The Importance of Nutrition and Balancing Brain Chemistry in Sobriety with Janey Lee Grace

Episode 151:The Importance of Nutrition and Balancing Brain Chemistry in Sobriety with Janey Lee Grace

In episode 151 of the Sober Vibes podcast, Courtney Andersen welcomes Janey Lee Grace, and they discuss the importance of nutrition and balancing brain chemistry in sobriety. 

What you will learn in this episode:

• Janey's story 
• The importance of nutrition in sobriety 
• 3 easy tips to start incorporating better nutrition 
• How proper nutrition balances brain chemistry 

Janey Lee Grace is an author, TEDx speaker, coach, and podcast host of the Alcohol-Free Life. 

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Transcript

Janey Lee Grace: 0:00

Music Playing飛法 ب双Inaudible with boyfriend song of without love for the rest of its existence.

Courtney Andersen : 0:31

Hey, welcome to the Sober Vibes podcast. I am your host and sober coach, courtney Anderson. You are listening to episode 151. We have a great guest on today talking about the importance of nutrition and balancing brain chemistry in sobriety. Janalee Grace is our guest today and she is an author, the host of the podcast Alcohol-Free Life. She is also a coach as well and she is a TEDx talk speaker. I think she might be our first one that we've had Great, great, great conversation about nutrition and how it helps in the process of sobriety and continuous sobriety.

Courtney Andersen : 1:13

Now, I don't want you to think that this talk is all going to be like you need to have this many portions, you can't eat sugar. It's none of that. It's really about adding in and making more mindful choices because, listen, at the end of the day, when you do get into sobriety and you quit drinking alcohol, you will crave sugar. If sometimes you just need a cupcake, okay. Just sometimes in life you need to smash a cupcake, and that is okay. But also, too, to get you through the week and to make you feel the best. Right, making yourself feel the best doesn't mean that it's perfect. What's your idea of making yourself feel the best? Is that more water? Is that adding in some more vegetables to your day, right? So we talk a lot about that and how in the portents of nutrition and balancing your brain chemistry.

Courtney Andersen : 2:10

You can also find all of Janae's information in the show notes below. If you have not already taken advantage of the $50 discount for my next level Sober Support Self-Guided Program, make sure you do that. That offer is valid until October 14th of 2023. Use code SOBER at checkout. The link is in the show notes below with all the details. Again, that's a self-guided program. It's all audio like a podcast so you can just sit there and listen to it and it's good for anyone who's starting at day one up until six months, and you also have lifetime access to that. Okay, if you haven't already, please rate, review and subscribe to the show, and I hope you enjoy today's episode. Hi, janae, welcome to the Sober Vibes podcast. Hi, I love to be with you. Fantastic, I'm happy that we are talking again. I was a guest on your show, so I'm glad you are now on the Sober Vibes podcast. I know Fantastic Swaps yes, they work out. So why don't you tell us when you got sober?

Janey Lee Grace: 3:18

Yeah, so I never had a rock bottom moment. I was what we now know that lovely term gray area drinkers. I think I was definitely one of those for many, many years and I was one of those people that would just go kind of round the block. And then I would have a period where I stopped just for a little while, if I perhaps was on a bit of a health kick or whatever, but then I'd go back to it and this really went on forever and a day. And I remember in the last period of time before I stopped drinking, which was almost six years ago, I remember having some days when I would just think this is utterly bizarre. It does not fit with who you are.

Janey Lee Grace: 4:00

I was quite well known at the time as someone who talked a lot about holistic living. I wrote I'd written five books on holistic living, so I spoke a lot about organic food and good mindset and looking after yourself. I was a hay house author and none of this fitted with this. What I knew was going on, which was that I was waking up at 3am hating myself, and just this voice in my head would say what are you doing? How can you have, how can you have done this again. It was never so bad. You know, in inverted commas, that I had a hangover or a DUI or even Mr Day Off Work, but I was under par the whole time and I knew it had to stop. But I was caught in that alcohol trap. So when I finally stopped, yes, it was the very end of December 2017. So, going into 2018 and, thank goodness, that's my only regret. I'll start there. My only regrets I didn't do this sooner.

