How To Live A Euphoric Life Without Alcohol with Karolina Rzadkowolska

In this compelling episode, Karolina Rzadkowolska, a certified alcohol-free life coach, shares her enlightening journey from socially accepted drinking to choosing a life of sobriety. This narrative is not one of battling alcoholism but rather an exploration of the profound impact that giving up drinking can have on one's life. Karolina's personal experience with alcohol and how abstaining from it has revolutionized her life serves as a powerful testament to the strength and power that come with making such a choice. 

As a professional who has guided thousands of women through online courses and coaching to reassess their drinking habits, Karolina aims to unlock new levels of health, happiness, and potential, enabling them to pursue their biggest dreams. With her book, "Euphoric: Ditch Alcohol and Gain a Happier, More Confident You", and her role as the host of Euphoric the Podcast and founder of Euphoric Alcohol-Free, Karolina’s work has gained notable recognition. Her mission is to assist others in finding genuine joy and designing a life they love beyond the temporary escape provided by alcohol.

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*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business or personal success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Laurie podcast. Carolina, welcome to the show. I'm so grateful to have you here. How are you doing today? I'm doing good.

Speaker 2: 0:21

Thank you, I'm so excited to be here. I'm really excited for this conversation.

Speaker 1: 0:24

Yeah, me too. I think it's such an important topic, and especially with everything that's going on with 2020, 2021, and 2022. So it's a big deal, so I'm happy to have you here.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Yeah, me too.

Speaker 1: 0:36

So before we get started, can you talk a little bit about yourself, kind of your backstory and how you got to where you are today?

Speaker 2: 0:45

Yeah, I'll see how long or how quick I can make this, but for the first version, you know, let's just rewind a few years ago so many years ago I was what you would call a party drinker. I grew up in college and went to college and really kind of overdrank there. I think that was pretty much a typical story for a lot of people. Yeah, really had no boundaries around alcohol and really didn't think about it that much either. But as I got older by the time I got into my mid-20s, late-20s, and then when I turned 30, I really considered myself a healthy and mindful person and so basically I lived this really Jekyll and Hyde type of behavior. So I would be really healthy during the week, and so during the week I would drink my green juice, go to yoga class, exercise, all those things, and then every Thursday or Friday alcohol came into the picture and would basically bulldoze all that healthy progress. That's how it felt, and I woke up every Monday morning really feeling glum, anxious, just like I'm five steps backwards from where I was. I was just unsettled by it all. I really just physically probably unwell too. Nurses start to feel a little better and then by Friday I have all my energy back and it's time to drink all over again, and I really like was like banging my head against the wall, like, oh my God, this is not working for me, I do not like this. But then I'd look around me and literally everyone else was doing the same thing, right? And so for years, literally years I was conscious that I hated this cycle, and yet I kept doing it over and over every single week and it really drove me insane. And another thing that really kept me stuck was that I had looked up things around alcohol on the internet and all I would find is just these horror stories of people who hit rock bottom and were hiding vodka at work, and just these incredible stories that I did not relate to. I didn't even drink during the week. I was only drinking on the weekend. Sure, I was over drinking, that's not to say I was only having one glass at a time but it just was not that story whatsoever. And so I was just so scared. If I made a change here, if I stopped drinking, would everyone assume I was an alcoholic, would I have to go to AA, all these things? And so those labels actually scared me so much to the point that they kept me stuck for longer than they would have.

Speaker 2: 3:09

But the one thing that finally changed my kind of worldview is I heard of Dry January and this was a few years ago, so it's just kind of starting to catch on. In the US Now it's pretty popular and I was like, oh my God, this is what I need. I'd been wanting to take a break from alcohol for so long, but it was always that social event, the wedding, the dinner party, whatever that was on the calendar and so dry January just seemed like such a perfect, valid excuse to take a break and not have to explain it to people. And so I did dry January and I fell in love with the experience. I slept so well, I had so much more energy in the morning and I woke up every day feeling proud of myself, which just wasn't a thing before, and I really loved it.

Speaker 2: 3:49

But then February comes along and I basically still have this mentality that, okay, carolina, normal adults drink. Therefore, if you want to be normal, you must drink. So I drank a few times that February and the contrast was just so harsh. One or two drinks would immediately lower my mood. I would get frustrated, cranky, exhausted, and then, like I couldn't journal or read if I was a little buzz. And then the next day I woke up feeling tired and exhausted, my sleep sucked and I was like holy shit, excuse me, I don't like this whatsoever, like this experience actually sucks.

Speaker 2: 4:25

And so I decided to take another break at that point, and that break basically turned into four years later, and every single day that's gone by, especially in the first year, got better than the last. My energy went through the roof, my health improved so much. But really what started happening is my mental beliefs about myself changed. My self-love, self-esteem really went up and I started to get the confidence If I could get successful with my Achilles heel, then what else could I do in the world? And so I set off to answer that question by doing things that scare me, that have become so fulfilling in my life, and I basically made a huge 180 from what I was doing before to what I'm doing today fulfilling in my life and I basically made a huge 180 from what I was doing before to what I'm doing today.

Speaker 1: 5:06

Man, what a super cool story with a wonderful ending. That's amazing. So first, congratulations on making that transformation and kind of getting to where you are today. I want to ask was that kind of your aha moment? I know you have a book that just came out. You had a book launch last week and in it you talk about kind of having this aha moment or this ah moment Was that? It? Was that the contrast between drinking and not drinking, or was there something that specifically happened in that time?

Speaker 2: 5:36

You know, I think that as I was going through this journey, I you know before, when I was still drinking, I knew I didn't like it, and I think sometimes we can be driven by either avoiding pain or going towards pleasure. So those Monday mornings I hated and there was this voice that was always telling me Carolina, you're made for more, You're made for more. And I just didn't listen to that voice for a long time, honestly, until I finally did to take the break. But then a strange thing happened when I was taking a break is that, instead of being driven by avoiding pain, it got so good and we can talk a little bit about the science behind it, but my positive emotions went up through the roof. I had never felt so happy in my life. I had never felt so capable and just so rife with possibility and so much hope, and I was really defying my identity. I had been shackled to this one way of being for so long and now that I changed that one core thing, it was like I had the ability to change anything Seriously. I started falling in love with mornings after not being a morning person for my entire adulthood. All these things were like radical shifts in my identity.

