The Not Drinking Alcohol Today Podcast
Meg and Bella discuss the ups and downs of navigating an alcohol free life in Australia's alcohol centric culture. This highly rated podcast, featuring in Australia's top 100 self improvement podcasts, is a must for those that are trying to drink less alcohol but need some motivation, are curious about sober life or who are sober but are looking for some extra reinforcement. The Not Drinking Alcohol Today pod provides an invaluable resource to keep you motivated and on track today and beyond. Meg and Bella's guests include neuroscientists, quit-lit authors, journalists, health experts, alcohol coaches and everyday people who have struggled with alcohol but have triumphed over it. Our aim is to support and inspire you to reach your goals to drink less or none at all! Meg and Bella are This Naked Mind Certified Coaches (plus nutritionists and counsellors respectively) who live in Sydney.
The Not Drinking Alcohol Today Podcast
Karina Koplock's journey to alcohol freedom!
Can you imagine being ensnared by the grip of alcohol, as a young 14-year-old, in a culture where there's no age limit on drinking? That's the hard-hitting reality of our guest, Karina Koplock, who found herself in a suffocating relationship with alcohol, a journey that began in her Mother's native land, Peru. A high-functioning individual, it took Karina years to admit the toll her addiction was taking on her health, her relationships, and her sanity.
Karina had a swift wake-up call when her son was diagnosed with Tourette's and her mother battled cancer - two hardships that led her to flip the script on her life, and decide to pivot towards sobriety in 2021. Through her raw and heartfelt narration, she brings to light the challenges of being a parent and maintaining a healthy lifestyle while battling alcohol addiction. Revealing her own struggle around alcohol during her pregnancies, Karina's story is a testament to the complex struggle many women face, often in silence.
Not just an exploration of personal battles, this episode also delves into the wider culture of alcohol acceptance, which can be a daunting hurdle for those seeking sobriety. A particular focus is on the normalization of drinking among high-functioning individuals, especially parents, a societal mindset that complicates the road to recovery. Alongside this, we tackle the issue of sugar addiction during sobriety, and the role of sobriety coaches in a society where drinking has become socially acceptable. Karina's transformation from daily drinking to sobriety, her battles and victories, offer not just hope but concrete strategies for anyone embarking on a similar journey. Grab those headphones, it's going to be an enlightening ride.
Website: https://www.theafplanet.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kkoplock/
MEG
Web: https://www.meganwebb.com.au/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/meganwebbcoaching/
Unwined Bookclub: https://www.alcoholfreedom.com.au/unwinedbookclub
ConnectAF group coaching: https://www.elizaparkinson.com/groupcoaching
BELLA
Web: https://isabellaferguson.com.au
Insta: @alcoholcounsellorisabella
Bi-Yearly 6-Week Small Group Challenges: Learn more: https://www.isabellaferguson.com.au/feb-2025-challenge
Free Do I Have A Drinking Problem 3 x Video Series: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/JTFFgjJL/checkout
Free HOW DO I STOP DRINKING SO MUCH Masterclass: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/7fvkb3FF/checkout
Online Alcohol Self-Paced Course: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/fDzcyvWL/checkout...
Hello and welcome to Not Drinking Today podcast. Today I have fellow this Naked Mind Coach, karina Koplock, with me. Karina is an alcohol-free coach who works with women changing their relationship with alcohol and working with their health and fitness. Welcome to the pod, karina.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm so excited to be here. Megan, thanks for having me over, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Pleasure. So can we start by you telling us a bit about your alcohol journey and how you've got to where you are today?
Speaker 2:Yes. So my journey started, which, I think, like a lot of people, early on in life. I was 14 years old when I first had my from where I can remember my first drink and also hangover. That drink was rum and coke. Up to this day, even though I can't drink, but just the smell of rum and coke, some people were like, oh, you get over. They know, I was never able to get over. Rum and coke I can drink. I always say I never discriminate when it comes to drinking. I could drink everything but rum and coke. I can drink rum but not rum and coke. And that was in Peru, in South America. So my journey started. When I was nine years old, my mom decided my mom is Peruvian and she decided to move my sister and I to Peru. My dad had passed away, he was American and she goes like, well, we're going to Peru.
