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with promo code BEYOND. Hi. Hello

1:40

and welcome back to another episode of Beyond

1:42

the To-Do List. I'm your host, Eric Fischer,

1:44

and this is the show where I talk

1:46

to the people behind the productivity. Now,

1:48

you may be wondering by the

1:50

title of this episode why we're talking

1:53

about alcohol and sobriety here in December.

1:55

And it's because there's this thing called

1:57

dry January that happens every year. year,

2:00

where people take off from drinking or

2:02

abstain from drinking for the month of

2:04

January, hence it being dry, and it's

2:06

becoming a bigger and bigger thing, more

2:09

popular, somewhat of a fad, maybe, but

2:11

at least my awareness of it over

2:13

the past two, three, five years, somewhere

2:15

in there, has grown. And

2:17

I can't help but think that part

2:19

of the surge of this month-long event

2:22

in January is the over excess of

2:24

drinking in December under the guise of

2:26

celebration. But you don't have to imbibe

2:28

in the spirits during Christmas to

2:30

get into the Christmas spirit. And

2:33

in fact, the effects of drinking

2:35

on your productivity and overall well-being

2:37

and all aspects of productivity is

2:39

what we're talking about in this

2:41

conversation. And I knew the perfect

2:44

guest to join me would be Jillian Teets

2:46

from SoverPowered Media. In this

2:48

conversation, we're going to talk about

2:50

Jillian's personal journey with alcohol moderation

2:52

and the impact on her productivity

2:54

and self-confidence. We're going to talk

2:57

about how she created SoverPowered Media,

2:59

a podcast dedicated to providing information

3:01

and support for those considering

3:03

sobriety. We're going to talk

3:05

about the physiological and psychological

3:08

effects of alcohol, combining Jillian's

3:10

background in biochemistry with her

3:12

personal experience, the importance

3:14

of self-awareness and seeking guidance for

3:16

those struggling with alcohol moderation or

3:18

abstinence, and how to

3:21

do Dry January if you're going

3:23

to be choosing to do so,

3:25

depending upon where you are with

3:28

your relationship to alcohol. So

3:30

I'm just going to get out of the

3:32

way and say enjoy this conversation with Jillian

3:34

Teets. Well,

3:37

this week, it is my privilege

3:39

to welcome Jillian Teets to the

3:41

show. Jillian, welcome to Beyond the

3:43

To-Do List. Thank you so much

3:45

for having me. I am

3:47

super excited. I've kind of been lurking.

3:50

Stalking's not the great one. Let's just forget

3:53

I even said that. And leave that in.

3:55

Don't edit. I've been following.

3:57

I've been lurking, watching what you've been

3:59

doing. and the great work you've been doing. And

4:02

I knew that as we were coming

4:04

to the end of this year and

4:07

I started to get the hint of

4:09

the topic of this thing that people

4:11

have been calling dry January, January over

4:13

January for, I don't know, I've been

4:16

aware of it for now four or

4:18

five years or so, something like, I know

4:20

it was pre-pandemic, but I thought to myself,

4:22

well, there's no one I'd rather talk to

4:24

about this topic and how

4:26

it relates to productivity than Jillian

4:28

over at SoberPowered. So let's

4:30

just do a deep dive real quick. Can you

4:32

share a little bit about your journey and

4:35

creating SoberPowered and why you did

4:38

that? And then we'll start

4:40

to break down into how this and

4:42

why this applies to productivity. Yeah,

4:45

so I cannot drink

4:47

alcohol. I'll start there. If

4:50

I drink alcohol, I will

4:52

slowly give up my entire

4:54

life until

4:56

it's just alcohol being the number

4:58

one priority. So I can't

5:00

drink it. I just celebrated four

5:02

years of sobriety about a

5:04

month ago. So that was exciting.

5:08

And my whole issue when I was

5:10

drinking is I really believed

5:12

what the stigma says about people

5:14

like me. I thought that I

5:16

was weak, that I was a

5:18

loser, that it was a choice,

5:20

that something was wrong with me.

5:23

And I fought very hard to

5:25

control my drinking and to learn how

5:27

to moderate. And I just could not

5:30

figure it out. And I

5:32

used to beat myself up so badly for

5:34

not being able to control my drinking.

5:37

And when I finally accepted

5:39

that I had to get sober, I

5:41

just wanted to know like, why me?

5:44

Because I see other people in my life

5:46

drinking heavily. Like me and

5:48

my husband would call it partying, but it

5:51

would just be like us drinking. And

5:53

he could drink and then switch

5:56

to water and then have

5:58

a full life. I

6:00

just couldn't do that for some reason.

