Your Post-Thanksgiving Reset Starts Here

Thanksgiving shakes up your routines, your sleep, your stress, and your drinking rhythm — even when you’ve been doing the work. In this episode, we break down what the weekend actually revealed about your habits, why it felt harder or easier than expected, and how to use that insight to steady yourself for December. This is your post-Thanksgiving reset, built around clarity, momentum, and mindful choices that support how you want to feel through the rest of the holidays.

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Disclaimer: This podcast is not intended as medical advice, and the views of the guests may not represent the views of Sunnyside. If you’re concerned about your health or alcohol use, please consider seeking advice from a doctor.

Creators and Guests

Host

Mike Hardenbrook

#1 best-selling author of "No Willpower Required," neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert.

What is Journey to the Sunnyside?

Journey to the Sunnyside is a top 1% podcast, reaching over 500,000 listeners every week. It’s your guide to exploring mindful living with alcohol—whether you're cutting back, moderating, or thinking about quitting.

While Sunnyside helps you reduce your drinking, this podcast goes further, diving into topics like mindful drinking, sober curiosity, moderation, and full sobriety. Through real stories, expert insights, and science-backed strategies, we help you find what actually works for your journey.

Hosted by Mike Hardenbrook, a #1 best-selling author and neuroscience enthusiast, the show is dedicated to helping people transform their relationship with alcohol—without shame, judgment, or rigid rules.

This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the leading platform for mindful drinking. Want to take the next step in your journey? Head over to sunnyside.co for a free 15-day trial.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in our episodes do not necessarily represent those of Sunnyside. We’re committed to sharing diverse perspectives on health and wellness. If you’re concerned about your drinking, please consult a medical professional. Sunnyside, this podcast, and its guests are not necessarily medical providers and the content is not medical advice. We do not endorse drinking in any amount.

Speaker 1: 00:56

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another one of these ten minute Mondays. And today's Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, and this may have revealed a little bit of where we are right now. So I wanna talk about that today because we still have December in front of us, the entire holiday season, and New Year's. And what happens is that with these holidays, you remove your normal routines and you drop completely into a different rhythm.

Speaker 1: 01:23

Maybe you have travel, you have late night dinners, you have emotional energy, bigger meals, of course, probably less sleep and more social stimulation than we're used to during the year. And when all of those conditions start to shift, you get an honest look at how your drinking patterns and mindful drinking as a whole begin to respond. But before we get into maybe some of the challenges that we saw within ourselves over the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to recognize the people who maybe did stay mindful this weekend. If you maintained your awareness, you followed your plan, and you stopped when you intended to, or maybe you just simply handled situations better than previous years, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that because progress during the holidays, that's not accidental. It only comes from the work that you've already put in, and you deserve to feel grounded in that success.

Speaker 1: 02:22

So take a minute to really celebrate that and don't just move on and look ahead. Now, for those of you who walked out of Thanksgiving kind of feeling like you were off track, this episode's for you. Not necessarily to fix anything, but to help you to understand what actually happened. You might have gone in with a plan, and unfortunately, you watched it slip maybe in just a moment that you didn't expect. You might have had one day where you felt really strong and then another one went kinda sideways.

Speaker 1: 02:54

Or you might be coming out of Thanksgiving feeling a little bit unsure of why this weekend felt harder than you really thought it should have. Now these experiences don't mean that everything that you've been working on has fallen apart. They just highlight the conditions that make us staying mindful a little bit more difficult, even when you've been practicing it for a long time. And we need to take a second to realize that Thanksgiving, it really shifts the exact factors that influence a lot of our drinking decisions. You have things like sleep, blood sugar, emotional load, timing of your meals, and just the general stimulation of being around people for hours at a time.

Speaker 1: 03:37

And those changes, they're gonna affect things like cravings, our mood, our impulse control. It's a physiological shift. So one of the things that's really most helpful that we can do is to zoom out. We need to look at the weekend as a point of information, not as a grade or a verdict on how we're doing. You know, ask yourselves, which moments felt really good, I felt in control?

