Dry January talk with KillJoy and Creative Sobriety

00:01Hey everyone, it's Brandon. Happy New Year. Super excited that you're joining us here today. Going into 2024, let's make it an amazing year. We are talking dry January and starting the year off on the right direction today. And I don't know of a better way to do all of that in your business than to assess exactly where you're at. So go in and look at your invoices, find out what you paid for the entire year, look back and let's be intentional this year with what vendors we're using and why we're using them. I highly recommend you check out Gordon Food Service. These guys are doing amazing, amazing things. And this is the time to partner with one company. Find that company who can be a partner in your success and lean in, negotiate the best possible deal, make it happen. But this is a great time in the month of January to really identify who you're using, what you're using, why you're using it.

01:04And I will tell you, not only Gordon Food Service, but also who are you buying your insurance through? Because Robin's Insurance does an amazing job. And if you're using some national brand in your local restaurant, you need to be using a local company like Robin's. Matthew Clements is your guy over there and he is absolutely amazing. Handles everything immediately. We use them at our restaurants and he is an absolute asset. Check the show notes for contact information. Also, one other thing, fresh baked bread. If you wanted to create amazing bread service this year, whether it's a hamburger, whether it's a baguette, whether it's your dinner rolls that you use for your guests, Sharpier's Bakery is what you need to be doing. You need to be contacting Aaron Mosso over at Sharpier's Bakery and setting up a tour. Come look at their facility. If you're baking a bread that only you can do, chances are they can do it too and they deliver every single day. Delivering local products to you is what they do. Another company you also wanna look into is What Chefs Want.

02:09They are the absolute specialty gourmet, meat, seafood. They split everything, they deliver every day. They're an amazing company and they are what chefs want. They really are 800, 600, 85, 10. But again, this is the time of year where you've time to reflect back on 2023. What worked? What didn't work? And what do you need? What action steps do you need to do going forward to make sure that your 2024 is a success? One of those ways is also dish machine and chemicals. If you're in a long-term contract, you probably don't know where you're at, but if you don't, let them know 30 days in advance, then they re-sign you up for another five years. So pull out those contracts, see where you're at, make sure you can give the appropriate notice because Jason Ellis will change your world and he doesn't offer contracts. So whatever you wanna do, if you switch to somebody else and you try out SuperSource for a little while, see if he can prove what he says he can do.

03:12If it doesn't work out, you can always go back. So Jason Ellis, SuperSource is an amazing guy. He's working with all the best restaurants and if you're not working with SuperSource yet, you need to get on the train because they are absolutely amazing. So with that being said, we're gonna jump in today. We've got Kristin Baird and Stephanie Still in studio. We're talking dry January, hints, tips, tricks, things that are gonna help you have a successful new year. Let's jump right in. ["The Tastiest Hour of Talk in Music City"] Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. ["The Tastiest Hour of Talk in Music City"] Hello, Music City. And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service and happy new year.

04:17It's almost near as New Year's Eve and I am joined with Stephanie Still and Kristin Baird. Stephanie, say hi. Hello. Stephanie is not only my amazing sister but she is also the owner of Killjoy, which is a non-alcoholic bottle shop right up at Wedgewood. How do you describe where Killjoy is? We are right off 65 at Wedgewood, pretty close to the soccer stadium. There you go. They're at 65 Wedgewood right by the soccer stadium. They're doing amazing things. And you are sober. Do you prefer the term sober or alcohol-free or what is there like a term you use? Alcohol-free is my preferred term. Preferred term. You are alcohol-free a little over three years and I'm so proud of you. Thank you. You're awesome. We're also here with Kristin Baird who is another sober woman.

05:18Do you go by the term sober as well? Yeah, yeah. I'm proud sober woman. I'm totally sober. So yeah, that word's good with me. I love it. And you have an Instagram page called Creative Sobriety. You also have a podcast. You are a sobriety advocate and I love your content that you put out there. It is fantastic. Thank you. Thank you so much. So thank you ladies for joining me today because it is New Year's Eve and the idea here is that a lot of people are gonna do dry January or a lot of people have New Year's resolutions and they say, I'm gonna stop drinking. This is the time. I'm gonna stop drinking or I'm gonna, for me, I actually have a New Year's resolution that I'm stopping nicotine this year. So it's a real thing. Like people do this. They wait until New Year's Eve to do some big proclamation. I'm gonna make this change and dry January is the thing. Probably the busiest month of the year for you, right Stephanie?

06:21I'm hoping so. You're hoping so, yes. And you have a bunch of events that are set up. So I thought it'd be really fun to have you guys in. So if you're somebody who's out there who's sober, if you're sober curious, if you're gonna participate in dry January or if you think you might have a problem, I thought it'd be fun to have us all in the same room to talk about what to expect this next month, what to expect if that is your New Year's resolution. Kind of like week one, week two, some of the things that we all experienced and hopefully this can be something that might help you get through it or help you decide if you want to do it. So there we go. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for doing this. I think it's really important and really cool. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. So let's start off with tonight. Let's just say it's New Year's Eve, Nashville's big bash. You are gonna go out, party tonight, but if maybe you didn't wanna party, Stephanie, you have a really cool option. Tell us what you're doing tonight.

07:22Yeah, well, you can definitely still party. It's just about doing it without alcohol. So we're having a party tonight in East Nashville. It's at the East Cider, which is Nathan Gifford of Gifford's Bacon, his kind of new event venue. And we are gonna be out there. There'll be an outdoor area with live music. We're gonna have fire pits. He's gonna have a bunch of wood-fired appetizers and things to eat. And we're gonna have all-you-can-drink, non-alcoholic cocktails, champagne. It's just gonna be a big ol' party. And then we're gonna do the countdown at 10 p.m. Hell yeah. My kind of party. So do it, come in. So you don't have to stay around until midnight. At 10 p.m., we're gonna act like it's midnight. We're gonna do a full countdown, and then you can go home and get to bed. Yeah, or you can go somewhere else. But if you wanna start off January crushing your goals, we recommend go home, get cozy in your jammies, get a good night's sleep, and get up and kick some ass in 2024. Yes. Hell yeah.

08:23That sounds amazing. I'm gonna try and make it. I always have to work that night, because it's a very busy night at the restaurant. But if I can make it after that, that's where the one thing, the 10 p.m. thing might hurt me, because I'm like, if it was midnight, I could totally do it. But Kristen, what are you doing on New Year's Eve? I'm gonna be in Charleston, South Carolina. Nice. Hanging with some homies. Well, that sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah, I'm really excited. It's gonna be good. I was hoping maybe I'd get some warmer weather going south, but it looks like it's gonna be kinda chilly, kinda the same as here. But good people, good people, I'm excited. Well, I'm sure you will have a blast. What do you say to people that maybe want, tonight's gonna be their last night of drinking, or to say that, oh, they start feeling like this depression because I'm not gonna be able to drink next month. I'm not gonna be able to have fun like I'm gonna have tonight. The perception right now that I'm gonna go out tonight and I get to get drunk one last time, what does that make you feel like inside?

