Thriving Alcohol-Free with Mocktail Mom

EP 124 | What I Wish I'd Known Before Quitting Alcohol, Deb Podlogar

• Deb, Mocktail Mom

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In this solo episode of Thriving Alcohol-Free with Mocktail Mom®, Deb Podlogar shares her personal journey to sobriety, reflecting on the lessons learned and the support she received along the way. She emphasizes the importance of community, the benefits of alcohol-free living, and introduces the Mocktail Challenge, a program designed to celebrate non-alcoholic options and foster connection among participants.


Use code OCTOBER for $10 off The Mocktail Challenge 

Use code MOCKTAILMOM for 40% Deb's favorite electrolyte drink of all time, Instant Hydration


Deb shares her experience of becoming alcohol-free unexpectedly.
She emphasizes that sobriety does not mean sacrificing fun.
The clarity and emotional stability gained from sobriety are invaluable.
Deb highlights the importance of community support in the sober journey.
She encourages listeners to embrace their own path to sobriety without fear.
Drinking less is a significant achievement, regardless of labels.
Deb discusses the joy of creating mocktails and non-alcoholic drinks.
She introduces the Mocktail Challenge as a way to celebrate sobriety.
The episode promotes the idea that being alcohol-free can be fun and fulfilling.



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Click HERE to join the Mocktail Challenge! Use code OCTOBER to save $10

You are loved. Big Time Cheers!

Speaker 1:

Okay, hey friends, it's Deb. Welcome back to Thriving Alcohol-Free with Mocktail. Mom, I'm Debbie Podmogger. How are you? I'm so happy you're here today. I'm so happy to be connecting with you. I have heard from several of you we're going to do a solo episode today. It's actually just you, me, the microphone and, of course, princess Queen Coco is asleep under the desk.

Speaker 1:

You might hear her snoring. She is sound asleep. I just looked at her. She, coco, is asleep under the desk. You might hear her snoring. She is sound asleep. I just looked at her. She's still sleeping, even though I just said her name.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, we are full on into empty nesting life. We are on week six of Lily, my youngest daughter, being off at college. I don't know if it really counts as empty nesting, though, because our dog, coco, is quite the high maintenance, perfect dog. You know, like when you had toddlers I don't know if you or you know whatever if you're an aunt or an uncle and you go over and the kids, you know, you go to the bathroom and that's like now they're like oh, now I need to go and talk to you. Now I need to go, knock on the door, bring you my toys, tell you everything you know, make sure I have your attention. Right now, when you're in the bathroom. That's literally Coco. I mean, she cannot be without me. I go into the bathroom and if I do not close the door completely, as if I have a toddler in this house, she will just push her way right on in, the door opens and I'm like well, hello, and here we are, together, we're having a good time. So I don't know, I'm not really an empty nester. She goes with me everywhere and now that the weather's cooling off a little bit, it's really nice because I can bring her. I bring her in the car, but I can, you know, run into a store where I can crack the windows a little bit and it's getting a little bit cooler, so she's fine. Otherwise, like I have to drop her off at Larry's office and then I come pick her back up and she acts like I've been gone for days and days, and days. So I am definitely her favorite person. But anyway, whatever, are you guys happy? I told you all that about cocoa. We're living the life over here in Kentucky, empty nesting. But I really want to share with you today just some things that I wish I had known when I became alcohol-free back.

Speaker 1:

December 31st 2020, was my first day alcohol-free. I accidentally became sober. Had no plans in a million years to become sober. I just wanted to be able to moderate. I just want to be able to drink my wine and not be thinking about the next glass or if I have more, you know, in the refrigerator, or if we're out and about, if I have more at home. I wanted to be able to just have a glass of wine, like I used to back in the day, like have a glass and not even finish it and didn't even care. That was my goal. But I became alcohol free and I love it and I want to encourage you because I know some of you have reached out to me and you're just at the starting point of your alcohol-free journey. You're at the starting point and maybe you're just sober curious.

Speaker 1:

You know, for me, I was endlessly Googling. You know, am I an alcoholic? I did. I don't know if you've ever Googled that, but I did in the middle of the night. It'd be like two in the morning and I'd be like almost window shopping sobriety on Instagram. I would window shop, I would like scroll.