Speaker 2: 6:42

So I think that the big shift for me. It started from like let's avoid pain, but then when I went into it and I found all of this pleasure I mean that's really why I named my company and my book euphoric, because that's literally how I felt and I was like, oh my God, if only more people knew how amazing this feels like this is not a month of deprivation or feeling like you're missing out. I felt like on top of the world, and so that's kind of become my mission and my message to share those feelings and to share that sense of possibility that comes, and what's so cool about it is that I'm not really an anomaly. This is the typical story that I hear from women, and especially my clients that I work with. They remove this one thing and their happiness and their sense of what's possible for themselves just goes through the roof, and then they go after and go after those audacious goals, which is just life-changing.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Yeah, absolutely. So. You mentioned earlier about you know you were super health conscious during the week and then on the weekends you would kind of, you know, drink a lot, or maybe binge I don't know if binge is the right word specifically for you in that sense, but you know. And then you talked about the, the concern of kind of the label of. You know I would have been an alcoholic if I quit drinking or whatever.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Why do you think letting go of alcohol is such a taboo in our culture? Like, why is there that that uneasiness around it? Whether you, you know. So for me, I will add, I'm not, I've never been a big drinker. I was always the weird kid that didn't drink at the parties and I'd have a drink here and there and I've definitely had my fair share of being drunk, but I really didn't drink that much and I don't drink now. And there was always that uneasiness on my side too, of being the non-drinker. And so why do you think that taboo really happens in our culture? Why is it such a weird thing? It's so fascinating isn't it?

Speaker 2: 8:29

It's crazy because, like anything else in your world, in your life, you remove it Like you want to remove dairy or meat from your diet or anything. Gluten no one's going to be like, oh my God, you must've had a gluten problem, you must've been overeating on that gluten, right? And yet we have these crazy assumptions about alcohol, whereas literally the only excuse some people will say that you have to not drink is I'm pregnant or I'm an alcoholic, which is literally insane, because alcohol is probably one of the most toxic substances that we regularly ingest.

Speaker 1: 8:54

Literally a poison.

Speaker 2: 8:56

Right, we don't need an excuse to say no, thank you. And yet that's how it happens. So I think it's really historical, I think one we really, as Americans, we had this phenomenon called prohibition happen, and prohibition was really driven by this religious fervor and this like, really like anti abstinence, you know, like this is morally wrong. And so, as that failed, I think we just swung the other way, so much that it was like we will never, ever, ever bring that religious fervor back into. You know, denying someone to drink, so that, like now, if you don't drink, there's this conception that even you're boring, right, because you're like a prude or you know you're one of those folks.

Speaker 1: 9:36

I got that all the time growing up Like, oh, you're such a prude, or like, oh, you know, or like, oh, you know, you're so like innocent or like you aren't. And it had. It had real, like mental. It had an impact on my self-worth. Not drinking Like, I always felt kind of awkward, and on the outside because of it too.

Speaker 2: 9:57

That's so interesting, and I think what's so crazy about that is that we think that, oh then, drinkers are these complex, rebellious people, you know they're, they're the bad ones or they're the ones that like rebel and they're so cool that is that we think that, oh then, drinkers are these complex, rebellious people, they're the bad ones or they're the ones that rebel and they're so cool. Right, they have this little cool club. And yet then you look at statistics, it's like, well, everybody drinks, your uncle drinks, the neighbor drinks. It's like the banality of the world, it's not the cool, elevated ones, right, everybody does it. So how is that even possible that we associate so much of that status to that thing?

Speaker 2: 10:28

Then another thing happened as well, and that's really, you know, for better or for worse, like so many people get help through these programs and these systems. But you know, aa really also came into play in the early 20th century and that really kind of did position as well this concept of alcoholism versus normal drinkers. And then, and then the science kind of like piggybacked on top of that and then we really got this paradigm in our world that you're either normal and alcohol does not affect you in a certain way, or you're an alcoholic and you have some kind of genetic difference right, and that is absolutely scientifically debunked now. Like Alcohol affects most human bodies the same way and what it really takes is exposure to it. So you could take anyone like I could take you. Put you in a science experiment where we force you to drink a bottle of wine every night. By the end of the year you're going to be in the same boat as anyone else, type of a thing. So the human body, that's just how it reacts to alcohol and, depending on your lifestyle and the factors that environmental factors around, how you grew up, like how prevalent alcohol was, or your personality, you know, all those things kind of come into play when it comes to it.

Speaker 2: 11:34

So I think that we do have this crazy dichotomy of, like, normal drinker versus alcoholic in our society, and it's also not true based on consumption levels. So the health guidelines are pretty low when it comes to alcohol and they're getting lower, like by the time we speak, like it used to be like only one glass a day for a woman or two for a man, but now they're kind of being like, wait a minute. Actually that actually increases their cancer risk for women. It really is no safe amount of alcohol. So I think we're going to see a big change in those recommendations. But nobody drinks under those. I mean very rarely, right?

Speaker 2: 12:06

The majority of drinkers who are regular drinkers. You don't just go to a dinner party and it's like okay, we all had our one glass, let's stop the pouring. Now it's normalized in our culture to drink above that, and so the huge majority of drinkers around 60% drink way above the health guidelines. And the percentage of people who actually want to drink less or not at all is also in the majority. So 52% of Americans want to drink less or not at all.

