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The Alcohol Minimalist podcast is dedicated to helping habit drinkers and adult children of alcoholics to change their drinking habits and create a peaceful relationship with alcohol: past, present and future.
We are proof positive that you can break unbreakable habits and create a peaceful relationship with alcohol.
Becoming an alcohol minimalist means:
Choosing how to include alcohol in our lives following low-risk guidelines.
Freedom from anxiety around alcohol use.
Less alcohol without feeling deprived.
Using the power of our own brains to overcome our past patterns and choose peace.
The Alcohol Minimalist Podcast explores the science behind alcohol and analyzes physical and mental wellness to empower choice. You have the power to change your relationship with alcohol, you are not sick, broken and it's not your genes!
This show is intended for educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice. If you are physically dependent on alcohol, please seek medical help to reduce your drinking.
Welcome to the alcohol minimalist podcast. I'm your host, Molly Watts. If you want to change your drinking habits and create a peaceful relationship with alcohol, you're in the right place. This podcast explores the strategies I use to overcome a lifetime of family alcohol abuse, more than 30 years of anxiety and worry about my own drinking, and what felt like an unbreakable daily drinking habit. Becoming an alcohol minimalist means removing excess alcohol from your life so it doesn't remove you from life.
Molly Watts:It means being able to take alcohol or leave it without feeling deprived. It means to live peacefully, being able to enjoy a glass of wine without feeling guilty and without needing to finish the bottle. With science on our side, we'll shatter your past patterns and eliminate your excuses. Changing your relationship with alcohol is possible. I'm here to help you do it.
Molly Watts:Let's start now. Well, hello, and welcome or welcome back to The Alcohol Minimalist Podcast. With me, your host Molly Watts, coming to you from, oh, my friends, It has been a perfect Oregon. That's right. Perfect.
Molly Watts:We always say progress, not perfection around here, but man oh, man, the weather has been perfection. Literally so gorgeous. High seventies, low eighties, little bit of a breeze. And the best part about it, there's like days on end where it looks exactly the same. No clouds, no rain.
Molly Watts:Yes, please. How are you doing? Welcome, and welcome back to the show. I do have just a little bit of housekeeping here before we get started, and that's really 2 things. 1st and foremost, I have some prize winners.
Molly Watts:If you would like to be entered into a drawing for some alcohol minimalist swag, all you gotta do is leave a review of this podcast or of my book breaking the bottle legacy wherever you listen to podcasts, wherever you read the book, and I will find you and add you in. Every week, we have a chosen prize winner, and then we have a random prize winner. My random prize winner today is Deb g Bliss. Deb g Bliss, you left a review on Apple Podcasts some time ago, but I appreciate you doing it and appreciate you sharing this work, and you are my random prize winner today. My chosen prize winner today is also from Apple Podcasts, and it is walls to the balls.
Molly Watts:Okay. And the the title of the review is truly helpful. And it says, so many podcasts are full of fluff, but not this one. If you've ever thought, I know drinking less is good, but it's hard, then this is for you. Molly makes it understandable and actionable, which is to me the secret sauce.
Molly Watts:Oh, thanks so much. Whilst the balls, I really appreciate it, and you can email me and wgbliss, Both of you, molly@mollywatts.com, and I will send you out some alcohol minimalist swag. And that swag, by the way, is a 13 week linen bound journal of the 5 for life journal that I had for my previous endeavors and some magnets and some stickers. It's it's all good stuff, and I would love to send it out to you. So leave a review of the show.
Molly Watts:Leave a review of the podcast of my book. It all helps in helping me spread the word for people that are looking for this type of content so that they know, get those actionable and accessible steps to helping them change their relationship with alcohol so that they don't have to believe that it's all or nothing, that they have to, you know, become completely sober and claim that they are in recovery to make real and sustainable change happen. Thanks again for your reviews, and thanks for listening. One other small piece of housekeeping. If you have not already picked up, a copy of Alcohol Truths, how much is too much, then I would love to have you do that.
Molly Watts:You can find it over at mollywatts.com. It's really easy. It's right there on the home page. And, again, just click on any of the buttons. Please look for alcohol truths, how much is safe or how much is too much.
Molly Watts:It's called both, but, I really want you to to read it. It's a free ebook. It's quite lengthy, and there's lots and lots of good science and lots of good information in there. Alright. We are revisiting this week another one of our episodes here.
Molly Watts:There was a a trio of episodes. We revisited the first one last week on, the difference between having a drink plan versus planning to drink. And today's show is revisiting drink plans versus drink goals. And is it possible this this really, the genesis of this conversation is, is it possible to have goals? Can we treat our relationship with alcohol like an area of self development as opposed to a problem that we have to overcome.
