Episodes

If you struggle with alcohol, or marijuana, or any other addiction, chances are you’ve had some thoughts about your relationship with food, too. I’m right there with you, my friend. Many of us find ourselves in the situation of getting sober then find we are relying on food and sugar more than we ever did before. And being a compulsive person, with little understanding of the word ‘moderation’, you can find yourself questioning your habits and not feeling great about them. The good news is, ...

Are you struggling with trying to figure out what you’re going to do and how you’re going to spend your time when you quit drinking? Drinking takes up a lot of our time and mental energy. When you take that away, it leaves a big void. And if you don’t have a plan to fill the void, it will lead you right back to relapse. If you are on your 100th day one again, or if you’ve been sober for awhile and you’re feeling a little stagnant and need a jumpstart… … this episode is for you! I’m going t...

Everyone from World Cup winning skier Lindsey Vonn, to legendary basketball player Michael Jordan, to actors Will Smith and Idris Elba, and musician Jay Z… …each of them uses this technique to give them a competitive edge, and also to cultivate a sense of belief, build confidence and to help build motivation. Science today estimates that 95 percent of our brains activity is unconscious. It handles everything your body needs to function properly, from eating and breathing to digesting and maki...

Grief shows up in unexpected ways and sometimes at unexpected times. You may lose a family member or friend, or your pet. Grief may be a part of the heartbreak of a divorce or breakup. You may grieve the loss of your youth, the loss of alcohol, or the life you aspired to live that didn’t happen, or the child you thought you would have but didn’t. These curveballs that life loves to throw at you can often create a sense of loss, and grief over something you want that is no longer in your reac...

You know you want to change. You know you need to change. Yet, you resist change for some reason you have yet to understand. This episode’s for you. But that old saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, just isn’t true. Not saying you are old… or a dog… The truth is, old habits are hard to break. And new ones are challenging to create. But if you follow these easy steps, you’ll be a healthy habit champion in no time! I’d love to tell you, “Just believe in yourself!”, but we aren...

Many aspiring sober people get hung up on the thought of never drinking again. You don’t make a REAL commitment to stopping. You want to be wishy-washy, on the fence, telling yourself you’ll be able to drink again one day… …then you wonder how you end up hungover again feeling like sh*t about yourself. I’ll tell you why; because it all starts with your decision-making. Once you put down the drink, you have to learn the skills to get your decisions in line with your desire to be sober. This...

If you’ve never attended a 12-step meeting, you likely have fears and anxieties running through your and keeping you from going. Or, maybe you went to a meeting or two and wrote it off as ‘not for you’, but as you’ve continued to struggle with staying sober you’re starting to wonder if it might be the solution. Either way, I want you to have the real real about what it’s like, what we are doing, and why we do it the way we do. Feeling nervous about going to a meeting is totally normal! Every...

If you’ve been on the relapse rollercoaster stuck in that cycle of up and down, sober then relapse, over and over feeling like you are getting nowhere…listen up, my friend. I’m going to give you my top 3 pitfalls that will sabotage your sobriety every… single… time. You’re going to see that you may be looking at this thing ALL wrong. You’re also going to get some clear-cut actions you can start taking today to feel better and get farther than you’ve gotten before. Grab those earbuds and put ...

Skills, strategies, and tools for your emotional toolbox… …any thing or activity that is good for your mental wellness and helps you stay balanced and happy. Coping skills are things we can do in the moment, when we are feeling uncomfortable/anxious/angry/overwhelmed, to help us turn down the volume of our emotions and avoid letting them take control. They help us to get through stressful situations with a little more ease, and without doing something we’ll regret later on. Having healthy co...

Do you wish you had more balance and control over your feelings and moods? Tens of millions of people around the world struggle with anxiety, depression, and general overwhelm with life. And, although these feelings are now more common, many find it hard to understand what they’re feeling and how to find the right solutions for them. Rest assured there are solutions to this common discomfort and that’s what we’re talking about in this episode. You need support, emotionally and physically, and ...

If you’re sick of feeling like sobriety is a constant fight, it’s time to stop winging it and start building a recovery lifestyle that works. Because staying sober isn’t about white-knuckling your way through the day — it’s about creating structure, intention, and goals that support a life without alcohol. In this episode, I walk you through a 90-day recovery plan that gives you the tools to stop relapsing, stay focused, and build the confidence to live a life you’re proud of. We’ll cover: H...

At the end of my drinking career, it was not fun anymore. I hated it. I felt like its hostage, and I despised it. At the same time, I couldn’t survive without it. At that stage, I didn’t have a choice. Alcohol had me brainwashed, and that bear was fully in control. But here’s the catch- once we have some time without alcohol, the physical withdrawal is over, the mental fog starts to clear, and that bear is starting to lose control. He’s losing his grip on you and you are making your own c...