Speaker 2: 12:28

So all those things just tell me that, for people who do regularly drink, this is an every person issue. You know what I mean. Everyone has a little bit of an emotional dependence on alcohol, these stories we tell ourselves how it makes us more fun or relaxed, or all those things. So I think that in the last five years we're changing that paradigm so that it's not, you know this black and white thinking around that you either are, you know, a problem drinker or you're not. There's so many gray areas to it, and I think that the alcohol-free movement is really allowing anyone on any side of the spectrum to just reevaluate it. You know, if you don't like the effects of alcohol in your life, anyone is allowed to choose a different way. You don't need any kind of story to validate it.

Speaker 1: 13:11

That. I mean I love that because that was always my thing. For me I just hated the way it made me feel. I felt like crap afterwards. I didn't feel good, and then I didn't really like the taste of it that much either. I've I've yet to really find any alcohol that tastes great. You know, you can add a lot to it, but it was just those two dynamics and so I was like, nah, I'm just not going to do it kind of thing. But but it definitely. You know it was a decision that I made to do that, because otherwise I would have just been like everybody else, just drank long and partied and did the thing and I did on occasion. But it was definitely deciding to make that choice. And I've seen it become much more popular in the last few years, so I'm kind of excited to see that too.

Speaker 2: 13:55

Me too.

Speaker 1: 13:56

So you talked a little bit about the research and you know some of the statistics and stuff like that, but was there something that was really surprising, like what was the most surprising thing you saw while you were doing your research on the benefit of, or the health benefits of, not drinking?

Speaker 2: 14:12

Yeah, so this is really cool. But they've studied, basically, the effects of taking a break on your body and some of these effects like if you were able to combine them and put them in a pill, pharmaceutical companies would make billions of dollars. So, in really just short time, off alcohol, and that's why I'm a huge proponent of just taking a break.

Speaker 2: 14:30

This is not about quitting forever. This is not about this black and white thinking. It's just, if you've grown up since you're 18, 21 or 16 drinking regularly, your body, literally like you, your body's never felt anything different really. You've been an adult and you've never given it a chance to like, really heal in these ways or feel these incredible emotions and feelings in this way. So that's why a break is just such a beautiful, beautiful canvas, I think. But they've proven that in little as five weeks off alcohol, first of all, your blood pressure will drop. I've actually had clients who've gotten off chronic lifelong medication to lower their blood pressure and I don't know what it is the percentage. Probably 60% of Americans have either hypertension or prehypertension, I mean yeah, it's pretty, it's quite.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Yeah, definitely Right yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:15

You know, and then and then what's also really fascinating I think we don't correlate in our society as much with alcohol is cholesterol. So you know, alcohol obviously is not filled with any saturated fat or cholesterol in itself, but it does really cause low level inflammation in the body, and so they've also proven that. A break for just five weeks it lowered participants cholesterol levels by 20 points on average, and I have to say that I personally got tested a few months after my break, so I think it was around eight months maybe, so it's a little longer, but my cholesterol dropped 50 points.

Speaker 2: 15:45

Oh, my goodness 50 points, right Again, most drugs can't do that that fast, right? And then the percentage of people who have cholesterol levels above like 200 in this country. It's insane. And when you think of those two things like those are some of the two biggest risk factors that come with cardiovascular disease. One out of two people in the United States is going to die from cardiovascular disease. Like it is our number one killer. And if, if, if, you would have just thought, if we would have just known, if there was more information, I think, out there that taking a break from alcohol can actually lower these two numbers that are really implicated in this. I mean it's. It can be so life-changing for someone who tries it. So that's your cardiovascular system. And then it's also proven in just five weeks to lower your liver fat by about 20%.

Speaker 1: 16:29

That's what I was going to bring up. That one is understanding that. You know, our body is processing it the same way we would just eating spoonfuls of sugar, basically. And yeah, I was going to ask you about liver function and liver health. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:42

So that's what's really great, and I don't really like to go with the scare tactics of like, well, this is what happens when you do drink. But what's really cool is, like, now that you're taking a break, this is how fast the body can heal. They've even proven that like the longer you go without drinking that up to a year, I mean it depends on what kind of drinker you were, but if it wasn't too harsh up to a year without alcohol your liver can actually return back to the liver you had before you started drinking. Right, that's insane and so that's really promising. They've also proven that cancer markers go down in your blood in just five weeks off alcohol.

Speaker 2: 17:12

And like that's the thing with with with drinking nowadays is that there used to be this idea that one drink a day is good for you, but we've kind of really debunked that in the science now, and it's not every doctor, not every magazine knows about all of those studies that are kind of saying no, but, for example, the American cancer society says it's best not to drink at all. Every drink is just heightening your risk, and even two drinks a week for a woman increases your risk of breast cancer by 15%. Now to a drinker. Two drinks a week is peanuts you know what I mean, but it's so low so it's like no matter what. Even if you're playing this moderation game, you're still increasing the risk of breast cancer down the line and other cancers as well. But, good news, taking a break will lower those markers as well.

Speaker 2: 17:55

And then, lastly, it also affects your brain. So drinkers have smaller brains than non-drinkers. Again, this isn't heavy drinking, just moderate, normal drinking. Their brains shrink and their gray matter shrinks, and so, taking a break, within a little just as two weeks the gray matter starts to grow back and then the neurons regenerate as well, which is just really cool. So if anyone's really into the health effects, this is just an amazing step, and it's just so hopeful to know that our bodies are as resilient as they are. And what ends up happening is that, physically, you feel better than you ever have. You have more energy. You might want to be more motivated to work out, you crave healthier foods. I mean, your body's really working in a prime way instead of always being overtaxed trying to detoxify this alcohol.

