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If you've ever found yourself waiting for "the perfect time" to quit drinking after summer, after the holidays, after the next vacation—this episode is for you.

Lindsay gets personal in this solo episode, sharing why she spent years telling herself she'd deal with her drinking "later" and why that later never seemed to arrive. She unpacks the hidden relief that comes from postponing change, why life never actually settles down, and how confidence isn't something you have before you stop drinking, it's something you build by practicing in your real life.

Through stories from her own journey, including her first alcohol-free vacation, Lindsay explains why waiting for the right moment only keeps you stuck and how small, intentional decisions become the foundation for lasting self-trust.

You'll discover:

•  Why "I'll start after summer" feels so convincing and why it keeps you stuck 
•  The difference between temporary relief and genuine alignment with the life you want 
•  Why life will never hand you a perfect, stress-free time to change your relationship with alcohol 
•  How Lindsay's first alcohol-free vacation completely changed her perspective on sobriety 
•  The hidden mental load of drinking, from constant negotiating to recovering and starting over 
•  Lindsay's three-step framework for lasting change: Identity, Practice, and Self-Trust 
•  Why practicing through real-life events, not avoiding them—is what builds lasting confidence 
•  How support can help you navigate weddings, vacations, stressful workdays, and social pressure without relying on alcohol 

If you've been waiting for the "right time" to stop drinking, this episode is a reminder that the life you want isn't waiting on a clear calendar, it's built one decision at a time, right in the middle of your real life.

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women. 

If you've ever devoured a book because the main character's struggle with alcohol felt a little too familiar, this episode is for you.

Lindsay sits down with USA Today bestselling author Kerri Maher, the writer behind The Paris Bookseller, The Girl in White Gloves, and The Kennedy Debutante to talk about her brand-new novel, Summer of Love. The book weaves together two timelines: an older sister running the family vineyard in 1967 California, and her daughter quietly struggling with her drinking decades later, all while chasing the identity of an anonymous author whose books seem to know her family's secrets a little too well.

Kerri is also four and a half years alcohol-free, and in this conversation she opens up about why she finally went public with her own sobriety, why fiction about drinking matters just as much as memoir, and how storytelling — hers and other women's becomes a quiet act of service for anyone still stuck in silence.

You'll discover:

• Why Kerri built a novel around alcohol without writing a memoir and why fiction can reach people memoir can't
• How her own sobriety journey shaped Winnie, Miranda, and Dawn without any one of them being "her"
• Why moderation was harder for Kerri to sustain than quitting altogether
• How alcohol marketing quietly wrote itself into our idea of "the good life," and why that's so hard to unwind
• What it's actually like to talk to your kids about being a sober parent and why Kerri sees it as the safest thing she can be for them
• Why "no word is wasted," even the five unpublished novels sitting in her attic
• Simple, low-pressure ways to normalize an alcohol-free life, even when your identity or your family's business is tied to alcohol

If you've ever wished more of the books and shows you loved actually got drinking right, this conversation is a reminder of how powerful it is when they finally do.


About Kerri Maher
Kerri Maher is the USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Bookseller, The Girl in White Gloves, and The Kennedy Debutante. Writing as Kerri Majors, she is also the author of This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and lives with her daughter and dog in a leafy suburb west of Boston, Massachusetts. Her new novel, Summer of Love, releases July 7.

Find Kerri

Instagram: @kerrimaherwriter
Substack: Sandcastles with Kerri Maher and The Well-Resourced Parent (search "Kerri Maher" on Substack)

Get the Book
📖 Summer of Love by Kerri Maher — Order here

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women. 

You may already know exactly what you want to do about your drinking and still struggle to follow through when the moment arrives. In this episode, Lindsay explains why more information is not always the answer and how self-trust is built through the repeated experience of making decisions that match the woman you want to be.

What You'll Learn: 

• Why knowing what to do is different from trusting yourself to do it when you are tired, stressed, celebrating, or around other people drinking
• How Identity → Practice → Trust turns sobriety from an idea you understand into something you can actually live
• Why small, repeated actions become evidence that you can rely on yourself, even if your alcohol-free journey has included stops, starts, or decisions you wish you had made differently

LISTEN NEXT:

If this episode resonated, listen to:

Episode 9: Who Do You Want To Become?

Episode 40: How to Stop Negotiating With Yourself About Drinking.

Episode 49: Signs You've Outgrown Alcohol (Even If Your Drinking Doesn't Look "That Bad")

WORK WITH LINDSAY:
If you’re tired of knowing what you want to do about your drinking but struggling to follow through consistently, this is exactly the work I help women with. Book a discovery call with me and we’ll talk about where you are, what keeps pulling you back into the same pattern, and what support could look like for you.

→ Book a discovery call with Lindsay: 

https://www.lindsayhennekey.com/discovery-call

→ Download Lindsay's free guide to get started:

 https://www.lindsayhennekey.com/sober-shift 

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women. 