09:31It really frustrates me. It really frustrates me because so much of finding joy and happiness and sobriety is the belief that you're going to. Because I think if you go into it with this lack mindset that you're gonna be missing out on something you perceive as really important in your life or the source of your fun and your freedom, that's what you're gonna find. So I would really encourage people to, at this time, really challenge those beliefs that you have about your social life, about what makes you feel happy and free, and that it really belongs to alcohol. Alcohol is not the gatekeeper of your fun. It's actually probably really hindering you in a lot of ways. I think it's so much about mindset. It is a ton about mindset. And I'm gonna go, I'm gonna take what you just now said and I'm gonna go into some of the reasons why people do dry January. Because why do it, right?

10:34And I have this page, this page is from goodhousekeeping.com where dry January appeals to someone who may not have noticed a pattern or they're drinking a little bit more than they should, especially during the holidays. I think that's a thing. A lot of times around the holidays, we tend to drink a whole bunch. You go from Thanksgiving straight through to Christmas into New Year's and it's like, damn. So dry January is a thing to reset your relationship with alcohol. I think we kind of get lost in this every day. There's a new party, there's a new thing, open bars. And we don't quite realize what our relationship with alcohol is throughout the holidays. And then January starts and by not drinking for a month, you're able to identify, oh wow, I really was drinking too much or not, or whatever it might be. And so there's a bunch of benefits that you get from not drinking. And one of them is you get a mood boost. I think people think that, hey, when I drink, I feel better, but it's so temporary, right?

11:41Yeah, yeah. It's about 20 minutes really is what you get. It's about 20 minutes and then you get dehydrated because it's a diuretic and it makes you have to pee more and you lose more of your hydration. And then you have to get up in the middle of the night. And actually you sleep worse. And then you can wake up in the morning non-hungover and it's fantastic. Stephanie, what was your experience like when you first stopped drinking? Well, so I've done dry January many times prior to actually quitting drinking. And I've done it like you talked about with a mindset of lack and kind of white knuckled through it. And I did not experience that joy. And when I did actually quit drinking, I had gotten to the point where I had my mindset right. So I think a lot of it is about the mindset of thinking that this is a gift that I'm giving to myself and something kind that I'm doing for myself and able to enjoy it. And I don't know that because I was a heavy drinker before I quit drinking, like I didn't experience a lot of immediate benefits.

12:47Like it took me a while to start to feel better. But like you mentioned, something that is very real is like your capacity to feel good and your capacity to feel joy will expand. And I don't know, it depends on how long it might take you based on your individual physiology, but like there's something called basically the hedonic set point, which is that like alcohol floods your dopamine receptors and makes everything feel really, really good when you're drinking. And then if you don't drink and you don't have that, things don't feel as fun. Like something like looking at a flower is only gonna rate like a five on your level where drinking alcohol is a 10. So it kind of dulls everything else in your life. Well, once you get over that and you remove alcohol and you're past that, everything else ramps up a notch. Looking into the eyes of your child will now register as a nine, like your capacity to feel joy in every facet of your life expands. And when that happens, it's a fucking magic.

13:49Yes, I agree. Well, I think that everybody that you talk to who stops drinking says, it's the best thing I've ever done. And I think that's a great example of how that works because you can't envision it right now. It takes time after you quit drinking and it is difficult at the beginning because it's like a best friend that really doesn't treat you very well, but you think that they do. And then once you finally let them go, oh, I don't have all that negativity in my life anymore. And I don't have, all of a sudden, I feel better about myself because somebody's constantly not comparing things to me and they're putting me down. We're getting rid of that, just getting out of a really bad relationship. Yeah, it's like a toxic ex-boyfriend. It's like, you can't see it when you're in it. And then you get out and you're like, God, I can't believe I ever cared about this. You know what? It's a thing. I'm real weird when it comes to episodes like this because I don't wanna just be selling because I'm a natural salesperson.

14:53I'm like, you should do this. This is the thing you should do. But it's really the one thing in my life that I'm kind of the saddest about that I didn't do this sooner. I feel like I was able to be reborn when I was 40. And I'm like, why didn't I do this at 30? Where could I have possibly been in my life if I had done this at 30? It's almost like saving a bunch of money and compound interest. Just the everyday things. Like you just said, looking into your child's eyes, Christmas was last week. And just seeing your kids come downstairs and the joy that they, being able to be in the middle of that versus being hung over in the morning. Because I remember there was a few years, probably five years where the kids would come down and I was hung over as hell. I'm going like, oh God guys, just open your damn presents. Like I don't, but this, I get up and I'm excited with them. And that's a new thing. I still feel like that's a new thing.

15:54So there's some other benefits to doing Dry January and I'm gonna go through some of these. We can talk about them. What do you guys think about that? Yeah, let's do that. You'll feel better in the morning. I just talked about this one. Even if you don't wake up with a full blown hangover after drinking, you aren't likely waking up at your best. First of all, there's the anxiety effect described above. Plus all of your poor sleep and dehydration can really dampen how energetic you feel when you're thinking about having an alcoholic beverage. Levi says, it's a good idea to take a step back and think about your morning. People, if they're trying not to drink and they don't, the next morning they're gonna say, oh, I'm glad I did not drink. It feels great, says Levi. If they do drink, I guarantee they're not gonna say that. Just the anxiety of waking up the next day with a hangover. Talk about that for a second. One of you, Kristin. Yeah, I mean, God, I remember for years, all throughout my 20s, I had been diagnosed with anxiety. I thought I was just a person who was going to have anxiety my whole life.

16:57I was medicated, it was all the things. And turns out, once I quit drinking, that really just dissipated. And I'm not on medication anymore. It's like, oh, wow, I was really, really just piling it on myself. But yeah, just to speak to the general anxiety you wake up with after a night of binge drinking, I'll never forget those feelings of, oh, shit, what did I say? Oops, looking at text messages. Oh, my God, did I send that? Even if it's not terrible, right? The fact that I would have those moments of I'm not sure what happened really haunted me and made me feel really shameful and just compounded all this low self-esteem stuff. That anxiety just would sort of, ugh. And then, yeah, I think it follows you throughout the day and people don't realize after a night of binge drinking, it's about three to five days, really, for all of that to work out of your body.

18:05And so that anxiety really follows you into, most likely, if you're a regular drinker, the next time that you binge drink, right? Even if you're only doing it once a week. So that week after week, even if it's one night, Friday night, you go out and tie one on, you're really never living at your baseline. You're always living with that little bit of extra anxiety. And that over years, I mean, that sucks the life out of you. That sucks the joy out of you. That creates this level of anxiety and fear. That I was walking around with, certainly. Yeah, I totally agree. And from a health perspective, I mean, if you're just thinking about this, how could I be a little bit healthier? I highly recommend wearing some kind of wearable device and tracking. Because I would notice, I started tracking my sleep wearing an aura ring and noticing that if I had one glass of wine, my heart rate would be elevated about 10 points. And that would last for maybe one or two days from one glass of wine.

