You are listening to the Drink Less Lifestyle podcast with Dr. Sherry Price, episode number 153.

Welcome to Drink Less Lifestyle, a podcast for successful women who want to change their relationship with alcohol. If you want to drink less, feel healthier and start loving life again you’re in the right place. Please remember that the information in this podcast does not constitute medical advice. Now, here’s your host, Dr. Sherry Price.

Well hello, my beautiful friend. I am happy to report we survived Hurricane Hilary. Oh my gosh, Southern California getting hit with a hurricane which turned into a tropical storm was quite interesting. Something that you hear about more so in Texas and Florida but to experience that on the West Coast was very unique. Turned us into a little bit of a panic attack over here. And I just want to say thank you for all of those who sent messages via Facebook and Instagram and within my community, many of you reaching out and wishing us well and praying for us. I really, truly appreciated that.

Luckily, our house wasn’t affected too much. I know other people weren’t so fortunate, but luckily we survived it very well. I know I was quite anxious over its arrival, but turned out it was a beautiful rain, a long lasting rain, but a beautiful rain. We don’t get a long lasting, beautiful rain in summer and it has that distinct smell, the mugginess, the hotness. And although I’m sad for the people that were affected and had severe damage, I have to say our experience was quite lovely of watching that rainfall.

So before we get into today’s topic, I want to make sure that you know I am launching two programs in September, both which I am super thrilled about. The first program is IF:45 For Women. You may have heard me talk about this program in the past on the podcast. IF stands for intermittent fasting and it goes 45 days, that’s why it’s called IF:45 For Women. And it’s really looking and teaching women how to eat for weight loss, to burn body fat and to do intermittent fasting as a tool, as a lifestyle tool for healthy eating habits.

Because when you intermittent fast, I will tell you, some of the benefits when you learn to intermittent fast the right way in perimenopause and beyond is that you get rid of sugar cravings. And that you feel full and aren’t hungry immediately or two hours later. And that this way of eating is a healthy way of eating for many different benefits, including decreased autophagy, increased metabolic flexibility, glucose regulation, stable mood, not getting hangry, having more energy and really a boost in self-confidence.

And so I am launching this program again in September on the 5^th. Now it’s 45 days long, where you will get information each and every day that will improve your eating habits so you can become metabolically flexible, which means you go from being a sugar burner to being a fat burner. And yes, that means your body uses its stored fat on your body and it burns it off. And that’s what it means to be metabolically flexible.

And we know from the recent study that just came out, less than 8% of people in the United States are considered metabolically flexible. We are all running around being sugar burners. And this is a problem because it leaves us craving more sugar and never feeling full and always feeling hungry. So we never really reach satiety and we’re tired and we’re reliant on food for our emotional wellbeing and we never feel full enough.

So if that sounds like you and you want to join this program, come on, join us. We get started on September 5^th. I have run this program a few times before and I kid you not, every single woman in the program has achieved fantastic results. The participants have left me glowing reviews and testimonials about weight loss, sleeping better, less stress, finally not being hungry all the time, finally understanding how to best regulate their hunger hormones.

And even one of the ladies in the last program just reported how this has improved her marriage. She said her husband has been eating healthy and has been doing intermittent fasting and he’s just so excited that now she’s on board with this. And now she’s finding it so easy to do that she doesn’t think about food. She actually has to remind herself to eat. And in her early 50s, she says she has never experienced that phenomenon before. And so this has gone on to improve their relationship because they are both now passionate about the same thing and love supporting one another.

And I think that is just so beautiful, when we can bond over healthy ways of eating. She also reported an 8 pound weight loss just in the 45 days of doing this program. And she plans to continue it going further and getting more weight loss results. So I’m super excited to be launching this again. Again, we get started on September 5^th. Head over to my website if you want to sign up and that’s at epicyou.com for Intermittent Fasting 45 For Women. You want to grab your spot now because this program will fill up.

And then the next program I have starts a week later and that is called Tone in 10. Tone in 10 is my latest program and it’s designed for women who not only want to lose weight but want to get tone. And when you get tone, you actually accelerate fat loss. So it’s called Tone in 10 because it will be delivered over 10 weeks where you’ll be learning 10 healthy ways to take exquisite care of your body. You’ll learn how to improve your body composition, gain skeletal muscle mass, which is something we lose each decade after 40, especially for women.

You’ll learn how to improve your body strength. You’ll have a workout plan to follow, plus you will learn so much more in the weeks of every habit that we cover in small, doable steps. What I love about this program, since it is longer, we get to go deeper and do a deeper dive on the information about what it really means to truly care for your health, your overall health.

So I will be including topics like the microbiome, sleep, hydration, how to take care of your mental health, because we know we aren’t just walking brains and we aren’t just walking bodies. We are interconnected and so all of these systems play with one another when they are all harmonized. And since this is the first time I’m launching this program, I want to offer my community, my audience a discount of 30% off. If you are on my email list, you got the code to get that 30% off and this will be the only time where I launch this program at this low of a rate with a discount.