Courtney Andersen : 4:59

Which is often the case of everybody's regret, right like when they have one regret.

Janey Lee Grace: 5:05

it's like I wish I would have started this the sooner, but I do believe that it hits you when it needs to, when you're ready, because it's such a lifestyle change it is, and I obviously wasn't ready before, although I think you know, I do think, looking back, partly that's because I just haven't been made aware of this concept of gray area drinkers. I didn't. I had no idea that there was anybody else who felt like I did. I only knew people on the surface who were seemingly completely fine yesterday, seemed to drink a lot, but they seem completely fine. I now realize they just want talking about it just like I wasn't, but they seem completely fine.

Janey Lee Grace: 5:44

So I thought of them as Happy social drinkers, didn't have any kind of a problem. And then in my awareness I vaguely knew of, you know, a friend, of a friend of a friend, who was clinically dependent and needed rehabilitation, and I didn't fit either camp, I really didn't. So I had no idea that there was this middle ground and certainly no one had ever told me that life is better without alcohol. That's the key, I think. So that's why the work we're both doing is so important, because we've got to spread that message.

Courtney Andersen : 6:15

Well yeah, cause alcohol is the only. It's the one socially acceptable drug.

Janey Lee Grace: 6:20

Yeah, exactly that.

Courtney Andersen : 6:21

We have to still justify not taking it right and that has been embedded in, ingrained in society for decades upon decades, upon decades, upon decades. How would you define gray area drinker?

Janey Lee Grace: 6:35

So I think a gray area drinker is somebody who is not at rock bottom, is not clinically dependent, but also is not completely fine. You know, it would be someone typically who is Conscious now, aware now that they're drinking more than they want to. So they have periods of time when they think this isn't quite right. They typically will have had periods of time when they've stopped successfully for a short or long period of time. Whatever, they may not even be daily drinkers. They may be people who binge drink or whatever. And in terms of the, how much are they drinking? Well, I think that's a huge remit. It might be that they're drinking a lot. It might be that they're drinking a couple of glass wine a week, but for them they know that's too much. So you know it's a pretty wide, but it really is someone who doesn't fall. You know it's somewhere on that spectrum. I think it really is a spectrum that we have here that we have to recognize. In the UK we.

Janey Lee Grace: 7:32

That spectrum is really not recognized, certainly not by the medical profession. If you go, if you rock up to a GP I think we spoke about this when I chatted to you on my podcast. But you know, if you rock up to a GP and you are brave enough to say that you're a bit worried about your drinking, their mindset immediately goes to oh okay, are you clinically dependent? Are you at rock bottom? You don't look at you seem all right, so you're not. Therefore, end off. Nothing to do. No need to do anything, no more. No further conversation, just have an alcohol free day. But of course we know that it's a spectrum and if more people could recognize this and recognize, hold on a minute, I'm somewhere on this spectrum. I don't have to wait till I get to rock bottom, you know, before I step off.

Courtney Andersen : 8:21

Yeah, I do believe. I am a firm believer that we all, whatever end of the spectrum you are, because it's always the physical dependency that's looked upon like, well, you don't have this physical dependence, but I believe that all of us have some type of emotional dependence on alcohol?

Janey Lee Grace: 8:39

Oh, absolutely without a doubt, but they're not looking to address that either. But yes, of course, which is why you know we find it a lot harder than we. You know a lot of us kind of women who think we're fairly confident and successful, and you know we're pretty good at knowing how to do stuff. Suddenly we find that we can't actually just stop. It's not as simple as we thought it was going to be. It's not quite like just, you know, doing a juice detox for a couple of weeks. It's a whole bunch of other things, and we can often find ourselves quite surprised that we can't just stop. And then that's when we start going oh my goodness, what's wrong with me? What is wrong with me? We forget to look at the fact that actually it's alcohol is highly addictive.

Courtney Andersen : 9:22

Well, yeah, caught in that trap, right, well, and then plus two if you bring it, you know, to your GP or to your therapist and say I think I might have this, and then you have this figure who's this authority telling you? Oh no, you don't you know. That's why the medical field needs to open their expansion just on more of truly listening, like this is what your person's telling you and that it's not. You know why would anyone just be like oh, I have a problem, I think I have a problem with the drink.