19:06And so it's impacting your sleep every time you put alcohol into your body. And so getting that really deep restorative sleep is amazing for every aspect of your health. And so that's something most people are gonna notice right away as a big improvement. I wanted to have some good general conversation around us three just in kind of our own experiences before we got into like, hey, day one, what am I feeling and those kinds of things. But to kind of put a bone what you guys were saying, people that drink a lot, if you drink a lot, chances are there's something that you're trying not to feel. And in my own experience, I was insecure and I was not okay with myself and didn't feel good enough. And I would drink every single day because I did not know how to regulate my own emotions. I didn't know what to do with emotions. I was, when I grew up, it was be a man, suck it up.

20:06You're not, emotions are bad. And my relationship with alcohol was very much a dark passenger. Like I needed alcohol to make myself feel like I was okay. It was a reward for me that numbed all of my emotions. And so when I quit drinking, the ability to not, the hardest part for me was trying to figure out what the fuck I was feeling. Because if I started feeling emotions, I immediately started to numb. I just, I didn't wanna feel those things. Emotions are bad. And I think now, I don't know if this speaks to kind of what you were talking about earlier, when I have emotions now, I have to deal with them. And I have to express them. And I have to go, oh my God, what am I feeling? I'm feeling sad. Emotions aren't bad. And I think a lot of people, I'm learning this being a parent, is that children are born with all the emotions and they have no way to regulate them.

21:09They don't know what they are. And one of our jobs as parents is to identify what those emotions are and help coach them through those different emotions. And so I'm like, no, that never happened for me. And that doesn't happen for a lot of people. And what happens is you go through life and then emotions happen and then you learn that, hey, look, there's this really easy trick. If I go to a liquor store, if I go somewhere, I can have fun and drink and I don't have to deal with that. So one of the things I think that's the part that people fear, it's not the fun. So it's New Year's Eve, tomorrow you're going, oh gosh, I'm gonna be sober for a month. What am I gonna do for fun? Your real fear is what am I gonna do when I start feeling emotions that I don't know what to do with? Is that a long way around that? I mean, cause I think deep inside, that's what people are afraid of. They don't know it, but it's come tomorrow when I can't have a drink and my ex calls me or I see him at the store and it sucks or something happens, I have a death in the family.

22:11What do I do? Like I have to be able to go, no, you don't. That's not a thing. And that's where when you recover from that and you can start dealing with your own emotions, then you start feeling better because you start feeling them and you're like, oh wow, I'm not just suppressing them and holding on to these things, I'm now actually regulating them. Yeah, I mean, so much of that is the way we feel about ourselves too. I don't use the word addict or alcoholic. I don't think I was addicted to alcohol. I was addicted to escaping myself. I didn't wanna, I didn't enjoy my own company. I wasn't afraid of not drinking. I was afraid of being alone with myself and my thoughts for days on end because I didn't like myself. I didn't wanna face these parts of me that I had spent so much time sort of blurring out and covering up. So I think so much of the sobriety journey for me has really been this with fear of sounding cheesy.

23:11I mean, just a very deep dive in self-love and self-worth and just being willing to sit with myself without running away. And it's hard to do, but I think that's the key. I mean, it's been the key for me for really everything. 100%. Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more. And so that's a great segue into, so you've decided to do dry January or you're having New Year's resolution to drink less or drink, not at all. There's zero judgment in here as to whatever you decide to do because I don't care what you do. I'm just wanna share my own experience for what has helped me. And if you can take something from this and go, oh, that's cool, I may try that, then awesome. So it's day one, we're waking up tomorrow morning, you partied all night, you're hungover, you got your one last time in. What's something that people should do immediately? What do you guys think that day one, what was your go-to? What would you say now people should do? Well, I mean, I think you need to have a plan.

24:15You need to make a plan before day one. Today, start your plan. Yes. You need to figure out what that looks like. And you need to know what tools do you have in your toolbox. That's what you were talking about. Okay, now we're facing emotions, we're facing all of this. How are we doing this? And each person is gonna be different in terms of what tools work for them. But I think starting to identify what some of those tools are would be huge. I think on my day one, and Kristin and I always talk about this, but baths with Epsom salt are a huge stress reliever for me. Walking and running in the woods is something that I just absolutely have to do. It's gonna be January 1st. I think it's a great day to go outside, spend some time with yourself, celebrate the gift that you're giving yourself. And just one thing I wanna say about what you said before that's kind of off this topic is that like, a lot of people have an old model in mind of recovery, the traditional recovery model, which is like you have to go to AA if you quit drinking, you have to do whatever.

25:17And I see every day there are so many different models. And I think that's why Brandon wants us all to kind of be here to show that. And like your dry January can look like whatever you want your dry January to look like. So you can do what's best for you. And I think that's really exciting. So make a plan that's tailored to your needs. And I think another thing is like, prioritize yourself. You have to prioritize yourself in order to do anything like this, but like know that you're gonna disappoint people, you're gonna let your friends down. Always choose yourself this month. Give yourself a month to say, I need to do what I need to do. If I'm feeling stressed out, then I'm gonna have to leave the situation and I'm gonna have to get my emotions under control so that I don't reach the point where I say, fuck it and grab a drink. Yeah. Yeah, and set yourself up for success. If you're serious about taking a month off of alcohol and really exploring the health benefits of that and trying to get yourself to an elevated level to start the new year, then you have to be really intentional about where you go, who you spend your time with.

26:30You can't just continue on the same schedule and go to the same bar every Thursday afternoon where you historically have 10 beers. You have to be really intentional about what you're doing and have a real solid reason why you're doing this that you continually look to throughout the month to remind you to stay on track and things like that. I love the idea of having a plan. And one of the things I was gonna say is to start journaling because we had a guy, Will Gadara, come in here who wrote the book on reasonable hospitality. And one of his things in his book that he said was his perspective has a timeline, right? And he was referencing going from being a server to a manager, to a general manager, like remembering where you came from because that's your superpower and he used to journal that. But it's really good advice going into this month. Get a journal and write down what you're feeling. I mean, just that moment alone, that self-love, just spending that time alone, regulating those emotions, but writing down how you're feeling.

27:34Wow, today is really hard. I didn't realize how hard it was gonna be. Everybody's going tonight to Lakeside Lounge and I really wanna go and I'm not going to because, but in this journal, how you feel because on day 27, going back and reading what you experienced on day one will be amazing to kind of go, wow, I can't believe I was feeling all of those things. And you'll be able to document your journey, but also sitting down and getting those thoughts and putting them on paper is a really good practice to start working on your emotions because you can get your emotions out in that paper and kind of it helps express it. Totally, I'm also a huge believer in the power of like pen to paper with words because so much of changing a habit, so much of manifesting things in your life is changing your subconscious mind. And so when you repeatedly day after day write, like physically write the thing down over, even if you sit down and only write, I'm not drinking this month, write it 10 times every morning.

