Ep 2: Tips and Tricks for Moderating Your Alcohol Intake During the Holidays

The holidays are known for being a time of overindulgence - but as Catholics, we know Advent is a time to fast from certain things, so we can prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. For some people, it's sugar ( ⬅️ME!) and for others it's alcohol.

If you are looking to drink less, or stop drinking entirely, this holiday season then this podcast episode is for you.

I'm sharing 5 simple and practical ways to drink less during the holidays - or any time of the year!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Limit Alcohol Consumption During the Holidays
• 13:06 Finding Ways to Stay Sober

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Catholic Subriety Podcast, the go-to resource for women seeking to have a deeper understanding of the role alcohol plays in their lives, women who are looking to drink less or not at all for any reason. I am your host, kristy Walker. I'm a wife, mom and a Joyfield Catholic, and I am the Catholic Subriety Coach, and I am so glad you're here Today. I'm going to be providing some tips on how you can get through the holidays drinking less for whatever reason. Now I myself am a recovering alcoholic, so I don't drink at all. But I can certainly identify with wanting to moderate certain things. For me it would be sweets. I tend to hit Thanksgiving and think all bets are off and pretty soon all the delicious treats of Christmas come rolling in and it's really hard to manage my mind around that and tell myself you know, kind of moderate. But then the other part of my brain is like, oh, this only comes around once a year and you love all of these comfort cookies and treats. So I do get needing to moderate. Now I do work with women who are, like me, in recovery, but I also work with women who are looking to get sober for a variety of different reasons. Maybe they just notice that their alcohol use has been escalating or they want to stop drinking for health reasons or whatever it is. There are really good reasons just to cut back, and you don't have to be an alcoholic to or recovering alcoholic to need to do that. So I thought today, since we're so close to the holidays as I'm recording this, that I would go ahead and provide just a few tips on that. The other thing is, I'm really excited because I just finished up a free guide called Step Into Subriety, your guide to drinking less and living more. So this is going to help you just kind of get curious about the role the alcohol plays in your life and kind of just see when you use it, how you use it, and maybe monitor that for a little while. It'll be a great tool for anybody who is looking just to try out sobriety or just not drinking or moderating drinking for a little bit in the new year. So I hope you enjoy it. That's my gift to you, merry Christmas, and please let me know if it helps you in any way or if you notice anything that maybe you'd like to see in it or needs tweaking. I am so all about constructive criticism as well, so that is welcomed.

Speaker 1: 3:08

All right, let's dive on in to some tips on how you can limit your alcohol consumption during the holidays. So my first tip is just to set a limit. Think about setting a limit with alcohol as a budget you have. Maybe you're only going to drink at this party, or maybe you are only going to drink once a week or on the weekends, or whatever those limits are for you. One of the best ways is just to decide how many drinks you will have and then stick to it, and once you have reached your limit, then just switch to water or another non-alcoholic beverage.

Speaker 1: 3:58

The second tip that I have for you is just to check in with yourself when you are reaching for that glass of wine or whatever it is, and ask yourself what do I really want? Am I drinking because my family is driving me crazy? Am I drinking because I'm celebrating? Am I drinking because this is an activity that I usually do when I'm doing something else, like wrapping presents? Are you looking for a reward? Are you bored? Are you like trying to get a buzz? Or maybe you're trying to get better sleep? Whatever it is, just start getting very curious about the role that alcohol plays in your life and why you are reaching for a glass and when you're doing that. Obviously, if it's at a party a lot of times, or a holiday yeah, like a holiday party or something it's just something that we do to socialize and fit in. But if you are drinking outside of that, then maybe it's time just to kind of get curious and ask yourself why that is Okay.

Speaker 1: 5:11

My third tip is actually not my tip. I just heard it on the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart and I hadn't heard this before, but it makes total sense. And her suggestion is to be hydrated before you start drinking. So she's not saying alternate drinks, which is another technique where you drink a glass of wine and then you have a glass of water just to kind of slow down your drinking. This is different. It is actually being hydrated throughout the day, making sure that you're not dehydrated when you decide to have a drink, because what happens is, if you're already dehydrated and then you have an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol actually dehydrates you more and then makes you even more thirsty. So then you drink more and it just kind of becomes like this vicious cycle of drinking more because you're thirsty and then it's dehydrating you, and on and on and on. So if you make sure that you are well hydrated before that again throughout the day, and then, yeah, you can even alternate drinks while you're out there, just to keep hydrated, or while you're out there, while you're drinking to keep hydrated, and that will help slow you down and hopefully prevent you from becoming too intoxicated and to help you drink less.