Speaker 1: 18:44

Absolutely you you mentioned. I was going to ask you about kind of mental health benefits. You mentioned the gray matter growing back and regenerating. You know, obviously that's your brain and has effects on, you know, not just your mental health but your full physical body and how it functions. But along those lines, what are some of the mental health benefits that you've really seen um in in yourself and clients, just people that you've come across with? Um, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 19:10

Yeah, and this is another one that just like was so eyeopening when I experienced it, so I'll go with the science first. So, over time, alcohol reduces our levels of really good happy neurotransmitters, so things like dopamine, serotonin and GABA actually go down in a drinker's brain. And then, on top of that, alcohol is this depressant right. It slows everything down, it numbs our central nervous system, but our body has this counteractive system to counterbalance that, so we actually release stress hormones in response to alcohol, and they've studied this. They found that alcohol is tied to anxiety on a molecular level. So when we drink a few hours later, our body will release cortisol, adrenaline and dynorphin, and dynorphin is kind of like the opposite of endorphins it makes you feel really low and sad, and they found high levels of dynorphin usually in the brains of people who commit suicide. So anyone who's drank and then feels those Monday morning blues are just like not you know, not their best mentally, it's literally not you, it's this chemical cocktail in your brain, and the thing with it. That, though, is that while alcohol will, like, filter out of your body within around two days, these stress hormones actually take much longer. So if you're regularly drinking every week which I was like you never get a chance to actually like rebalance completely from that cycle. Um, and so another thing that happens, like why is the dopamine go down in the brain? Doesn't alcohol release dopamine? How does that work? So alcohol does do this artificial spike of dopamine when you drink it, but then it crashes and it will crash lower than where you were starting at baseline. In addition to that, that high spike is so much higher than what you would receive from nature, just like how back in the day we didn't have Twizzlers, when we were hunter gatherers, we had fruit. So it's the same kind of concept. But what happens is that we get desensitized to naturally occurring dopamine. So it's like just like with heroin or cocaine, like you get this huge spike and nothing else around you makes you that happy, and so your brain then gets desensitized to things like belly laughs or playing with a child or a walk in the woods, and so after a few weeks I think it usually takes around four to six on average all of these neurochemicals after you take a break can rebalance in your brain and that's kind of in the sober community, called this pink cloud phase, where all of a sudden everything makes you happy and I remember just being so enthralled by looking at clouds and playing with my niece and I was just so in love with the world again. It's like I rediscovered my childlike wonder. It was so beautiful and as I learned the science behind it, it was all very much proven in what was happening in my brain. So that's again this euphoric feeling that you get back. But it went deeper than that. That's the science too.

Speaker 2: 21:47

But you know, what really really happened for me is that I really regained my sense of self-love for myself, because when I was a drinker, every intention I had, all the rules I had. I always tried to drink less. I always had the rules, always the intentions, but I broke them and it always eroded my self-trust over time and self-esteem over time. And when I took a break from alcohol, all of a sudden, every night I'm doing the thing I said I would do and every morning I'm waking up feeling well and it was almost as if, when I woke up feeling well, I could look back and think that past version of me, like thank you so much for looking out for me.

Speaker 2: 22:23

I feel loved by you, I feel like you respected me and that really grew my sense of self-love and self-esteem, and as that was growing, I really started to regain that trust in myself and a lot of the really what happened is I used to have all of these what I'd call pipe dreams or someday goals. They were on the someday platter and all of a sudden I started getting the confidence to be like, well, why not, why not? Why not me? Why couldn't I work on these things? And so that was the beautiful aftermath is that I removed that one thing, the alcohol and it gave me this beautiful canvas, this beautiful space to go after what I really wanted most in life. And that's the year I launched my business. I started writing this book, I launched a podcast, I ran a half marathon, I eventually quit my day job. My life changed from night to day, and it was all from this break from alcohol.

Speaker 1: 23:16

Well, congratulations on all of that. That is phenomenal. I love that story and I think it's so powerful for, you know, any of the listeners listening that may be considering quitting or or have have kind of played with it and maybe have struggled with it, um it, it's motivation and inspiration for them to just kind of take that plunge and and and really attempt it. Um, with that I do have a question. I hear often that, you know, people try to moderate their drinking there. They, you know, try to limit to like the two a week or, you know, only on the weekends or whatever, and I I think that causes even more stress for people. What are you know, what is that cycle like and how can they kind of break free of that?

Speaker 2: 23:58

of course, and obviously, if you know, whatever you're, you know this conversation is if it's piquing your interest. This is not like a everybody needs to quit alcohol, right? But I feel like there are people who are like, yes, yes, this is me, this is me like, wait, I would love to try this, I would love to feel something differently. And so for me and for a lot of people that I know, it's this mental gymnastics game. Alcohol actually creates this craving cycle in your body and because you crash after one drink, after you get this buzz, your body immediately wants another one. That's just kind of the science of it. And the more you drink over time, the more that cycle gets really strengthened in your body, right? So most people do want another drink after the first one because they just want to feel that pleasure cycle again, right? And yet you have these rules, you have these intentions no more than two drinks.

Speaker 2: 24:45

I have to wake up early for a presentation, and so it gets become this huge. For me, it was this chatter in my brain. It was these mental gymnastics I was playing like should I? It was these mental gymnastics I was playing, should I, should I not? Well, I said I wouldn't drink tonight. I have a presentation tomorrow, but will my friends think it's weird if I don't order a glass? It's this constant monkey mind going on overdrive. And actually that's one of the craziest benefits that a lot of clients will tell me is, all of a sudden, all that chatter that they're having at a dinner party like, oh, should I have another glass, should I not? Do I have wine, tea, just this crazy stuff. It goes away. It goes away and they can actually be present with the people that they love, that they're around and really connect with them in a deeper way.

Speaker 2: 25:27

And it also takes you off of that very merry-go-round of living where you're like you're good, you're not good. It's a constant cycle and it's the thing with moderation is that even if you do really well, eventually I feel like you just get let down. Eventually it just breaks that cycle and it's just so much brainpower you're using and I love to remind people this is a drink we're talking about, it's a beverage in a glass and it's taking over so much valuable mind space. Imagine if you use that beautiful genius, that beautiful limitless potential on actually going after a dream you have or something that would really make you happy in the world, and so that can be really freeing. Moderation can be really just something. That just is so much mental games and really thinking about it so often that it can be really freeing to be completely rid of that and using your mental time and energy, which almost comes back to you even more than the time that you spent drinking. It's like you get five times more mental time and energy.