28:37By the end of the month, you believe that and you don't veer from that path. So I think that's with anything, but I do believe, some people hear journaling and they are like, oh, whoa, I'm not a writer, I don't wanna do that. But it's actually, it doesn't matter. It's just the process, the habit of sitting down and putting that physical word and just repeating it to yourself that it eventually sticks and you'll go about your day not realizing that your mindset has shifted. I couldn't agree more. Meditation is another thing. Do either of you practice meditation? I do. So something for me is I have a routine now and when I was drinking, I thought of myself as spontaneous and fun and I never really wanted to like have a routine, but I've had a morning routine for many years now and I get up pretty much every day at like 6 a.m. and I do some kind of exercise, either run or do yoga and then I meditate right after and I meditate lying flat on my back because that's what I like to do.

29:39It feels great and I usually use the app Insight Timer and I'll either just time it or I will like play music or do a guided meditation and there's a lot of great ones. There's ones for healing, healing your body, mantras, things like that and they are very powerful and then I try if possible to take a bath at night and do a meditation in the bath as well. So my goal is to meditate for 10 minutes twice a day and then sorry, the third part of my morning routine is that then I write for about 10 minutes. So it takes me about an hour to do exercise, meditate and write. But you schedule that, you prepare for that and that is what you do every day. I try to do it every day. I don't make it every day, but I know that whenever I do miss it, I'll just go right back to it and I can tell you that I can tell a huge difference in how I feel even if I get an hour less of sleep because you know, if I stay up late, it's like, I don't wanna get up at six. But I do it, I just get up at six and I do it before anybody wakes up, before the clutter gets into your mind. I don't let myself look at anything before I do it and it has been a very, very powerful thing for me.

30:42But I love meditating and I think you can make it really, really easy with an app like that. If you've never meditated before, get on there. It's a free app, lay down on the ground and listen to a 10 minute meditation. It's the easiest thing you can do. You don't have to sit still and be like a, you know, monk on a mountain top. It can look really different, you know, depending on the person. I'm a big hot yoga gal and so for me, that's probably my most consistent form of meditation. It's a moving meditation and where I can get to this place where I'm only focused on my breathing. And then, you know, in that space, it sort of somehow collides with prayer and, you know, my version of meditating. But yeah, I think just that time for yourself really is what's so important and clearing your mind the best that you can and getting really clear about being present, you know, however you can do that. I love what you just said, my version of meditating because I think that there's a perception of what meditation should, and every time I try and meditate, oh, my brain just goes crazy and it's like, it's supposed to.

31:53Right. Just that time alone where you kind of focus on breaths and then, and it just kind of clears everything and you're allowed, your brain's allowed, that's the time, but to recognize that your brain is going crazy. And sometimes you'll, if you can at least focus on your brain going crazy, it's okay because it's just, it's all about mindfulness and bringing it back in. And that's when you're feeling dysregulated and you're feeling anxious and you have, I'm not gonna drink, I'm not, I can't hang out with my friends, I can't do this. It's like, you can, but just take that moment, write down what you're feeling and take a moment for yourself, it's amazing how fast you come back to a, oh, this isn't that bad at all, I'm good. It's amazing how it just resets everything for me. And the only tool you need is your breath. That's it. This is free, my kind of policy was like, well, if it's free and easy, I'll try it. Yeah. Like this is, you take five minutes and breathe, that's gonna be, that can be a game changer for people and it's so easy.

32:56Hey, we're gonna take a quick break to hear a quick word from our sponsors. And I wanna tell you about Fat Bottom Brewing. These guys are doing something really special. We're talking about Dry January. They have got the antidote to what you need. It is called Hop Fizz. It is sparkling water with hops and natural flavors and it is so crisp, so delicious. If you had other brands of this hop water, this is a 16 ounce can. It is zero alcohol, zero calories, zero sugar and zero carbs. If you are a restaurant and you want to carry this for the future, but definitely during Dry January, you can get it through debt distributing and they are available right now at Killjoy. So you can go buy the Hop Fizz from Fat Bottom. It is my favorite by far. I am obsessed with these. They are delicious and they are perfect if you're looking for something sparkling with a little bit of an edge that is just delicious for your non-alcoholic journey.

34:03Now, at the beginning of the show, I talked about getting ready for the new year, making plans to be more profitable and to use better companies in 2024 and Cytex is definitely one of those companies. They are a linen and uniform company. They also do first aid kits, but if your tablecloths, your linens, your bar mats, your mats that are the towels that go in the kitchen, kitchen towels, they also have microfiber towels. If you're tired of just the terry cloth towels, they have microfiber towels. If you're cleaning tables, amazing, amazing company and their quality is second to none. Their service is even better. Cytex is the company you need to be using. So go back, look at your contracts, see when you have the availability to negotiate something new and choose Cytex. Just absolutely love them. Let's jump back in right now with more tips and tricks for dry January. So on the preparation front, I love sparkling water. Sparkling water for me does the trick. I love Pellegrino, but Costco sells a Kirkland Signature Italian sparkling water.

35:07They're like 75 cents a peach. You get the 24 pack. It looks like $14.99 for a 24 pack. They're great. But something about like drinking water, hydrating is really good, but the sparkling water has a little bit of that, the fizz to it, which kind of takes, that's the burn, I guess, from drinking alcohol. There's a texture to it, I don't know. I love sparkling water. So go get yourself some sparkling water. When you feel like having a drink, maybe even take that sparkling water and pour it in a wine glass. Totally. Totally fine to do that. I'll cook sometimes and I'll pour a hot fizz from Fat Bottom Brewery, their new Hop Water, zero calories, zero sugar, and I'll pour it in a wine glass and I'll just cook and I'll start drinking this. I'm like, this is lovely. And it totally does it for me, but if I don't have that and all I have in the house is a bottle of wine and I'm not me, my temptation's gonna be too high to grab that bottle of wine. So having that drink or something there, fresh fruits is another really good one for me versus like candy, because you're looking at New Year's Eve.

36:12A lot of people will start eating candy because you have to replace the act. Drinking takes a- The ritual. The ritual, drinking takes a lot of time. So typically if every night from seven to 10 you're hanging out with people drinking, well now you got three hours to do whatever else you want and the problem is we're not good at finding other things because that's easy and it makes all my feelings go away. What are some other things to do? Go for a walk? Yeah, I mean, I feel like I did a lot of puzzles. January is a good time to puzzle down, do something with your hands. Puzzle down. You know? I did a, mom gave us a Advent calendar puzzle and Jen and I sat like every day and did these little puzzles and it made one big 24 square puzzle. It was so much fun. I told Jen, I said, I think I'm gonna go borrow some, she goes, do not tell your mom that we like to puzzle. She goes, we will start getting puzzles arriving at our door every day.

