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Alcohol Minimalist: Mindful Drinking & Behavior Change — Education
Alcohol Minimalist: Mindful Drinking & Behavior Change

Join coach Molly Watts on the Alcohol Minimalist Podcast to explore mindful drinking, behavior change, and mental wellness. This show offers science-based strategies to help you break drinking habits and overcome anxiety linked to alcohol use. Whether you’re an adult child of alcoholics or seeking peace with your drinking, discover tools for lasting change without shame or guilt. New episodes every Monday and Thursday.

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.

Copyright: ©2023

Latest Episodes:

Six Keys to Changing Your Relationship with Alcohol Jun 16, 2021

Show notes

Join my private FB group Alcohol Minimalists here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Has this podcast helped you? How about leaving a review: Itunes

Follow me on Instagram: @AlcoholMinimalist

Have you grabbed your free e-book, "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Get it here.

This week on the podcast I'm talking about Six Keys to Changing my Relationship with Alcohol.

These six keys are the ideas that underscored my success in changing my own relationship with alcohol. Embrace these keys to help you change your drinking habits.

Change is simple but it's not easy.
Change is Incremental.
Change is Slow.
Change Comes with Discomfort.
Commitment is Key to the process.
Never Give Up.

To learn more about the Results Cycle check out Episode #11

To hear how about "Trying to Moderate and Hoping to Abstain" check out Episode #17

Low Risk Drinking Limits

Looking for a great alcohol-free mocktail? Check out CLEVER mocktails, made in Canada and distributed in the USA by

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Alcohol & Your Liver Jun 09, 2021

Show notes

Join my private FB group Alcohol Minimalists here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Has this podcast helped you? How about leaving a review: Itunes

Follow me on Instagram: @AlcoholMinimalist

Have you grabbed your free e-book, "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Get it here.

This week's episode we are taking a deep dive into the science of alcohol and your liver.

Learn what liver disease is and what causes it.
Learn all the functions of a healthy liver and why it's so vital that we keep our livers healthy.
Learn how to improve liver health.

Resource articles for this episode:

https://www.aspenridgerecoverycenters.com/abstain-from-alcohol-to-repair-liver/ https://www.healthline.com/health/liver-rest https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/how-to-reduce-your-drinking/drink-free-days-get-started/health-benefits-of-drink-free-days https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/opinion/guest-blog/the-science-of-two-alcohol-free-days-per-week-288604/

For more information on your liver please visit www.liverfoundation.org

For more information on sleep and alcohol listen to Episode #18

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Changing to Thrive with Dr. James and Dr. Janice Prochaska, Ph.D Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

Join my private FB group Alcohol Minimalists here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Has this podcast helped you? How about leaving a review: Itunes

Follow me on Instagram: @AlcoholMinimalist

Have you grabbed your free e-book, "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Get it here.

This week on the podcast I'm talking to Dr.'s Jim and Janice Prochaska. The Prochaska's are authors, speakers and consultants who have spent most of their professional lives studying the behavior or change. Together they founded their company Pro-Change Behavior Systems, which they sold in 2015. In 2016 they published, Changing to Thrive.

Our conversation focused on the book as it applies to the top threats to your overall health and happiness. The book focuses on the five areas recognized by health professionals as the key to chronic diseases: Overeating/unhealthy diet, smoking, drinking alcohol and lack of exercise, and overarching above all of those is stress.

"Changing behaviors is easier said than done. If you’re like most of us, you have already made repeated attempts to change your lifestyle and improve your well-being without lasting success. You may attribute those failures to things like lack of motivation or the “wrong genes.” But it’s more likely that you simply don’t know how to change.

In this groundbreaking book, James O. Prochaska, PhD, and Janice M. Prochaska, PhD, guide you through a six-stage process designed to help you assess your readiness to change, then tap the inner resources necessary to thrive physically, emotionally, and socially."

Buy Changing to Thrive here.

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Cutback Coach with Founders Nick Allen and Ian Anderson May 26, 2021

Show notes

Join my private FB group Alcohol Minimalists here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Has this podcast helped you? How about leaving a review: Itunes

Follow me on Instagram: @AlcoholMinimalist

Have you grabbed your free e-book, "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Get it here.

Today on the podcast, I'm welcoming Cutback Coach founders Nick Allen and Ian Anderson.

Cutback Coach is a system for creating a more mindful approach to drinking to help you reach your goals. Our members are seeing major benefits, including a reduction in weekly drinks, improved sleep, a healthier diet, money saved, and an overall improved sense of well-being.

We discuss Nick and Ian's history with alcohol and how their pasts shaped their own relationships with alcohol as well as why they are passionate about helping other people become mindful about their drinking.

Learn the nuts and bolts of Cutback Coach and what makes it such a great tool for changing your drinking habits.

