Sober Fit Life

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: willpower is not the issue when it comes to alcohol. And nobody on this podcast has illustrated that more clearly than today's guest.

Chris Asher is a financial services professional, husband, father of two teenage daughters, Naval Academy attendee, former obstacle course racing world championships competitor, and USA Triathlon All-American. He trained 10 to 15 hours a week for half Iron Man distance races. He kept 12 years of workout data in meticulous spreadsheets. He counted his blueberries and his cashews.

And for years, he could not stop drinking.

Chris and I actually work out together at Peak Custom Fitness Solutions in Annapolis, and when he shared his story with me I knew immediately he had to come on Sober Fit Life. Because if there's one thing I want people to hear from this episode, it's that high achievement, intense discipline, and a serious fitness lifestyle do not protect you from a complicated relationship with alcohol. If anything, they can make it harder to see.

More than four years sober now, Chris says he is performing at the highest level of his life, getting stronger and faster at 52 than he was in his 40s, sleeping better, thinking more clearly, and living with far less anxiety than he ever thought possible. And the alcohol he thought was helping him recover from training? It was wrecking everything.

In this episode we talk about:

Chris's background as a multi-sport elite athlete and what his training load actually looked like while he was drinking

How COVID and life stress accelerated his drinking until he was hiding the recycling because he was embarrassed by the volume

Why having the willpower to complete world-level athletic competitions did nothing to help him stop drinking, and what that tells us about alcohol's effect on the brain

His life-changing alcohol-related event and what finally shifted

What his workout data actually shows: performing at a higher level at 52 than he was in his 40s, attributed entirely to removing alcohol

How he navigated social situations early in sobriety, including realizing nobody actually cared what he was drinking

The realization that we're in a cultural moment similar to the shift around cigarettes, where the science is catching up to what the alcohol industry has kept quiet

Giving back, including speaking at youth conferences to help teenagers understand that alcohol is a dangerous drug

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One of the things I love most about this podcast is being able to bring you experts who can help explain why changing your relationship with alcohol is hard from a completely different angle. Today that angle is therapy, and my guest is really good at what she does.

Kristina Sliwinski is a licensed clinical therapist and founder of In Our Nature Therapy. With more than 20 years of experience helping people navigate trauma, anxiety, relationship challenges, and the emotional patterns that keep us stuck, Kristina brings a clinical lens to so many of the things I talk about every week from a coaching perspective.

What I love about Kristina's approach, and her practice name says it all, is that struggling is not a sign something is wrong with you. It's in our nature. And so is change.

She also came to this work through her own lived experience, moving through PTSD after a difficult season in the military and finding that therapy was the thing that made the difference.

This conversation is full of moments that made me stop and think, and I have a feeling it will do the same for you.

In this episode we cover:

What self-medicating actually looks like and why the person reaching for a drink at the end of the day is often doing something smart with wrong tools

The roller coaster analogy for anxiety and emotion, and why alcohol interrupts a natural process your body already knows how to complete

Why alcohol gives you short-term relief but reinforces the pattern and makes the emotion stronger over time

Practical psychological tricks for breaking the chain when a craving hits, including one involving oven mitts that I am absolutely trying

The power of buying yourself time and how even five minutes changes what your brain believes is possible

Decoupling the association between a trigger and the drink, and why that is the key to rewiring the habit

Shame and why it is heavier and more intense than almost any other emotion

How shame survives in isolation and actually thrives there, getting stronger the more you hide

Why you are not your shame, and how therapy helps you depersonalize it and see it as something you're experiencing, not something you are

What Kristina tells clients who are scared and don't know where to start

If this episode resonated with you and you're ready to take a closer look at your own relationship with alcohol, I would love to connect. Email me at maureen@soberfitchick.com or visit my website to learn more about working together. No obligation, just science-backed support that actually works.

Connect with Kristina

Website: inournaturetherapy.com

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Maria Winters is a licensed mental health therapist with over 20 years of experience helping adolescents and adults build emotional wellness and healthier relationships. She's the founder of The Coaching Therapist, co-host of the Wellness Rebranded Podcast, and creator of the Emotional Fitness Studio, a free community in Annapolis focused on healing, connection, and growth. Maria is originally from Venezuela, and she brings a really unique perspective to this conversation because she has never been a drinker. And what surprised me when we started talking is that she still feels the social pressure and pushback around that choice all the time.

We also get into alcohol in the Latino culture, which is a conversation I hadn't had on this podcast yet, and Maria brought both her personal experience and 20 years of clinical work to it. It's eye-opening.

In this episode we talk about:

Maria's story as a lifelong non-drinker and why she still gets pushback at 49 years old

Why people assume there must be a big reason someone doesn't drink and what that reveals about our relationship with alcohol as a society

Alcohol in the Latino culture, including how heavy drinking has been normalized in ways the American culture is only now starting to question

The sober curious movement and why Maria had genuinely never heard of it before we talked

Why alcohol feels like a reward, a social connector, and a relaxation tool, and what's actually happening in the body while we think it's doing all those things

Nobody gets physically strong by avoiding hard workouts. The same is true for emotional resilience.