6:03

And I wanted to understand why me. And

6:05

I was working as a

6:07

biochemist at the time, so

6:09

I knew how to find and understand

6:11

this kind of information. And I just

6:14

started researching it as a personal project.

6:17

And it was really helping me with my

6:19

shame. All of the things that

6:21

I thought were like my fault,

6:24

like the middle of the night anxiety

6:26

that I would have after I got

6:28

too drunk, or the extreme depression and

6:31

self-hatred, all of these things and

6:33

the racing heart, I looked them

6:35

up and I learned, oh,

6:37

that wasn't me. That was just alcohol affecting

6:40

me this way. And it really helped me

6:42

with my shame. And it helped me let

6:44

go of feeling like it was my fault

6:46

and there was something wrong with me. And

6:49

then one day when I was eight months sober, I

6:52

woke up and I was like, everybody

6:55

needs to know this. And

6:57

I started thinking, how

6:59

can everybody know this information?

7:02

And I thought I could start a YouTube

7:04

channel. And then I was like,

7:06

well, that's really scary. I don't

7:08

wanna be on camera. I could write

7:10

a blog. And then I was

7:13

like, do people read blogs? And

7:15

then I thought I could start

7:17

a podcast. And I

7:19

didn't know how to do that, but that

7:21

seemed like something more accessible because I didn't

7:24

have to be on camera. And

7:26

then I just Zoom called myself and

7:29

recorded it and launched it the same

7:31

day. Like I had no

7:33

platform or anything. I just like randomly. I'm

7:36

very impulsive. Us drinkers, we can

7:38

be impulsive. So I

7:40

just did it. And learning

7:43

about it helps, like learning why this

7:45

can happen and why

7:48

some people are more protected

7:50

from it happening. It's

7:52

just very validating. Now,

7:54

a couple of different questions popped to

7:56

mind suddenly. So I'm thinking if you

7:58

just celebrated. four years

8:01

of sobriety and congratulations. Thank

8:03

you. That was pre-pandemic.

8:06

And so your eight months would

8:08

have been during the thick of

8:10

like early-ish lockdown when

8:12

a lot of other people's direction

8:14

with drinking was going the other

8:17

way, mine included, which then

8:19

I was able to move away from. Luckily,

8:22

I'm curious, did you notice other

8:24

people doing it more? Did

8:27

that play in in any way into

8:29

your moment there of deciding I've just

8:31

got to do this and I've got to share this?

8:33

How did that shape your perception of it at that point in

8:35

time? Yeah, so it was

8:37

a pandemic project because I was a

8:39

lab worker. And I remember

8:41

when we had to go home, they

8:44

told us like, I was responsible

8:46

for maintaining cells and doing

8:49

things with cells. And they

8:51

said like, okay, kill all your cells,

8:53

put everything in this freezer and

8:56

we'll be back in two weeks. It's

8:58

not gonna be a thing. And

9:00

I couldn't bring cells home with

9:02

me. So I didn't have very much

9:04

to do. And that was why I

9:07

started a podcast because I had time. But

9:09

I did notice a lot of things become

9:11

very focused on alcohol.

9:14

We had a lot of

9:16

happy hours, like they sent

9:18

wine to our houses for

9:21

like a wine tasting thing. The

9:24

memes were everywhere. I

9:26

knew that it was a major issue for

9:28

a lot of people. But I would

9:30

say that I thought no one was

9:32

gonna listen to it when I put

9:34

my show out. So I wasn't really

9:37

thinking about grabbing those people. I

9:39

just thought like, no one's ever gonna listen to

9:41

this anyways. So no

9:44

plan really. Yeah, no plan. It

9:46

was really just an impulse thing. And

9:48

that's great though. Cause like you didn't stop to

9:50

think like, in other words, it's not like a

9:52

lot of the, you and

9:54

I both know this from podcasting circles. It's

9:56

not the standard like, oh, you've

9:58

gotta have a key demographic. graphic and you've got

10:00

to go after them and you've got to, you know,

10:02

all the different, I could go into a bunch of

10:05

different things I could say, but I'm not going to

10:07

do podcasting best practices right now. But

10:09

in a way that's really good. That's a

10:11

great way to start because you didn't hesitate.