Janey Lee Grace: 9:52

No, exactly. Yeah, they should be congratulating us. But you know and saying, well, that's great that you've identified this. You know, and even if it's not their experience, you know to be able to say, well, that's great, you've identified it and let's have a look where you might connect with people who talk about this stuff and how you can look for some support and some help and some connection, you know, rather than just carry on drinking. It seems to work fine, Right.

Courtney Andersen : 10:18

Exactly, exactly. Well, and that's the whole thing, because their perspective could be that they don't understand it.

Janey Lee Grace: 10:24

They don't get it.

Courtney Andersen : 10:26

They could have an issue in themselves and just like, no, you're good, or they just they think that alcohol really is not a problem. So yeah, exactly. There needs a lot of help in that field. But, so you have written a ton of books on on wellness.

Janey Lee Grace: 10:40

Yeah, yeah, so my first book was goodness ever, such a long time ago. I sometimes joke that I was writing about coconut oil and kale before they had their own publicists.

Janey Lee Grace: 10:50

I was way ahead of my time. My first book, imperfectly Natural Woman, came out in 2006. So I really was talking about a lot of the stuff that has become much more mainstream now. I mean much more, but back then it really wasn't actually. So, yes, I've been writing these kind of books for a long time.

Janey Lee Grace: 11:08

I've always found it very difficult to niche down to just one topic and you know, so many people have said to me why don't you just write a book? Or just do you know stuff around beauty, natural skincare and beauty, or why don't you just do something around what? But you know, I can't, because it really is. For me, it's really the holistic picture, which is kind of the irony of why I you know why I was stepping around the elephant in the room. That was alcohol. But it really is a holistic picture. I really think that you know, and often once we stop drinking, that's when we start to open up to lots of these things. But it really is important to notice what you're eating. Of course it is. Nutrition is key, but it's also important to know what's going on with your mindset, you know, and similarly what's in your environment. So for me, that word holistic I don't love the word or anything. I don't know if anyone does, but it's the only one that really does include it all.

Courtney Andersen : 12:00

Yes, absolutely so. Share with us today about the importance of nutrition in sobriety and recovery.

Janey Lee Grace: 12:09

Yeah, I mean, I think this absolutely can't be underestimated and I think it's an area that a lot of people skip for a couple of reasons. One is that people might typically think oh, you know, I think I'll stop drinking or I'll do sober October or dry January or one of those months. And if I'm going to stop drinking, oh, I may as well lose a few pounds in weight, won't that be good? So I'll stop eating as well. Terrible idea, you know. Number one stopping drinking is about so much more than not drinking. It most certainly is not in any way connected to calories. So forget that. You are not going to lose any weight. But if you are, you'll put it all straight back. So forget about that. That. It's absolutely a terrible idea. Focus only on on quitting the booze, focus on where everything you're gaining. But number two I think people often forget that the importance of properly taking care of themselves in those early weeks.

Janey Lee Grace: 13:11

Actually, the reality is we know that the more you have really good nutrition in place, the more it can help you to balance the brain chemistry. And when we first stop drinking, I mean there's a lot going on. Both you know, physiologically and emotionally there's a lot going on. So if we say for argument's sake that you know, for the average gray area drinker, you know the alcohol leaves the body after a few days. So we don't have really particularly. We're not, we don't have physical cravings per se, but we absolutely have this physiological response whereby our brain chemistry is very confused because it's if you can imagine, there's a little person in there it's saying hold on, where's my dopamine hit that you've been providing me with at 5.30, 6pm every evening? What's going on here? You know where's my serotonin. You know you usually help me relax a little bit by now. What's going on? So it's literally all over the place and you know there are a few things we can do to help support that brain chemistry, but by far the best thing we can possibly do is to help support that brain chemistry with really good nutrition, and what I mean by that is real food.