Speaker 1: 04:03

Which moments where I felt like maybe I was being pulled in and I wasn't leading the way? Was there maybe a moment or a time that surprised you? And then in comparison to previous years, you know, what felt better that even if you feel like you got off track this year was still improved from previous years? This kind of reflection is going to bring you clarity as we move into December, which is where the momentum can really build. Because December, it becomes stressful only when you treat every single event like it's a test.

Speaker 1: 04:41

You know, us mindful drinkers, we don't need more tests. You need direction. And that comes in one clear outcome that you want to protect throughout the month. So for some, that direction is better sleep. You notice that late nights hit harder than they used to or that one disrupted night affects the rest of the weekend or even the week.

Speaker 1: 05:03

So if sleep is your direction, December becomes about stopping earlier and supporting the first half of the night. And for others, the direction might be steadier mornings. I always love to protect my mornings. You want to wake up with more clarity, maybe less anxiety. So if your mornings matter to you, your choices will naturally shift to protect the next day instead of focusing on the current night.

Speaker 1: 05:30

And some of you realize that maybe the emotional load plays the biggest role. Old dynamics, nonstop socializing, or maybe just the pressure to be always on is wearing you down. So if that's the case, your direction for December becomes about supporting your nervous system. When emotional bandwidth is steady, alcohol becomes much easier to manage. And for many people, the direction is simply about consistency, not perfect nights, but predictable ones.

Speaker 1: 06:01

A rhythm that keeps you feeling balanced instead of kind of bouncing between extremes. So once you identify your direction, the month is gonna feel like it's gonna get easier. You're no longer reacting to every single event. You're choosing what supports you. And that shift alone removes most of the friction people feel moving into December and into the new year.

Speaker 1: 06:27

So now I want you to think about a moment during Thanksgiving when you handled something better than you might have in the past. Maybe you paused long enough to consider whether you wanted another drink, Maybe you ended the night earlier. Maybe you noticed the point when enough actually felt like enough. Because these moments do matter. They show up because your awareness is stronger than it used to be, and that is real progress.

Speaker 1: 06:55

Now I want you to take this awareness into December. So for example, many of us get off track in the second half of the night and not necessarily the first. This is very true for me. And what's going on is because dopamine is actually at its highest early, and then self regulation drops as cortisol and, of course, fatigue and decision fatigue go on throughout the night. So if you start the night very anchored and deliberate with that knowledge in mind, it's gonna help to steer the whole arc of the evening.

Speaker 1: 07:29

Another thing that goes on is that your brain reacts to environments long before you're actually conscious of it. So if a space reliably triggers more drinking, you know you shouldn't be relying on willpower in that environment. So set your pace and your plan before you even walk in, and that's going to help to override the pattern driven behaviors. Another is low energy is one of the biggest predictors of over drinking. So a morning routine that stabilizes blood sugar, repairs sleep debt, and supports neurotransmitters is going to have a large impact on your evening than any drink limit that you're going to set.

Speaker 1: 08:10

And then also timing actually matters. When rich food and alcohol, they both stack too tightly, your glucose and your reward pathways, they're going to ignite at the same time. So creating separation brings your nervous system back into a range where decisions are going to feel easier and more intentional. So these are a few examples here. They aren't big changes if you notice.

Speaker 1: 08:35

They're just targeted corrections based on real feedback from your life and your experiences. And this is how mindful drinking really does build momentum. It's not through these strict rigid rules. It's through clarity and feedback. So with that knowledge, you can move into December not feeling like it needs to be a month where you're just trying to survive.

Speaker 1: 08:58

When you simplify your focus and you build around your direction, you're going to gain more control without pressure. So remember, Thanksgiving, it gave you that information. Now you get to use it, set your direction, shape your mind, and then let December reinforce that progress that you've made all year long. Okay. Thanks for hanging out with me this week.

Speaker 1: 09:21

I hope you move into December with confidence. And until next time, cheers to your mindful drinking journey.