37:14And I go, I'll just secretly like steal them and I won't tell her. So mom, if you're listening, do not buy us any puzzles but we had a lot of fun. I went on a trip right after I got sober with some friends who were drinking the whole time and I felt like it was such a dork really but I brought coloring books and I brought a puzzle and that's like what I did and I was like, I'm not apologizing for this. Like I definitely don't feel cool but it was relaxing and it got me through it. Yeah. Yeah, I think like what you were saying, about putting your sparkling water in a wine glass and making it feel still special. I mean, for me, that was a huge piece of, okay, I knew I didn't wanna drink alcohol. Like I was very done and very resolute on that but I also knew that I had to sort of appease my mind of like we're still, it's five o'clock. I'm used to pouring glass of wine or whatever it is. I had to replace that with something. I couldn't just erase that and expect to be happy sitting around drinking tap water.

38:15So I went hard into kombucha. I still love kombucha. Me too, I do too. But the kombucha for me really satisfied that wine craving in a specific way and I would pour it in a wine glass and I would make sure every day that I had as many kombuchas as my heart could want. And then I sought out a lot of the N.A. alternatives which Stephanie can obviously talk a lot more about but it was really helpful to me to be like, I don't have to miss out on anything. I'm just simply removing alcohol, you know? I love that and I wanna get into this next is gonna be a segue to go into Stephanie's events. The people that you hang out with, one of the things that I, and things that you do that could potentially be triggers is something that I wanna touch on real quick but also encourage people to try new things. When I quit drinking, I started listening to country music.

39:18Whatever your thoughts are on this, right? Whatever your thoughts are on this and I'm not, I have other thoughts but the storytelling in the songs, a lot of the songs, a lot of them are really bad. Some of them are good, interesting, wholesome, right? But I have zero triggers when I listen to country music because I've never in my entire life listened to country music when I was a drinker. So whenever I hear country music, it's never a, oh, I remember that time we got wasted at the river and like, none of that. There's no, you know, all the music that I associate these times that I've had, there's zero triggers. People that I hang out with, things that I do, new events I wouldn't have thought I would have liked, doing puzzles, this is a great opportunity to try new things because if you go and do the same shit that you've always done, you're gonna end up in the same place you've always end up, right?

40:20Thousand percent. So Stephanie, you have Killjoy and the whole month of January, you have got so many events. So, well, I'm not gonna get to go party with my friends. Maybe you find a group of friends that are also doing dry January, get a bunch of, and if you're listening to this today and you're like, well, shit, I wanna do that, but I'm not prepared. It's January 1st is tomorrow. Start on January the second. It's okay. Like there's no rule around this. It doesn't matter. Get a tribe, you'll get like five or six people and then try and hit all of these events that you're doing. Go find sober meetups. You don't have to go to AA meetings, but like go to a movie and do it sober with other people that are also not drinking. Like do fun things. Stephanie, what fun things can this new group of people do? Well, I'm so glad you asked. Kristen mentioned alcohol alternatives and that is what we sell at Killjoy. We have beer and wine and spirits that are all alcohol-free. So a lot of things that do taste similar to the traditional thing.

41:23So if like you just love Chardonnay and you can't live without it, you can have something that tastes almost exactly the same as Chardonnay. And I think that's amazing. We had a sparkling Riesling the other night at dinner for Christmas when we were doing Christmas dinner. It was so delicious. Like I, that was the best night by the way. We'll talk about Christmas. I had so much fun on Christmas. But it's great. Yeah, you can, for special events, you can go and you can have something in your hand that is just gonna taste just like the real thing. And I think for a lot of people, that makes it so, so much easier. And there's also a lot of other people doing this. So you're not alone. If all of your friends are not on board, you can come hang out with us and find some new friends on. We're gonna be doing like a non-alcoholic 101 class right at the beginning of the month. So in that class, we're gonna go over what's out there and sample about eight different things. So you can really get a good overview of the non-alcoholic space. When is that? That is on January 3rd.

42:23Okay. That's a Wednesday. So y'all can find this full calendar. This Wednesday. Yes. That's right. January 3rd, this Wednesday. And then on Saturday, we're having a market where we're gonna have a whole bunch of different vendors, including drink vendors. So there'll be a lot of different things you can sample. A lot of different, we're just bringing in folks from the sober community. I think Brandon's gonna be there with a table. So we're gonna be, we're just really building this community and making spaces where you can go and meet other people. And every Friday in January and not in January, we host happy hours. And that is totally free. You can just come hang out. And we almost always have a brand there that's offering samplings of things. And we also have drinks that people can buy for about five bucks and some snacks. Okay. So if you go to the building off Wedgwood and 65, and the actual street is called, what's that little street right there? Lindell. Okay. So if you get off, if you're going 65 North and you get off on Wedgwood, you almost make a U-turn on the Lindell.

43:26It's just right there. And you go back, there's like that, if you drive down 65, you see like the Mac authority sign. There's like a Mac, there was, it's not there anymore, but like there was a Macster forever. If you just drive up that little street and go around it in the back, you'll see the loading dock. And there's a whole building there. The Wedge Pizza and Pub, is that what it's called? Yeah. The Wedge Pizza Pub is back there. There's a barber shop in there. But you have this little, the Killjoy is in the back corner, but then there's a big common area, really fun space right in the middle. And that's where you do the happy hour. So you do this happy hour, you can come in, there's like comfortable chairs, other people who are choosing not to drink on a Friday night, hanging out. And that's a great way to meet those new friends. And I mean, people literally know each other now. So like they're, and they're very welcoming. So I mean, I feel like it's, I feel like the community building is really happening. And this is a great place for people to just come and experience that. We're also going to have a big dance party on January 20th, where we're just going to like throw down.

44:28I'm very excited for that. So excited for that. That gives me anxiety. Really? Well, I'm, I would never, I can't dance unless I'm wasted. Oh, well, this is the, if you, this is your chance to surprise someone. There's a misconception, right? There's a misconception. That's it, right? You can. It's only until you prove yourself wrong that you think you can. I'm always the guy. I am the guy for every other guy. Does that make any sense? No. If there's no dudes on, if there's no guys on a dance floor, I take one for the team and I'll go out there. And then every other guy is like, well, that fucking guy's out there. I can't look any worse than that guy. And then all the, then everybody else comes in. There is nothing that feels better than getting up and acting a fool. 100% sober. I agree with that. I mean, if you guys haven't done it, you need to do it. Like you've gotta try this. Shake your sweet asses sober, okay? Wherever you are right now, actually just stand up and turn the music on and dance.

45:29I do it all the time. You do it on camera too. I do. Yeah, I love filming myself dancing. It's a real problem that I have. I can't stop. I think it's hilarious. I think that just, I love your, we'll get into that in a minute. So you're doing the dance party on the? 20th. Saturday the 20th. Every Friday happy hours on the third, you can come in for 101, which is a, hey, if you're sober, curious, whatever, you just wanna learn about non-alcoholic cocktails and different other options, you can come down there and it's a free class. It's not free. No, it's not free. How much is it? Oh boy. It's about $30. Okay, so 30 bucks. So if you're a bartender in town. Yes. And you are getting ready for dry January, let's just say you bartend at any given restaurant in the city. And you kinda, I can make a mocktail, but man, if you go to this class, you're going to have the knowledge you need to really be able to help somebody who's coming and going, hey, I'm doing dry January. What do you got? Yeah. I mean, this is 101. So we're not going deep, deep, but we are covering basically spirits, wines.

