increasingbooze-free moment at the moment
, and it is largely led bymillennials, which I fall into,
and our Gen Z generations, whichI think surprise people that
(03:39):
the young people are the onesreally pushing for a little bit
less drinking.
And last year 400,000Australians went alcohol free
and most of those people wereactually millennials.
And I think this is largely dueto the fact that if you turn up
to a social event and you sayI'm not drinking alcohol, you're
not shunned, whereas perhapswhen I was in university it
(04:00):
certainly felt a whole lot moreuncool to not drink alcohol.
There has also been a hugeincrease in the amount of
non-alcoholic drink options, sonowadays you can't go to a
restaurant and typically theywill have a non-alcoholic menu
on their drinks menu thatextends beyond just soft drinks,
which I think is brilliant.
(04:20):
And for me personally, beingsomeone who does like the taste
of alcohol, having those alcoholfree options whether it's my
pretend mojito or my no espressomartini certainly makes not
drinking alcohol so much easier.
I was at a party the other day.
I looked around and I'd say atleast half of the blokes, the
men in the room, all millennialmen, they were all drinking
(04:43):
non-alcoholic beer and no onewas batting an eye.
And we're also seeing morecelebrities who are talking
about the fact that they're notdrinking or they're not drinking
that much.
So let's talk about it.
Let's start with Adele, someoneI really love her music.
She's very lovable and inOctober 2023, adele talked about
(05:05):
how she had stopped drinkingfor three and a half months.
She's kind of always been onand off with her alcohol and the
reason she said she stoppeddrinking was because, after her
divorce from her ex-husband andafter her estranged dad's death
in May 2021, she wanted to goonto a self-discovery journey.
She said that's one great wayof really sort of getting to
(05:26):
know yourself is just drinkingwater and being sober as
anything.
Now, I wish I could have donethat in an Adele accent, but
you're going to have to pretendit was her saying it.
Adele said I mean, I wasliterally borderline alcoholic
for quite a lot of my twenties.
I miss it so much and I thinkthat's an interesting idea.
Firstly, that you get to knowyourself by not drinking alcohol
(05:53):
.
I certainly felt that way whenI pulled back from alcohol going
.
I don't even know what adult meis like, because I have drunk
so much alcohol so frequentlythroughout my life that it'd be
lovely just to know who theperson is who doesn't drink
alcohol.
How does my brain function?
How does my body feel and, ifanything, just at least once in
your life, creating a gap, alittle booze break where you go.
I'm just going to try notdrinking alcohol and see how it
(06:14):
feels.
The other point she raises hereis that she really missed
drinking alcohol and likes thetaste and likes the feeling, and
I think that is totally validand totally okay.
Personally, for me I feel likemy life is so much more
enjoyable without drinking thatmuch that I can't say I would
swap how good I feel for thethings I do miss about it.
But there certainly are thingsI miss about drinking, about the
(06:36):
ease of not having to thinkabout what non-alcoholic options
you can have when going out toa friend's place, to being part
of something and just going withthe flow.
And even the taste is somethingthat you know that Pinot Noir,
once it touched my lips I wasgoing hello, old friends, you
are very delicious.
But I think the main thing Iwant to take away from Adele's
story is how she used alcohol asa coping strategy, and so often
(07:00):
alcohol is a way of numbing, ofcoping, of dealing with life In
the same way.
It's kind of like emotionaleating We've had a hard day, or
even sometimes a good day, andwe're either celebrating or
trying to drown out whatever itis that we are feeling by
drinking alcohol.
Now, there are so many possiblecoping strategies that we can
turn to that don't includealcohol.
(07:20):
So things like going for a walk, meditating, speaking to a
psychologist, even talking to afriend, taking a moment for
yourself and yet I think for me,from a very young age, whenever
I was stressed, alcohol wasalways there.
For me, it was something easy.
But once again, rememberingthat drinking alcohol can feel
like throwing gasoline onwhatever it is that you are
(07:40):
feeling.
So, while you might feel likeit's taking it away temporarily,
it will probably come back inthe aftermath and come back more
intense, and the research backsme up on this.
In 2012, a study found thatthose who rely on alcohol as a
coping strategy for stress endup drinking a larger amount of
alcohol, and that's compared topeople who have a bunch of those
other stress coping mechanisms.
(08:01):
So you know meditation, running, yoga, breathing exercises,
reaching out to friends ortherapy.
Now, moving on, let's talk aboutLucy Hale.
She's an actress from PrettyLittle Liars.
I don't know if you know her.