10:14

You went with a gut feeling and

10:16

really went with it and have been

10:18

doing it then this whole time and

10:20

it's grown exponentially really. And you've made

10:22

a lot of great connections. I think

10:24

the other cool thing for me to

10:26

kind of observe is your background in

10:28

biochemistry really helped you

10:30

in terms of understanding

10:32

the physiological as well

10:34

as psychological effects of

10:37

alcohol as well as alcohol

10:40

abstinence. In other words, what alcohol

10:42

does to your body, but not just your body,

10:44

but then your emotions and your mind and all of

10:46

that. Can you speak to that a little bit? Yeah,

10:49

I'm very passionate about that. I

10:51

think something a lot of us don't realize

10:54

is that if you drink a

10:56

lot of alcohol over an extended period

10:58

of time, it changes your

11:00

brain. The brain is adaptable. It's

11:03

neuroplasticity. The brain adapts to your

11:05

environment and it can adapt in

11:07

positive ways or it

11:09

can adapt in negative ways like

11:11

with alcohol and alcohol will

11:13

change the brain to

11:16

make it more rewarding and

11:18

to build out more genes

11:21

to tell you to drink. It

11:23

messes with your emotional center to

11:25

make you even more emotional and

11:27

more reactive. So now you're

11:30

having bigger emotions and

11:32

you don't know what to do with them. So

11:35

you've learned that drinking takes them away.

11:38

So it's really interesting the way that

11:40

it affects the brain. It can also

11:43

cause or worsen anxiety. So

11:46

I never had anxiety before, but I

11:48

developed it while I was drinking. And

11:50

I thought that that was just like a me problem.

11:53

And I really believe that and we

11:56

never blame alcohol. Also,

11:58

whatever emotion. you're struggling with,

12:01

like if you're tempted

12:06

to drink because of anxiety

12:08

or stress or loneliness, it

12:11

makes that go away just because it

12:13

turns down your brain and makes

12:16

it not work as well. When the

12:18

alcohol wears off now that same emotion

12:20

is even more intense and you're triggered

12:22

even more than you were before to

12:25

drink. And what I noticed

12:27

in sobriety, I had a

12:29

lot of anger before I started

12:32

drinking and when I drink,

12:35

my anger magically went away and

12:38

I didn't realize it was from the

12:40

drinking. But when I stopped drinking, all

12:43

of a sudden I had a ton of anger

12:45

and rage, like a lot. And

12:48

emotions will actually become more

12:51

heightened in the first like 90

12:53

or so days because the

12:55

brain is trying to heal and

12:58

recalibrate. So you have all

13:00

these very intense emotions and you don't

13:02

have any coping skills for them. So

13:04

it's very difficult once you're in that

13:06

loop to get out

13:08

of it and to learn how

13:11

to cope with things and give

13:13

yourself enough time to have your

13:15

emotions stabilize. Now my emotions are

13:17

stable. This is all bad. Yeah,

13:19

well and that's the thing is like, and so

13:21

I guess let's let's inch into a little bit

13:23

here. One of the things I brought up earlier

13:26

was this concept of nuary, which I mean honestly

13:28

it's almost kind of counterculture in

13:30

a way. You know this and I know this,

13:32

that I'm sitting here with a cup of coffee,

13:34

one of the other kind of acceptable social drugs

13:36

that are out there with very

13:38

different effects than alcohol, although some of

13:41

them are similar, probably physiologically in some

13:43

ways, dependence and other things

13:45

like that. But dry January,

13:47

everybody's like, yeah let's let's start

13:50

the year off right after we

13:52

just overdid it during December and

13:55

that's not really the right way to do it.

13:58

Plus you're saying, and I know that There's so

14:00

much more depth than my surface level that

14:02

I'm talking about this. And I encourage people

14:04

one to jump over to deeper dive into

14:06

stuff that you're talking about and doing, we'll

14:08

link up to all that in the show

14:10

notes. A 30 day

14:12

fasting or abstinence from alcohol at

14:14

all is it's good as a

14:17

starting point, maybe, but it's,

14:19

it's like a fad diet. In other words, it's

14:21

like an up and down. It's not really fixing

14:23

anything. Speak to that a little bit.

14:25

Like I know you probably get questions about it too

14:27

all the time. It's like you're dealing with people who

14:30

have more of a scenario like

14:32

you and less of a scenario like me where

14:35

I don't remember the last time I had

14:37

a drink. And it wasn't a choice. It

14:39

wasn't like I'm done. I cut it off.

14:41

It was more, I tapered off and then

14:43

kind of just didn't remember it. That's not

14:45

my physiological chemical makeup for you. It's a

14:47

different story. And you have a lot more

14:49

people that are like you in your

14:51

audience than people like me, I think,

14:53

but I think we all benefit from

14:55

working together to be healthy. So anyway,

14:57

that's a lot of different mishmash of

15:00

things to talk about, but like, let me just

15:02

blanket it all by saying what's your impression or

15:05

take on dry January? Dry

15:08

January has pros and

15:10

cons. The pros are you don't drink for 30

15:12

days. So you're healthier. Another

15:15

pro, you learn about your drinking and

15:19

all of these things that maybe you thought

15:22

were you, you discover work.