Why Perfectionism Keeps You Stuck in the Drinking Cycle

In this episode, Lindsay Hennekey explores one of the biggest reasons high-achieving women stay trapped in the stop-start drinking cycle: the fear of failure.

If you've ever told yourself you'll quit drinking after the next vacation, after the busy season at work, or once life calms down, this conversation will help you understand what's really keeping you stuck. Lindsay breaks down how perfectionism, fear of the unknown, and the pressure to "get it right" make alcohol feel safer than change—even when you know drinking is no longer serving you.

You'll also learn why self-trust erodes with every broken promise, how alcohol becomes a default coping strategy, and what it takes to start building a life that feels good without relying on a drink at the end of the day.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why perfectionism and sobriety often collide
• How fear of failure keeps you from fully committing to change
• The connection between broken promises and lost self-trust
• Why alcohol feels like relief—but actually prevents growth
• How high-achieving women get stuck in the daily pressure-and-reward drinking loop
• The science of loss aversion and why your brain resists giving up alcohol
• Why quitting drinking is really an identity shift, not a willpower challenge
• A simple strategy to interrupt cravings and create space for a different decision
• How to start practicing life alcohol-free without focusing on perfection

Key Takeaways

Most women who struggle with drinking don't need more information. They already know the health risks, the benefits of sobriety, and the rules they've tried to follow countless times before. The real challenge isn't learning more—it's integrating what they already know and taking action despite the discomfort.

Perfectionism creates an impossible standard where any slip feels like failure. When that happens, staying in the drinking cycle can feel safer than risking the uncertainty of change. But lasting freedom comes from approaching sobriety as a practice, not a performance.

This episode is a reminder that you don't need to quit drinking perfectly. You simply need to start creating evidence that you can trust yourself again—one decision, one evening, and one experience at a time.

If you're tired of negotiating with yourself every afternoon and wondering why moderation never seems to stick, this episode will help you understand what's happening beneath the surface and show you a different path forward.

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women. 

Presence Over Escape: How Jakee Zaccor Built an Alcohol-Free Life Worth Showing Up For

In this episode, Lindsay Hennekey talks with Jakee Zaccor — creative director, yoga teacher, and founder of Shake Social Club — about what it really takes to quit drinking and build a life that feels good without alcohol.

Jakee got sober at 28 after years of high-pressure tech culture, late nights in New York City, and a drinking habit that had quietly taken over her identity, her friendships, and her free time. Now 11 years alcohol-free, she runs a booze-free nightlife and wellness movement in Burlington, Vermont, proving that fun, connection, and community don't require a drink in your hand.

If you've ever worried that quitting drinking will make your life smaller, this conversation will change your mind.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why a high-achieving, high-functioning life can hide a serious drinking problem
• What it felt like to get sober at 28 when no one around you drinks
• Why some people in your life will push back when you stop drinking and what that's really about
• How replacing happy hour with movement changed everything in early sobriety
• The exhausting mental gymnastics of monitoring your drinking around other people
• What it means to find your identity after alcohol has taken up all the space
• Why Jakee started Shake Social Club and what alcohol-free community can actually look like
• How sobriety made Jakee's life bigger, not smaller

Key takeaways:

Quitting drinking isn't just about stopping. It's about discovering who you are without alcohol filling up your evenings, your weekends, and your sense of self. When you remove it, you get to find out what you actually like, who your real friends are, and what kind of life you want to build.

The people around you may not always celebrate your decision to stop drinking especially if their own relationship with alcohol is something they haven't examined yet. That reaction isn't about you. It's a mirror.

Jakee's story is proof that sobriety isn't a life sentence of missing out. It's an invitation to show up fully — to the dance floor, the yoga mat, the dinner table, and yourself.

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women. 

Quitting Drinking in Midlife: Alcohol, Perimenopause, and Feeling Good Again

In this episode, Lindsay Hennekey talks about quitting drinking in midlife and why alcohol can start to feel so much harder on your body during perimenopause and aging.

If you’ve noticed that drinking affects your sleep, mood, energy, anxiety, or recovery more than it used to, this episode will help you understand what’s happening and what you can do about it.

Lindsay shares practical tools for managing cravings, setting boundaries, and building an alcohol-free life that supports your health, confidence, relationships, and overall well-being.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why alcohol can feel harder to recover from in midlife
• How perimenopause and hormone changes can affect alcohol tolerance
• The connection between alcohol, sleep, mood, anxiety, and energy
• Why cravings are temporary and how to move through them
• How to use urge surfing as a practical sobriety tool
• Why boundaries matter when you’re changing your drinking
• How to align your alcohol-free goals with your values
• Why slips do not mean failure
• How to build self-trust and a new identity without alcohol

Key takeaways:

Quitting drinking is not just about one “last drink.” It is a process of learning new tools, creating new patterns, and becoming the version of yourself who no longer needs alcohol to cope, connect, or unwind.

