Laughs without Lager

Cravings!!

• Ali and Meg

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Ever feel that sudden pull toward a drink on a sunny afternoon or a lonely weeknight and wonder why it hits so hard? We get honest about what cravings really are—quick promises of comfort wrapped in nostalgia—and how to meet the real need underneath without waking up to shame and headaches. Drawing on our lived experience, we break down the tools that actually help: play the tape forward to the messy middle and the morning after; surf the urge for fifteen calm minutes with a pen and paper; eat a real meal earlier to steady the evening; and change your route, your routine, and your plans to sidestep old cues.

We also talk about the deeper layer: working out your whys. Alcohol once felt like relief, bravado, or belonging, so we look at what those parts of you still need and how to give it to them directly. That might be connection when you feel isolated, comfort when the sugar cravings flare, or simple rest when your body is running on fumes. We share how family became both mirror and motivation—why we refuse to trade presence for a buzz—and how that commitment grows stronger than willpower when paired with books, challenges, and coaching that reframe old beliefs.

Most importantly, we map out practical plans for triggers: weekends alone, holidays, or the drive past the bottle shop. You won’t need a rigid schedule forever, just long enough to prove to your brain that peace and joy live outside the glass. Expect candid stories, zero judgment, and strategies you can use tonight. If this conversation helps, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. What’s your go-to move when a craving hits? We’d love to hear it.


Contact Us:

https://www.meganwebb.com.au/podcast-1

meganwebbcoaching@gmail.com



Ali

insta: https://www.instagram.com/idontdrinkfullstop/


Meg

website: https://www.meganwebb.com.au/

insta: https://www.instagram.com/meganwebbcoaching/

Connect AF: https://www.elizaparkinson.com/groupcoaching

SPEAKER_00:

Magzi, how are you? Oh, hey Allie. I am good.

SPEAKER_01:

How are you going?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm great.

SPEAKER_01:

2026. Here we are. Year of the horse. Giddy up. Year of the horse, as we said last time. Um year of the horse and giddy up. It is action time. Yes, it is. It's time for some action. What do we got today? Well, we had um someone write in a question. Um so we thought, let's just answer the question and do a potty on that. So Emma from Queensland wrote in and said, Thank you, Emma. Yeah, uh, do you guys still have cravings for alcohol? And if so, how do you get through them? Oof. Yeah, good question. Because I think this is something that everyone on the alcohol-free journey has either, you know, come up against or experiences. So do you want to kick us off, Ali? What are what are some tips that we can give?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I I look, I do get I don't get the urges for the alcohol, but sometimes I because we've just had New Year's and stuff, um, I guess the urge sometimes would be like to to have that night of oblivion. Yes. Yeah. So I guess that, uh, because I've been watching Below Deck.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, great show.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so great binge. You know, take, I mean, Captain Sandy, she's uh she she's uh alcohol free, which I love. I only know Captain Lee. Oh, no one's gonna be. Yeah, so this is season six. So I I I got back, I only started watching it season three. Oh my god, because I just thought it was just like a boat, a party boat, and I just thought, well, I don't relate to that because I don't drink. Um, but Captain Sandy on this series, um, she doesn't drink, and but her her staff do. So sometimes I guess when I've watched that nine times out of ten, I think because the next day they are all suffering, yeah, and they're all fighting or they've all fucked each other, and it's just like that is the part that I do not miss at all. We'll never ever drink again. So, yeah, as much as I might get I don't have the yeah, the missing out of that, but sometimes I guess that you just I guess romanticizing the oblivion, like just go out, party like fucking just get obliterated and stuff. But you know, being an older lady, it's not really I would I would be doing that, but in answer to the bloody question, which I haven't answered, is you know just um like I I guess I would walk the dog or ring a friend or tell my kid like you know, I'm feeling like I really want to hit the fuck a button and drink, but either help me out or just uh you know help yourself out by maybe going to the gym or not going home the same way so you don't go to the usual bottle shop and you know just trick your brain and and and do something you know different in that sense. What about you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes. Well, on that one, so definitely so the cravings are such in the first year or two, yes, I did. I I would well, it was more that I felt I was missing out. So if the if it was a sunny summer day and I was near an old pub I used to go to, I would be like, shit, I want to be there. And so that took that took time, but it also took working through. I really challenged my beliefs around that. And what I did, you just mentioned, is something called like all play it forward. Yeah. So I I get it was fun for the first hour. It was fun, but I knew after that hour I was gonna be messy, drunk texting, probably get myself into some kind of trouble in some way. It it just it it basically came down to I didn't want to wake up with a hangover. All of that, it came down to is it worth it? And it wasn't worth it. So that that initial high and blanking was not worth the payoff. So, you know, all the shit that comes after it. And so I would every time I kind of had an urge, I would um play it forward.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I forgot about that. That's what I learned in Danny Carr's um play the tape forward, because one drink, yeah, I know that I I I never had one drink, like fucking.