Janey Lee Grace: 14:33

So this isn't rocket science. You know I'm not recommending that anyone has ridiculously fancy diet. It's far from it. What we're talking about here is nothing faddy. So if you are someone who typically has a very picky, fatty diet, or if you're fasting for periods of time or whatever, this would be a really good time to forget all of that and really go back to basics, just for four weeks, four to six weeks, just in that initial period to support you over this hump where your brain chemistry is so completely shot.

Janey Lee Grace: 15:09

So when I talk about real food, I literally mean real food, and preferably three decent meals a day. Eat properly. Try not to skip breakfast. You might have people who skip breakfast. Oh my goodness, it's so good for you to actually break your fast. That's why it's called that. But have real food and preferably so that you can build up some of those building blocks. Have a little bit of protein with every meal. It doesn't have to be a steak, a handful of nuts, but a little bit of protein, which will really help to start to support the amino acids and it will just help everything start to feel better, as well as good fats, hugely, hugely important and in turn, when you start to do that, will help you with what will almost certainly come flying in, which is sugar cravings.

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Janey Lee Grace: 17:44

I don't know if it happened for you, but it happens for a lot of people and in fact it can carry on.

Janey Lee Grace: 17:50

I've got people in the Sober Club who will say to me you know, I've been sober for over a year and in truth, my sugar intake is just at hand. It's a big topic, the sugar one. So I can't necessarily get into the whole of the sugar thing now. But, safe to say, when you first stop drinking, trying to quit sugar literally quit sugar at the same time is not a good idea Again, just like we're trying to lose weight or even people who are stopping smoking at the same time, it's not really a great idea. Focus on the most important piece, which is stopping drinking, and accept to a certain degree that you may get a bit of a sugar head on for a little while. Having said that, you really don't want to make yourself feel worse than you already do. So we know that if you have ridiculous amounts of sugar, it's just going to make you sluggish and tired and exhausted. We just know it's not good for us. So, yes, accept that, because the brain chemistry is all out of whack, because you're not getting your sugar hit in a verticom is in the form of the wine you were probably consuming. You probably are going to get a bit of the cravings, Accept that and have decent in a verticom is sugar swaps. So yes, accept that you may have a bit more of a sweet tooth than before and prep ahead for that and do it with a little bit of kind of TLC in mind so you can think to yourself okay, well, what would actually nourish me here? That will also sort out my sweet tooth.

Janey Lee Grace: 19:28

So quick examples are things like dates. If you get dates and you pop them in the freezer, they're just great. They taste like little chocolates. If you have some squares of dark chocolate with a couple of almonds, it's a real treat. If you have a few nuts with a few raisins, or I mean, that's the healthy version of this stuff. And then, for the times that you just need a biscuit, have a biscuit. It's not the end of the world, right?

Janey Lee Grace: 19:57

It really isn't the end of the world. Try not to have 18 donuts because you'll feel terrible, but have what you need to have and just be a little bit bright about it. But if you realize, if you think to yourself okay, so realistically, if I'm completely satiated with a really good meal that's had got lots of really good fats, if you've got loads of great, great fats like avocado, or you've had really lovely eggs and sourdough bread and you know whatever else you eat after a meal like that, if it really is a proper satiating meal. You often don't fancy really rubbishy sugar. Yeah, so it's all about putting in more of the proper nutrition so that you've got less craving.

Janey Lee Grace: 20:44

You know, for the sugar Often, you know, when we crave wine in the middle of the afternoon or whatever, when we first stop drinking, it's not that we're craving the wine at all, it's that we just want a sugar hit. We're either hungry or we want the sugar hit. And a really great tip is to make a green juice. If you go and make a green juice or a smoothie, I mean nobody but nobody fenses alcohol after that or even rubbish sugar after that, right.

Courtney Andersen : 21:12

Yeah, I do have to say lately I've just something that I've just done personally, and I like them more in the summertime, but so now we're coming up in the fall, but for I don't know, I'm probably at like two, two months straight at this point of having a green juice in the afternoon yeah, I'm sorry, green smoothie and it has really honestly helped me. Like I have not felt any type of where I'm like oh my God, I'm craving sweets like I did before, so I have noticed something of the consistency of that.

Courtney Andersen : 21:46

Yeah, fantastic.