In midlife, alcohol can impact women differently because of hormonal changes, stress, sleep disruption, and changes in recovery time. What used to feel manageable may now leave you feeling anxious, exhausted, inflamed, or emotionally off for days.

This episode offers a compassionate, practical look at how to stop drinking, manage cravings, and create a healthier relationship with yourself during perimenopause and beyond.

If you found this episode helpful, here is another you might enjoy:

Episode 77: Alcohol + Perimenopause: Is Wine Making Your Symptoms Worse?

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women. 

Join Lindsay for this week's solo episode, as she shares practical strategies for managing burnout and stress through alcohol-free living. Learn straightforward mindset shifts and quick wins that will help you feel rejuvenated rather than depleted during the busy seasons of your life. It's time to start seeing sobriety as self-care. 

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women. 

In this episode of Feel Good Alcohol-Free, Lindsay sits down with Sophia Noelle Graniela, an EFT practitioner, self-expression and podcast guide, and the host of Her Journey Home. The alignment sparks are flying throughout this one! Listen in as Sophia shares with Lindsay how sobriety has made space for her to develop true confidence and has given her the courage to explore and experiment with hobbies, passions, and career shifts that light her soul on fire. They go deep into letting go of excuses, the power of manifestation, how exactly EFT works, why it's okay to get certified in things you may never pursue as a career - and how sobriety is anything but boring. Whether or not you are interested in starting your own podcast, this episode is all about identity and finding your voice in many different forms.

About Sophia: 

Sophia is an EFT practitioner, self-expression and podcast guide, and the host of Her Journey Home. After years of hiding her voice and trying to fit in, sobriety and personal transformation led her to start sharing her story online and launching her podcast. Now she helps women turn their lived experiences into podcasts they don’t quit. Through a blend of identity work, emotional safety tools like EFT tapping, and clear podcast structure, Sophia supports women in building confidence in their voice and creating platforms rooted in authenticity, truth, and real connection.

Connect with Sophia on Instagram @sophiagraniela

Listen to Her Journey Home on Spotify

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women. 

If you are waiting to feel completely ready before you change your drinking, you may be waiting for a feeling that never arrives. In this episode, Lindsay explains why reading quit lit, listening to sober podcasts, and questioning your drinking already means you are in the process, and why real-life practice matters more than finding a perfectly clear calendar.

What You'll Learn:

• Why “I’ll do it after summer,” “after the wedding,” or “when life settles down” keeps turning normal life into a reason to wait
• How to redefine success so one drink does not erase the alcohol-free choices, practice, and evidence you are already building
• Why vacations, cookouts, work stress, weddings, and even an ordinary Monday are opportunities to practice becoming the woman who no longer needs alcohol to cope, relax, celebrate, or belong
  
  

LISTEN NEXT:

If this episode resonated, listen to:

Episode 1: How To Feel Good Alcohol-Free: The First Steps to Sobriety

Episode 33: Why You Keep Waiting to Quit Drinking (and How to Start Before You Feel Ready)

Episode 53: How To Quit Drinking Without AA

Episode 70: You Know How to Quit Drinking. So Why Haven't You?

WORK WITH LINDSAY:
If you’re tired of knowing what you want to do about your drinking but struggling to follow through consistently, this is exactly the work I help women with. Book a discovery call with me and we’ll talk about where you are, what keeps pulling you back into the same pattern, and what support could look like for you.

→ Book a discovery call with Lindsay: 

https://www.lindsayhennekey.com/discovery-call

→ Download Lindsay's free guide to get started:

 https://www.lindsayhennekey.com/sober-shift 

Resources from this episode:

• Lindsay's Quit Lit List 

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women. 

Are there certain moments that remind you exactly why you are committed to living alcohol-free today? For Lindsay, one of the big ones is set on a private boat, 10 years ago, as she made her way to Capri. Join Lindsay for this week's episode of Feel Good Alcohol-Free, as she takes us on a trip down memory lane, specifically, to the lessons learned from her honeymoon hangovers. 

Learn how quitting alcohol transformed her marriage, and how vacations and adventures abroad no longer involve shame, guilt, and hangxiety. This is for you if you are looking for practical advice to improve your own relationships and self-awareness.

Support the show

Here's how you can stay connected: 

• 🗓️ Schedule a 30-minute Discovery Call
• 👩‍💻 Sign-up for Feel Good AF Coaching
• 📱Follow along on Instagram
• 📰 Subscribe to the Feel Good AF newsletter

And remember, Lindsay is a sober coach, not a health professional. If you are chemically dependent on alcohol (or think you might be), consult your doctor on the steps you need to take to safely detox. 

Intro/Outro Music Credit: Cozy Lofi Beat - Split memmories by Idoberg

Sober curious women. Quit drinking without AA, How to quit drinking for High Achieving women.