We also talk about the bigger conversation around alcohol and why we need to normalize mindful drinking and be willing to feel like managing our alcohol intake is nothing different than knowing your blood pressure or cholesterol level. With 80% of adults in the United States having drank alcohol in the last year, how we use alcohol in our lives is extremely important.

Abstinence isn't the only choice but reducing our alcohol intake to maximize enjoyment while minimizing harm is the goal.

As a reminder: Cutback Coach is not designed to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD). For resources related to AUD, including how to get support, please visit the NIH website.

To learn more about Cutback Coach visit them here. ★ Support this podcast ★

Taking the Edge Off with Alcohol-Seeking Relief May 19, 2021

Show notes

Have you grabbed your free e-book? "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Go to www.mollywatts.com

Join my private FB group "Change Your Alcohol Habit" here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Has this podcast helped you? How about leaving a review:

Follow me on Instagram: @AlcoholMinimalist

Today on the podcast I'm diving deep on taking the edge off with alcohol and seeking relief by drinking.

I share why you believe that alcohol helps you relax, the science behind what happens in your brain to make you feel relaxed from alcohol. Also how when you drink more than just one drink you put yourself at risk for experiencing increased anxiety when the alcohol is dissipating from your system. Your brain actually increases excitatory neurotransmitters is an attempt to counteract the depressants and as alcohol wears off your left feeling irritable, hyper-sensitive and anxious. For more on this listen to episode # 14 Alcohol and Anxiety (link below).

I also talk about the cultural messages that make drinking after work and before dinner something that is normal and accepted including a little history on "happy hour".

We'll look at what's really behind your need to take the edge off and how mastering the Results Cycle can change your life so that you're not continually seeking relief. For all the details on the Behavior Map and Results Cycle, listen in to Episode #11 Behavior Map and Results Cycle (link below).

The e-book "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe" is included in another FREE e-book promotion. 28 different titles all for free!

Click here for more details: https://books.bookfunnel.com/nonfictionmay2021/ca7bz4pbj8

Alcohol and Anxiety Episode #14

Behavior Map & Results Cycle Episode #11

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The Abstinence Myth with Dr. Adi Jaffe May 12, 2021

Show notes

Have you grabbed your free e-book? "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Go to www.mollywatts.com

Join my private FB group "Change Your Alcohol Habit" here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Has this podcast helped you? How about leaving a review:

This week on the podcast I'm talking to Dr. Adi Jaffe about his book, The Abstinence Myth.

Adi Jaffe, Ph.D. is a #1 best-selling author (The Abstinence Myth) and a nationally recognized expert on mental health, addiction, relationships and shame. He lectured in the UCLA Psychology department for the better part of a decade and was the Executive-Director and Co-Founder of one of the most progressive mental health treatment facilities in the country - until he started IGNTD.

Dr. Jaffe shares his story of drug addiction, including a stint in jail, recovery in AA/NA, and then his further education in pyschology including a Masters and Ph,D in pyschology. He has gone on to change the narrative on recovery and it doesn't have to be what you've been told. Abstinence doesn't even have to be necessary for recovery.

We talk about the underlying issues of why people struggle with alcohol abuse and why the focus is on the changing the quantity of drinking instead of the underlying issues. Drinking resolves itself when you fix those problems.

We talk about the power of your unconscious beliefs and self-limiting stories. You seek what you choose to pay attention to. What you believe is true is what you your world will confirm to you.

We have the ability to rewrite our beliefs and there is always hope.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.adijaffe.com/

Bruce Lipton's The Biology of Belief

Adi Jaffe TedX UCLA

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Check Up & Choices with Director Dr. Reid Hester, Ph.D May 05, 2021

Show notes

Have you grabbed your free e-book? "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Go to www.mollywatts.com

Join my private FB group "Change Your Alcohol Habit" here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Has this podcast helped you? How about leaving a review:

In this episode, Dr. Reid Hester, Ph. D founder and science director of Check Up & Choices discusses the science of alcohol and the truth behind whether or not there is any benefit to drinking alcohol and what successful moderation really looks like.

Reid has been developing digital interventions for people with alcohol and drug problems for 25 years and has published more than 60 papers, books, and book chapters. He is a leader in his field, receiving multiple honors from his colleagues. Reid believes that helping individuals recover from substance misuse can have a significant positive impact on them, their families and their communities.

Our conversation includes:

Alcohol and Anxiety
Alcohol and Sleep
Alcohol and Negative Emotions
Alcoholism as a Disease
Drinking Habits
Urges & Cravings
Alcohol and Genetics
SMART Recovery

This conversation is robust and full of great tips and viewpoints.

Dr Reid Hester VITA

CheckUp & Choices

Moderation Management

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5 Myths that Keep Us Drinking More Alcohol Apr 28, 2021

Show notes

Have you grabbed your free e-book? "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Go to www.mollywatts.com

Join my private FB group "Change Your Alcohol Habit" here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Has this podcast helped you? How about leaving a review:

This week on the podcast you'll learn about five myths that keep us drinking alcohol. Myths are really just stories we've been telling ourselves and believing for year. They aren't true.