Speaker 2: 26:29

Now you can pursue new things, Right, and I have to tell you I could care less what people drink. At the end of the day, I don't really care about that. That's not my position. What I really care about is when you do happen to remove that one thing that doesn't serve you, you do create that space. You create that space for more creativity in your life, more intuition about what's next for you. It's a self-discovery journey as well, because you're learning more about yourself. You're learning about your emotion. You're not numbing them. You're learning about what stresses you out in your life so that you can start to make shifts around that. You're learning about what makes you happy, organically, right. You're learning about all these things and you can then take all that and really decide is it really a drink I want, or what if I start chasing something that would actually give me this long-term fulfillment and that can never be beat, you know? And so I feel like a lot of women I worked with. Their purpose comes back to them.

Speaker 1: 27:24

It's. I mean I, I totally, I love I. I'm kind of speechless in the sense of like I love how, how you can use it as a tool to totally transform your life in a sense. So so you're, you're holding onto this thing. I love that. You said you know, this is just a drink and a glass. It's liquid, like. Why does it have so much power? You know, but it does. It's.

Speaker 1: 27:46

So many people struggle with this, or even if it's just another type of food addiction, whatever that is. So many people struggle with that, but then they can look at it differently, they can change their perception to it and then use it as a tool to then, you know, achieve their goals, find the things that they really want to do in life, and so I just think that's such a powerful little tidbit that I hope really sinks in with people. So can you tell me a little bit about you know, quitting? Quitting is one thing, but but kind of detoxing your body, going through that process, can be really, really hard.

Speaker 1: 28:23

How do, how did you do it? How did you make the decision? I mean, I know you talked about dry January as a tool, but then you started drinking again in February and then you decided to quit again. How did you detox your body? How did you? You know, people will maybe do it for three days or seven days or 10 days and then they kind of fall off because they have that craving that's really, really strong. How did you detox and did you have any tools that helped you work through those cravings?

Speaker 2: 28:52

Absolutely, and this is again really dependent on the type of drinker you are, how much alcohol is in your life. But I just want to have a caveat If you drink a lot and you drink regularly, sometimes just going cold turkey is actually not a good idea. Like that you want to go see a doctor. But for someone who considers themselves in that gray area, whatever or normal kind of drinking style, it often feel like a little worse until it gets better. And so, uh, our body is working overtime, right, to detoxify the alcohol, to clear all that residual stress hormones from your body, to rebalance your sleep cycles and then to all do that, all that healing I talked about earlier. You know like that's a huge regeneration on your body's part. Right, it's really typical for the first two weeks to not necessarily feel so hot, and so if someone's like taking a break from alcohol, they're like on day three and they're like Carolina. You're crazy. This is not. This is not the seaport experience. It's not like that at all. Be patient, please, please. So it does take a few weeks for your body to rebalance and what I've noticed is it's often affects the sleep cycles the most. So because alcohol releases those stress hormones, basically the depressant nature of alcohol goes away and that kind of can sedate someone to sleep, and so once you remove the alcohol, those stress hormones are still coursing in your body and and also that rhythm in your circadian uh rhythm basically exists as well. So you're used to waking up at 3 AM every day because of alcohol, like that's still going to take a while for your body to get out of that kind of a cycle, just as if you're used to waking up at 7 am every day for like years and all of a sudden one day you don't set your alarm, you'll still probably wake up around 7, right, right, yeah, so it's a real patience game, I would say, and so I would tell someone you know definitely have a lot of compassion for yourself at that time. Rest more than usual, and I always say this as well Don't do anything else at the same time. This is not the time to also pick up veganism and commit to running four miles every day. That all stuff will probably unfold if you want to make other changes in your life.

Speaker 2: 30:46

This is alcohol Changing. It is a domino habit type of a thing where a keystone habit where you change this one thing and other things will probably change as well. But don't focus on that stuff at the beginning, because then you'll just be driving yourself nuts. So just focus on not drinking. You might have sugar cravings at first. I recommend some healthy ways to combat those in my book. But also a few gummy bears at night is not going to kill you either. Don't drive yourself crazy. And then, when it comes to cravings, my favorite tool Don't drive yourself crazy. And then, when it comes to cravings, like my favorite tool and I share a lot of different modalities, whether it's like breath work or maybe taking a shower, like water therapy or going outside. But if you're just like I, want to drink, my easiest one is literally pour a drink, just pour a drink. Right, but pour a different drink, just pour one that doesn't have ethanol in it, yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:33

So a lot of times people find that you don't have to completely change the habit or overhaul it. It's perfectly fine to decompress at the end of the day with a drink. It's perfectly fine to socialize with a cup in your hand, but if you change the drink, you're still almost getting that placebo effect from that action and that ritual. I mean, it means so much more than just the alcohol right. It's like you come home from a long day, you pour a drink in a beautiful glass and, oh, finally you can relax. And that still can happen over a non-alcoholic drink. They've actually proven. There was this one study where they attached brain nodes to people who were sitting at a bar or a restaurant so they can measure their brainwaves. And everyone ordered a drink and all of a sudden all of their brainwaves relaxed, like everyone had relaxed brainwaves. But here's the caveat None of them drank the drink yet. They didn't get the drink yet. They just ordered it right. So it's that anticipation that almost changes the brain, and that's why I really think that alcohol-free beverages can really give you that same placebo effect.

Speaker 2: 32:29

And the thing that's so cool about them is that there's so many out there. You could become like an amateur mixologist in your kitchen. You know. You could combine different fruit juices, different citrus. I love using a steeped cooled tea in mocktails as well. That's really fun.