Molly Watts:And that's really what this episode is all about. It's also about defining for yourself what your goals are and making sure that you have a clear picture of what that looks like. So many times people will say to me that I just don't wanna worry about it anymore. I want to be able to not need to drink or I don't wanna have to be battling my desire to drink, but that's not as clear as I want you to get. I really want you to define for yourself whether it's sticking to low risk limits or whether that number is a little higher, I want you to to or whether it's prioritizing alcohol free days.
Molly Watts:How many? What does that look like? Many of you know that have been here for a while. I was 70% alcohol free last year. I'm not tracking necessarily my 70% this year, but I'm darn well close.
Molly Watts:I know that just by virtue of what I do on a regular basis. For me, peace lives in sticking to those low risk limits or even better and incorporating multiple alcohol free days into each of my weeks, and I know that. So that's kind of where this conversation about your goals comes from. I really have valued going back and listening to these episodes myself, so I hope you are getting a lot out of them too. And I'm really excited about next week's episode.
Molly Watts:So without further ado, here is drink plans versus drinking goals. I'll see you next week. Choose peace, my friends. This is part number 2 in a 3 part series that I am talking about that I've that I said was planned. And last week, I talked about the difference between having a drink plan and planning to drink.
Molly Watts:And, this is a really important distinction, especially for those of you who have been successfully incorporating multiple alcohol free days each week, but then leaving days that you do drink without a specific plan, you might wanna go back and listen to last week's episode if that is you. And if you also find yourself resistant to making a plan for the days that you decide to include alcohol, that is really kind of telling you something, right? It's something that you wanna get curious about. Why is that? What thoughts about alcohol are you still holding on to that may need to be challenged again?
Molly Watts:Go back and listen to last week's episode and ask yourself, what are you making having a plan for alcohol mean? As I shared last week, it is it was the first episode in a 3 part series. I'm sharing all about plans, goals, habit change, and personal development, and how these apply to this relationship with alcohol that we talk about. Today, we're going to dig a little deeper into making plans versus having goals. And I teased last week about the kind of goals that I used to have around drinking.
Molly Watts:And I was actually thinking about it a little bit more. I remember like having a goal. I literally had a goal of learning how to like red wine because I didn't like it and I kept trying all these different kinds of red wines in this attempt to try to train myself to like red wine because I didn't like it. Now think about that, right, that I actually that was my goal. Interesting.
Molly Watts:Next week. We are going to tie it all together with the 3 things you need to stop doing to achieve your goals and to change your drinking habits and as I shared during week 1 one of the biggest takeaways that you will hear from me is that your life your specific challenges your constraints all of those things that make your life situation unique they matter and we'll talk about making this area of personal development more personal and this is what I believe about alcohol and about your drinking habits and about changing your relationship with alcohol. I believe it's just like anything else in terms of the areas that we focus on and making a making it an area of personal development. This week, we're going to talk about plans versus goals and what your actual goal is for including alcohol in your life. Do you have one?
Molly Watts:Is it clear and specific? When I talk about my peaceful relationship with alcohol, I share what works for me, which is if you're new to the show, I stick to I adhere to the low risk limits for women, which is 7 drinks or less in any 7 standard drinks or less in any one week, and no more than 3 standard drinks in any one in any one occasion. I talked a little bit about what that occasion time frame looks like last week. And, I include multiple alcohol free days each week. I include an alcohol free month each year and one alcohol free weekend per month and this year I actually am in taking it just one step further.
Molly Watts:I have shared in my Facebook group, I talked about my goal for better than half, and I'm going for 70% alcohol free days. I have a whole around based on the number of days in a month, how you can get there and incorporating more sober October and more dry July, dry July, not completely dry in those 2 months. And then, of course, dry January, always participate in dry January. So anyways, that is what I'm doing that for me is where peace peace lives being an alcohol minimalist is a little more concrete, and that is where peace lives for me. I can't decide what peaceful means for you.
Molly Watts:I know that if people reduce their alcohol intake to alcohol minimalist guidelines, they will be experiencing a dramatic improvement in their risk profile or the risks associated with excessive alcohol use. And still peace may be for you being completely alcohol free, or it might be more than what I drink. Maybe it's 9 to 14 drinks per week. The number isn't everything right. It's just a piece of the puzzle.
Molly Watts:It's a plan that is a part of the bigger goal. One of the key differentiators between what I teach about alcohol misuse or overdrinking is that overdrinking is just a habit. It's not a disease, a character flaw, or even an addiction. Yes. Alcohol is an addictive substance, and some people become physically addicted to it, but that number is far smaller than the narrative around alcohol would have you believe.
