What would your life look like a year from now if you continued on the same path with your drinking?

I spoke with a 1:1 client yesterday and asked her this question. This was her "aha" moment. That moment when you realize that if you continue drinking the way you are now that your life won't be better in a year from now. It won't even be the same. It'll be worse.

Can you imagine how many more nights you'd be waking up with anxiety? Can you imagine how many more moments you'd miss with your kids?
Can you imagine how many opportunities you'd miss out on because you're too hungover?
Can you imagine still living in this cycle that is draining you physically, mentally, and spiritually?
Can you imagine how much more regret you'd have for not starting sooner?

I want you to imagine what you'd feel like a year from now. And really think about it. Is that the place where you want to be? I know for a fact you don't, or you wouldn't be on this page right now. So pat yourself on the back for even...

Yesterday on a group call, we talked about shame. Shame is one of those emotions, especially for us mamas that is hard to part ways with. We feel it deep in our bones, or at least I did.

Yes, we may have done some sh*tty things in the past. We may have missed moments with our kids. We may have said something or done things we regret. But if we keep holding onto that shame and the past, we're not going to be able to move forward.

Accept that the things you did under the influence were not your best moments, but that is NOT who you are as a person. That was the alcohol hijacking your brain.

Acceptance really is the key to a lot in life. Once we accept something, there's no going back and forth; it just is what it is, and you can move on from it. We can't change the past, so why are we going to make ourselves even more miserable by dwelling on it. Sometimes we like to have our own pity party, and trust me, I did a lot of that back in the day, but it got me nowhere.

What it did make me...

Alcohol isn't a necessary part of life.
We've just been duped into thinking it is.

I'm a little fired up this morning. A person close to a woman in the recent challenge group mentioned that she lost her privilege to drink. Um, what? How about it's a privilege NOT TO drink. These ridiculous beliefs that we've been conditioned to believe that alcohol is the way adults get through life, and if you don't drink, you have a problem. And that if you don't consume alcohol, that also means you're deprived of having fun is ridiculous.

Excuse my language, but f*ck those beliefs! Who even started these beliefs? I'll tell you who our parents, our friends, our coworkers, the media, and society as a whole. Alcohol isn't necessary to get through life. In fact, if you NEED alcohol to get through life, that's your first red flag that something may be a little off.

Who wants to drink a substance that can literally kill you if you drink too much? Did you know that alcohol kills more people per year...

I have an idea of what it will cost you because I hear it every day and experienced the cost myself.

The cost of missing precious moments with your kids
The cost of your mental health
The cost of your physical health
The cost of your relationships
The cost of your dreams
The cost of finding what truly lights you up from within

Yes, 1:1 Coaching and the Alcohol-Free Challenges are an investment for a few reasons.

When you put money behind something, you are more likely to follow through with the commitment. Yes, I've joined free challenges and webinars before but guess what? I had a hard time focusing and sticking with it because I had no skin in the game.

I deserve to be paid for 60 days of daily content with audio lessons, daily accountability check-ins and support, group coaching calls, and a 1:1 call. There was a time in my life where I thought I didn't deserve anything good that came my way, but that is not the case anymore. I am worthy of compensation for pouring my heart and soul...

I was on a 1:1 call with a client last week, and she said, "I just want to know this isn't going to be easy. That it might suck." I was taken aback by it because I assumed that everyone knows it isn't easy in the beginning stages.

In the days of people posting how glamorous and cool going alcohol-free is (which is amazing, by the way). And a trend that I'm on board with 100%. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in all the good going alcohol-free does for us physically and mentally that we forget or play down that yes, it will suck in the beginning. You may have some rough moments where you want to throw in the towel.

Even if you're not physically dependent on alcohol, you will most likely still feel crummy initially. Irritable. Foggy. Sad. Less energy. More anxious. It's like you and your best friend who have drifted apart because they're not good for you anymore. It will be an adjustment, but once you get past the initial stages of "this sucks", there is a reward for you.

The reward is...