She kind of resonates with thatmillennial and Gen Z crowd, but
she's 34 years old, so amillennial herself, and she
talked about her decision to getsober after being a what I
(08:22):
guess a textbook binge drinker.
She said being sober is ahundred percent the best thing
I've ever done for myself.
But it doesn't mean it's easy,and alcohol quieted my mind.
My brain just didn't shut offand it's exhausting.
I was a textbook binge drinker.
Blackout wouldn't remember whatI did or what I said, which is
scary.
Now I think blacking out fromalcohol is incredibly scary.
(08:45):
Or even not remembering whathappened, being hazy after a
night of drinking, of feelinglike you are a textbook binge
drinker, where perhaps you don'tdrink during the week and the
weekend rolls around and youdrink huge amounts.
Now what we know from theresearch is that typically
people who spread their alcoholconsumption out over the week
are healthier than those who dobinge drinking.
(09:07):
I guess it allows your bodytime to process through the
toxins and get them out of yourbody, and it probably would have
a much lighter effect on yourmental wellbeing as well.
So I think, if this is you, oneoption is to try and do that
reduction in alcohol consumptionwhere you go.
I'm going to go on a littlebooze break, I'm going to see
what it's like, and the otheroption is to change how you
(09:27):
drink alcohol.
So, instead of always drinkinga large amount on the weekends,
seeing whether or not it can bespread out, even that small
change is going to make animprovement to your health and
wellbeing.
Now, as I talked about, there isa decline in alcohol drinking
in Australia over the past twodecades and that is largely
thanks to the teens and theyoung adults, and a 2019 survey,
(09:49):
which was from the NationalDrug Strategy Household, found
that the number of people intheir 20s who are abstaining
from alcohol more than doubledbetween 2001 and 2019, from 9%
to 22%.
So I like to think of this asthis generation, the next
generation coming through isvery much about self-care.
They're trying to care lessabout what other people think,
(10:11):
and I think not drinking alcoholor not drinking as much alcohol
is very much an act ofself-care and self-acceptance.
So often a lot of the drinkingI used to do was because
everyone else was drinkingalcohol, and sometimes I think
to myself if none of my friendsdrank alcohol no one drank it,
would I still opt into thisdrink?
And I don't think I would andtherefore it kind of reminds me
(10:33):
that quite a bit of my drinkingalcohol has to do with the
social situations and that if Iwere to hone in on what
self-care feels like me, itwould be not drinking all that
much.
Let's talk about Miley Cyrus.
Now.
She is pretty much known as anultimate party girl, but she
said that she'd never had adrinking problem.
(10:54):
However, she did say that shedidn't think that moderation was
her thing.
She's like I'm not a moderationperson, and it's good for her
to be able to recognize that.
She has been using her platformto spread the word about sober
living and the benefits she hasexperienced since she hasn't
been drinking alcohol.
The reason she originally wentalcohol free was in 2019, for
(11:14):
vocal surgery, and that's whereshe said oh, actually I really
like this.
I love not waking up feelinggroggy and I love that it allows
me to live my best life.
She went booze free afterthinking about her parents and
her family history.
She said my mom was adopted andI inherited some of the
feelings she had of abandonmentand proving that you're wanted
(11:35):
and valuable.
And she said my dad's parentsdivorced when he was three, so
raised himself.
His family history has a lot ofaddiction and mental health
challenges, and I think forMiley, she experienced two
things.
One I like this version ofmyself, but I'm not drinking.
I can still have fun.
We still think of Miley Cyrus asthe ultimate party girl, even
though she hasn't been drinkingsince 2019, which just goes to
(11:57):
show you can party and you cannot drink alcohol if that's your
jam.
And the other thing is she hasthis family history and we know
from research around some familystudies that have consistently
demonstrated that there is asubstantial genetic link to
alcohol dependence.
And I know for myself in myfamily history I have mental
health conditions that go backat least on one side of my
(12:19):
family, and noticing thedifference it has on my mood has
certainly been motivating.
So I guess for you considering,is there any genetic link,
genetic history that you canfind with alcohol dependence,
remembering the differencebetween alcohol and food and why
we can kind of go cold turkeyon it.
Food is something you need forsustenance, for survival.
You would literally die if youdid not have food.
(12:40):
Alcohol, on the other hand, isnot essential to your survival,
and that's why I think we cankind of think about these two
things in a different light.
One is something thatultimately poisons you and one
is something that you need tobreathe and live.