SPEAKER_01:

Never ever ever. So it was always gonna end badly.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and then you wake up in the morning, mix, and you just fucking that loop, you dumbass, you did it again.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Shame, blame, yeah, guilt, and that's it. Even if my night I woke up and somewhere in my thoughts was, oh, it wasn't that bad. I actually behaved, I still woke up with a hangover and the shame, guilt, blame. Uh yeah, just self-hate, man, you know, and feeling sick and seedy, and oh, just I don't ever fucking headache feel that oh not being able to pull your head off the thingy. Absolutely. Or for what? Oh, totally for for the initial high, which was so short-lived when you really start. If you really get honest, it's pretty short-lived. Um, so that was really helpful, and something I use with clients called surf the urge, which is it's literally something you do in an ear uh craving. So you we suggest like sitting there for 15 minutes. I like to get a or I used to get a piece of paper out and a pen and sort of have a look out where am I feeling this in my body? What's it feel like? Um, I would then ask, what am I saying to myself? And I'd just write it down. And a lot of the time, you it's like waves coming and going. You'd come to the end of it and go, okay, I feel a bit more in control now. Um, my favorite though was eating. So my my way was just to eat. Like I know, not not get the ice cream, but don't no, no, I did do that, but eat a meal, say dinner at 4:35. That was so effective. Yes, like that really helped with my night cravings. Um, and then also you said we're older, and when you said that, I thought it's just I had a real fear about being that older, over 50 woman. It's not cute. It is not cute. I mean, it's never cute, but you can get away with it. Being that sloppy drunk, nah, not now.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, during the night, well, during the week, you know, nobody's gonna see that, sorry, because you're at home drinking, which because I wasn't, you know, clone, drink, yes, end of the night, you know, then I'd be on the phone. But yeah, certainly the weekends, if we had anything, you know, like the New Year's Eves or the whatever's they were, it was like, yeah, just you know, going out to like I just so grateful that I'm not um you know, my daughters of of age, because I literally would be out going, Oh, come on, you can be my wing lady. Like, fucking no, she my daughter's pretty good. She'd probably be like, No, mum, but of course I would have been like, come on, there would be definitely one one night be like, come on, let's go, just help your mother out, and you know, just lag onto her, and um that's that's enough reason not to do the um yeah, but also when you were seeking that, I was thinking the it's on it's the whys on why we drank. Yeah, was also a big thing that I learned on a on a challenge. It's the whys on why, why do I feel like uh what am I missing out? Like, what do I actually need instead? Yes, because we're just numbing that little girl inside that's feeling a certain way, or someone's cut you off in the traffic, or you know, it's usually deeper than that, and it's and it's why, why did we drink like we did? Because, you know, we just drank to get fucking smashed.

SPEAKER_01:

Totally, and that's been a massive part of my journey and my coaching is is working out the core wounds, the whys, the beliefs around that, uh around alcohol, then around yourself. Yes. Um, and that's taken a lot of work, but um, and that's part of it. I I think when we're on when we stop drinking, it's kind of natural to want to work that stuff out. So, you know, people can listen to podcasts, quit lit books, or you can get a coach, or you can do courses to help you find out that kind of stuff. Yeah, that's been really effective. But I think in the moment, the playing it forward, and like you said, so my kids were opposite in that I didn't want to drink around them, but as they got older and I was drinking at home, they saw it, but I'd try to hide it, and then my middle daughter was so angry at me, and yeah, there's no world I can drink again. There's just not because I don't want to lose my kids and yeah, um, and just numb out, it's kind of a really selfish thing. I did like it, I it there's a reason that we did it, and it's not it's not a flaw, it's not a weakness, but I I do owe it to my family to be present, I think, and myself.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, and well, yeah, you it's got to start with yourself, but yeah, if we do anything for anyone else, like in the past, I it would never you've got to watch it. Because I was such a people pleaser that I'll be like, oh no, you know, let's do dry July. I was literally fucking whipped with that comment, and then it was like, Oh, I'd do it for three days, maybe, and I'd just be like, Oh, nobody else is doing it, but no, definitely the wise on why we're doing it, which you know, family is a massive one. Um, but also, yeah, and just I don't know, you just we just gave our call so much fucking credit. So if you got the urge, look, I I've my new thing is sugar. Well, it's not even a new thing, mate. My god, I swapped vodka for freaking cream puffs. Like, I mean, it is that comfort thing, and again, you've got to you've got to stand at the fridge and go, what am I actually? Why do I need this? What am I missing? What do I feel like? And that psychic lady actually said, honestly, she said she was talking like about my history of you know, little traumas, I guess, that are big traumas or little traumas or whatever my past was. She fucking nailed it, and she literally said, yummy. And I went, Oh, yeah, I know I'm so I love sugar. And she went, yummy, that's right, because you crave sweet because you haven't had enough sweetness in your life.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I crave comfort.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's comfort in a have a lover, mate.