Speaker 1:

This was after I was drinking. I would scroll and I would look at. I remember looking at all these like Instagram accounts. Sober Dave was one guy that I used to watch, and there's another lady in England. I don't think she's even on Instagram anymore, I don't think she's on there, but she didn't even have like an official sober account. She just used to share. She was a single mom like me at the time and she had her boys. They would go off to their dad's and she would talk about like how that weekend, all the things she did when she wasn't drinking, and I couldn't get over it. I was like how is this woman not drinking? How are you not drinking? I didn't get it. So I just want to share some truths with you of what I wish I'd known back before I stopped drinking that now are just like clear as day and it's just been so much better for my life, are just like clear as day and it's just been so much better for my life. And then I also want to share with you what's happening in October in the world of Mocktail Mom and some really fun things that are happening that I would love for you to be a part of.

Speaker 1:

So let me just take a little sip here of my delicious electrolyte drink. Who else is drinking their electrolytes? I have gotten into the electrolyte drinks. This is one that I love. This is not an ad for them, but I'm just going to tell you. I'll give you the code. This is instant hydration. It's so delicious. It's like an electrolyte drink that doesn't taste like you're drinking salt water. Imagine that. I forget what it's called, I forget the official like, what their ingredients are, whatever it has like great magnesium, potassium, all the things you need in an electrolyte drink, but it doesn't taste like you're just drinking salt from your little salt shaker on your table, your kitchen table or whatever. It's so good.

Speaker 1:

The ones, the flavors, I love are the watermelon and the orange. Those are my two favorites. They're the ones I have on like auto ship or whatever. The orange is like a Tang dupe. It's a dupe for Tang. Anyway, I don't know why I'm telling you this, because I'm thirsty, I'm taking a drink, so here we go.

Speaker 1:

Another drink, the one I'm drinking right now, is watermelon. It's so good. I think the packs say like add to like almost 20 ounces of water. I probably do at least 36 ounces of water. I feel like the packs are very, very concentrated, like the flavors off the charts and that orange especially is like total Tang dupe. So if you drank Tang back in the day, like I did as a Gen Xer, that was our orange juice replacement. So now you can have it. It's really, really healthy for you.

Speaker 1:

Code Mocktail Mom. I'll put the link below. But for instant hydration worth giving a try. When I first ordered it, my friend Soberish Mom, she was posting about it and I clicked the link and I ordered it. It's like one of my favorite things I've been influenced by in 2025. I order it on repeat and the first time I ordered it, I think they do like where it's like automatic order or whatever Anyway, and I was like I don't want to do automatic order and now I'm so glad that I do because I don't want to live without it. Okay, there you go.

Speaker 1:

Now we're done talking about that into. I have no plans to tell you that. I just wanted to tell you what I was drinking. All right, we're going to talk about what I wish I knew when I became alcohol-free. So, honestly, you guys, for so long I thought if I gave up my Chardonnay, my wine, I really thought I was going to be sacrificing fun. I thought I was not going to have my chillaxing time. I wasn't going to have my me time. I wasn't going to have, I wasn't going to be me.

Speaker 1:

What I gained, this is it. It's not about what you're giving up. I felt like I was going to give up my chillaxing. It's what you're gaining. I have gained so much.

Speaker 1:

I have traded those mornings of waking up with anxiety for mornings where I wake up and don't think, oh my gosh, I did it again. I mean waking up at three in the morning and the room is spinning and the TV's asking me do you want to keep watching Netflix? And I'm thinking, what was I watching? I didn't know I was watching anything. The clarity and just the mornings and the refreshment of waking up and not thinking like I did it again and then dragging around a U-Haul of shame has been, I mean, just, it's priceless. And I've gained so much.

Speaker 1:

And I realized what I was really craving was really just that ritual having a non-alcoholic drink to transition me from the morning sorry, from my daytime routine to my evening routine. That's really what I wanted and for me, mocktails and non-alcoholic wines especially have been the secret weapon. They've been the bumper rails of my sobriety and my alcohol-free journey. So, getting just a beautiful glass, having a mindful moment, you can still have all that. You're not giving up anything, you are replacing it with the most wonderful option and there's no nasty side effects. So definitely did not give up anything and I've gained so much.