Speaker 2: 32:42

There's all these drinks you can get at your whole, like a whole foods or a health food store. You know. There's kombuchas, there's matcha lattes, there's ricey drinks, there's just so much. And then there's also this huge category of new drinks that uh, you know, alcohol-free beers, alcohol-free wine, alcohol-free spirits, but also these new concoctions that are like soft cocktails but they're not trying to mimic alcohol whatsoever, they're. They're a pineapple ginger like sensation. Or there's this really cool line of drinks that has like nootropics and, uh, adaptogens in them and there's supposed to be nightlife beverages. So there's just so much out there. So I always tell my clients find a drink you love, like, keep experimenting. It could be a coconut water, it could be a spin drift, it could be like a curious elixirs soft cocktail. But find something that you love so that you still feel like you're treating yourself right, you still feel like you're getting pampered, you still have that something to look forward to at the end of the day. And it just makes it so much easier, I think at first.

Speaker 1: 33:37

Yeah, absolutely, I love. You mentioned, you know, the research study that they did with the people at the bar, with their brains, and I was thinking about that earlier when you were talking about kind of the dopamine spike. And what people don't often understand with dopamine spiking is it's the anticipation. It's the anticipation of getting the thing. It's not actually having the thing, it's not that first sip, it's not the glass, it's the anticipation of getting to that point.

Speaker 1: 34:02

So where you said, you know, just pour yourself a drink I'm doing air quotes you know, pour yourself a glass of water, or you know some, maybe sparkling apple cider or something in a wine glass. So it feels the same, but it's not, you know quite the same. Or but it's it's, it really is. It's that anticipation. And so if you can switch what the actual end game is there, you know, so instead of it being alcohol, it's something else, but you still get that dopamine spike, then you still get the kind of feel good feeling without the sad and uncomfortable aftermath yeah, without the negative baggage, right, and it's just crazy to me as a society like that we adopted this drink in the first place.

Speaker 2: 34:44

You know. Like this comes every social occasion comes with the side effects of hangovers. Like it makes no sense and I think, as we continue to become more health conscious and really evolve as a society, like we're going to look back at alcohol as this crude chemical from the like 20th century. You know what I mean Because we're just going to have new stuff on the market and it's going to be normal to not make yourself sick, to hang out with people, so with that my other question.

Speaker 1: 35:09

So you know we talked a little bit about detoxing and tools, but what happens when it comes to socializing? People are so awkward sometimes with having to be in big groups or at parties and socializing without having that. You know one, the tipsiness that makes you relax a little bit more, but two, having that drink in their hands. You talk about being you know, not having alcohol there as kind of a superpower. Can you kind of elaborate on that, talk about what that is and how can people start to get comfortable in social groups?

Speaker 2: 35:40

Yeah. So I'm an introvert a hundred percent and I grew up pretty shy, and so when I first tried alcohol when I was younger, to me it was like this magical elixir, like all of a sudden it could turn me into a different person. It could turn me into the extrovert I wanted to be, and so I thought it made me more interesting, I thought it made me more popular, I thought it made me more likable, I thought I was more confident on it. But really the opposite kind of happened, subconsciously it's, because I kept outsourcing my sociability to a drink. I never really developed it within, I never found those skills within or that self-love to really find that confidence within, and so it was almost as if over time I was basically telling my subconscious hey, carolina, you're not interesting, nobody wants to talk to you, you have nothing good to say unless you have this drink in your hand. And that actually demoralized me and disempowered me over time, right, because it's like if alcohol wasn't there, oh shoot, it's just me and I'm crap, right. And so you know, that is something I really had to work through when I went alcohol free and I have to say, like the first few social occasions, yeah, sure, like I felt awkward. And and that's the thing is that like I think we don't recognize that most humans deal with social anxiety or can feel a little awkward with when you're meeting someone you've never met before, right, like, of course nobody likes small talk, like All those things are awkward for everyone involved. And then you look at children. Sometimes you put kids together and at first they're kind of hiding behind their parents' pants legs and then 30 minutes later you can't tear them apart. And I really think that the same thing happens as humans is that there's that kind of awkward phase in the beginning, but then we can kind of lean into it and surpass that. And when you surpass that feeling on your own and you find that's kind of like a muscle that was laying dormant for years, like the socializing sober muscle, and you start working it out and start practicing it, you become so much more confident. You're like, oh my gosh, I can do this on my own right. And it really is the superpower, because now it doesn't matter where you put me, like I know that, I've got me. I've got me, I can handle this. I don't need a drug to turn into a different version of me. I've got me, and so it really does feel like a superpower, and so I know that a lot of people are worried about that like effect.

Speaker 2: 37:49

But one I think that because of you know, especially if you're hanging out with your good friends and people that you love, like what if you get have so much fun, or you get buzzed just because you're around them? What if it's nothing to do with the drink itself? What if it's like these people and this occasion brings you so much joy? And imagine experiencing that like wholeheartedly? Or you know the other the other week I went to a wedding and you know, dancing without alcohol seems so scary, or a lot of people think alcohol makes them dance better, or whatever.

Speaker 2: 38:19

When I now dance without drinking, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster, because I actually feel all the feelings it takes to have that confidence and that courage to go out and not worry about how I look and just have a really good time without this artificial sense of courage, liquid courage in my veins. So it feels so much more exhilarating to me and I have so much more fun than I ever did and it's just like, basically, you take all these limiting beliefs that you had, like I can't dance, I'm not going to be fun, I'm not going to be able to talk to people, and you start proving to yourself they're not true and they're just these disempowering ideas that you had. And once you start doing that, literally, you do feel like a badass. You're just like, oh my God, I was limiting myself so much. I just never allowed myself to practice or to hone this or to honor this ability that I have within myself. So I think that's a really cool thing.

Speaker 2: 39:09

And then another caveat to that is obviously it's not just socializing. I think that trips us up. I think it's what we're going to have to say when we're not drinking. Everyone's drinking. It's like, are they going to assume something? Are they going to judge me? All these different things.