15:25

Like the extra anxiety that I had when

15:27

I was drinking, I thought that was a

15:29

me problem. Well, I

15:31

stopped waking up at 3am with massive

15:34

anxiety when I took my first break

15:36

from drinking. Isn't that interesting? So you

15:38

start to see the cause and effect

15:41

and you learn more about what alcohol

15:43

actually does. You have

15:45

experiences. You will socialize or

15:48

go out or do something.

15:51

You'll have an emotional trigger and not

15:53

drink at those things. And

15:55

then you'll learn like, oh, I

15:57

can actually like get through stuff. Oh,

16:00

I had a good time and I didn't need a drink. Those

16:03

are all the pros. They're great. Oh,

16:05

and the last pro is you'll never forget what you

16:07

learned in the 30 days. The

16:10

cons of Dry Jan are

16:12

a lot of people do a compound

16:14

to when they can drink again. So

16:17

they focus on February 1st when they

16:19

can destroy themselves with alcohol to

16:22

reward themselves or have

16:24

a little treat for doing such

16:26

a good job. And when

16:28

you're focused on the end goal of drinking again,

16:30

you miss a lot of the positives of not

16:33

drinking. Another con is,

16:36

well, 30 days is great and that

16:38

if you're someone like me, feels like

16:41

a really long time. What

16:44

happens in the first 30 days are

16:46

you have a lot of physical

16:48

benefits. Your body begins

16:50

to heal. Like you'll see less

16:53

acid reflux. You hopefully

16:55

will get a little bit better sleep. Your

16:59

liver starts to heal, but it

17:01

takes around 60 plus

17:03

days for your brain to

17:05

start to heal. So if

17:07

you blast yourself on February 1st,

17:10

you're not allowing cognitive benefits to

17:12

happen and that is

17:14

really important so that you can

17:16

look at your drinking and see it for what it

17:19

is. I noticed

17:21

that my anxiety went away and

17:23

the extreme self-hatred and depression, but

17:25

I couldn't really

17:27

connect it strongly until

17:30

I was about 60 days in and

17:32

my brain started working again. If

17:34

you're not drinking to the level

17:36

that a big problem drinker was,

17:38

then maybe you'll have this benefit

17:40

sooner, but it lags behind

17:43

the physical benefits. The brain takes a

17:45

little bit longer to heal. So

17:48

if you do dry jam, I would

17:51

say just keep an open mind

17:53

and don't say like, okay,

17:55

February 1st, like let's

17:57

go putting it on the calendar.

18:00

We're going out. I would

18:02

say maybe check in and get curious.

18:04

Do you want to go for longer?

18:06

Do you want to see how long

18:08

you could go and make it a

18:10

challenge? My last con

18:13

is for people, maybe more on

18:15

my team, who can't do

18:17

30 days, you just can't do it. You

18:21

drink after like four days and

18:23

then you feel like a huge

18:26

loser and a failure. I

18:28

would say that that's good information to have if

18:31

you can't do 30 days. It's really

18:33

good. You can

18:35

always try again. You don't have to

18:37

do like perfect dry January. Not

18:39

drinking for four days is better than what

18:41

you were doing before probably. I mean,

18:44

that's a win. There's

18:46

good and bad. I think it

18:48

puts a lot of pressure on

18:50

people sometimes and we

18:52

can focus on drinking again in February.

18:56

Either way, you'll never forget what

18:58

you learned during the experience.

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22:49

It almost seems to me like

22:51

depending upon where you find yourself in,

22:53

you know, Witch Camp or even spectrum

22:56

of drinking, there's nothing wrong with taking

22:58

advantage of a month that

23:00

has now become more socially acceptable to

23:03

switch and take a break and have less

23:05

people, you know, have problems. You know, like

23:07

what do you mean you're not like it's

23:09

almost like we've come this way with smoking,

23:12

for example, where it used to be

23:14

everybody was and now it's like, what are you

23:16

doing? You know, to a certain

23:18

extent the social acceptability of it, in

23:20

other words, and the public acceptability and the

23:22

celebration of it and all of that have

23:24

changed a bit attitudes and thoughts. And so

23:26

it almost makes sense to even

23:28

if you find yourself on the

23:31

lower end or I don't know what the appropriate terms.

