Episode 94: Your First 30 Days with Casey Davidson

Nov 11

You don’t have to want to quit drinking in order to make massive shifts in your relationship with alcohol. Today, Karolina shares a powerful conversation with sobriety life coach, Casey Davidson. Casey shares her story about how alcohol was a huge part of her identity. She loved to drink! Nevertheless, she was able to make important and profound shifts. Tune in to learn why rules like “I’ll only drink on the weekends” don’t work, how to move through your first 30 days of making change, and the freedom that comes with 100 days of being alcohol-free. If you want to create change in your life, listen in and be inspired!

Karolina’s new book Euphoric: Ditch Alcohol and Gain a Happier, More Confident You, made bestseller status on Amazon! Sign up today to be part of her Euphoric Book Launch Inner Circle. When you preorder the book and sign up for the team, you'll get an advanced reader copy to read as early as today. You'll also get some cool bonuses and a chance for an author Q&A! Expand your network and meet other incredible alcohol-free badasses. You also get a behind the scenes look at what goes into a book launch. All that’s asked in return is a review of the book and sharing it with your friends.

A journey to the last first day

Casey spent much of her life enjoying alcohol. In fact, she was a self-identified “Red Wine Girl.” Alcohol was a part of her identity, her social circle, and it was her go-to activity to cope with the everyday stresses of life. From college and into adulthood she found herself drinking 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Growing up in a home where wine co-existed with fun, laughter, and socializing, Casey never considered her drinking to be a problem. It was “normal.”

Despite experiencing unpleasant hangovers, irritability, and frustration with herself, she didn’t realize how significantly alcohol was affecting her mental, emotional, and physical health.

When Casey finally did begin questioning her relationship with alcohol, she created rules to help keep her drinking in check:

Only drink on the weekends.

Only drink when you're out with friends.

Only drink when you’re home so you don’t drive.

All of these strategies were set with good intentions, however, they often led to disappointment, frustration, and a continuation of drinking because they were so hard to adhere to.

It wasn’t until Casey connected with a sober life coach that her life began to change and evolve in beautiful ways. It has now been over five and a half years since Casey’s alcohol-free journey began!

Why 100 days is better than 30

Marketing companies have become quite clever about how they glamorize and promote alcoholic beverages to the public. Collecting and analyzing data, they optimize sales and increase their profits by promoting alcohol as a fun way to socialize with friends or for Mom’s winding down ritual after a long day with kids.

It makes sense why choosing an alcohol-free life is so difficult. On top of that, quitting alcohol impacts your physical body as well.

Casey explains that as a sober life coach, she encourages folks to go alcohol-free for 100 days. Here’s why:

When we drink alcohol, our bodies experience a spike in dopamine. When alcohol effects wear off, our body compensates for that increase by dropping below baseline. This is why only drinking on the weekends leaves you feeling miserable.

Alcohol also consumes so much of our mental bandwidth. How much time do you think about drinking? From how much you will drink, to what others are going to think about what you drink, to thinking about not drinking and wanting to, it’s exhausting, isn’t it? When you commit to a longer break, you end up unlocking so much mental space and have the capacity to dream bigger.

Shorter stints, such as a month, leave you constantly thinking about when you’ll be able to drink again, rather than settling into the experience of being alcohol free.

When Casey finally went alcohol-free, she made a 100 day commitment and signed up to work with a sobriety coach. This gave her a sense of accountability and support as she began this new journey. A huge takeaway from this process was that you don’t need to want to stop drinking forever.

What if you just allowed yourself the freedom to try it out? What if you just gave yourself the experience of 100 days alcohol-free?

Giving yourself permission to live the life you want

Alcohol is often used as a coping mechanism. Because of that, taking a break from alcohol can often reveal other areas of your life that aren’t working for you. This is why the goal of not drinking isn’t just about not drinking. It is about wholly transforming your life!

Throughout her experience of going alcohol-free, Casey realized that she was not happy at her corporate job. She had focused so much on climbing the ladder and aiming for success, she hadn’t realized how unhappy it made her.

Instead she found herself drawn to helping others. About two years after quitting alcohol, Casey went back to school to become a life coach and now works with women, coming alongside them in their alcohol-free journey.

When you cut alcohol out of your life, you finally have the room to focus on doing what brings you joy. Imagine what life would be like if you gave yourself permission to live the life you want to live!

So how do you support yourself on this journey, especially the first 30 days?

Taking a break from alcohol will be hard, especially during the first two weeks. Encourage yourself throughout the process. From treating yourself to a massage instead of happy hour or a special treat everyday that you go without drinking, remember that you are changing habits.

Give yourself a goal, tell someone about it to hold yourself accountable, and remove any traces of alcohol out of your house. Celebrate the little wins and have something everyday to look forward to. Showing up for yourself is such a beautiful thing, and you can do it, just take it one baby step at a time!

“Not drinking is the foundation that gets you unstuck, so that you can do all the other things you've always wanted to do in your life, but you've been running a marathon with a ball and chain tied to your ankle.” Casey Davidson