And so I want to mention that upfront in case you are interested in doing the program, now would be the best and most cost effective time to do it. Inside Tone in 10 there will be group calls as well as personal calls. I know everybody struggles in one area of their life and so you can use those personal calls to get on a call with me, where I can help you pinpoint what’s holding you back or what’s getting in your way so that you can develop more success in that area.

I am truly excited about this program. I know many women have said, “Hey, I want help with working out, getting stronger, boosting my self-confidence, feeling better in my clothes and losing weight in a way that’s sustainable and that’s building healthy habits.” Because I’m all about healthy habits that are sustainable. So if you are interested in joining us on September 10^th is when we get started for Tone in 10, you want to sign up now because that discount code expires on September 4^th. Plus I am limiting the amount of spots that are available in this program as it is a first time launch.

And so if this does interest you I encourage you to sign up now at epicyou.com/tonein10. Again, that’s epicyou.com/tonein10. I’m super excited ladies and I can’t wait to support you in either of these programs.

Alright, so moving into today’s topic, I really want to ask you, how is your drinking and is it holding you back? So I really want you to think about that. How is your drinking holding you back? And when I talk to women, oftentimes, I’ll hear, “Yeah, no, my drinking’s good.” And then they start thinking about it a little bit more and they’re like, “Yeah, maybe it is getting in the way of some things in my life.”

And common ways that I hear that it can hold you back is, “Well, yeah, maybe I’m not able to achieve those weight loss goals because of the amount of drinking that I do.” Or maybe you can’t feel good about yourself until you really figure out this drinking rollercoaster. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not, and you keep ping ponging between the good and the bad, and you really just want to figure it out for good.

And for some women, they report that they have very little to no intimacy in their marriage. And their marriage is built on fake intimacy, and they think that drinking will make it better. But instead of working on the real problem, it’s just masking the real problem.

And for some women they want to feel like when they make a plan they stick to it, and they follow through on their word because that is important to them. Not only is it important to them to follow through on what they say they’re going to do because that boosts their self-esteem and their self-confidence but also they know it improves their health when they do.

Or maybe you feel that there’s a lack of purpose or direction in your life now that the kids are off to school or off to college and you’re feeling a little more aimless. Or you have more extra time and you’re just filling the extra time with drinking. Or maybe you are creating something so amazing, so epic, that you want your brain to be firing on all cylinders for your best to come through.

That last one, that’s me. As I’ve been creating this new program, Tone in 10, I want to be firing on all cylinders day and night. I want my sleep to be dialed in. I want to be refreshed in the morning. I want to be able to do the research, scan the evidence and break down the information into bite sized chunks so my clients can follow a succinct protocol to get these healthy habits dialed in and to lose weight. And so I’m sharing this with you because in putting this program together, I decided I’m going to go alcohol free. I just don’t want it right now.

I am part of some groups where I have access to a lot of great people, big name podcasters in the area of health and wellness, access to personal trainers, people on a similar health journey in their later years focusing on women and perimenopause and beyond. And when I show up to these calls and these groups, I want to be asking questions that I know I have and that I know my clients are going to have.

Plus creating all the great content I am, the great workbooks. I need my mental power fully so I can create a program where it’s in small chunks that are doable and not overwhelming because I want to help more women take their health to the next level. So to be fully present, unencumbered, well rested, I wanted to make sure that anything that affected me cognitively was just off the table for now. So with that, I am on a break for alcohol for now. I just decided to stop drinking for this period of time.

Now, that one decision because I knew exactly what I wanted and what I didn’t want, that one decision also started me thinking to, how else can I up-level my health? If I’m taking that off the table right now, is there anything else that can impact me negatively, cognitively? And so I decided to do a reset protocol.

And one of the big factors that went into this decision is all the research that I’m doing, learning more and more about all the new information that’s come out about the gut microbiome and how best to support it. Not just for our gut health but how it impacts our mental health, how we feel and our cognitive abilities. So on this reset protocol, I’ve decided to cut out gluten, dairy and other items so that I can reset and regrow the good bacteria in my microbiome and see how my health improves.

Now, I’ll say it’ll be interesting to see how I feel once I’m all done with the reset protocol. Once this comes to an end, how I’ll feel about it and what I’ll decide that I want to potentially bring back into my eating routine. And maybe there are going to be things that I leave out of it. And what I’m committed to is staying open-minded to it all. I don’t want to have clenched fists that I need this back or else.

I’m just releasing it all and being very open-minded to embracing this journey and embracing this new way of eating and really tuning in and listening to my body and how it’s adjusting and what it needs. Now, I have to tell you, this has been a huge shift in how I eat, and I’ve never done anything like this before. So for me, I typically love red meat. I have a steak, carne asada tacos with chips and guacamole. I have red meat at least once a week. And giving up red meat has been a huge mindset shift for me.