Speaker 1: 6:50

My fourth tip for cutting back on drinking through the holidays is to actually bring some of your own drinks and make sure that they are a non-alcoholic alternative. Now, this is something that I always do, because when I go to a party, I don't necessarily know what non-alcoholic beverages they're going to have to drink. It might be soda, and I'm not a big soda drinker. Maybe it's just plain water, and I'm kind of picky about my water, like I don't like tap water, so I'll bring like sparkling water or something else. There's also I mean, honestly, in the last few years, the non-alcoholic beers and spirits and wine industry has just exploded and it's actually really, really good.

Speaker 1: 7:45

Even people that I know who do drink will sometimes partake in non-alcoholic beer so that they can have the taste of it, which I'm one of those people. I like the taste of beer and it doesn't trigger me. It does trigger some people but it doesn't trigger me. So they're so good. Like I just had was just introduced to Guinness zero percent, so there's no alcohol in it but it tastes just like a Guinness. It's so good and nobody knows. I mean, I'm pretty. I'm kind of the opposite way, like some people will drink non-alcoholic beer and wine and such because they don't necessarily want to appear different than the other people at a party or social event.

Speaker 1: 8:31

I, on the other hand, have told so many people that I am in recovery that I don't ever want somebody to see me with a non-alcoholic beer and think that it's a real beer or real glass of wine or an alcoholic one. And so I Like tell people but there are so many alcohol-free alternatives Out there and you can even make really fun mocktails and things like that. It doesn't have to be a Shirley Temple. I just when my husband, I, celebrated our anniversary this year, we went to this really nice restaurant and they actually had some wonderful mocktails on there. I had a mojito and it was so good and it looked so pretty and I felt so fancy. So you can still have fun, you can still be festive, and you can do that by reducing or eliminating your alcohol intake.

Speaker 1: 9:25

My fifth and final tip on reducing your alcohol intake this holiday season, or eliminating it altogether, is Just to remind yourself why you're doing it. Why did you decide that Maybe you should take a closer look at how much you're drinking? Will reducing your alcohol intake help you towards your fitness or health goals? Will it help you be more present with your family? Will reducing your alcohol consumption help you just wake up Happier and, without a hangover, reduce your anxiety? Help you sleep? There's a lot of benefits to not drinking or greatly reducing your alcohol intake. So I highly recommend you know researching those and taking time to you know, delve deep into why you started exploring it in the first place. Okay, well, those are my five tips, but before I close the show out, I want to ask you a few questions to ponder. Just, you can play this back if you don't have a pen and paper handy, or if you're driving or walking or something, but really think about these questions in In relation to your drinking and your desire to want to cut back or quit altogether.

Speaker 1: 10:56

So one of the things that I ask my clients is how much of your life revolves around drinking. Just think about your days, your weeks, your months, and you can even just kind of track that in a journal and See when you drink, why you drink, what feelings come up for you before you drink and then after. The other thing that I asked my clients is what will it cost you if you continue Drinking at the level that you are now? Are the hangovers getting to be a bit much? Do you feel bloated or like you're gaining weight? Do you have poor sleep like? Do you find yourself Drinking alcohol and being able to fall asleep easy, but like clockwork you wake up at 3 am and you can't get back to sleep. Do you feel bad knowing that you are driving your kids to school with a mild hangover? Do you miss moments that you know that you aren't gonna get back? Do you have anxiety, depression, do you feel dehydrated? These are all things to consider when you're counting the cost of your drinking.

Speaker 1: 12:16

The next question and the last question that I'll ask you is why do you want to escape your reality? What is it about drinking that you feel is Is necessary, or how do you feel that it is serving you? And then really examine that to find out if, if indeed it is, or if it's gotten to the point where it is no longer serving you. Can you think of some ways that you can do instead of drink when those feelings come up? So, let's say, the kids are being really loud and it's hard to even concentrate on your own thoughts and so automatically you reach for that glass of wine just to kind of have a chill out moment or a moment to yourself.

Speaker 1: 13:06

Can you put in your AirPods and listen to a podcast or music? Can you just kind of retreat to your room for a little bit just to kind of have some quiet and some peace so that you can journal? Can you take the kids to the park, get them, maybe they're fighting, but if you load everybody in the car this was one of my favorite things to do when my kids were little I would just load everybody up in the car, take them to the park, let them run off their energy. They would go, they would have fun, I would feel better about it. Yeah, so that was one of the things I did. Can you engage with them by playing a game together or reading a book, whatever it is for that particular situation, just kind of maybe having a list of like 30 to 50 things that you could do instead of drinking, depending on what circumstances arise that prompt your drinking, and then you can just refer to that when you feel the need to reach for a glass.

Speaker 1: 14:08

Well, that does it for this episode of the Catholic sobriety podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I would invite you to share it with a friend who might also get value from it as well, and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a thing. I am the Catholic sobriety coach, and if you would like to learn how to work with me or learn more about the coaching that I offer, visit my website, thecatholicsobrietycoachcom. Follow me on Instagram at theCatholic sobriety coach. I look forward to speaking to you next time and remember I am here for you, I am praying for you. You are not alone.