23:33

I mean, you probably know if you find yourself on

23:35

that end of the spectrum where you know what? No,

23:37

I could do 30 days and it's socially acceptable. Why

23:39

not do it? Let's just do it and see how

23:42

it feels and you

23:44

know, again, you're not at 60, but I

23:46

hope most people can do

23:48

30 and then do 60 and then do

23:50

90 and then do whatever and not have

23:53

it matter. That's where I find myself and

23:55

I feel like I am better for that

23:57

and I really appreciate that. because

24:00

I know that is not how it was in 2020. And

24:03

I think like 21 and 22 way less so announced. I

24:07

guess it's 20. It's almost not 23 anymore. We're

24:09

almost to 24. And so anyways,

24:12

so coming at it from a

24:15

productivity angle, I'm saying you're not

24:17

operating your best if you're not

24:19

being you and then

24:21

being you at your best, which I

24:23

think you've probably had some great experience

24:25

with throughout your now four year journey.

24:27

I mean, short term and long term,

24:30

can you kind of show like, what's

24:32

your productivity journey been during that four

24:34

years? I

24:36

think I'm a really good example of this

24:38

because I used

24:40

my career and my

24:43

educational background to

24:45

justify why drinking wasn't negatively

24:47

impacting my life. And

24:51

I got my master's degree while I was

24:53

drinking every day. I even

24:55

graduated early with a very high

24:57

GPA. So all of

24:59

these reasons are like, I can still

25:01

be productive. I can still get my schoolwork

25:04

done and excel. Like, I

25:06

don't have to quit drinking. I have a job

25:08

that people think is cool. But I

25:11

was doing like the absolute

25:13

bare minimum all the

25:15

time. I was just hanging on

25:17

and surviving. And I

25:19

would spend so much time both

25:22

recovering from my drinking,

25:24

and then thinking about my drinking

25:27

like a lot of time. And

25:29

I would think like, how do I moderate?

25:32

Why am I such a loser? Why did

25:34

I drink so much last night? Why do

25:36

I always do this? I

25:39

would Google like moderation strategies. That

25:42

takes a lot of time when I could be doing

25:44

anything else. And when you drink

25:46

a lot, you can't be consistent

25:48

with anything. You can do stuff

25:51

maybe at the bare minimum, and

25:53

sometimes put in more effort. But

25:56

you can't be working hard consistently when

25:59

you're drinking. Now that

26:01

I don't drink, I've done like everything.

26:03

I have so much more confidence in

26:05

myself that when I have

26:07

an idea for a goal, before

26:10

I would be like, yeah, right, like

26:13

there's no way. And now

26:15

I'm like, why not me? I don't

26:17

see any reason why this wouldn't work out. And then

26:19

I just do it. I have

26:21

a consistent sleep schedule now. And

26:25

that helps. But as

26:27

far as accomplishments, I mean, I work

26:29

like a million hours a week. Before

26:32

I couldn't do that, I was

26:35

able to achieve a lifelong

26:37

dream of being a professor.

26:40

That was something that like

26:42

little 18-year-old Jill, that was

26:44

the ultimate dream. And

26:47

I never thought that I would be able to do it.

26:49

And then I finally achieved that goal a

26:52

year ago. I

26:55

started a business and people actually listen

26:57

to my podcast and I started a

26:59

network. Like there's all these cool things

27:01

that you can do, but you

27:03

can do anything you want consistently and you

27:05

can evaluate what you like to do. I

27:08

used to be really into fitness and I

27:10

would force myself to go to the gym

27:12

at 5.30, partly as

27:14

more justification for why drinking wasn't

27:17

negatively impacting my life. But in

27:19

sobriety, now I can evaluate what

27:21

my priorities are and what I

27:23

actually want to spend my time

27:25

doing. So if you want

27:27

to be more productive and have more success,

27:29

like you should just not drink because

27:32

there's no positives. There's literally no

27:34

positives to it at all. Yeah,

27:37

I would say it's only a temporary, and

27:39

I'm going to use this as air quotes,

27:41

benefit if you can

27:43

be someone like me where you could have

27:46

one or two on one

27:48

night and then that's it. And

27:50

you have control and you do have a choice and you can

27:53

then stop. You're not struggling the next

27:55

morning. In other words, I mean, it

27:57

has the immediate physiological effect that like.

28:00

Most people joke about it,

28:02

right? But again, it's not

28:04

a long-term benefit. Actually, and I

28:06

will say this, even me with

28:09

my, where I am on the

28:11

spectrum of it in 2020, come, it wasn't early.

28:15

It was like that summer. So we're talking

28:18

like May, June when it's like clear that,

28:20

okay, this is a thing. Like,

28:22

that a two week thing. It's not a two

28:24

week thing. And it didn't hit that

28:26

it was more than a two week thing right

28:28

after two weeks. It was more like, what was

28:30

it? So like March, so April, May. So yeah,

28:32

probably around when it was warmer out and it

28:34

was May somewhere in there. And it was just

28:36

like, well, I guess I'm just going to go

28:38

out in the backyard and have a drink tonight

28:40

and then another one. And then I'm going to do

28:42

it again tomorrow. And then I'm going to do it again

28:44

tomorrow. And then that just keeps happening. And it's like still

28:47

functioning. Probably air quotes on

28:50

the functioning there as well, but it's like,

28:52

I see a pattern happening. And so it

28:55

was kind of an up and a down

28:57

like ebb and flow of kind of excess

28:59

and then pulling back and excess and pulling

29:01

back, which is probably a lot of people's

29:04

stories that are listening to this. Not

29:06

just at that time, but in general. Yeah.