46:32We'll also cover functional beverages, drinks with adaptogens in them, which is a really exciting space that I love to talk about. And we have a lot of information about in the shop. We also always have bottles of spirits open in the shop so people can come in. I can tell you about stuff. And then towards the end of the month, on the 23rd, we're going to do a wine tasting. We will taste eight different kinds of wines. And a lot of people are curious about the wines because we don't keep those open all the time since they don't, they're not shelf stable like the spirits. Yeah. All right. That's awesome. Yeah. Is that it? That's the month? No, well, we have a group hike. We do that every month. We just go on a hike. So that's another way, great way to get out and meet people. And when is that? That's on Sunday the 14th. And we'll have- Where is that? We're going to do that one at Percy Warner. But we do them in different locations. White trail, blue trail, red trail? Red trail. I haven't decided. Probably the white trail. The goal with the hikes is really for people to meet each other and talk. It's not like you're going to get the craziest and most intense workout ever. It's a no drop hike.

47:32So we're going to go slow. We're going to wait for everybody at different sections. And we're all just going to chat. So we did the white trail once before and I ended up having it, about half of the group did it twice. Oh, wow. Yeah. So we have the option to do it again. Yeah. Actually it was kind of funny all the dudes left and all the women were like, let's do it again. I love it. Okay. Yeah, I want to make it out to a hike. Maybe I'll do January. Cause it always looks so fun. I always see your pictures and I'm like, oh yeah. I go do it anyway. I might as well do a bunch of other sober people. Yeah. It's just, it's about building this community and it's been, I love it. I love it so much. We have one other event, which is we're going to do book club. And I'm like almost not promoting it. Cause I tried to do book club before and it didn't really take off. It's very hard to do book club. I've got to be confident. There's going to be book club. The book is Quit Like a Woman, which is one of the, I don't know. It's the OG holy grail for me when it comes to quit drinking books. If you're working on your mindset stuff, I recommend that.

48:37I recommend this Naked Mind. There are tons of books. We also have a little lending library of books. I just had somebody message me that they had checked out this Naked Mind and they said, I've already quit drinking for quite a while, but still this book is really helping me. Yeah, love Annie Grace. Which I was like, oh, that's great. So yeah, you can come check books out from our shop too. And at our market, we'll have some local authors with their books as well. I love it. Cool. That's so awesome, Stephanie. Thank you for doing all of that. I mean, that's, so if you're out there thinking about doing Dry January or you're looking into it, there's a bunch of opportunities for you to go next month and start building a new community of people that potentially don't drink or are doing Dry January with you or maybe just kind of like to stay dry-ish. Yeah. I mean, it's not, you don't have to be completely sober to enjoy this stuff. If you'd like to have, sometimes utilizing what you do is just a, I want to supplement, right?

49:39Cause I can go to a bar and I love athletic brews. They make like a cerveza, which tastes just like Dos Equis amber. Like I love getting one of those, pouring it in a glass, putting a lime in it. And there's no way you can tell there's no alcohol in mine. I can hang out, do everything anybody else would. Well, and I don't want that. A lot of people come into our shop who are not sober. And these are a wonderful gateway because you've probably heard like, oh, when you go out, have like a beer and then have a glass of water and then have a beer to pace yourself. And like, is that realistic? Probably not. But if you can have, you know, what does that sound? A beer. A beer, another shot. No, and then a non-alcoholic beer. Or a lot of people will mix non-alcoholic wine with regular wine. Yeah. To make it low alcohol wine. Ooh, I didn't think about that. There's another option that we have going into dry January. What is that? I hear it. It's a familiar sound. I love a good Afro man.

50:43But then I got high. I feel like he's making a comeback. He was just here, right? Yeah, he was just here. I heard, I heard. Yeah, man. Afro man. California sober. But then I got high. All right, so what about the people that wanna trade out? Well, I won't drink this month, but I will smoke this month. Well, let me just say you can. What are your thoughts? You can drink your THC now. And we are going to have, on our market on Saturday the 6th, and our happy hour on the 12th is gonna be, well, we'll have THC infused drinks at those. So you don't have to actually smoke. I don't recommend smoking. It's not good for your lungs and your body. Definitely go the edible route. If you're going to THC it up. But you can drink THC. We have at the shop, we sell low dose THC infused drinks, which we believe can help people kind of feel similar to that first glass of wine and help them kind of bridge that gap.

51:47Okay, so as far as I'm not gonna be drinking alcohol, but I could drink something that, a legal hemp product that could calm some of my nerves. What are the thoughts behind, I guess it's a deeper thought of like, is that okay? Do the science behind not drinking versus utilizing THC. Personally, I'm down for it. I think that if that's the gateway to get you out of the actual alcohol, I mean, how terrible alcohol is for your body. I'm not saying that THC is good for your body, but I don't think it has at all the bad effects. And I'm not a scientist. I'm not saying I don't know any of this stuff. That's just my perception in low doses. I think it's up to each individual. Like Kristin talked about, my goal with not drinking is to create a life that I don't need or want to escape from. And so in general, my vision for myself is to not use anything mind altering.

52:55However, I'm not perfect and I sometimes do, I also like to try these drinks because we're selling them in the shop. So I have been partaking a little bit and I am very sensitive to THC. And I don't really always like how it makes me feel, but we do have some drinks now that I think are quite nice and very, for me, like subtle. And I think if that helps you to make this transition, which in our society can be a really hard one to make, I mean, go for it. And if you just want to be a full on like weed head and that's up to you too, like, I don't know. I mean, I think- I think the term is pot head. I like weed head, I prefer weed head. I just think- That's the new word. I love the idea that we can throw out any traditional notions of what sobriety looks like. Like maybe you just do mushrooms and that's what you do. I'm not judging. I'm here for everybody to figure out what's the best for them. Yeah, yeah, zero judgment, zero judgment for me.

53:55I mean, weed is off the table for me, THC is off the table for me. I actually didn't intend on giving up weed forever when I first quit drinking and got sober, but then I reintroduced it like about 10 months in and immediately didn't like the way I felt. I felt out of my mind and it was, for me it was like, no, I don't want that. And, but I know a lot of people, I have good friends who are alcohol free, who still smoke or consume THC in some form. And it works for them. I think like, you know, you have to decide for yourself. It's really, for me, it comes down to the intention behind doing it. You know, like I'm an escape artist. If I have this crutch, I'm gonna- You know yourself, you know yourself, what you, how the, what it would turn out best. I just know that if I, if I make it, you know, if I make it part of my life, there's a really good chance that I could start leaning on it for slight inconveniences that I shouldn't be, you know.