Speaker 2:And I understood Spanish, like I can understand, like somebody would speak to me when my mom but I did not speak, so I wouldn't say that I was bilingual then. So at nine years old my sister is two years older than I am moved us there and I went in total shock as far as culturally moving to a whole new, different country, school, everything's in Spanish. So that was always and I tell the story because it was always hard as a child kind of going into a whole new environment and not fitting in. So my mom didn't drink. I mean, I don't recall having ever, I had never seen her drink until I was an adult. But to me I think it was one of that thing that you would escape to try to do something to fit in. Interesting fact and I really do have to research this, it has changed.
Speaker 2:But in Peru there was no age limit. You could go to the store at nine years old and buy alcohol. I mean, that was never. I remember that's never been an issue. There wasn't an age limit to drink.
Speaker 2:As a matter of fact, when, like when you I don't know if they have that in Australia when you, when in school, either you're in, you know, last two or three years before you graduate, there's always a like a prom, but they call it pre, pre-prom or prom, and on these events there is drink and alcohol. For kids Like you just get like, yeah, yeah, it is totally normal. So again, me getting drunk at 14 wouldn't be, it wasn't. So you know, I have a 14 year old now and a 12 year old and I can't like I would. I would be mortified if, if you know, they would just go out and have drinks like that. But, yeah, totally normal. So I think that that didn't stop me. I don't remember drinking much or having again drinking that much, like I did that that one day. But I start, I was 14 years old. I think we ended up going to like a club again. How does a 14 year old go to my?
Speaker 1:oh gosh.
Speaker 2:Wow. But then I finally felt like I went to an all girls Catholic school. Very, it was just, you know. I felt comfortable. And when I was 15 years old yes, 15 years old, going to maybe 15, 16, my mom, I guess it's like, in Australia, you know, your summer, so school goes, it ends in December. So my mom decided she's like, oh, okay, we're going to move back to the States. So my sister had graduated and there I was as a 16 year old, moving back to the States to learn, not learn English, but yeah, my English was as a fourth grader when I left, so it was a whole connection there.
Speaker 2:We moved to Miami and it was a public school. Of course, you know girls and boys and people are smoking, you know weed outside. You drive, which that was nobody drives in Peru. So you're driving, you can go out for lunch and again, trying to fit in thank God it was Miami because there's a lot of people that speak Spanish, but it was again a different. I felt again having to fit in, right, you know, I didn't know what to do. It was again. It was really hard.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, my drinking started back again, my what I call party, but it I would never, until. I'm going to fast forward a lot, until two years ago. Well, that really started thinking. Maybe I have a problem, a relationship, you know, maybe my relationship with the alcohol is not good Because, again, everybody else does it right. Yeah, at 17, I got a fake ID at 17. I was a pro getting into all the clubs in Miami Beach. I always say I open Miami Beach. I would know it wasn't as popular as it is now, but I would party, go out and party like it's well before 1999. But it was it was it was.
Speaker 2:It was fun. I mean it wasn't something. Thank God I don't know how I never got a DUI, because I remember I was always the designated driver. I have this thing that when I would drink I would only think that I'm the one that has the best control. I have to be the one driving and we would come back five, six, seven o'clock in the morning. I mean because people stay up really late there. Party really wouldn't start till the 11, 12. So it was a lot of drinking and hangovers. But then again I had two. I mean I was very fun.
Speaker 2:I mean I paid myself for school. I graduated not sure how. It took me a long time, but I went to school and ended up getting a master's. I had two, three jobs, but I'm always very responsible. But again, I liked to party. It was mainly on the weekends. I mean there was a time there early on college years that it would be drinking a lot, but mainly on the weekends. So I thought it was. Everything is under control. I never wake up and have a drink Because in my mind somebody that had a problem with alcohol would be, you know, somebody that would be drinking at eight o'clock in the morning and that was never me, but usually it would be.
