As the daughter of a high school principal, Jessica felt a lot of pressure to stay in line. She never drank in high school, and even abstained through her freshman year of college. As the persona of ‘principal's daughter’ wore off, though, alcohol became a regular part of her life. 

This became challenging when Jessica moved back to her hometown and took a job in education. Always worried about her public image, she kept her wits about her when drinking in public and began to prefer drinking at home. As she became a mom and shifted her career to work from home, drinking at home became a nightly habit. 

Jessica and her husband moved to a lake home and began to throw regular parties. This ‘‘weekend warrior’ phase felt so fun - until it wasn’t. She increasingly found herself starting the week hungover and on the back foot. 

It was at this moment that Instagram dropped one of Suzanne’s videos onto Jessica’s feed - a video simply telling her that she was allowed to not drink. This message hit on a feeling that Jessica hadn’t been able to voice, and something within her began to shift. 

On New Year's Eve it all came to a head and Jessica followed her instinct - she didn’t want to drink that night. She felt more present with her family as they celebrated and made a big realization - sobriety was her new path. Sobriety has opened incredible new avenues for her! She is now a certified life coach and has begun to offer focused support to high achieving women interested in sobriety! 

Jessica recommends the incredible Casey Davidson if you’re looking for further sobriety support

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long. Join us here, now. ❤️

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Alcohol wasn’t present in Courtney’s childhood, so when she was offered champagne by friends at a holiday when she was fifteen, she had no knowledge of how it would affect her. She only knew that it was ‘forbidden’, and what 15 year old wouldn’t want to try a forbidden thing? The cozy sense of warmth that overcame her was so appealing. After that day, alcohol easily slipped into her life. 

Courtney experienced a series of red flags around her drinking through the years, but she ignored them. She clearly didn’t have a ‘problem’, so there was no reason to consider her relationship with alcohol too closely. Yet, as she became a mother, alcohol began to take up more and more space in her brain, and her relationship with it became more and more uncomfortable. 

An unexpected third pregnancy that resulted in a miscarriage served as a wakeup call. She was given an opportunity to truly feel her emotions around alcohol, and to create new habits that required sobriety to enjoy. It felt so good, and she became fiercely protective of these new life choices. At that point, she began moderating and paying close attention to how alcohol made her feel until one day at a brewery it became completely clear: Alcohol was not serving her. In fact, alcohol was taking joy from her life. She was done. 

Courtney has recently reached 100 days of sobriety! 

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long.  Join us here, now. ❤️

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For women with a history of disordered eating, the first months of sobriety can often include an unwanted surge of challenging experiences around food.

Registered Therapist and eating disorder specialist Liza Feilner joins Suzanne and Susan today to help us navigate this tricky issue. Liza has over two decades of experience supporting women with eating disorders, and she has also been sober since she was 23 years old!

She’ll share why food challenges and disordered eating can arise in sobriety, the importance of giving yourself grace as you navigate major life changes, and how to seek help if you are struggling in this way. 

Learn more about Liza’s practice: https://www.claritygroup.org/liza-feilner

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long.  Join us here, now. ❤️

Get Your Copy of my book  The Sober Shift 

Follow on Instagram  @thesobermomlife

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Maria is back on the pod! When she was last here she was six months sober, and today she’ll tell us about the changes, challenges, and wins she’s had in her sobriety journey in the past year.

You’ll hear why Maria no longer counts days, the normalcy she now feels regarding her sobriety, and the immense benefit that sober community has had in her life as she’s navigated through challenging times, such as an IVF transfer that didn’t pan out and a lapsed experience with cannabis. 

Check out Maria’s first episode on the podcast here! 

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long.  Join us here, now. ❤️

Get Your Copy of my book  The Sober Shift 

Follow on Instagram  @thesobermomlife

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Katie is nearing the end of her maternity leave and she has caught up on SO much TV while in the newborn bubble. So, we’re back to dive into all of the great Bravo that’s been on in the last few months! 

Today, we’ll recap the great last season of Traitors, Southern Charm’s long awaited return, and how the new younger cast on Summer House has really changed the energy of the show. 

Plus - Suzanne and Katie's thoughts on the second seasons of Severance and White Lotus, and Jax’s interviews about rehab.  

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long.  Join us here, now. ❤️

Get Your Copy of my book  The Sober Shift 

Follow on Instagram  @thesobermomlife

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Mom and I just got back from the latest Sober Mom Life retreat in Scottsdale, Arizona, and it was absolutely fantastic! This retreat was such a breath of fresh air and really solidified my feelings that we’re building an amazing community of caring, non-judgmental sober women. 

You’ll hear all about the event, from the meals to the sessions to the bonding and everything in between. Plus, you’ll get the inside scoop on how to sign up for the next Sober Mom Life retreat if you'd like to join us in the fall! 

Thank you to the wonderful companies that supported the retreat with their delightful gifts: 

In My Sundays pajamas: https://www.inmysundays.com/

Adorn 512 Jewelry: https://www.adorn512.com/

Take the personality test Susan mentioned: https://viacharacter.org/

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long.  Join us here, now. ❤️

Get Your Copy of my book  The Sober Shift 

Follow on Instagram  @thesobermomlife

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Sarah believed a myth: Alcohol Makes Things Special. She believed that alcohol was a special ingredient to make things fun ever since middle school when she took her first drink at a slumber party. This belief followed her through college and into adulthood, and because she didn’t experience intense hangovers or blackouts, she never gave the belief a second thought. 