29:09

The toughest spot to be is

29:11

when you're drinking is not that

29:14

bad. When you have

29:16

some level of control, maybe you

29:18

can moderate sometimes other

29:21

times you can't, or you

29:23

can skip days. So you're not

29:25

a daily drinker. That

29:27

is the toughest spot to be. Obviously the

29:30

people that have more significant problems

29:32

have very high levels of misery

29:34

and suffering. And it makes their

29:37

lives very challenging, but because

29:39

their suffering is so extreme. It

29:42

helps them get out of it. The people

29:44

that are in the middle of the

29:46

spectrum where they keep saying it's not

29:48

that bad and it doesn't impact their

29:51

life a ton. Or so it seems

29:53

they can stay stuck there forever, like

29:55

actually forever. And I'm always

29:58

trying to think about those guys. and like

30:00

how do we get them to realize like

30:02

it might not be that bad

30:04

like compared to the alcoholic living under

30:07

the bridge but it's still not

30:09

good. Like just because it's

30:11

not the worst drinking doesn't mean that

30:13

it's helping your life or

30:15

that it's not holding you back from things.

30:18

I think that we we get so

30:20

used to operating at

30:22

a very low baseline wellness

30:25

that it feels normal and it feels

30:27

like it's perfectly acceptable but if you

30:29

take a break and you

30:31

see how good you could actually feel

30:33

it's like wow now I feel this

30:35

good what could I do with all

30:37

of this health and good mental health

30:40

and confidence and self-esteem. Yeah

30:42

I think that's the thing for me was

30:44

I just recognized like I don't like how

30:47

I am and my mind

30:49

isn't clear my emotions

30:51

feel murky my energy

30:54

levels are all over the place. I feel

30:56

like I'm you know I was again reaching

30:59

for the coffee to counteract the alcohol

31:01

and just the mental health wasn't there

31:03

the time wasn't you

31:05

know it was a time suck physical

31:08

health gosh that was the summer of adding

31:10

like what 20 to 30 extra

31:12

pounds just from from drinking. I mean

31:14

that alone right there is enough for

31:16

some people to like really like turn them around so

31:19

to speak and all these things like sleep

31:21

for a lot of people the effect of

31:23

it makes you feel drowsy and they feel

31:25

like I'm just gonna have a you know

31:27

a nightcap and then I will sleep better

31:29

it's the opposite and you know this from

31:32

your biochemistry and I know this because it's

31:34

like it's raising your heart rate not dropping

31:36

it like you should right before bed and

31:38

it's and so it's

31:40

never been a productivity in

31:43

the same way that like excess of coffee

31:45

and caffeine don't really help your productivity like

31:47

if you can go without that too like

31:49

I've gone I've gone a year without coffee

31:51

or caffeine it's been a while and I

31:54

did realize recently that's something I personally need

31:56

to do in fact since I

31:58

already don't really feel like I know need to do

32:00

a dry January. I'm gonna do a decaf

32:02

January. That's probably the best way to put

32:04

it, right? I'm gonna do that. I should

32:07

probably do it with me. There you go.

32:10

I think there's people out there thinking you're

32:12

crazy. But you know what? Like, I think

32:15

it could do me a lot of good. And actually here's one of

32:17

the other things I was gonna bring up earlier was this

32:19

is that time of year where we

32:21

find ourselves to be more busy. I'm

32:23

speaking, you know, the month before January,

32:25

December. We're doing a lot of celebrating.

32:27

And also we're very, you know,

32:30

air quotes busy. And so

32:33

we feel like we can justify

32:35

more alcohol as well as more

32:37

coffee, especially with those special

32:39

Starbucks drinks around this time of

32:41

year. And so I think

32:43

I'm having a realization on air right now.