Janey Lee Grace: 21:48

It is such a cool tip and if you know you're going to have that coming on, then make some, make a batch and pop it in the freezer or whatever, because it makes, because you know it's goodness, it's straight to the cells, it will give you a real lift or real pick me up, and you don't want sugar after it. So that's, you know, that's the great thing. The other important thing just to say quickly on the sugar front is that you know we tend to forget that often when we crave sugar, rather like with alcohol, it's nothing to do really with the food at all, or it. You know, it's a better question to ask ourselves would be is it that I'm looking for sweetness in my life is actually the sweetness I'm craving? And if we can kind of acknowledge that, then sometimes we can go Okay, maybe there's something else I could do here that will give me a little bit of sweetness in my life. Perhaps it's not about consuming anything at all.

Courtney Andersen : 22:46

Right, that's a good one, that's a good one. So what would be your three tips really on tips really on balancing the brain chemistry? Yeah, once you quit drinking.

Janey Lee Grace: 22:59

Yeah, so. So I'd say right, right from the very beginning you know, prepare to eat really well, so ditch the diets. Make sure you've got your online shopping or you can get to the shops. You're going to need proper food. So if you're working really long hours, prep your meals. So literally, prep ahead three meals a day, ideally proper food, a little bit of protein with every meal. That's the real basics.

Janey Lee Grace: 23:23

Then the next one is get yourself gendered up on some of these sugar swaps, some of these cool little ideas. You know whether that's making nice smoothies or making yourself some little energy balls, or even just investing in the best dark chocolate you can find. So think, you know, give a little bit of time to the kind of sugar piece. And then the third tip would be to make sure that you've got something that you know goes in place of the alcohol. So you know, my expression is keep the ritual, change the ingredients. So you know we are going to want something.

Janey Lee Grace: 23:58

Often we get in from work and you know the other people around us or our partner, they're chinking a glass, and if we just have a cup of tea, it just doesn't cut it. You know we kind of think oh, you know there's a little bit of us that feels as though we're deprived. Yeah, so have something in a nice glass. It might be sparkling water, it might be an alcohol-free drink, if that's something that you want, it might be a kombucha. But have something in a nice glass so that you help that little part of the unconscious mind to not feel deprived.

Courtney Andersen : 24:26

I love it. Those are great tips. And I do have to say and I still do it during the holidays you know I don't drinking out of wine glass does not trigger me, and especially early on during the holidays I would just get this it would be like a ginger, ale, cranberry mix and I would put it in a wine glass when I would be baking during the Christmas season, and butterily I it, I loved it.

Janey Lee Grace: 24:49

Yeah, it felt good. I mean, it's utterly crazy when you think about it, it is, but a glass. A glass, a piece of glassware, needs to be named after a drink. How crazy is that we need to take this, take back control.

Courtney Andersen : 25:01

We name them right, right, exactly, no, I know, but I mean, those tips are, and those tips are easy to do, it's not overwhelming. You're not giving, like you know, this type of advice where it's like, oh, that sounds too much.

Janey Lee Grace: 25:16

Yeah, exactly, it's very easy.

Courtney Andersen : 25:17

And then plus nowadays, like just with simple, like baked goods and stuff you really can now with, you can switch out ingredients. Where there's better ingredients in it, yeah, and it just it's so much better, where then you don't feel like complete garbage within hours of eating it. So I have this great recipe. If anyone wants it, I will actually link it to the show notes, but I they're these little blueberry muffins and they're all. It's all clean and it really does help. So I will link that. I call him my mama muffins for my son, so he loves them, but it works. It works so right. Well, where can people find you? Thank you so much for all of this information today. It is very helpful and I know the audience will love it. But where can we find you?

Janey Lee Grace: 26:02

Sure yeah, everything is at thesobaclubcom, and you can find me on social media at genuinelygrace. I'm quite easy to find.

Courtney Andersen : 26:10

And you have your own podcast as well, so I will link it. I do, yeah.

Janey Lee Grace: 26:12

The podcast is alcohol free life. Yeah, thank you so much for being a guest?

Courtney Andersen : 26:16

Oh yes, absolutely. So I will link everything in the show notes below and thanks so much for talking to us today. Thank you, I appreciate it.