SPEAKER_01:

That 100%. It's a comfort eating for a reason. Yeah, but you know what? I was chuckling at is the Christmas episode we did when you you were like, move over, everyone. I'm Tam, I'm having the dessert buffet.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm still that's like, yeah, yes, I relate.

SPEAKER_01:

I relate. But you know what? That is a signal when that happens to me to look at what do I need. And last week it was bad, and I recognize that I'm I'm isolating myself. It happens when I'm alone. When I'm I can be alone, but when I'm feeling a loneliness, so yesterday I specifically connected with people, I reached out and it it made me feel so different. And I think, oh, I was gonna say one other tool for me for cravings was if it was say at night that I'd be triggered. I'm not a night person, but I might say go to a movie with someone. Um, you know, it taking your mind off it, yes, doing something different was effective too, and um yeah, so that's definitely another another tool. But um, yeah, I think are there any other things you did specifically or well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Just I think we've covered them, but just like just change the routine, you know, like because eventually we do start sitting at home drinking, yeah. You know, I mean it's just a fact because it's cheaper tolerance with drinking and driving. It's just easy. You just get home, you've done you've done your day's work, there's your reward, crack of vino, cook dinner. I was never that person where I'd do the wine and food, like it was fucking just give me the one or the other.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I didn't do the food. So, but the other thing is with alcohol, your tolerance grows. So it got to a point for me that I was embarrassed to be out. It was gonna be safer for me to be home so no one could judge how fast or how much I drank. But the other thing was I was nervous giving up alcohol, but but I'm still in my lounge room. How will that work? So I just want to let people know that 100% I have no um connection to alcohol anymore in the places I used to drink. So you set your mind to this and you work through it, and things will change, you know. So there's no time that I sit on my lounge now and go, I wish I had a drink. So it absolutely gets easier as you go on, but you've got to kind of look at the reasons. You've got to do the work.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, do the work, but also have a plan. Like that's a good point because when you know, if you're separated and the kids go to the father's, and then all of a sudden, mate, that was a license to fucking, you know, do whatever. Um, because you know, you're home alone. So if that's you know, an urge or a craving, all of a sudden you will you know that your kids are not gonna be there on the weekend, you need to come up with a plan. So rally around, do something, you know. Obviously, you don't have to keep going out because you obviously live in your own home, but really at the start, if you have to do that, whatever's gonna trigger you, you know. Um, but yeah, definitely have a plan, rally, listen to podcasts, just do everything in the reverse order. Like if you're sitting at home at night time, then yeah, go see a movie or go catch up with a friend or go see your mum or your dad, or just have dinner early, go help something, go fucking volunteer, like just change it up so you're not gonna be twiddling and thinking, oh poor man, you know. No, it's not poor you fucking go you and fuck alcohol.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely amazing. You and it's not forever, you don't have to have a plan for every night forever, but do what you have to in the beginning, and um you will notice that it gets easier. So yeah, so I hope that that answers the question. Emma, yeah, thank you so much. And anyone else, please send in the questions. Yeah, we love to tackle them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, because it's it's you know, we're through people are there's so many people around us that drank. So, you know, if you if we can help people that want to ditch the booze and realize how life on the other side is, um, you know, reach out and and ask the questions and do it for yourself because it's so so much better. So, so much better.

SPEAKER_01:

We both have lived experience, so we can cover pretty much any question between the two of us.

SPEAKER_00:

We've experienced it. If you can name something, I've done it. I can guarantee it. And look, you know, and if I can fucking do it, then you guys can do it too.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely 100, 100. Well, good one, Allie. Uh we'll I'll see you next time and everyone else. We'll see you next time, guys.