So if you have that history ofalcohol dependence in your
family, you might want toconsider going for a little bit
(13:00):
more of a I guess extremeapproach where you go, I am not
going to have any alcohol andsee how that makes me feel and
see whether or not that is alifestyle that I can maintain
and to prevent myself fromhaving to deal with the risks of
alcohol dependence.
I will also say on the partyfront, that the other weekend I
went to a festival yes, afestival.
(13:21):
I put glitter in my hair, I gotstomping boots on and I did not
drink alcohol.
I partied all night.
Honestly, it was about sixhours of dancing straight and I
didn't have anything to drink.
I have since been to a fewother parties.
I went salsa dancing the othernight no alcohol.
Dinners out with friends noalcohol.
(13:42):
No one even realized I wasn'tdrinking alcohol, even when I
went to the club.
I went to a club, I don't knowhow, but I did, and I had a
great time and I didn't drinkalcohol.
Mind you, I've got to say around11, 12 PM I start getting tired
, and I noticed the peoplearound me who were drinking
alcohol.
They don't get tired.
So that is probably my biggestlimitation and the fact that I
(14:04):
get sleepy.
But ultimately you know what myfriends, I do have to wake up
and parent the next day, so Ihappily get into bed and if I
start the night early enough,I've still had several hours of
lots of fun and I can also get agood night's sleep and wake up
feeling fresh.
Let's talk about Kyle Richards.
Now she's from the RealHousewives of Beverly Hills.
(14:26):
I personally am not really intoreality TV, but it is a thing
and people love it and they loveKyle Richards, and she has
recently talked about her moveinto sobriety.
She said before I would havefelt like, well, I have to go
and have drinks because everyoneexpects that from me to go and
have fun.
I don't feel like I need to dothat anymore and I think that's
(14:47):
the thing is.
Once you've experienceddrinking less alcohol, you go.
Oh, okay, I see how this couldwork.
Maybe you have a few moments oftroubleshooting where you're
going.
Okay, I'm just trying to makeit work.
I'm experimenting withdifferent ways of drinking less,
or what I could try to say topeople who ask me why I'm not
drinking.
And it starts to get easier andeasier and easier.
So she doesn't feel thatpressure anymore.
(15:09):
Alcohol made me feel depressedthe next day.
This is what she says, nomatter how much fun the night
was before, and, honestly, lifeis going to throw us some
difficult days.
I certainly don't need to beadding any extra ones to that
list, and let's talk about thisidea.
The lesson we can take awayfrom Carl Richards is this idea
of alcohol can be a trigger foranxiety and depression.
I mean, we know anxiety thenext day is so intense.
(15:32):
Now this is from the Alcohol andDrug Foundation and they
explain how alcohol works on thebrain's GABA receptor and
basically releasing the GABAwhich makes you feel more
relaxed.
When you start drinking, you gookay, cool, this is fun, I'm
having a great time Now as youcontinue to drink alcohol.
Now, what also happens as youcontinue drinking alcohol is
your brain shuts down glutamate,which makes you feel anxious.
So if you don't have the stuffthat's making you anxious, you
(15:55):
start to feel more calm, morerelaxed, and this is where your
inhibitions start to lay to restand you end up saying things.
I end up saying things I oftenregret is because I don't have
this control section of my brainactivated.
But as your alcohol starts towear off, your brain tries to
restore the normal chemicals.
So it wants balance again,right.
(16:16):
So it wants to reduce thebrain's GABA, so you start
feeling less calm and then ithas to re-increase the glutamate
, which means that you startfeeling anxious again and what
goes up must come down and Ithink that's the important thing
the equivalent reduction inanxiety that you experience
after you start drinking.
You will feel that on the flipside, in increase in anxiety as
(16:38):
you come down from the drug.
For me, I certainly felt this.
The reason I don't drink thatmuch alcohol anymore is because
of my anxiety.
I used to have very intenseanxiety, which I talk about on
this podcast and elsewhere, andwhen I stopped drinking alcohol
especially as each month went onthat I didn't drink alcohol I
was like, oh, this is what it'slike to not doubt everything I
(17:00):
say, to not go through all myworst moments and replay them in
my brain for hours before I tryand fall asleep.
It was so incredible to meafter all the things I had tried
to try and manage my anxiety.
That I mean I say simply notdrinking that much alcohol, but
changing my relationship with it.
It is a big deal, but that onechange alone basically took away
(17:22):
my anxiety.
That was incredible to me andit still is incredible to me.
So if you're someone whoexperiences anxiety, depression,
you're struggling with yourmental health.
I think you owe it to yourselfto go.
What could life be like if Iwent on a little bit of a booze
break?
I temporarily pulled back fromalcohol?