What would it feel like to continue NOT having a plan and wake up six months from now in exactly the same place- hungover again, feeling terrible, hating life? I know that moment all too well. My sponsor said to me once, “I want you to think about holding a hula hoop”, “Okay”, I said. “What all fits inside your hula hoop”? And I was like, what the hell is this dude talking about? And I looked at him and said, “Me”. To which he responded, “Exactly. And that’s everything you have control of...

Getting sober is one thing. Staying sober is the real fight. If you’ve ever relapsed and thought, “What the hell just happened?” — this one’s for you. In a raw moment of heartbreak and rage after a friend’s relapse, I wrote a letter to relapse itself. It’s not warm. It’s not fuzzy. And it’s exactly what you need to hear. We’re digging into: Why relapse doesn’t just happen — it’s a series of choices The dangerous trap of indecision that keeps you stuck What it looks like to truly commit to y...

You may think you just have anxiety, alcoholism or ADD, but wait ’til you hear what’s going on under the surface and how to heal it. My special guest, Dr. Don Wood is an inspired leader in the field of trauma, healing, and how our brain controls us. This isn’t only a field of interest for him, but a personal crusade that began with a desire to support his wife in her healing, and to unravel his daughter’s illness from the inside out. He has worked with some of the world’s top athletes, is a re...

There are many theories about the causes of addiction and many of us are curious about what our underlying issues are, that lead us to an unhealthy relationship with substances and behaviors. What we know for sure is it’s a combination of factors – biological, psychological, social, and environmental. This is also what makes addiction more challenging to treat because it isn’t an illness that can be approached with a single solution. It’s not a matter of just putting down the drink and moving...

Why is your inner critic so freakin’ mean?? We all have that inner monologue – We talk to ourselves all day long. We debate with ourselves about eating another cookie, or drinking another cup of coffee, or how to respond to an email. Regardless of the topic, we hear that inner critic running through our head all day. At times this little voice can actually be helpful and keep you motivated toward reaching goals—like when it reminds you that what you’re about to eat isn’t healthy or what you’...

The REAL reason for feeling some depression or symptoms of depression when you quit drinking alcohol. And one of these may be something you’ve never heard of. If you’ve ever used alcohol to deal with feelings of depression, you may have found that after your buzz wears off, you feel even lower than before. It’s a chicken and egg situation – which came first? Were you struggling because you were drinking, or were you drinking because you were struggling? Well, both can be true. Drinking can...

If you find yourself in yo-yo sobriety, and you can’t figure out why you keep going back to drinking when you KNOW you don’t drink well – I’m going to give you some solutions. If you have followed me for any length of time, you know I’m all about solutions and I’m a believer in investing the majority of my time and energy into solving a problem rather than obsessing about it. One thing I can tell you with certainty is, I know what works for recovery. Not only from my personal recovery and fig...

Does recovery give you a framework to follow to build a happy and fulfilled life? Pete Sousa definitely thinks so, and he’s here to tell you all about it in this week’s episode! In this episode, Pete breaks down his addiction step-by-step and shares all the things he did to get, and stay, sober. Pete is a news anchor in Texas, an ESPN broadcaster, and a powerful recovery advocate on his podcast The Payoff with Pete and today he’s sharing his whole story with you. From backing his car into a ...

Being High-Functioning Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Have a Drinking Problem I understand why you feel that way and how easy it is to separate from the pack when your habits and struggles look different. It does create a sense of being different and not fitting in to traditional methods and programs. And it’s hard to call yourself an alcoholic when your picture of what an alcoholic is, is not good. But let me ask you this – if you are high-functioning, does that mean your problem is different? Or y...

The uncomfortable topic no one is talking about. Or, not too many people are talking about because it can be awkward and weird like everything else in life. But it’s so important for women to understand. And, there are some great recovery revelations in this episode that have nothing to do with life stages or being a man or a woman – but have everything to do with getting sober and living the life you really want. You may know today’s guest from the To 50 & Beyond podcast. When she quit drin...

Many of us love to get annoyed with the AA one-liners and all the recovery phrases out there, but the truth is, they work. And if you get them, they can change your whole trajectory. When you understand what they mean, the few simple words take on a whole new meaning and it becomes its own shorthand language where you hear these few words, and you know exactly what to do. It’s a game changer. Especially if you are caught up in future-tripping, thinking about a bunch of possibilities, what if...

What does an addictive personality actually look like? People always tell me, “I have a very addictive personality”. Well, I’m right there with you, my friend – if you struggle with substances, it just makes sense we will struggle with behavior addictions, too. Today we’re talking about having an addictive personality and the behavior addictions we can pick up along the way. If I do something and I like it, I want more of it. Food, people, work, exercise, self-improvement and recovery, tele...