And I'm not just talking about money. The time and energy we put into keeping alcohol in our lives is ridiculous.

Think about it.

How much ENERGY does it take to go back and forth about whether you're going to drink or not?

How much TIME have we lost with our kids due to hangovers?

How much TIME have we wasted by focusing on wine instead of focusing on being present with our kids?

How much MONEY has been thrown away on a poison that only provides a moment of quick relief?

All that time and energy lost can't be taken back either. Once it's gone, it's gone. What you can do, though, is from this day forward, make a commitment to yourself that you're done making excuses.

I used excuses all day long, and what it always came back to was, I was afraid.

Afraid of failure.
Afraid that people would look at me differently.
Afraid of my potential.

Sounds weird, right? I was sabotaging myself. Who could little Alyson be without alcohol? She could be a leader, that's who. She could be a better...

Either you accept that alcohol isn't serving you, or you keep living in denial that you'll be able to moderate one day.

Coming in hot with the truth this morning.

I know what I would choose based on my own experience and hearing thousands of other mothers' experiences on trying to moderate or just drink on special occasions. It NEVER works out the way you want it to.

Maybe you're the 1% of people that can go back to having just one, but those are some pretty bleak odds that you're the unicorn among us. And there's actual science behind why you can't. In short, your prefrontal cortex gets damaged and makes your reward system go all haywire.

It's hard to outrun science, right?

So what's it going to be? Are you ready to accept that alcohol isn't doing you any favors so that you can experience a life with less anxiety, more patience with your kids, and endless benefits? Or are you going to keep wasting time and energy going back and forth about how you will moderate one day?

The choice...

Have you ever thought the people who don't drink are the normal ones for not wanting to ingest a poison that kills your mind, body, and soul?

I hear this a lot from 1:1 clients and mothers in the challenges and here on social media. That they just want to be "normal". What does that even mean? Honestly, what does normal mean? Normal to me means following the crowd, doing things that don't fulfill your purpose because you're scared of what others will think, having a 9-5, and getting stuck in the monotony of life.

F*ck normal!! I don't want to be normal. I want to be ME.

I want to do what lights me up no matter what other people think.
I want to live with my life with no regrets.
I want to live my life unapologetic for who I am.
I want to be on my death bed satisfied and proud of how I lived this one life we have on Earth.

I know now that alcohol wasn't helping me fulfill what I'm here to do. It was slowly killing me.

It was killing my dreams.
It was killing my relationships.
It was...

This morning I woke up, turned on the TV to catch a few minutes of the news and weather. I was blown away by the sunrise on the television screen. I immediately put on a sweater and Uggs and walked out the door to look at the beauty of the sunrise over Long Island Sound.

Maybe some of you are saying to yourself, ok, Alyson, you saw a sunrise. What's the big deal?

The big deal is these are the moments I was drinking away. There are the moments of LIFE that I was missing because all I cared about was when my next drink was going to be. I used to wake up a hot mess in the morning with barely any time to spare to take in the beauty around me.

In early sobriety, I didn't care about taking in the world around me either. So if you're in the beginning stages and don't feel the gratitude yet for an alcohol-free life, then I see you because I felt that way too. I was angry at the world for taking away my security blanket, but as time passed, my anger subsided, and day by day, I started to...

You won't find happiness, patience, or peace at the bottom of the bottle. But you will discover shame, regret, and mom guilt.

Those fleeting moments of euphoria aren't worth what's left at the bottom of the bottle.

I know you know this logically, but in the moment, your brain wants comfort. It wants to go to what you've always done to relieve your anxiety or stress. This is why it's important to pause before reacting. Pause before grabbing for that bottle of wine or that bottle of beer out of the fridge,

We can't change our behaviors until we become AWARE of our thoughts and actions. This is why the pause is important. It gives us a second to think about our choices.

The next time you automatically drive into the liquor store parking lot on your way home from work, or you grab for your glass of wine while cooking dinner, take a step back and reflect on what's really going on. Why are you really grabbing for alcohol? Habit? Stress?

Whatever the case is, knowing that will help you to...