Live from New Haven, CT: Pizza is Recovery, Discover How the Perfect Pizza Mirrors Lasting Recovery

We explore the surprising parallels between pizza and recovery, using the iconic pizzas of New Haven, Connecticut as our inspiration. Through this unexpected metaphor, we reveal how the components of a great pizza—from burnt spots to golden crust, sauce, and cheese—mirror the essential elements of a successful recovery journey.

• The burnt spots on pizza represent our past—they must be acknowledged and accepted as part of what makes us who we are
• The perfectly cooked golden-brown crust symbolizes our progress in recovery—working the steps and finding serenity
• Different sauces represent the various relationships in our lives that add flavor and push us forward
• The cheese represents life's joys—hobbies, travel, family, pets—that make recovery worthwhile
• Recovery requires going through difficult times to reach your best life, just as pizza needs high heat to become delicious
• Your EQ is your IQ—you cannot outthink an emotional issue

Join our Facebook group, Recovery Freedom Circle, where you can discuss the steps, recovery, life goals, dreams, and find support for any struggles you're facing.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to 1% in Recovery
• 1:09 Pizza and Recovery Connection
• 2:35 Life Lessons from Pizza Crust
• 4:29 Sauce, Cheese, and Life's Flavors
• 5:59 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Ah, here we are. Live New Haven, connecticut, home of great pizza, connecticut. Welcome again to another episode of the 1% in Recovery podcast, where we encourage you to laugh every day. Work hard, work hard in recovery, work hard in relationships, work hard in your job, your business, school. Just work and to love unconditionally. Just put much more love out there and watch more love return. Remember, recovery is beautiful. Your EQ is your IQ. You cannot outthink an emotional issue. You cannot outthink an emotional issue. Now, remember, join the Facebook group Recovery Freedom Circle, where there's a community where you can participate in talking about the steps, recovery, your best life goals, dreams, anything you might be struggling with, and let people chime in and help you. That is how you recover. We all help each other.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Now let's jump into this week's episode Pizza recovery. What do they have in common? Well, first off, let's talk about New Haven, connecticut, which is home of some of the most iconic pizza places here in America. Of the most iconic pizza places here in America, frank Pepe started in 1925, 100 years old today this year. Also, sally's A Pizza and Modern A Pizza three well-known establishments in the pizza world. I had the anchovy cheese pizza from Frank Pepe. I had the mozzarella tomato sauce from Sally's a pizza, and I will have a cheese pizza for modern pizza here after this podcast. But let's see what does pizza especially delicious pizza, which is mainly crust sauce cheese. It's not all this extra toppings, it's simple. It's the Italian way, it is the true pizza way, something to grab a slice and go as you continue on your day. But what makes a great pizza? It's the same thing that happens in recovery On the bottom, you're going to have a certain amount of burnt places, burnt spots.

Speaker 1: 2:45

To me, the burnt spots resemble your past. You always have to acknowledge and accept your past, just like you got to accept the parts that for a perfect pizza to be cooked, you need certain pieces of it to be burnt to get to that right hot temperature. Not everything is going to cook evenly, just like your life. Everything is going to cook evenly, just like your life. Your life is not going to cook evenly and there will be bits and pieces that will be successes and some will be failures, and in all that you go on and you live your life and that's what makes life so memorable. The struggles and to me that's the burnt spots, and that's what makes burnt spots so tasty is. Our struggles help define us and we get to become the people we are because of those burnt spots. Then you have parts of the crust which are just perfectly cooked, just to that golden brown. That's in recovery.

Speaker 1: 4:03

When you're taking strides, when you're doing the steps, when you are really getting this self-awareness, you're becoming honest, you're having that hope, that faith, the courage to state your feelings and what you want in life and then you just kind of get on that almost at times, cruise control. You get into that peace, you get into that serenity and that allows you to keep growing. And then you get into that delicious part. Nothing like a good red sauce, white sauce, could even be a vodka sauce or even a pesto sauce. I mean, there's so many delicious sauces but that's what makes life interesting.

Speaker 1: 4:45

What are your goals, what is your? Who is in your life? And all those different sauces are the different types of people in your life and they all add flavor and that's what you need. You need to have those sauces. Those are the people that will push you forward and to enjoy life.

Speaker 1: 5:05

And then the cheese. The cheese is the kind of soft gooey always makes you smile. Who doesn't love eating cheese and smile, and that's your hobbies, your life, your travel, your workouts, everything else that just brings your joy, your kids, your pets. So always remember it all comes together the burnt spots, the golden brown spots, the sauce, the cheese. That is life, that is pizza, that is recovery, that is recovery and that's what I want for each and every one to keep stepping into recovery and realizing you have to go through what they call the suck we're using military terms, or you can just call it just go through the shit, but you just got to get through it, so then you can live your best life. Always remember life is beautiful. That will conclude this episode of the 1% in Recovery podcast.