How Maria's 12 years working in an emergency room shaped her vision for the Emotional Fitness Studio

Why healing happens faster and better in community, and how isolation is one of alcohol's quieter costs

The Emotional Fitness Studio, what it is, how it works, why it's completely free, and how to find it

Maria's own daily practices for staying emotionally, mentally, and spiritually well

Connect with Maria:

Website: thecoachingtherapist.com (Emotional Fitness Studio tab for all upcoming events)

Podcast: Wellness Rebranded

Email: mwinters.lcpc@gmail.com

💬 Want to learn more about the tools I offer? 👇

My free webinar, September 9th

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday

Book a FREE Discovery Call

Follow me on Instagram

If this episode resonated with you and you're ready to take a closer look at your own relationship with alcohol, I'd love to connect. Email me at maureen@soberfitchick.com or visit my website to learn more about working together. No labels, no pressure, just honest support that actually works.

I haven't talked about this publicly before, but today I'm going there.

Toward the end of my drinking, I got really good at damage control. After a heavy night, I'd wake up feeling completely wrecked, dehydrated, anxious, foggy, with my stomach in knots, ashamed, and I'd start looking for the fastest way to undo it. That usually meant calling an IV clinic. Sometimes they'd come to my house. I'd load up on hydration, vitamins, glutathione, anti-nausea medication, whatever they'd give me. And I'd spend up to $300 to $400 a session trying to erase what I'd done to myself.

Here's the thing I didn't understand at the time: you cannot magically undo a hangover. And in this episode, I break down exactly why (starting with what alcohol actually does inside your body ) and what I was really looking for every time I called that IV clinic.

Spoiler: it wasn't the IV. It was relief from how awful I felt physically and mentally. And the only thing that actually gave me that was stopping drinking altogether.

In this episode I cover:

My personal history with hangover IVs, party supplements, and expensive damage control strategies that didn't work

What actually happens in your liver when you drink, and why a hangover feels as brutal as it does

What glutathione is, why I kept asking for it, and the truth about whether it can undo the damage

Why sweating it out, greasy food, and Advil are all myths

The mindset shift I needed (I was working incredibly hard to keep drinking, just without consequences)

How the hangover recovery industry has normalized a cycle that deserves a closer look

My 4R method, Recognize, Replace, Rewire, Renew, and how it applies to breaking out of the damage control loop

The difference between practicing wellness and practicing damage control

What it actually feels like to not need recovery from drinking anymore

Resources mentioned:

Six-week Alcohol Reset with kickoff call September 21st (waitlist open now!)

Free webinar: It's Not Your Fault, It's Chemistry — September 9th

💬 Want to learn more about the tools I offer? 👇

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday

Book a FREE Discovery Call

Follow me on Instagram

If any of this hit home, I want to hear from you. Email me at maureen@soberfitchick.com — I read and respond to every single one. Or visit my website to learn more about working together and grab your spot in the reset.

Long before anyone sits down to have "the talk" about alcohol, kids are already watching. They're watching how we unwind after a hard day. They're watching what we reach for at dinner parties. They're absorbing the message that this is just what adults do.

This week I'm joined by two people who know how to talk to kids about alcohol — Samantha Straub and Dr. Melissa Wellner, the duo behind the Parenting Shrink Wrapped Podcast. Sam is a licensed counselor, parenting coach, longtime educator, and founder of Teen Savvy Coaching. Dr. Wellner is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and owner of Annapolis Psychiatry. Together they bring clinical expertise and real, practical parenting wisdom to the conversations families are actually having around their kitchen tables.

I grew up watching cocktail parties in the 70s. I served hors d'oeuvres at my parents' dinner parties and thought it was the most sophisticated thing in the world. It logged something in my brain early. And sure enough, I became a martini drinker. That pattern started long before anyone handed me a drink.

That's exactly what this episode is about.

In this episode we cover:

How kids form beliefs about alcohol before anyone says a word — and what parents are accidentally modeling every day

Why "I know you're going to drink, so just call me" is actually giving tacit permission (and what to say instead)

The cool parent trap — why hosting parties at your house doesn't keep kids safer and actually takes away their escape hatch

The power of and — how to hold values AND stay connected to your teen without going all or nothing

Why teens wildly overestimate how many of their peers are drinking (the real number is much lower than you think)

"I need a glass of wine" vs. "I'm going to have a glass of wine" — why that language difference matters more than you realize

What to do when you yourself are using alcohol as a coping tool and you know your kids are watching

Building resilience and self-efficacy as the long game — and why it matters so much more than one conversation about drinking

Connect with Sam and Melissa:

Sam: teensavvycoaching.com — grab her free guide How to Have a You Screwed Up Conversation with Your Teen plus her LOVED Framework video series

Dr. Wellner: annapolispsychiatry.com

Parenting Shrink Wrapped Podcast: available on all major platforms and YouTube

Email them at parentingshrinkwrapped@gmail.com

If this episode resonated with you as a parent and you're realizing your own relationship with alcohol might be part of the picture, I'd love to talk.

Email me at maureen@soberfitchick.com or visit my website to learn more about working together. No labels, no judgment, just honest support.

💬 Want to learn more about the tools I offer? 👇

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday

Book a FREE Discovery Call

Follow me on Instagram