32:45

I'm calling it out. I'm gonna do decaf

32:47

January. And so we'll see how that

32:50

goes. So the point I was getting at, sorry, I

32:52

am an audible processor, I think out loud. And

32:54

so there you go. I think we're getting along

32:56

great here. I think what that means, and

32:58

I think what it meant to me when I was

33:01

bringing up dry January earlier was, you

33:03

know what? If

33:05

you can, because we're all different,

33:07

but if you can start

33:09

to wean off in moderation,

33:12

if possible, prior to the time

33:14

where you're gonna, okay, the line

33:16

in the sand, now there's none,

33:19

try it. What's your take on

33:21

that? In both those instances, the caffeine as

33:23

well as the alcohol. The

33:25

caffeine definitely because I

33:28

think if you just quit it, a

33:30

lot of people really suffer in the

33:32

beginning if you go from a ton

33:34

to none. So like me

33:36

right now, I'm just trying to have one

33:38

more coffee a day and start

33:41

there. For the alcohol, for

33:43

safety, some people do have

33:45

to taper. And if you can't do

33:47

it on your own, you got to

33:49

talk to your doctor and get some

33:51

medical help doing it. But I

33:53

think a lot of us, we see a

33:55

challenge coming in our future, so

33:58

we want to go even harder. right before

34:02

and that's gonna make the hope

34:06

for you. So I think

34:08

if you do have the ability, I

34:10

mean that week is tough. The week

34:12

right before, that's like the week that

34:15

you blast yourself with food and alcohol

34:17

like Christmas and New Year's. Yeah.

34:20

And I know damp January is also

34:23

a trend. I think that

34:25

was new last year and that's where

34:27

you like moderate the whole month. I

34:29

think it's up to everybody but I think

34:31

it's better to just really commit

34:34

to not drinking at all because that's where

34:36

you're gonna learn something from it. For

34:38

me, I couldn't reduce so

34:41

if you can't reduce at all, it's

34:43

really good they know that. It's all

34:45

like a learning experience. Learning about your

34:47

drinking, what you can and can't do.

34:49

It's not about morality, it's just about

34:52

information. Yeah, it's kind

34:54

of a take the pulse, have self

34:56

awareness kind of a moment. That's

34:58

why I wanted to call this out

35:00

publicly this time of year. I

35:03

mean as this is releasing, I mean we're talking

35:05

about this right as December

35:07

is starting and I thought the time to

35:09

make the decisions about this isn't in the

35:11

thick of it. It's a little bit ahead

35:14

of time when you aren't in the thick

35:16

of it, when you have some breathing room,

35:18

some wiggle room, some margin. And so that's

35:20

why I wanted to release this around the

35:23

time that I am because it gives people

35:25

that time to say, hey one, they brought

35:27

that up, two, where

35:29

am I and what has my journey been?

35:31

Reflect on that, take some time to do

35:33

that. But then also take some considerations as

35:35

to what you want to do with

35:38

the information here and stories here

35:40

that we're talking about. And I guess

35:43

that's kind of where I want to

35:45

land this is we've already kind of

35:47

given some options for this time of

35:49

year, which is great. And it

35:51

can be something that people could come back to

35:53

each year as a kind of a moment

35:56

of reflection or an evergreen. Let's talk

35:58

marketing evergreen piece of content. But

36:01

aside from that, it's really

36:03

a great moment to, again,

36:05

this I think is one of

36:07

the good things I don't particularly

36:09

adhere to or support, unless you

36:11

want to, New Year's resolutions. But

36:14

this is one that I think is worthwhile because

36:16

of the seasonality of it, like

36:18

you said, Christmas to New Year's. And

36:21

then, again, dry January. I'd never heard

36:23

of damp January. What is that? Is

36:25

that like, oh, you moderate. So

36:28

it's unlike drowning January, I guess, is

36:30

that the alternative? I don't know. I

36:34

mean, damp January is the dream, right?

36:36

If I could do that, I'd be

36:38

all over it. I think if

36:40

you have to call it a thing, like if

36:43

you have to say that you're doing

36:45

damp January, you should probably do dry

36:47

January. Because people

36:49

that can do damp January just

36:52

do it and they move on with their lives

36:55

and they don't think about it. So I always

36:57

go by that role. If you

36:59

think about it a lot, there's a reason. Yeah,

37:02

actually, that's a great other point that I wanted

37:04

to make was there are people who they're stumbling

37:07

upon this podcast episode as a regular listener. Others

37:10

are probably discovering it randomly. Welcome,

37:12

all of you. But my

37:14

thought is, is that if

37:17

you're thinking about it often

37:20

enough, then there's probably

37:22

some more. There's additional

37:24

thinking and research.