Speaker 2: 39:22

And I just like to remind people that, according to studies, the majority of people who drink wish they were not drinking. They want to drink less or not at all. And so when you know that you don't have to feel like the odd one out when you go to a party, you can literally feel like the rebel or the leader or the inspirer. Now, to be honest, if I met you six years ago at a party and I saw you having fun and you're not drinking. I would have been like, wait a minute, you're allowed to do that, that's allowed. I didn't know that it literally would have rocked my worldview. You would have been such an incredible example for me to see that life could be lived a little differently. And I didn't have those examples because everyone drank around me, right, and so imagine being that person to someone else.

Speaker 1: 40:05

Yeah, yeah, it was. It's interesting Cause, I mean, I usually was the only one at the party and so it was always hard in that sense. But I think you mentioned, you know, kind of getting over the, the, the excuse me, sorry, I have a tickle. You mentioned kind of getting over the, the voices in our head about our self-worth, and you know if we're good at dancing or all of these different things, and it was me switching the way I felt about myself of these different things, and it was me switching the way I felt about myself, sorry, that really helped me get comfortable with not drinking at parties and being the one not drinking there too. Man, I have a tickle. I apologize for the listeners too. So can you tell me now that you don't really drink, do you enjoy, like non-alcoholic beers, wines, mocktails, things like that? Is that something that you that you use as a tool?

Speaker 2: 41:05

Yeah, absolutely so. Again, I'm a huge proponent of them. When I first changed my relationship with alcohol, like I was having fun. I was like the the new drinks were just kind of coming on the market. Nowadays, like, you can go to your Whole Foods, your Trader Joe's, and these drinks are like there. Ten years ago they weren't, you know. So it's just really cool to see how this is really changing our society. It's kind of like if you've been vegetarian like 30 years ago you'd go to a restaurant and they'd give you like the sad salad you know, and nowadays there's all these options out there.

Speaker 2: 41:33

So I just feel the same way about these alcohol-free beverages. Like there's a lot of mocktails on menus now there's mocktail bars popping up around the nation, grocery stores are like carrying different drinks and I think that it's it's really cool because it shows you that you know you can drink a sophisticated beverage. You don't have to have like an apple juice or a Coca-Cola, you don't have to feel like a kid. You know, like apple juice or a Coca-Cola, you don't have to feel like a kid, you can have a really sophisticated beverage. It just doesn't have to have any alcohol in it and I think it's kind of changing the way we view nightlife and socializing. So I really think that they're kind of in its own right, that these beverages whether you like them or not, whether you drink them or not they're kind of creating their own revolution.

Speaker 2: 42:10

So I think I drank more of them when I first started. Now I'm perfectly fine with a Spindrift or whatever, it doesn't matter to me anymore. But I still love to see these drinks popping up and a lot of companies will send me drinks to try and to talk about with my audience, and I just couldn't support it more because I think it's changing culture. I really do. And imagine if, in 10 years from now, you go to a bar and it's totally normal for half of the people in the bar to be drinking a non-alcoholic beer or whatever. How cool is that? How much is that changing our society? How much is that changing society for when our kids grow up? So I'm just a huge, huge fan of literally what it means to our society as we are leaning more into these drinks. And it's so cool because it's estimated that this industry is going to grow to $1.6 trillion by 2026. So there's this huge, huge growth in front of it and it's already grown a lot, so much so that the alcohol industry is actually investing in it.

Speaker 1: 43:07

Yes, I've seen quite a bit of that, that they are really trying to come out with really unique, different non-alcoholic kind of mocktail beverages that I mean. Every day you see a new one pop up.

Speaker 2: 43:19

Yeah, it's so crazy. I just saw one in Australia I don't think it's here yet, but it's Corona beer and they made a non-alcoholic beer and they added vitamin D to it, and so they're bringing that sunshine in in a different way and I'm just, like you know, love them or hate them, like the original alcohol industry, but like these changes that they're making, like it's making society safer, more inclusive, healthier, I mean it's, it's great, I think, on all counts.

Speaker 1: 43:44

I totally, totally agree. I mean I, I get if, if people choose to drink, that is their own choice and and I'm not judging them my thing, always, coming from you know the health and nutrition world is you're hurting your body and this is damaging you and and I just want so much for people to feel good, that's the biggest thing, is to help people feel good. And so understanding now that there are opportunities and options to choose that are similar, so you still have that joy and that fun, that little dopamine spike, right, but without the the toxins from the actual alcohol itself yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:19

So I have some rapid fire questions for you to wrap up the episode. But before I do that, I have two questions. One is can you tell us a little bit about your book? I know you just released it. It's super exciting. So where can they find it? What's inside? Give me all the goodies about that. And then secondly, where can they find you online?

Speaker 2: 44:39

too. It's called Euphoric. To Jiao Kong and a happier, more confident you. I'm so excited for this book, and it's available on Amazon and most bookstores as well, and you can find it at wwweuphoricbookcom if you just want an easy link and this book is really my love song to what it looks like to go alcohol-free, and it really is taken from the position of just taking a break. So I divide the book into three different parts, and part one and two is literally just listing all the life-changing benefits that happen when you take a break, and I do it in a body, mind and soul perspective. So here are all the physical effects, but then here are all the deeper mental effects, and then also, like these soulful things that you never knew, your sense of gratitude would go up, your presence would go up, your spirituality might even go up Just all these beautiful things that you would never think are correlated with alcohol. And so by the time that the reader's done reading the first two parts, they are so excited to try this on their own, they are just so rife with so much possibility about what this break could look like in their life.

Speaker 2: 45:37

So then the last part of the book is actually an eight-week guide to help someone. You don't have to do it alone, right? Here's an eight-week plan to follow and to really work through a lot of that self-discovery that's going to come up, really founding a foundation for some of your emotional, your emotions. Well, you'll feel them right at first because, like you know, the alcohol is not numbing them anymore. How to you know, process them, how to use them to guide you, how to make little changes in your life, how to deal with things like socializing, how to deal with you know all the things that come up. But then, towards the end of the eight week plan, what I really guide people through is you know, if alcohol was this thing that would supplement or even completely take place of what you thought was happiness in your life. Now we have a chance to discover what that really is, and so I lead my readers in this creative journey of really finding new hobbies, new interests, new passions to explore and really just have fun doing so, guiding them ultimately to what they're truly passionate about in life and how that could be maybe their next chapter.