Speaker 1:

So, number two I really thought. I don't know if I thought my social life would end, because I don't really have much of a social life, I'm quite the homebody. But I really thought like my relationships. I thought like people I don't know. I thought like I don't know. I have wonderful friends and I have a wonderful husband and I don't know why. I thought for two seconds that any of them would have been like poo-pooing on me, putting my Chardonnay down, you know, and choosing something different. But I really was afraid of their reaction, like their response when I told them oh, I'm not drinking, or I'm not drinking as much. I was very, very afraid of being judged. And not that they were going to be like drink, drink, drink, you know, like party animals. But I just was like, oh, how are they going to? How are they going to respond?

Speaker 1:

But the encouragement and the support that I have received from people who knew me before I was drinking. You know, dear friends of mine who've been so encouraging and I was afraid to tell them, which is so funny now when I look back on it like why was I afraid to tell them? They love me for me, not because I drink Chardonnay. Same with my husband. Like he's been so encouraging and I was so nervous I was like afraid to tell him because I thought he's going to think I have a big problem. And I don't have a big problem, I just want to drink less. I just don't want to want wine as much as I had wanted it. So he's been so encouraging. I mean, I think I've probably shared this before, but when I first stopped and I started kind of collecting alcohol-free options and buying non-alcoholic wines and buying mocktail ingredients, you know he was so sweet and he went out and bought on his.

Speaker 1:

He came home one night from work. I remember I was in the kitchen and the trucks. I see the truck. He's got a truck and I see him like pulling into the driveway and he's got some big box in the back of the getting. Now what is he? What project is he working on now? And then he comes walking in the house, this huge box he's bringing in. He goes, I can't take it anymore. He brought me a? Um, a beautiful beverage refrigerator for our dining room and then Lily and I filled it up. That night we filled up the thing with all my new ingredients and it was. It was filled to the brim. I had so much stuff and so the next night he brought home a second one. So I have two beverage refrigerators in my dining room, jack and Diane, we call them, and that's from Larry.

Speaker 1:

But I appreciate that support so much. I didn't expect that. I don't know what I expected. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was not expecting the encouragement and support. I also have been so pleasantly surprised by the sober community. You guys, the sober community is here for you. They're showing up for you.

Speaker 1:

So if you're window shopping sobriety if you are sober, curious, there are people who are ready and just waiting to cheer you on. They're just waiting to be a support to you. You're not alone. There's so many bottle shops now. You are not walking alone and there's not just one program you have to plug into.

Speaker 1:

So that's really the next thing is there's no quote, unquote, right way, you don't have to have a rock bottom. You don't have to declare a label, you don't have to stand up and make any declarations. I wish I knew that. I wish I knew that it was enough to just that little voice inside of me that was saying, like maybe it's time to take your foot off the gas of drinking so much. Maybe it's time to just like take a little break. I wish I'd been okay to listen to that voice, but instead I had this like messaging in my head like you have to have a rock bottom. Something really bad must happen, you know, for you to stop drinking.

Speaker 1:

And no, you can just be sober, curious, you can maybe just want to be a more mindful drinker. Maybe you just want to drink less. That is a huge win, that's okay. Like, I am alcohol free, I live a sober lifestyle and I encourage other people that. That's an amazing option. But for some people, if you're listening and you're just drinking a lot less, I'm so happy for you. You're being more mindful. That's an enormous win. Like, even for me right now, if I just was drinking less. That is so huge, you guys, compared to what I was drinking. So like, be okay, there's no right way. There's no right way to do this. There's no right program. It's what's right for you. Drinking less is a huge win. So there you go and the benefits are going to be way, way bigger than you ever imagined. I mean not waking up with hangovers, having better sleep.

Speaker 1:

I wish I really understood just like the emotional stability that comes with the clarity when you're not drinking, feeling like I can trust myself. That's a huge benefit. Because, let me tell you, when you tell yourself each day you run around from, like you know, 9 am to four o'clock, three o'clock, telling yourself I'm not going to do it again tonight, I'm not doing it again, I'm not doing that again. Or then you start telling yourself I'm just going to have one, I'm just going to have one. And then nighttime comes and here we go back in the saddle, drinking more than I intended to waking up feeling terrible. I mean that whole cycle.