Speaker 2:You know that typical regret that you were on a Friday and then Saturday you're hungover, you're like God, I'm not gonna drink today, I'm not gonna drink. And then somehow you always end up drinking Saturday, Once you feel okay, you're like, oh okay, I got this, but it was, you know. Again, you go through periods of life that I was fine. I mean, it wasn't. I never thought of that. I always thought that I could never. The times that I got drunk or I said something stupid, it was my problem, right, I got mad at myself because I could not control alcohol, like why I see other people, why couldn't I stop at the second or third class of wine when I said I was gonna stop and I think that that happens to a lot of people too. It's that control that you're, I got this, and then you got nothing. You end up drinking. You know a lot more. But yeah, then you know, life got very busy working, traveling, traveled a lot ended up meeting my husband and we I mean I drank, I mean we partied all the time with him. It was I can't remember not drinking with him and there came our first child and I remember the entire pregnancy and I was like I don't think I hate being pregnant, I just didn't like. The worst part for me was not drinking. I mean, it's maybe like my sister and friends that I have, they love that, they're like, but no, to me that was an issue. It was an issue not drinking for nine months and I would drink, well, pregnant. Maybe I had a glass or two of wine. I was like I don't think I had a glass or two of wine. I was like I don't think I had a glass or two of wine. I had a wedding and of course I had to drink at a wedding. So what is one glass of wine? But yeah, I breastfed with the kids but I would pump and dump because I was like I am not going to go again through another nine months and wait. Then I'm like. So that was hard to me.
Speaker 2:Having kids is when it started getting real In the sense that I needed the drink to relax. I needed that wine to. You know working I have. You know, blah, blah, blah. And I remember thinking after I had my first son, which now I think I had postpartum I don't think, I'm pretty sure I did I was like, oh my God, I remember seeing life at the first three months and I'm like what is wrong with people? How can they have more than one child? This is like I felt overwhelmed. All I thought about is was the world, and how can people have kids? Because it was so much to have. But there I was less than two years after that, the following year, I had my second son, and that then there's being so close in age.
Speaker 2:That took it to a next level of stress. You know, again, I worked a lot and traveled and I remember wanting to drive after work or wherever I was going, and then they just keep on driving and going to a hotel and then just having a glass of wine and relax. So I wouldn't have to be stressed. Never did that because I wanted to see my kids, but it's that confusion of feeling overwhelmed. Then it was always that bottle of beer, alcohol that was going to relax me after work. So it was going to be okay and I really do feel like I don't like putting my kids to sleep and all that. It's so true because I missed so much of that, because I had to have a glass of wine or a drink, but I was functioning. It wasn't again like I would pass out and not attend to them, but it was having to have that drink there was really important. I finally, when they started going to school, I felt like I opened an indoor cycling studio and so I quit my corporate job.
Speaker 2:And that is the looking back that was about. It's been more maybe eight years ago. That was when I really started now drinking during the day because I was at home and I've always been busy, because I've always been like I would teach class. I still, up to this day, wake up early at 4.30 in the morning, go teach cycling class. I would still do it with a hangover drink, like that would not stop me, but I would try to do a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2:But again, I wasn't a count, like I didn't have to be at work somewhere where somebody would be looking at me. So, yeah, I would have a glass of wine. Never liked white wine, but I started liking white wine because I thought that that was more excusable because really you don't drink red wines during the day. White wine. I was like, oh, I could do white wine and I remember seeing putting in the refrigerator and not wanting. My husband has never, ever said anything to me, but I remember having one glass and then I also did like an au pair gig that I would take a look at people that are do you know what an au pair is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I would because I used to have when I traveled. I had an au pair, so I ended up knowing people. So, anyways, I was like the manager that would go and and I help out with the families to pair them with the au pairs. And I remember having one glass before I would leave, but it was during the day and I'm like they would never know. I would have a you know gum, but that kept me going. I was busy, you know, and I remember that bottle of wine in the refrigerator. I'd be worried. I would buy another one just to make sure that it wasn't halfway so my husband wouldn't think that I would be drinking. You know, I have never even talked to him about that, I don't even know if he ever knew that. But but yeah, that was my then. It was a Monday, every single day of the week, and then I would let loose on the weekends, you know, to drink more, and I certainly had, and I always I like telling people. I was the type of person that if I saw somebody not drink, or if the person didn't drink, I would go and automatic assumption and judgment of oh my God, they probably have a drinking problem. They hit rock bottom. They, you know they can't control themselves or they're weird. I never thought about anybody not, you know drinking, because that would be like who does that, you know? But it was at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:So in 2020, that was no, I'm sorry, 2021. I'm like a lot of times, like my body had been telling me you just like this is not good for you. And that little voice all of a sudden, I started getting a little voice and like that's just not good and I don't know if that happened to you too, but I did not know. I mean, I feel like ignorance. I did not know that alcohol was so bad, because I never, I never would have looked at alcohol being bad, because I never Googled it, because who on earth would put something out there that is bad for you but has so many things, including, you know, it is known for cancer and mental health and everything, like you know, when you get sick, right, but that should have been. I mean, again, that should be a clue. But I mean they have it everywhere, everybody does it, so it can't be bad. And that was my. I got bought into that. That marketing, you know, stuff that there's no way.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so 2021, my son got diagnosed with Tourette's my youngest son. So I don't know much what you know about Tourette's or not, but it's very. It's a lot of anxiety. It triggers a lot of your tics through anxiety and it usually comes with something else like OCD, which he does have. So it's a lot of stuff that you have to be present and I don't know. I just decided that that.