54:58But I think that, first of all, alcohol, alcohol is shit. So anything that gets a person to drink less- Literal poison. It's literal poison. It's actually classified as a class one carcinogen now by the World Health Organization. Beginning of this year, they announced that. So yeah, anything you can do to get yourself off the poison, fully support that. And I love like Steph was saying that there's now all these new products that are coming out with, especially like the low dose of THC, because I like that people have options. Like that's showing up and I love that. I, I think that you have to assess what you want to do. And if you think you have a problem, if you just lost your job, if you get in trouble at work because you're drinking, if you have bottles hidden in your house, if more than one person has told you that you think that you probably drink too much, if you're drinking every day and you're in a moment right now where you're like, I need to make some changes in my life because I'm going in the wrong direction and I want to get better.

56:05I don't recommend, like you said, anything. And that's, don't get alcohol substitutes. Don't do anything. I would find a meeting. I would find a support group. I would find help and I would take it very seriously and I would have zero, zero chances to escape or even feel like I was drinking. Now, if I'm somebody who's doing Dry January and I want to identify my relationship with alcohol and I want to build, all of these things are great things to do. Going to meetings, finding new friends, meditating, journaling, drinking lots of sparkling water or finding an alcohol substitute, testing out THC. I mean, THC is completely different now than it was when I was a kid. When I was a kid, you buy a dime bag or an eighth from somebody and it was this brick kind of weed that you would break up and you'd roll a joint or something and you'd bake out your car and it was like, you had no idea if this was indica, sativa, hybrid, how many mil, you had no idea. You were just getting high.

57:07I'm like that song, I was gonna clean the car and then I got high, right? That was life. Today, it's so different because you can have delta-8, delta-9, THC, sativa, indica, hybrid and you can figure out what dosage works if you have anxiety or if you don't or you can now specifically dose. I know when I'm drinking this Calexo like last night or the other night, it was really good but it's a three milligrams with CBD and it's so specific, it's almost like taking an Advil. You know if you take an Advil, what's gonna happen? And so you can really control THC now. You can almost take it as a medicine and this is a lot of fun. So something else in addition to the THC drinks, we have drinks with kava in them and we're having a kava happy hour and kava is a root from the South Pacific that they use in drinks to kind of give you like a little bit of a body buzz. Like it kind of makes you feel euphoric, kind of makes you feel social but it doesn't really give you a head change.

58:10It also tastes like very earthy and kind of muddy and it makes your lips and tongue go numb a little bit when you drink it which I think is super fun. So kava drinks. Yeah, especially if you really miss doing cocaine. You should. And we have, so there's a guy who's gonna open up a kava bar in East Nashville that I think will be open in like February maybe. Oh that's cool, I didn't know about that. And he's gonna be serving up free kava at our happy hour on the 26th. It's the third time we've done it. It is such a blast. If you have never tried it, you should come out and drink kava. We sell some canned kava drinks but he's gonna make fresh actual kava to bring. That's called Passage Kava Lounge by the way if you guys wanna follow it. They're over by Eastside Bowl. That's where they're going to be. But we have those and we also have like drinks with adaptogens, nootropics and mushrooms in them. So you can, it's like the THC but kind of light. And we have CBD and stuff like that. So there's a lot of different beverages that can help you transition and with whatever you're comfortable with.

59:14That's awesome. I think these are all, it's shaping up to be what I was hoping this episode would be. I really appreciate the conversation. This has been a lot of fun. Turn it over to you guys. Anything you guys wanna add? I mean, we get to the end of this things. Let's just say you get to the end of it and you're like, hey, I really feel like a new person. I feel like I'm, what are the next steps if you wanna continue on after dry January? I'll go right ahead. Yeah, I think, we talked about this early in the episode but I would say the biggest thing is just get your mindset right. If you're like, yeah, I'm gonna do dry January. That sounds good. Really seek out the evidence that you need to know that it's gonna be an upgrade, to know that it's gonna be a positive experience. Don't listen or ingest anything that's gonna bring you down.

01:00:16People talking about missing out or friends that are gonna be pressuring you and bullying you into drinking, all that stuff. Really set yourself up for success. If you're in Nashville doing dry January, your first stop needs to be Killjoy. I mean, she has so many options. You could go in there and you're gonna be amazed by what's actually available to you if you want some interesting, fun, sophisticated adult beverages without alcohol. So for me, that would be super important. And really just commit to a month of taking care of yourself. Be really intentional about how you spend your time. Get into some kind of physical exercise routine. Getting outside is so important. Sweating is so important. Shout out Fahrenheit Hot Yoga. Come hang with me there. I love that place. And there's nothing better really for me than that hardcore sweat.

01:01:18But just remind yourself why you're doing it and try to connect with other people who might be doing dry January. If you have a partner, maybe you and your partner do it together or you and your best friend or your sister or whatever. There's nothing bad that can come of taking a month long break from alcohol. You might just realize that it's the thing that's kind of been keeping you stuck. And if you do realize that, don't be afraid to keep going. Don't be afraid to extend that onto February, March, whatever, and just be really, really honest with yourself through that process of what comes up, what you realize about yourself, about your drinking. Lean into that. Get curious. I love that. And again, another reason to come to Killjoy is just if you need someone to talk to, we're there, we're alcohol free, and people come in every day, like she said, being immersing yourself in this alcohol free culture is a wonderful thing to do. And people come in every day and tell me their story and they tell me how much better their life is.

01:02:22So I have so much evidence that this is true because I think you get subconscious messages from society all the time that are telling you it's normal to drink alcohol. It's not fun if you don't drink alcohol. And that creeps back in. So what you said about really trying to get your mindset right, I recommend maybe make a separate Instagram. You can be anonymous and only follow accounts like Creative Sobriety, only follow alcohol free positive accounts, whatever, so that when you get on there, that's what you're flooding yourself with. And maybe don't look at your Instagram for a month if that's triggering for you. And try to really immerse yourself in that stuff because there's a lot of evidence out there that this is a great upgrade. It's an upgrade, for sure. It's totally an upgrade. And remember, I think that, I was just looking over your Instagram. I was, because she posts so many great, like inspiring little things. And there's a video of you, I don't know, just sitting in your car.

01:03:24Is that what you're doing there, just sitting in your car? Oh, yeah, yeah, yep. And there's a caption that says, when the family trying to get you hyped up on drama at Christmas, but you're almost four years sober, and we'll get in your car and leave before you allow your nervous system to be dysregulated. Like that is, like while it's like a funny thing and you're sitting there like moving your sunglasses to that, I think like Dr. Dre was playing in the background, that's like the most powerful thing in your toolbox is that you make your own decisions. Nobody else does this for you. So if you're somewhere and somebody's trying to create drama or somebody else's intoxicated and it's triggering to you, fucking leave. Like you don't have to be there. Bounce, dog. I mean, I would go, I mean, I don't, go into my parents' house. For me, it was my first couple years of sober. They have a pool and we go over there and everybody's at the pool, just drinking and drinking and drinking.