Speaker 2: 46:37

So a lot of my clients I've worked with have written books themselves, have launched businesses themselves, have moved somewhere beautiful that they've always wanted to live, these lifelong goals that they had in the back pocket that just weren't being worked on. All of a sudden, it just gives you this runway, this platform to be like. You know what I want to work on these today. I want to really develop my passion so that an immediate gratification at the end of the day is just not what is alluring to me anymore. I want this long-term meaning and fulfillment and that's, I think, the beautiful thing that happens. So, again, you can find that at wwweuphoricbookcom. And, if anyone's interested in working with me, I am a coach and I do offer coaching and courses and I also have a podcast myself. So you can find that at wwweuphoricafcom.

Speaker 1: 47:23

Perfect, then I will link to everything in the show notes to just make it as easy as possible for the listener. So are you ready for your quick fire questions? Yep, okay, perfect, so you can mention yours too, because it fits. But what is your favorite or most impactful book, podcast or documentary, and why?

Speaker 2: 47:44

Oh, that's a good one, and so I'm a huge reader. I read like 60 to 90 books a year, but I will go with a book that no, we both got the tickles today.

Speaker 2: 47:58

I will go with a book that kind of changed my worldview and it's called Leveraging the Power of the Universe by Mike Dooley, or Leveraging the Magic of the Universe, and it's really a book about how our thoughts create our reality and how we really are so much more co-creators in our existence here on this planet than we ever believed. And that book, I think, really just gave me the sense of like this life doesn't just happen to me, and I think that's what I really believed when I was a drinker. It's just like I could get what I could get If I got a promotion here. It's like okay, but that's all I'm going to get. And then something else has to suffer in my life, like I don't know. I just thought that the world was kind of like given to you. And what really changed my worldview when I went alcohol-free and I started really diving into personal growth was you create your reality and you have the power to create whatever reality you wish and there's no limits to it. And that idea has literally driven me.

Speaker 2: 48:53

I never thought it'd be possible to traditionally publish a book with HarperCollins and get a six-figure book deal. That was like only celebrities get something like that right. And yet I kept working towards that goal. I took every baby step that I needed to take, and now I have a book on bookshelves which is still just crazy to me. All these goals of leaving my nine to five and working for myself and traveling whenever I want, that's like. And working for myself and traveling whenever I want, that's like. Who gets to live that life? Well, now I do, and so that book and so many others obviously too just really helped me change my view that I have one life and I'm going to try my hardest to live the most beautiful, expansive life I can.

Speaker 1: 49:31

I love that. Yeah, it's so powerful. When you start to understand that you have the power to make all those decisions. Like, you can design your own life for sure. So next question for you what is your best toxin-free or eco-friendly living tip?

Speaker 2: 49:51

every fruit and vegetable in it almost every day and I think that really helps me because, you know, even if dinner kind of gets away from me maybe, dinner is like a pizza party. You know, at least I know today I got in all those greens, all those fruits, all those you know, maybe herbs or spices that were also put into it. So it's almost like a hack to me, like I can just drink all of that. But I love having a really big fruit and vegetable smoothie every single day.

Speaker 1: 50:17

Love that Awesome. Okay. Last question for you what does living consciously mean to you?

Speaker 2: 50:24

I think it means living awake, and I think that that is something that is not a given in our society. I think a life is, yes, short, but also kind of long, and we fall asleep at the wheel and we fall into our routines, we fall into the status quo and we really fall into the behavior of what is normal around us. So, like, our lives are usually very similar to the five people we see the most, and we just think that that's life. And so falling asleep at the wheel, you know, is doing things because other people expect them to you, like, okay, I'm supposed to go to college and then I'm supposed to rise up the corporate ladder and blah, blah, blah, and then never asking yourself is this what I really want? Or I'm just supposed to eat a certain way, or I'm supposed to drink a certain way, it doesn't matter what it is.

Speaker 2: 51:06

And so I really think living consciously is kind of waking up from that slumber and really reevaluating all parts of your life and really becoming a conscious, introspective person about how you want your life and your decisions and your actions to align with your deeper values not societies and your bigger dreams not societies.

Speaker 2: 51:26

And I think that can come in so many gorgeous ways, when you play into the authenticity of your spirit instead of just doing what everyone else is, whether it's what you eat or how you treat the planet, or what you drink or what you do for a career, and I think the world would be much better off if we all leaned into that. But I think, sadly, in so many ways we are asleep until we're woken up and that waking up can often be abrupt and harsh. Some people get really horrible diagnoses and it's like a cancer scare is what finally wakes you up, or changing your relationship with alcohol, or losing someone. But so many things like happen almost, I think, in a way to pivot us from that, that sleepwalking we were doing, into a life filled with intentionality and purpose.

Speaker 1: 52:13

Absolutely, man. What a beautiful response. I love it. Thank you so much, carolina. This has been phenomenal. I am so grateful for your time, I'm grateful for the opportunity to connect with you, and I'm grateful for all of the tools and resources that one you shared on this episode with the listener, but also in your book and your daily work. I want to commend you for everything that you're doing, so thank you.

Speaker 2: 52:39

No, thank you so much. It was such an honor and pleasure and I love being able to speak with you and even hear some of your experiences of being a mostly non-drinker in this world. I mean, it's so crazy how much status it attaches to people and I think that we all made that up and we can change all of that, you know, and we can especially change that for future generations.

Speaker 1: 52:53

I love it. I totally agree, and just got to support each other, so love it, yeah Well, thank you for being here. I appreciate it, thank you.