Speaker 1:

Over and over and over, you start to not trust yourself. You look in the mirror in the morning and you're like you're looking at yourself and your brain. You're telling yourself like you are a liar. You're a liar, you know who are you. You're lying to yourself all day long. So, feeling like I can trust myself and really living with authentic freedom now truly has been the best thing ever. So I'd encourage you, if you're sober, curious, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid there's no right way, do it your way and I'm cheering you on. So here we go.

Speaker 1:

I love to bring the fun to the alcohol-free Hang on. I have to take a little drink here of my watermelon Instant hydration. So good, okay, I love to bring the party. I love to bring the fun. This does not have to be boring. You don't have to be. You're not sitting around home like wah wah, okay, wah wah, just hand me a water sparkling, you know sparkling water. We're not drinking. No, we're having a good time. We're having a good time and for me, alcohol-free options have truly been the bumper rails that not only have kept me, kept me on my track, but it's been so fun. But it's been so fun.

Speaker 1:

I was never a mixologist or like a bartender, never was a bartender but it's been so fun to like, learn to make drinks, to shake, get off the shaker cup. I mean, I had never used the thing. I think I'd used it maybe twice in my life, I don't know. I made a lemon drop once, here or there, but I had to pull it out from the back of my cabinet and dust the thing off. I'm not kidding, I didn't have a Moscow mule cup. I wasn't a cocktail drinker before I became alcohol-free, and it's been so fun. It's a new hobby. I mean learn new things. So join me.

Speaker 1:

The Mocktail Challenge is coming for October, so this is going to be your best sober October ever, because we're going to have fun, not drinking. I'm launching this program. It's called the Mocktail Challenge and it's not a we're not not drinking program, it's we're celebrating. We are celebrating with vibrant, fun, delicious non-alcoholic options, mocktails, talking about the non-alcoholic wines. That's what people ask about. That's what you guys ask about the most. That's what I was most interested in when I first stopped drinking. So we're going to cover it all, but we're going to have fun. That's what you guys ask about the most. That's what I was most interested in when I first stopped drinking. So we're going to cover it all, but we're going to have fun. That's the most important thing is like this is not boring. So we're going to have recipes during the challenge 21 days.

Speaker 1:

We start October 6th, so you've got time to sign up. Mocktailchallengecom is where you can sign up, use the code October. That's going to save you $10. And then there's going to be daily tips. You're going to get an email every day from yours truly.

Speaker 1:

We're going to have mini weekly challenges and prizes. I'm bringing the prizes, you guys. We've got some of my favorite brands who are coming in. They've donated some prizes. They're going to ship right to you. Each week there's going to be prizes, and then we have a grand prize of a Ninja Creamy. How fun, right? How fun. Let's have some fun. It's not boring to be alcohol-free. It's not boring to be more mindful. It's not boring to be sober or sober curious. It's fun and I just like, I feel like, come on in, let's have a great time together.

Speaker 1:

So this is the kickoff of Mocktail Challenge, of the Mocktail Challenge program. This has been going on on a regular basis, but you can be a part of the very first Mocktail Challenge. I would love for you to be in on this very first cohort, so to speak, this very first group of Mocktail partiers. So if you wanna join us, I'm gonna put the link below mocktailchallengecom. Use code October for $10 off, and I would just love to party with you. I would love to get to know you.

Speaker 1:

We're going to have weekly happiest hours. We're calling them the happiest hours because that's the name of my book. If you don't already have a copy, I hope you have a copy. The happiest hour it's delicious mocktails for a fabulous night in. I'm all about staying in. Anyway, I am getting out and about a little bit more. It's good for me. It's good for me Lily's not home so I can get out and about a little bit more.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I love you guys so much. I'm so grateful to be connected to you. I appreciate your encouragement. You guys keep me on track. You help me stay alcohol free. It's really important to just stay connected. You can't do this alone. So come and meet some other, meet some new friends, meet some new Mocktail BFFs at the Mocktail Challenge and be a part of this very first Mocktail Challenge. This is the first time we're doing this. It's going to be going on a regular basis. You can get in and be like I did the first one. I did the first Mocktail Challenge month with Deb. I was there. Don't miss it. I would love to just know you better. Know you better, um, through the mocktail challenge. So I love you guys. Have a great week big time cheers and I will talk to you soon. We'll see you guys later.