Once Sarah started having children, however, her experience of alcohol began to change. She noticed the sluggish, brain foggy nature of hangovers more than she ever had before. More worrisome for her, though, was her realization that drinking made her more aggressive. She wondered - did she like herself better when she was sober? Sobriety didn’t seem like an option, though. How could she enjoy a sober life when alcohol was the ingredient that made things special?

In 2022, Sarah tried Dry January and realized that something about sobriety worked for her. Thus began her two year journey of drinking with the blinders off, until she fully quit after having a surprising realization: She’d enjoyed her one sober night on her birthday trip more than any of the nights that she drank. 

Slowly, Sarah started sharing her sobriety in public. The response was inspiring. So many women approached her wanting to know more, sharing their own worries about alcohol, and asking for advice. This fuels Sarah to live her sober life loudly! 

At six months sober, Sarah’s mom passed away unexpectedly. The experience rocked her world, and she was so grateful that her sobriety was well intact. It helped her truly sit in her grief instead of reaching for the distraction of alcohol. 

Check out Sarah’s article about sobriety on Indianapolis Moms!

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long.  Join us here, now. ❤️

Get Your Copy of my book  The Sober Shift 

Follow on Instagram  @thesobermomlife

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Real Sober Mom Kim is three months sober! Today, she’s giving us a peek into this extremely important phase of sobriety. 

Kim experienced postpartum anxiety with her second child. During her recovery, her therapist recommended that a glass of wine a night was no big deal if it helped her wind down, and Kim’s daily drinking began. Despite the fact that Kim was able to moderate, her life began to revolve around her nightly drink. The relief she found in the ritual eventually started to blot out other things in her life. 

As a therapist, Kim knew she was using drinking was a coping mechanism. Recently, though, it became too much. She found herself intoxicated on the floor of her living room during a night with friends and she asked herself - how would she feel if her kids came home and found her like this? She did not like the answer, and that night, she decided to quit. The next day she joined the first meeting she could find online and her sobriety journey began. The meeting wasn’t a perfect fit, but it was good enough to help support her and keep her going until she found the Cafe. She is so glad she went. 

At 3 months sober, Kim’s sobriety feels hard, but incredible! She shares about the unexpected anxiety she felt during her first sober month, how it dissipated, and the gorgeous glimmers that are now coming through in her sober life. 

If you’re struggling with early sobriety, Kim wants to encourage you to keep going! 

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long.  Join us here, now. ❤️

Get Your Copy of my book  The Sober Shift 

Follow on Instagram  @thesobermomlife

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Our resident scientist, Gill Tietz of SoberPowered, is back on the pod to help us understand the recent US Surgeon General’s report on the link between cancer and alcohol consumption. This link is something that we in the sobriety space have known for a long time, but it is the first time that the government has publicly announced the connection. 

We’ll talk about how this report might change people’s drinking habits, how alcohol and cancer are related, and even how your body heals as your years of sobriety progress. 

Plus, Gill and I will share how our five year sober-versaries have felt for each of us! 

To hear more from Gill, check out The SoberPowered Podcast!  

Check out Gill’s past episodes on The Sober Mom Life: 

An Alcohol Reality Check 

Your Dry January Dream Team

The Sober October Roundtable

It’s Not You, it’s the Alcohol

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long.  Join us here, now. ❤️

Get Your Copy of my book  The Sober Shift 

Follow on Instagram  @thesobermomlife

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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As a fitness professional, Hollie Nicholson always kept alcohol out of her weekdays, but those weekends of drinking still took their toll until, in 2019, she started asking questions.

Despite embodying health in many aspects of her life, Hollie faced a personal challenge with alcohol—and one day, she decided she had enough.

Every weekend, amidst living a life filled with healthy habits, alcohol was still a part.

For the next six years, Hollie drank with the blinders off. She noticed how inconsistent moderation success could be, she learned about the true impacts that alcohol could have on her body and mind, and she felt how good she could feel through stints of sobriety. But still, a question remained: how could you live a full sober life? 

In May of 2024, shortly after she turned 40, Hollie woke up after a night of drinking with severe anxiety and she asked herself - what if she could live her next decade totally different than her last? At that moment, she had a lot of questions but she knew one thing - she was getting sober.

Inspired by the Sober Mom Life community, she embraced the idea that it’s entirely okay to let go of alcohol—no dramatic reasons needed.

The Cafe has given Hollie such a sense of support and community. She’s even experienced an incredible connection story with another member that she tells on the pod! 

Learn more about Hollie’s fitness program for women in mid-life on IG @hollienicholsonstrong or on her website. 

I started The Sober Mom Life Cafe so women just like you can find connection in sobriety. We have 4 Zoom Peer Support meetings every week, a monthly book club, and a private Facebook group so you can connect all day long.  Join us here, now. ❤️

Get Your Copy of my book  The Sober Shift 

Follow on Instagram  @thesobermomlife

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.