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:

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz  

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday 

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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:

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 [email protected] or visit my website to learn more about working together. No obligation, just science-backed support that actually works.

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz  

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday 

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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: 

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 [email protected]  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:

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 [email protected] — 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:

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 [email protected] or visit my website to learn more about working together. No labels, no judgment, just honest support.

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz  

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday 

Book a FREE Discovery Call

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I have been thinking about this question ever since a woman in one of my groups asked it out loud and I knew I had to dedicate an entire episode to it.

She said, "Why am I working so hard to keep this substance in my life?"

That's it. That's the whole question. And I promise you, if you sit with it honestly, it will shift something.

Because most of us (and I was absolutely one of them) are not asking that question. We're asking how I can moderate better, how I can drink less, and how I can keep the fun part without the consequences. We are in the negotiation cycle endlessly. And this one question interrupts all of it.

This is a solo episode, and I go deep on why this question matters, what it reveals, and what to do with it. No shame, no labels, just honesty and brain science.

In this episode I cover:

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz  

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday 

Book a FREE Discovery Call

Follow me on Instagram 

This guest is the literal definition of Sober Fit Life, and I could not wait to share her story with you.

Laney Dimezza is a certified personal trainer based in New Jersey who ditched alcohol while navigating perimenopause at the same time. She's also a licensed drone pilot and real estate photographer, a mom, and honestly, one of the most quotable people I've ever talked to.

Lainey was a national championship cheerleader as a kid, literally on top of the pyramid at Nationals with the Pop Warner Rockets in 1991. But like so many of us, high school brought a whole new set of pressures and alcohol became her way of fitting in. That pattern followed her into her 20s, through mommy wine culture, and all the way into her 40s, when she finally decided enough was enough.

What I love about Laney's story is that she didn't lose everything before she made a change. She was still showing up, still running her business, still being a great mom. But she knew something was off — the off switch was broken, she was stepping over her own lines, and the detox-to-retox cycle was wearing her down. So she stopped digging.

In this episode, we talk about:

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz  

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday 

Book a FREE Discovery Call

Follow me on Instagram 

Ready to explore what alcohol freedom could look like for you? Email me at [email protected] or visit my website to learn more about working together — no obligation, just science-backed support that actually works.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, but honestly, this conversation should be happening all the time. There's something that's still missing from too many mental health conversations, and I'm just going to say it: alcohol.

We've come a long way in talking openly about depression, anxiety, therapy, and medication. But the thing nobody wants to name? How much alcohol might be quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) working against every single thing you're trying to do for your mental health.

This is a solo episode, and it's personal. I've struggled with depression for most of my life. I tried therapy, medication, journaling, exercise, prayer, supplements, and I was doing all of it while still drinking. And here's what I know now that I wish I'd known then: you cannot out-supplement, out-exercise, or out-therapy a drinking habit that's actively pulling your brain chemistry in the wrong direction.

In this episode, I walk through exactly how alcohol interferes with the most common mental health tools people are using right now — and then I share my 4R method for what to do instead.

Some topics I cover are:

If this episode hit home, I want to hear from you. Email me at [email protected] I read and respond to every single one. And if you're ready to dig in, head to my website to learn more about working together.

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz  

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday 

Book a FREE Discovery Call

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Okay, I have to be honest, this episode started because Tina Lanzoni sent out an email with the subject line Why Yoga is Better Than Wine after returning from a retreat in Costa Rica. And I immediately had to get her on the podcast.

Tina is a yoga therapist, meditation teacher, somatic instructor, and indoor cycling coach with over 10,000 hours of teaching experience. She's a certified yoga therapist in the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy, a graduate of the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, and a Level 2 iRest Yoga Nidra teacher. She's trained over 100 teachers in the Annapolis area, and if you've ever been in one of her classes, you already know she has a gift for making hard things feel doable.

She's also the person who quietly kicks my butt every week in SoulCycle at Evolutions. So yeah, she's the real deal.

This conversation goes deep into something I talk about a lot  (why willpower isn't the problem) but, Tina brings a completely different lens to it through the world of somatics and embodiment. When we keep reaching for something outside ourselves (wine, scrolling, binge-watching, you name it), we're actually teaching our nervous system that discomfort is a threat. And the more we do that, the more disconnected we get from ourselves, and the harder it becomes to trust ourselves.

Tina also did a live somatic practice with me on the episode. Honestly, just listen to it. You'll feel it.

Here's what we get into:

Tina Lanzoni - Yoga Classes, Yoga Therapy, Meditation - Annapolis, MD

Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz  

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday 

Book a FREE Discovery Call

Follow me on Instagram 

Want to explore what changing your relationship with alcohol could look like for you? Email me at [email protected] or visit my website.

In this episode of Sober Fit Life, I'm doing something I've been wanting to do for a long time — I'm reading you my actual journal entries from the month leading up to my last drink on September 14th, 2021.

The shame. The bargaining. The waking up at 2am asking what is wrong with me? The promises I made to myself that I broke over and over again. I wrote all of it down, and I want you to hear it — because if you've ever kept that inner struggle completely to yourself, I want you to know you are not alone and there is nothing wrong with you.

These aren't someone else's words. They're mine. And I'm sharing them because when clients work with me now, I never want them to think I don't remember what this felt like. I do. Every bit of it.

In this episode, I share: 

I also want to invite you to take my free quiz — Am I Drinking Too Much? — at www.soberfitchick.com/amiquiz. No labels, no shame, just honest questions and real answers. You'll also get my guide to gray area drinking and three science-backed strategies for stopping cravings in the moment.

And if this episode speaks to you, I'm already taking names for my next six-week Alcohol Reset, kicking off at the end of September. I would love to have you.

Ready to take the next step? Email me at [email protected] or visit my website to learn more about working together. No obligation, just science-backed techniques that actually work.

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

Six-Week Alcohol Reset

Drink Less By Monday 

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