Speaker 2:And then my mom wasn't feeling well towards later of that year and she ended up having cancer. She's super good now. But just a voice inside me said you like you have got to get this under control. You know to be there for my kids and they're at the age well, back two years ago. They're 14 and 12 now, so they were 10 and 12. But they're at the age where they start questioning like are you drunk? And I remember like no, how much have you or Papa had? How much are you drinking? I'm like too strong. But it was just a matter of something just clicked. I didn't read anything, I didn't. Something just clicked that said, all right, I've got to there's. I just felt that it wasn't serving me even, not only for my son or for my mom that I felt. But I just felt like my body was like nah, and I also went to the doctor several times throughout the last two years for whatever.
Speaker 2:I've always been really anemic person and they're like there's something wrong with it. You know, are you drinking a lot? I'm like no. Of course. I would always say to the doctor, like what? I mean, I would be sweating. They're like no, I'm like no, what is it called the liver? Is it fatty liver or whatever? Yeah, and they never said it was bad. But they're like well, if you are, maybe don't drink that much. And I was like, okay, but that didn't even stop me. But yeah, so I'm one of those people that stopped spontaneous sobriety.
Speaker 2:So I had that episode in New Year with my son. He had a really bad episode and I stopped for a little bit that night on New Year's Eve. And then I'm like, once I sobered up, I'm like, okay, I'm fine and I finished it up, but that voice, I wasn't ready till two days after. I'm like what am I doing? And I quit drinking. That January I even went to a wedding. I, oh my God, I did parties. It was it never. It never fazed me not drinking. And that's after.
Speaker 2:A month and a half is when I started googling because I wanted a community. I joined different Facebook stuff that said drinking, sober, whatever different sites and I thought that that was to me, that was so helpful. And that's how I found somebody said about books and I found Annie Grace's book and I was like, oh my God, she's talking to me that three o'clock in the morning. How many times have I told myself stop drinking. And then I'd get so mad.
Speaker 2:So it was just one of those things that I started like reading a lot of stuff and I'm like that's when I learned about what alcohol really is, what it does to your bodies, and I'm like thinking, I'm like whoa, I thought I was a really I mean decent IQ, but I'm like how can nobody else see this right? And then I saw the hypocrisy that so many of us have had to regarding telling our kids. How many nights have I told my kids oh no, you're not drinking another, we don't drink usually sodas. But I'm like I am not buying another drink or no more sugar. And there I was drinking a bottle of wine between my husband and I or somebody else, and here I am telling them not to drink it to take care of their bodies. So, yeah, I think that has been my biggest forces trying to. We've lived in a society where we just think we're going to have fun.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for sharing all of that, karina. That's quite the journey. I'm still getting over that. In Peru, you were allowed to drink at any age. I mean, that is just so enabling, isn't it, you know?