Myth #1: I'm weak-willed (not disciplined enough, lazy, not strong enough)

This story/thought is rooted in absolute thinking and in the past. I held onto the story that I was someone who lacked discipline and it kept me from proving to myself that I actually was disciplined. Quit looking backward for a path forward. From the words of Corinne Crabtree:

Quit sitting around in your old garbage memories, ruminating over what should've happened, what was wrong about it, and what you wish you could change.⠀⠀

Your past is done. Your future is waiting to be visited.⠀

Myth/Story/Thought #2: I need to take the edge off.

It is one of the thoughts that definitely keeps people drinking alcohol and often drinking more than we want to. It absolutely was another thought that kept my daily drinking habit going. And it’s also one of the areas where I first understood that I got to choose how I felt and could manage my mind when it came to stress.

Myth #3: Alcohol makes things more fun.

Alcohol doesn’t make things more fun. Neither does food, or people or music or any other external circumstance. You create FUN with your thoughts. It’s what you are making alcohol MEAN in your life that is why you believe it’s so true that alcohol makes things more fun.

Myth/Story/Thought #4: I just love the taste of wine (or beer, or whiskey, or whatever other alcoholic drink you choose).

As you know if you’ve listened I’m not exclusively AF and Non-alcoholic beers are something I have used to help me change my drinking habits. What’s amazing is that for a long time I thought I DIDN’T like the flavor of NA beers. What I realized was that even taste can be a matter of choosing thoughts. I prefer NA beer to regular beer on most evenings because i like how I feel when I don’t drink alcohol every day.

Myth #5: I can’t change my drinking because my spouse, partner, friends all drink.

The thoughts I had about what it would be like to NOT drink when my husband drank, or my friends drank or my family drank kept me stuck in my habit for years. Let me just tell you right now my friends...quit waiting for everyone else to change. Stop giving your power to transform your life away to others. Whether or not my husband chooses to drink is his choice. And it has absolutely nothing to do with my own choices.

Resources Mentioned:

Chasing Cupcakes

Corinne Crabtree

Alcohol and Anxiety Episode #14

LET GO of Stress

Personality isn't Permanent

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Alcohol & Sleep Apr 21, 2021

Show notes

Have you grabbed your free e-book? "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Go to www.mollywatts.com

Join my private FB group "Change Your Alcohol Habit" here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Today on the podcast I'm speaking to Dr. James Maas regarding sleep, sleep deprivation and how drinking alcohol impacts your sleep. Listen in for great tips on how to improve your sleep and why alcohol isn't the answer!

Sleep deprivation is widely prevalent in society and it has several deleterious consequences for your health, cognition and longevity.

Dr. Maas shared a simple quiz on how to know if you are sleep deprived:

1)Does a heavy meal, low dose of alcohol, warm room, or boring meeting make you drowsy?

2) Do you fall asleep within 5 minutes of getting into bed?

3) Do you need an alarm clock to wake up?

4) Do you sleep extra hours on weekends?

5) Are you sleepy right now?

If you answered yes to two or more of these questions you are pathologically sleep-deprived.

Strategies for getting better sleep:

1) Determine your sleep requirement-how many hours do you need? For most people they need at least one hour than what you are getting right now.

2) Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day.

3) Keep your bedroom cool and no light.

4) No caffeine after 2:00 pm every day.

5) No alcohol within three hours of bedtime.

6) Exercise but not too heavy exercise close to bedtime.

7) Do cognition activities including a "power nap".

To learn more about Dr. Maas visit:

https://jamesmaas.com/

Find his books here: Power Sleep

To learn more about Sleep Doctor products:

Sleep Doctor PM

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Trying to Moderate Alcohol and Hoping to Abstain Apr 14, 2021

Show notes

Have you grabbed your free e-book? "Alcohol Truths: How Much is Safe?" Go to www.mollywatts.com

Join my private FB group "Change Your Alcohol Habit" here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/changeyouralcoholhabit

Today's episode is all about "trying to cut back" on alcohol or "hoping to be good" and why this isn't a strategy that will help you change your relationship with alcohol.

We have to commit to a plan ahead of time to help us change our habits and that requires a decision.

The two reasons people avoid making a plan ahead of time is because

1) They are ashamed of the number of drinks that they are planning for.

2) They fear failure and avoid making a plan because if they don't write down a firm number they can't fail.

Believing that a plan for alcohol ahead of time was something that would help me change my drinking required me thinking new thoughts. Understanding that not meeting the plan did not mean that something had gone wrong, not using it as an excuse to quit trying was critical.

We have to decide on a plan, and we have to commit to evaluating our decisions to not follow the plan with compassion and curiosity. We can't just try to moderate or hope to abstain, we need a plan in place and a commitment to figure out what happened if we drink more than we plan.

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