Molly Watts:I've shared many times the joint study from the CDC and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that showed that only 10.2% of excessive drinkers were physically dependent. Clearly, there are a lot of people who are drinking well beyond low risk limits who aren't physically addicted to alcohol, but they may very well have a psychological dependence and I talk about that all the time we are programmed by society sober communities to believe that excessive drinking over drinking and alcohol misuse is not just a habit right? Or even if we use the words habit because I did see my drinking as a habit for sure. I've said here many times I called it my oxymoronic habit because I had so much negative association with alcohol from my mother's physical dependence. It wasn't logical to me that I'd misuse alcohol.
Molly Watts:You would think I would want to avoid alcohol. Right? That's what made more sense to me. So since I hadn't avoided alcohol, I therefore believed that my genetics caused me to desire alcohol more than others, and that was why I overdrank. My genetics, I believed, created my drinking habit, and therefore, the habit was different than other habits.
Molly Watts:It was hardwired in me, literally, because, like, a part of my DNA. And why is that important? I'll illustrate that with another one of my habits that is a habit that doesn't necessarily serve me. I have a long standing habit of snacking on chips, potato chips, tortilla chips, corn chips. You name the chip, I eat them.
Molly Watts:In my book, I share some of the backstory on eating chips as a habit pattern I learned from a very young age. And I know where the habit started with chips, and so I've never believed it to be unbreakable as I did with alcohol. In fact, there have been many times in my life where I haven't eaten chips. I don't eat chips every day like I used to when I was a kid, and yet I still feel a strong desire to eat chips in certain places, times, and in responses to events in my life. The length of time that I've had a habit around chips makes that neural pathway very ingrained, but I never labeled it as different in my head the way I did with alcohol.
Molly Watts:My drinking habit, quote, unquote, felt different to me. It felt like a biological part of me, which made it seem really unbreakable. Now, if that's how you feel that your drinking habit is different that it's more or less unbreakable for any reason, then I encourage you to stick around because when you change that thought when you start to believe that your relationship with alcohol isn't too different than other habits, that's where we can create sustainable change and adopt an alcohol minimalist lifestyle for the rest of your life. Right? Hey.
Molly Watts:It's Molly, and I just wanna talk with you for a minute about Sunnyside. I know I talk about Sunnyside and have been talking about Sunnyside for, wow, 2 years now. And I wanna let you know that that is because of not only the results that I see my clients get, but because I know the people at Sunnyside, and I know how committed they are to making a product that really delivers, not only in terms of results, but in terms of user experience. They recently launched an Android version of the Sunnyside app. And inside the app, there's new upgrades and ways to support you that really are defined by the user experience, and that is just something that I really appreciate about them.
Molly Watts:I know you can trust who they are as a company, and that's really important to me. I would love for you to check it out. Go to sunnysidot c o/molly to get started with a 15 day free trial today. Back to plans and goals, which are parts of habits, right? You see how this is all interconnected.
Molly Watts:We need to have all of these to create a peaceful relationship with alcohol, and we wanna be clear about what each one looks like and how each works in our day to day lives. Last week, I talked about creating a doable drink plan and why having a plan ahead of time is an important part of rewiring your brain's neural pathway with alcohol. Changing how we think about alcohol, what we believe about it, that is at the core of sustainable change. In last week's episode, I highlighted the difference between having a plan and simply planning to drink. I suggested that if you find yourself wanting to plan to drink, you likely still have some work to do on your thoughts around alcohol.
Molly Watts:What I should have also said was that you may have some work to do on your thoughts around what having a plan means what you're making it mean. Do you have thoughts like why do I have to have a plan? None of my friends have a plan around drinking or making a plan ahead of time takes all the fun out of drinking or my plan in the morning is different than my plan at night. Here's what I know about plans, and what plans mean for habits, and what habits mean for your goals. Plans are stepping stones to habits, which are the stepping stones to goals.
Molly Watts:Making a doable drink plan is how I've built the habits I have as an alcohol minimalist. And the habits I have as an alcohol minimalist is what underpins my goal of having a peaceful relationship with alcohol. It's really easy to set big goals. Most people who work with me have no problem letting me know that their goal is to drink less. I would actually say that drinking less isn't the goal.
Molly Watts:It's the habit that is going to achieve the goal, which in my world is peace. I want you to help I wanna help you create a peaceful relationship with alcohol. And that goal is purposefully not defined by numbers or time. I referenced fast change versus slow sustainable change last week, and I talked about making this area of personal development more personal. We live in a world that is highly focused on achievement.