Planning meals takes more creativity, especially when I’m using new ingredients and ingredients that I haven’t used in the past and haven’t normally eaten these ingredients and even learning where to shop for them. So I’m mentioning all this because up-leveling your health comes with change because obviously if you want different results, you’re going to have to take different actions to get there.

And a key part of my success so far is that I’ve been willing to remain open-minded and not bring judgment into things, making it harder on myself to embrace the change because I want to embrace this change to get better results. Otherwise, if you don’t embrace change, you just stay the same. And so honestly, I was ready to up-level my health because that is extremely important to me. And when I say it’s important to me, I don’t want to just say it’s important to me. I actually want to practice what I preach.

And so if I’m not practicing what I preach, it feels out of my integrity and that creates massive guilt and shame for me. So I’m sharing all this in my journey because I think it can apply to you. And coming back to how we got started on this, how about you, where is your drinking holding you back? When I sat down and thought about that and made a list, I was not unhappy with my current relationship with alcohol. I was just ready to be in a different place for a short period of time and my result was to fire on all cylinders mentally. That was my goal, that’s what I wanted to achieve.

And so working backwards and reverse engineering that, I asked myself, what steps do I need to take in order to do that? Now, when it comes to you and your drinking and what your drinking, holding you back from achieving, I know most of my clients come to me because they are so frustrated with how it’s contributing to their weight gain, or they don’t like the belly bloat, or they don’t like how their clothes are fitting. Or some of them feel like their alcohol is affecting their sleep and they can’t get truly restful sleep.

And for others it makes them feel worse about themselves. They say they’re going to do one thing and then they go and do another and that really eats at them internally. And so what I want to remind you is that you can change. You are not stuck with this death sentence that you can’t change your relationship with alcohol, and it can be flexible. What you decide to do for a short period of time can change again when you decide to reevaluate it. As I mentioned, I’m cutting it out for now. I’m not cutting back, I’m cutting it out for now.

And I don’t have a pre-planned date for when it’s coming back into my life because I am so focused on taking my health to the next level and that’s all I want to focus on about right now. And alcohol just doesn’t fit into that picture right now. I’m getting older, my body is changing, my body is sending me signals that, hey, you’re feeling a little bit older. And so I know chronologically I’m aging, but biologically I know it could be different, it could be a different picture.

I can slow the aging process. I can slow the ailments. I can slow the weight gain. And as you know, and I have it on my page on my website because I’m so passionate about it, that putting on weight does not have to be a normal part of aging. And so I’m ready to take my health to the next level, are you? And if so, you need help and encouragement along the way, come join me because it’s always fun to have a partner and a community where we are all on the same page getting to similar goals.

So where is your drinking holding you back? Get really honest with yourself. And another powerful question you can ask is, what do you want for you? I love this question so much. When I asked myself what do I want from me, it was clear I wanted to level up and become healthier. What’s your answer to that question? Because I say live for what matters to you. And when I say that, I mean live truly to what matters to you, not to others.

Some women just keep living their lives for others and the approval of others and wanting others to like them or for their family members. And yes, sometimes that’s good, but when you just live for others and just live for the approval of others and just live to please others, oftentimes you don’t know what you want or can’t even define what your success would look like. And I think that’s missing a big piece of your happiness and healthiness in life.

Compromising your own values for others means you give up your agency over your own life. No, thank you, my health is too valuable to give it away or to put it in the hands of somebody else’s control. You, my friend, get to decide what you want and give yourself permission to get it and that doesn’t mean you can’t still please others, it just means you’re pleasing yourself first. And when you do that, and if you’re not used to doing that, that means you’ll need to embrace change, be willing to do things differently so you get a different, more beautiful result.

As my one client said in IF:45, “Who knew that doing IF:45 would lead to better improvement in my marriage and communication with my husband? Who knew that we would grow this level of passion around food and eating healthy together.” You don’t even know all the beneficial strategic byproducts that can come from improving your health and your wellness. It’s a beautiful thing.

Alright, my friends, I encourage you to level up. Improving doesn’t have to mean you’re broken. It could just mean you want more and you’re ready for more. Alright my beautiful friend, have an epic week. And if you are loving this podcast, please subscribe, rate the podcast, and leave a review, also share it with a friend. Health and wellness is a beautiful thing to spread and share with others. Alright. I’ll see you next week.

If you want to change your relationship with alcohol and with yourself then come check out EpicYOU. It’s where you get individualized help mastering the tools so you can become a woman who can take it or leave it and be in control around alcohol in any situation. EpicYOU is the place for women who want to be healthy, confident, and empowered to accomplish their goals and live their best life. Come join us over at epicyou.com/epicyou. That’s epicyou.com/ E-P-I-C-Y-O-U. I can’t wait to see you there.