37:26

And again, we'll go to the self-awareness

37:28

that you need to do in this

37:30

area. If for the first

37:32

time you're hearing this and you're like, this

37:34

doesn't really apply to me, I'm very happy

37:37

for you and move on to a different

37:39

episode for sure here at the end of

37:41

this one. I hope you're already gone

37:43

from this one. I know, right? But

37:45

all that said, I just thought

37:48

this is a timely piece of

37:50

information slash conversation or self-awareness

37:52

check. I'm going to throw it in there

37:54

one more time for rule of thirds. And

37:56

I think it can really help people. All

37:59

that said. We've given a lot

38:01

of conversation and information here. Do

38:03

you have any maybe specific pieces of

38:06

guidance or on your work over

38:09

at Sober Powered that you'd

38:11

want to direct people to if they want to

38:13

dive a little bit deeper? If they're already thinking

38:15

about this a lot, you're already thinking about it

38:17

a lot for them and a very great guide

38:19

for them in this regard. I want to aim

38:21

people over at you so that you can get

38:23

them the help they need when they're in this

38:26

kind of question and answer mode. Thank

38:28

you. As someone that desperately

38:31

tried to moderate, I have a

38:33

lot of episodes about why we

38:35

can't change the way that we

38:37

drink. So if you're wondering about

38:39

that or if you could ever be

38:42

cured, I explain that.

38:44

I also explain the benefits that

38:46

you can expect when you quit

38:48

drinking and what things happen faster,

38:50

which ones lag behind. So

38:53

I would just scroll my episode

38:55

catalog. I've been doing

38:57

it for years and I've

38:59

probably covered basically every single topic. So

39:02

it's probably there in the catalog. And

39:04

so probably the best place to go for

39:07

everybody would be soberpowered.com where they can find

39:09

your show and everything else that you're doing.

39:11

And you're also very active on Instagram, which

39:13

is the primary place that I follow you.

39:15

And in fact, that's a lot of where

39:18

you grew your audience from. I've even heard

39:20

you do a talk all about growing your

39:22

podcast through Instagram. I think people could

39:24

Google that too and find it. Yeah,

39:27

I loved that talk. I

39:29

love dissecting how things work,

39:32

like how the stupid algorithm over there

39:34

works. And that can be addicting

39:37

on its own and ruin your

39:40

self-esteem. So yeah, Instagram,

39:42

love-hate relationship, mostly

39:44

hate. There's a whole other

39:46

topic we could jump off from here

39:48

on too, which would be whatever the

39:50

dry January version of social media would

39:53

be. Done that actually before too.

39:55

Took the whole of December off doing

39:57

no social media. This was years ago

39:59

though. You must have been so

40:01

productive healthy to not be on your

40:04

phone all the time I

40:06

deleted everything off of it like it was

40:08

just it was I was gonna take camera

40:10

pictures And I had texting and phone like

40:12

the actual phone app Like

40:14

the dock was what had it was settings phone

40:17

camera and texting and then the whole rest of

40:19

the top of it was like Blank

40:22

and I just said dumb to go

40:24

without so this was years ago. I

40:26

should do it again I think I can moderate it

40:31

Anyway, oh gosh see I know I know

40:34

we could totally talk social media for four

40:36

hours on end But we're not gonna do

40:38

that all that to say Jillian It's been

40:40

great talking with you and I can't

40:42

wait to drop this episode and have everybody

40:44

dive in a little bit deeper here and

40:47

Honestly, hopefully and happily have a

40:49

great healthy er December

40:52

and January and 2024

40:55

so thank you so much for being here and

40:57

sharing with us. Thank you for having me

41:01

Well, that's another podcast crossed off your

41:03

listening to-do list I hope that you enjoyed

41:06

this conversation with Jillian I know that I

41:08

did it was great talking with her

41:10

She will definitely be back on the show

41:12

And I just want to direct you to

41:14

thinking about what your relationship with alcohol

41:16

is not just right now But

41:19

also into the new year if you're

41:21

like me You may have had a

41:23

certain relationship with it in the past

41:25

that may have changed pre and during

41:27

pandemic Now that we are coming

41:29

to 2024 and

41:31

it's about to be four years since

41:34

lockdown started It may be time

41:36

for you to reassess your relationship. Once

41:38

again, there's nothing wrong with that There's

41:40

no shame in that and I would invite

41:42

you and encourage you in fact to go check

41:45

out sober powered media You can find the

41:47

link to that over in the

41:49

show notes at beyond the to-do list comm

41:51

make sure to check out all the Great

41:53

stuff that Jillian is doing and if you

41:55

know of someone who needs to hear this

41:58

conversation They're thinking about doing dry January or

42:00

they're struggling in some spectrum of this issue.

42:03

Let them know that you were thinking about

42:05

them and their struggle. Share this episode with

42:07

them. Just hit the share button in your

42:09

podcast player app of choice. Let them know

42:12

you were thinking of them. Do them that

42:14

favor. Do me that favor. Thank

42:16

you so much for sharing. Thanks again

42:19

for listening and I'll see you next

42:21

episode.