Speaker 2:It is and I love, I like telling the story because everybody in as a world we have heard it through so much through different podcasts and everybody thinks, oh, you know, we're in Australia or in England or in this part of the world or in the United States and I'm like thinking it really is everywhere. But here you go, something like Peru, everybody drinks, and I think we're not. As a the whole concept about alcohol-free sober, not drinking, or dry January, dry October, it's not as popular in South America. It's a new movement, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, right, it's very interesting. Yeah, I'd certainly relate to a lot of other things that you've said. Just well, being high-functioning like that was that's so many of us, isn't it? And I certainly just looked around at other people and thought, well, you know, alcoholic, you're down and out, you don't have a job, you wake up and drink. So I too was judgmental and I think in a lot of our minds we think, well, we're holding down a job, we're bringing up the kids, so it's OK, and other people are doing the same. But I experienced I call it the niggle that voice that started to say you know, something's got to change.
Speaker 1:And mine was also around when my kids were getting teenage years, old enough to say what the heck? Particularly my middle daughter I talk about was the main reason that kickstarted me into this. You know I've got to stop. Also, like you said for myself, for me I knew there was more to life, but my daughter probably about started about 13,. Just she texted me from the bedroom I hate you, you're ruining my life because I've been in the lounge room drinking at night.
Speaker 1:But it was the. I wanted to provide my kids with the safety and security and my kids have had. Well, my daughter has allergies and my son has had some health issues and I just wanted to be there for them and for them to feel comfortable, to not worry about if something happened. How do we get help? You know anything when you have a drinking parent and I am on my own. There's a fear in that, and so I think what you've done for your kids, what I've done for mine, is just provide them a secure, safe life. I know my daughter probably still gets scared at times and thinks, oh my gosh, I hope mom doesn't ever go back to that, but it's just nice to be able to provide them that safety and security.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you just said that that I had forgot. I don't know if your kids feel the same, but they feel so proud and I've always told them do not judge somebody else drinking, because, again, I don't want them to go and be like, oh, but I've always said, think about it. They come home or we've been to a party, or they go to a friend's house and they're like mom, such and such was drinking a lot and they got drunk and I'm like, oh, yeah, tell me about it. I was like, well, I said my mom Michael's like I don't want to do that. That is just so stupid. I love that. I want them to have.
Speaker 2:I want that for our kids to be in that place, where I used to smoke too, but they would be mortified, like if they would see me with a cigarette. They think that I'm going to die. It should be. I hope we get to that point where cigarettes are as bad as people just don't go to homes and start smoking. Back in the day they did, but now I want them to be like oh my God, that's horrible. Who's drinking like that? Hopefully we get there one day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hope so too. And it's interesting, isn't it? Because cigarettes did have that, that's what we thought, Whereas we didn't think that and often still don't with alcohol. But alcohol can actually, does actually change you in the moment where a cigarette didn't, but they've still got the long term and it's amazing, we never put alcohol in that bad line. It still does boggle my mind, but I hope we get there too.
Speaker 1:And yeah, my kids, my two oldest, they don't drink much and I'm very happy about that. And I say to them of course you are going to live your own lives. I don't say don't drink. They have been able to learn more, as I've learned more, which is really important. You did also mention I just wanted to quickly talk about when you were pregnant, because I have said on this podcast that it was easy for me to stop drinking when I was pregnant. But I do want to. I don't want people to think that it should be easy For me. I did think about alcohol. I did look forward to the end of it to have that drink, so it certainly was on my mind. But I do think it's important that people who might be feeling that when they're pregnant know that it's OK to crave, to want the alcohol and for it to be a challenge, like you did. It's not just easy.
Speaker 2:No, because I just put myself in that situation. To me it was mainly I was angry, I was just it wasn't even me getting huge because the thought that I thought I had an alien the entire time this is like crazy. It was just the fact that I was missing out, like I was mad at my husband because we went to concerts and he was drinking. It was I still. I don't think, looking back, it wasn't. I needed the buzz more than a society. It was I had to miss out because I was pregnant and, if that makes sense, I just was angry that I couldn't party because that was more important.
Speaker 2:It was missing out having everybody else party, go to concerts and, like I said, I've always been a type and I've surrounded all my life. I've always had people that drink. So I don't have any friends that don't drink. I mean it's I've never. I've always been people that drink a lot, so those are always the people I hang out with. So it was I felt like missing out on a lot of stuff by the entry. Again, it's so funny because I probably would have had a third kid if it weren't for the whole pregnancy thing and it wasn't even about the breastfeeding, because that never bothered me, both of my kids, I breastfed them until a year, after a year, and it was just I could dump, but it was just that thing about having to, you know, not drink for nine months because I was told so yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I know a lot of people that they did like being pregnant and they were fine, but no, that was a big problem for me, for sure.