Molly Watts:And if you're listening to this podcast, I know that you are someone who is interested in self development. What I want you to remember that in everything I share with you, you have to curate what works for you in your personal life, and it's why our goals, habits, plans are different and can still support sustainable change. There is no finish line here. We are creating a lifestyle, not an achievement, not an end result. In my Facebook group, one of our members was sharing that she is having a lot of challenges in her life right now.
Molly Watts:These are real circumstances that are creating a lot of stress while she is still wanting to work on changing her relationship with alcohol and not turn to alcohol. Try to relieve that stress. She made the comment, I'm finding it hard to focus on being alcohol free. Right now, not drinking seems impossible, but I will be happy if I can limit myself to 2 drinks. I encouraged her to make a plan ahead of time for those two drinks.
Molly Watts:If she isn't 80 to 90% sure she can stick to an alcohol free day, then plan for the 2 drinks. It doesn't mean you have to drink. Right? This way she can rebuild trust with herself that she makes plans and sticks to them. Even if she takes another month for her to be ready to add back in alcohol free days.
Molly Watts:This is still progress and still work towards the goal of peaceful relationship with alcohol when we are true to ourselves and honest about recognizing our individual needs and desires, we are more likely to not only feel invested in our development. We're more likely to actually develop in ways that count for the long term. We can make plans that resonate with us and celebrate the progress we make towards achieving them. On the other hand, if we follow strategies and tactics, try to white knuckle or will power ourselves into what we think we're supposed to be doing, we may quickly lose interest and give up. This also makes me think of how important it is to be thoughtful with who we are letting into our lives from a level of influence.
Molly Watts:Now I want to preface this in saying that you don't have to agree with everything I say to learn from me. You still get to apply it to your own personal circumstances, which may be very important, especially with respect to the pace of change and creating sustainable lifelong change. Focusing on the personal aspect of personal development can help develop a growth mindset, which is key to achieving long term success. You've heard me talk about growth mindsets before. I will link those in the show notes in terms of the episode numbers.
Molly Watts:I talked about it, in my conversation with Joe Bowler on the limitless mind. I talked about it in an episode on do dry January like this. Those episode links will be in the show notes. When we approach personal growth with an open mind and a growth mindset with a willingness to learn and evolve, We are more likely to embrace challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth. This mindset helps us achieve our goals, develop resilience, and adapt to change.
Molly Watts:Now there are undoubtedly some people who will interpret what I shared with my group member as quote unquote permission to drink or as an excuse to not to stick to long term goals. I would simply say this, changing your drinking habits takes time, and learning how to include alcohol in your life in a way that supports your long term goals takes time as well. When we create plans ahead of time with our logical goal oriented future focused brain, then it's there. The plan is there. And even if we don't stick to it, we can reflect on that and learn from it, which continues to support long term sustainable change.
Molly Watts:We make plans that align with our long term goals. We take small steps towards new habits that become our default, that become the bedrock of our goal, peaceful relationship with alcohol for the rest of our life. We keep our mindset growth oriented and anticipate struggles as just part of the process. Next week, I am wrapping all of this up with the three things you need to stop doing to achieve your goal of a peaceful relationship with alcohol. This week, ask yourself, what is your goal with alcohol?
Molly Watts:What does peace mean to you? What plans are you making that are helping you build new habits? Finally, I just want to make sure that you really ask yourself, dig deep. Do you believe that your drinking habits that your relationship with alcohol is something that's just a habit based action that is something that you can have a goal around? Or are you still operating from that black and white binary narrative that says that if you are overdrinking or misusing alcohol in any way, that you are diseased or broken or have a problem.
Molly Watts:Right? If you still think that about yourself, I want you to challenge those self limiting beliefs. I want you to start changing your thoughts and really see the possibility that this is just a habit that doesn't serve you. And you can, absolutely, without question, create the change that you want. You can create a peaceful relationship with alcohol.
Molly Watts:It is possible, and I'm here to help you do it. Until next time, my friends. Choose peace. Hey. Thanks for listening to The Alcohol Minimalist Podcast.
Molly Watts:Take something you learned from this week's episode and put it into action. Changing your drinking habits and creating a peaceful relationship with alcohol is 100% possible. You can stop worrying, stop feeling guilty about over drinking, and become someone who desires alcohol less. I work with people in 3 ways. You can learn about them over at www.voliwatts.com / work with me.
Molly Watts:Or better yet, reach out to me directly. It's molly@mollywatts.com. We'll jump on a call and discuss what's best for you. This podcast is really just the beginning of our conversation. Let's keep it going.