It's just an experiment.
I think this idea of saying toyourself I am permanently going
(17:45):
to stop drinking alcohol, I cannever drink again, is incredibly
scary.
It makes me feel like a trappedanimal, and the way I do it is.
I tell myself I can alwaysdrink and I truly do mean it.
Anytime I want a beveragethat's got alcohol in it, I can
have that drink, but I choosenot to, and knowing that it's
always there for me, that justmeans I can continue to be
(18:05):
relaxed around drinking and notfeel like it's a punishment.
Now let's talk about BlakeLively.
She's divine, isn't she?
We know we love her and we loveher husband, ryan Reynolds, and
, funnily enough, she doesn'tdrink.
But he invented and runsAviation Gin, which is a pretty
huge gin company.
But she basically says I don'tdrink because I don't like the
(18:26):
effects of alcohol, but I likebeing part of it, I like being
social, I like people comingtogether.
It's just that I genuinelydon't have a desire for.
It's not like I decided on thesestrict lifestyle choices and
I'm enforcing them.
And I think, like food, this isa very interesting thing where
we kind of go, once we start toapply all these rules to food,
we start going oh my God, I'mnot allowed to have it.
And then we eat it and then itfeels it tastes so good.
(18:48):
For example, I used to do thiswith peanut butter.
I'm not allowed to have anypeanut butter.
And then next thing I know I'msecretly shoving teaspoons of
peanut butter into my mouth.
And the other day I went and Iactually had a teaspoon of
peanut butter and I put it in mymouth and I was like it's kind
of dry.
It makes my mouth like I need alot of water and if I had the
choice of all the things, Icould eat peanut butter out of a
(19:10):
jar like this.
Just it's not doing it for meanymore, and I think that we
sometimes do this to alcohol.
If we say I'm not allowed todrink any of it, we put it on
this pedestal and it becomes thesecret thing, which is, once
again, why I say we don't justsay I'm not allowed to have it.
We do allow ourselvespermission, but we go.
Do I even like it?
And therefore it starts tobecome a choice and not
(19:31):
something that we feel like wemust do.
What we can take away from BlakeLively as well is that alcohol
can have an impact on yourfamily, on your relationships
and the people that you areclosest to.
If you are considering drinkingless alcohol, you are going to
get questions from people whoare going to go why aren't you
drinking alcohol?
You're pregnant.
I bet you'll get at least onepregnancy question in your
(19:52):
lifetime of not drinking alcohol.
I think it's useful to havesome default responses to people
so you know what you can saywhen people inevitably ask these
questions and you don't feelpeer pressured.
And what do you do if you doget peer pressured by people and
you feel like you're beingjudged for not drinking alcohol?
How do you go from a defaultdrinker who's automatically
saying, yes, I would like somerosé to the kind of person who's
(20:15):
automatically opted out, andyou can always opt in to have
that rosé.
What I'm talking about is howdo you become a mindful drinker
and not someone who just drinksbecause the bottle of wine needs
to be finished?
Now, if you're curious to learnmore about how to drink less or
how to have a healthierrelationship with alcohol,
whether or not you want to notdrink alcohol ever again or you
just want to go on a littlehiatus from booze then I highly
(20:38):
recommend you check out BoozeBreak.
Booze Break is the ultimateaudio guide to help you change
your relationship with alcohol,whether you want to break the
habit or you want to learn howyou can still be fun and have
fun without alcohol, or you wantto learn how you can still be
fun and have fun without alcohol.
It is a audio series that Icreated with Maz Compton, who
hasn't drunk alcohol in eightyears which is kind of crazy and
myself a year and a half, withdrinking a whole lot less, and
(21:00):
we're sharing all the tried andtrue tips that we've learned the
hard way, so you don't have tomake the same mistakes that
we've done If you want to go ona little hiatus from booze or
stop drinking altogether, itdoesn't matter.
Booze break is a great way toexperiment with drinking less or
no alcohol, and if you'recurious to learn more, then
check the description, becauseI'll leave a link there.
(21:21):
And that's the end of today'sepisode.
I really hope that you'veenjoyed listening to it.
If you like this episode or youlike this podcast, please share
it with someone who you like,or even an enemy, I mean, share
it with them as well.
They need some love as well.
And, of course, please considerreviewing this podcast wherever
you listen to your podcasts.
(21:42):
I'd be so, so grateful.
It really is very motivatingfor me to see that someone out
there is listening other thanjust my mum, and it will
encourage me to create more freecontent for you.
Just like this.
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyedthis episode and I'll see you
next week.
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