Speaker 1:I do totally relate. I actually loved being pregnant but I had that anger and there was one time we went to a work function. I went with my husband and I basically had an adult tantrum because I couldn't drink like everyone else was. It was a massive function, almost like a wedding, and I was that FOMO it just so. I do totally understand that feeling and, yeah, it wasn't that I was craving it, it was that this is so unfair. You know why should I have to give up everything? So I do totally understand that.
Speaker 1:I also wanted to just touch on your very into the health and fitness helping women with that. And I myself still continue to have issues with sugar and I know a lot of people do. I think it's a bit of a myth that when you stop drinking you'll lose weight and be super healthy, and I have moments of where I am, because generally I'm a healthy person. But I have been having, you know, quite a bit of it's been winter here and I have been comfort eating and with that comes for me too much sugar and I don't like it. But it's not just. We call it a pink cloud. When you give up alcohol and you can be on a high. Not everyone gets it, but I was, and I think a lot of the. I had friends say oh, what are you doing? You look amazing, you know, and I. What I didn't say was well, it's still a struggle with things like sugar, so can you talk a bit about that?
Speaker 2:I think it has been just as hard. Again, I'm lucky I was not. I drank for so many years and I said I wanted to stop and I never did so. When I say I went like instantly I stopped, it wasn't like I thought one day I'll stop. It was a lot of years that took me but I never committed to doing that. But the hardest thing sugar has been hard for me to control. To control sugar. I think that's what led me to start reading books about community, because I was like I stopped drinking but so I could have a. If I could have a box of sugar and just drink it down, I could. I didn't lose any weight. My face was great, clarity was, everything was great and I exercise a lot, but I did not lose an inch of weight because the sugar so from.
Speaker 2:I never drink sodas. I started drinking sodas the first three months and everybody goes like oh, it's you know. You get a sugar rush at the beginning and I think I was angry that I don't remember where online I made a comment about it's my sugar, you know I stopped drinking and it was you know. And then just one little comment that took me off right that somebody said like, oh my God, how much were you drinking, that you that now you have to drink. And I'm like, well, I don't, I wasn't, I guess, I don't know. It wasn't like I was, you know, waking, it wasn't. Again, I never consider myself an alcoholic in the sense of the word. That like like we were just talking about. I mean again, what is an alcoholic? I mean I probably would fit the measurement alcoholic if you drink every day. But it wasn't like I was, but it was. I think it's that fixation of having your body just crave something. So I took that and then it's like but now I need it. You know, I needed that sugar rush, so that was hard for me until I think it was September of last year, so it was already like seven or eight months.
Speaker 2:I'm like I've got to do something and I really started kind of applying the same idea as to do I really need this right now? Like, let's, I'm going to sit on it. You know, I'm going to wait, like I'm going to wait 30 minutes and then I'll think about if I really need it. Or I would substitute a lot of the I love AF drinks, whether it's beer. I've never even tried non-alcoholic wine, but I do like a nice cold beer, alcohol free. But I started trying like different drinks against sugary, so that wasn't good either. So I do caution people if you're trying getting something that is not that sugary at the beginning, because you will want to at least for me it was I needed that sugar to come off and it's like the same idea as looking into with alcohol how bad it is for you.
Speaker 2:I have become into this whole, looking into sugar and I'm like thinking, how can these things from cereal that I buy to my kids doughnuts, stuff, sugary I don't like? Then we wonder, you know again, sugar has this component. Cancer cells love sugar and I'm like thinking, well, there is, there is a reason why we. Everything is a lot of stuff is processed, because most sugary stuff are processed and it's an addiction. It's out there, it's an addiction. I'm like, well, how did I not know this? So yeah, it's not this.