01:04:25And my wife would be like, I don't wanna go over there because you're gonna come up with a mystery illness and leave an hour in. Because I do, I'll just like, yeah, I'm not down for this, I'm just gonna go. And I would leave and I would leave her there with the kids and a bunch of people drinking. And I was like, I'm not, you have that power. You can leave any situation that you don't wanna be in and let other people figure like, oh, why did they leave? Well, because if you wanna be in my company, don't act like this. Honestly, if they're drinking, they probably won't even notice. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah, after like the third drink, I don't think anyone's really aware of anything going on around and outside of them. I think they're kind of just like, you know, I don't know. But yeah, even if they're not drinking, I think that's great. I think that's, boundaries are a big part of doing this. And it's hard, I think for a lot of us who don't have or who are working on boundaries maybe to tell people no and sorry and all of those things. And you get to flex that muscle. One other thing that I wanna say, cause we talked about what if you wanna keep going, but we didn't talk about what if you mess up?

01:05:29What if you're like, oh, I wanna do this, but I messed up. And I think that's gonna happen. It happens to most of us if this is what we're used to. And I think just knowing that that's okay. That's a data point. You learned what was triggering for you. Maybe you learned that you had stuff in your house. And like you talked about, having a plan probably means getting every, I would get everything out of your house. Whether you gotta put it in a box and take it over to your cousin's house or something like that. Be like, you can give this back to me in February, but don't have it around. Set yourself up for success like we talked about. Yeah, be intentional for sure. Don't go into this in the mindset of like, well, I can always just drink if I decide to. Like really commit, you know? I mean, it's one month. It's one month of your life. And there's not a person on planet earth that wouldn't benefit from taking a break from alcohol for one month. It's just, if you look back over your drinking career, when's the last time you did that? Maybe really think about that.

01:06:29And you know, it's the month's gonna go by whether you're getting sloshed every weekend or not. And you're gonna feel a whole hell of a lot better if you just do this for yourself. Agreed. All right, well ladies, we have been here for an hour. We've been talking about dry January and not drinking. Do you have any resolutions of your own for the new year? Anything that we're gonna be starting tomorrow? Typically I do a Gordon food service final thought going into the end of the show. But let's just, if you have any, let's end it with your resolutions and any well-wishings for a new year. Okay, so I prefer New Year's intentions over resolutions. The word resolution somehow is like icky to me, but that's neither here nor there. So yeah, my intention for 2024 is really to just, you know, keep growing these ideas that I have, especially in the sobriety space.

01:07:29And you know, I'm working on a couple of writing projects. Follow me on Substack, FYI, if you're out there listening. And yeah, I just wanna get really, really focused on what I'm creating and how I can be of service, you know, in the space that I'm in and show up authentically, I think. Mine is really similar. I definitely want to slow down the hustle, if at all possible, and tap into my creativity. And at the same time, the thing that I keep going back to is that I don't know that I've ever really lived up to my potential. I don't know if that makes sense, but I feel like there is a lot of potential inside of me that I'm ready to show the world. I wanna discover how far I can go. So my overarching goal is to discover my potential.

01:08:34I like what you said. I don't like resolutions either, or intentions is one thing. Goals? Yeah, sure. Or just getting used to one of my goals is. So I'm gonna go with that word, my New Year's goals. And you don't really need a New Year to set goals, by the way. Yeah, you don't, you definitely don't. I started dipping like a year ago, like nicotine. I started this nasty habit, because when I quit drinking, I just started eating shit. Like I just always wanted to be snacking or doing something. ABS. Yeah, it's a thing. And so I put on a lot of weight, so I started dipping while I was driving, and I've lost like 35 pounds almost, and it's been absolutely insane. I'm trying to get back in shape. So this is a diet plan we can all. So shout out to Dip, if y'all are trying to lose a little bit. I'd like to say, I'm on that Copenhagen plan. Yeah, I like that. I love a man with a skull ring in his pocket. I don't do European stuff. Best restaurants are in Copenhagen. So I'm starting my no nicotine journey, and I think I can do it.

01:09:41I'm gonna follow a lot of the same advice that we've talked about today. Part of this is also building me up, because I need to start journaling and being intentional. And I mean, journaling about not nicotine and like being focused and have a plan and have all my snacks ready and all the little things are really important. And how many times have you quit nicotine in your life? Only, only like one or 200 times. This is another example of like, you know, keep trying. Keep trying. I'm sure you've learned a lot from all the other times you've quit nicotine. The last time I quit, I quit for like seven years. Nothing. And then one day I'm driving down the road to Louisville by myself, and I was like, I'm gonna stop and buy it. And it's the first, it's the one. You said it's okay if you slip up. The problem is if you have one. One is your enemy for everything. If you have one, your brain, it's the way addiction works.

01:10:42Your brain says, you had one, it didn't kill you. You can have two. You had two, you had three. Well, if you're gonna have three, then just have 10. That's how I am with powdered donuts. Everything. Yeah. If I had three, am I gonna eat the whole name bag? No, I relate to that hugely because I used to smoke cigarettes and I quit in my 20s a bunch of times. And it wasn't until I realized like, oh, I can never have one. You can't have one. I can't ever have one. Yeah. And now I'm free, totally free. It's been 13 years, I'm never having one. Do you wanna be like Claire Underwood in House of Cards? Have you guys ever watched that show? Oh, yes. They would have one cigarette at the end of the day. And they'd share it. They'd share it. And I just thought, that is so unrealistic. There's no way. And it kind of feels like torture because the other thing is now I'm just free. I don't want it, I don't need it. It's totally behind me and I'm not ever going down that road again. And for me, that's why I consider I have freedom from alcohol and I love it.

01:11:43Freedom from cigarettes. And I'm also caffeine free. Fun fact. Now, that is, I just, I don't know how you do that, sister. This is decaf. I just drink it. What are you giving up next? Don't take my coffee, God. I mean, there is, there is my, I do have one great vice, sugar. Oh yeah. So yeah, that's what I'll be giving up next. That's what I'm working on. I'm gonna do sugar also. Have you heard of the glucose goddess? Cause she has a pretty exciting method for it. So I'm maybe gonna look into that. I need to Google that, glucose goddess. The glucose goddess. All right. Yeah, so those are my goals. Also, it's funny cause you spoke to me with that one, like feeling your full potential and everything you can do. I'm in that, I'm in a similar kind of a, what's, where can I, where can I take this thing? What can I do? And I'm really excited about where it can go. What 2024 is gonna have? I think it's gonna be great. I may have my own podcast coming soon. Hell yeah. I've got a lot of things up my sleeve y'all. So stay strapping.

01:12:44This is exciting. Strap in baby. We're going to the top. Well, ladies, happy new year. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you have more questions about any of this stuff, please come to Killjoy. Ask Stephanie in person if you have any of these questions or you just wanna join a good community. And if you want to see really good content about being sober, positive stuff that you're really gonna love at Creative Sobriety on Instagram is where you're gonna find Kristen. What is the name of your podcast? Creative Sobriety. You can find her podcast. It's called Creative Sobriety. There's a theme here. I like it. And you can hear more about it, but these are the things also I think that are gonna help you get through it. Thank you for listening. Happy new year and please be safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.