Speaker 2:You know I stopped drinking alcohol. But it's also opened my eyes into a whole new thing about taking care of your, your body, from what you put it in your mouth. You know exercise, that you do. I did a lot of cardio, but again it was. I was fine doing that, but I've been doing it for so many years that I could have even had two more classes and I still wouldn't lose weight, because it's whatever you put in your mouth, again, it's a lot of the processed sugary stuff, because I don't even eat meat that much, I don't eat that many carbs, but all my carbs are in that sugar that I love, so it's controlling that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do relate and I think you're talking about the this naked mind methodology that we can apply to everything in our life. Now, which is really cool and coming out of winter, yeah, I've had a bit of a we're human, I've had a bit of a comfort time and I've enjoyed it and I'm not going to beat myself up. But I am applying that methodology now to get back into the health mindset, because I actually found, with eating more sugar, I wake up tired and I'm like what is the point of any of this if I'm not waking up feeling good? So I do notice that with sugar and I'm also not saying come it out for ever type thing there's moderation, there's enjoy certain things. But our methodology can help look at the thought processes why we, like you just said, that's kind of surfing the urge, wait 30 minutes, see how you feel. That's great, because often it's just it's our mental sugar would make me feel like I do feel good right now and logically, though I know, actually in half an hour I feel terrible if I have it.
Speaker 2:Right, right, it's like, how is it going to make you feel after? And one recommendation for people that have started this journey or want to stop either drinking or cutting on sugar is have. I'm not a planner, never have been, but I have changed. I'm a little bit more planner, a little bit more because if you have, have something that makes you, I knew it's just to have something that makes you happy. So do a fun little bubbly stuff that doesn't have sugar. Have something that makes you put it with a cut an orange and put it. Make it fancy if it's drinking. Or have nice something that is sweet. That is either blueberries, something that will just hit, of course, I love ice cream, I love ice cream, but something that replaces that instead of. So at least you get that. Whatever dopamine, you know dopamine, something that hits you. You're like, oh okay, it goes away.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've gotten as creative as putting in blueberries in my bubbly water with lime and I like just feels, you know, especially in the summer. You know refreshing or nice. You know teas that are, you know, maybe with honey, with a little bit of honey, that is. But at least you get that something, because when you're not prepared and then you just want that. You're like, oh man, I'll just go, and it's hard when you know you have. You have kids in the house, it's not. I can't wipe the entire, you know, go all oh crazy. I mean I guess I could, but I don't think my kids would approve. But that's the other thing is having, not just for me. But I've realized like how much I haven't been giving my kids the consistency of you know good nutrition and showing them you know no, let's substitute with blueberries, let's do, let's cut these oranges up rather than you know. You know having, but it's hard to have them in the house. But it's also giving them an option and showing them you know feed, my example.
Speaker 1:Definitely, I totally agree. And I I gave my kids one time I made. I got raspberries and put some yogurt with honey in the middle and froze them. That was a nice treat, oh nice. And I also love getting dates stuffing it with the nut butter and dark chocolate around it, and you can freeze them or refrigerate. They're really yummy. But I agree, having something on hand, because that's when I will go and go oh, honey on bread, white bread, and then I'll eat half of the loaf. You know, being prepared is huge, playing it forward about how you feel tomorrow. They're the things that help me with alcohol and they will help with this too. But you know, this is all available without coaching and with all the work we've done. And, like you said, community is so important, I think, and getting into the podcast, the books, it's all really helpful. And you know, listening today, the little tips that people, I'm sure, yeah. But what are you doing now, karina, and where can we find you?
Speaker 2:So again, coach, you can find me at theafplanetcom and for any of your listeners also that speak Spanish or I am fully bilingual, so I do. I try to do everything, and both on my website I have it also in Spanish, so I do. I love reaching out to anybody that needs help, also in both languages or anywhere in the world.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. I love that. Well, I'll put the details in the show notes, but thank you so much for coming on and chatting today. It's been lovely to talk to you and so informative and inspirational your journey. So thank you so much, karina.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much. Very much. Great seeing you have a good one. Bye.
Speaker 3:If you don't already know, in addition to our podcasting work, we are each sobriety coaches with our own separate businesses helping people to drink less.
Speaker 1:If you are a loved one, want to take a break from alcohol, we invite you to have a look at our individual websites. Megs is glassfulfilledcomau.
Speaker 3:And Bella's is Isabella Fergusoncomau. So take the next step that feels right for you.
