 Hi there, this is James Swannick and you're listening to the Alcohol Free Lifestyle podcast where you learn how to take back control over alcohol and live a life of health, wealth, love, and happiness. Janice Wales is from Whitehorse Yukon. She's 42 years old and she's 100 days plus now alcohol free. How are you feeling, Janice? Well, do you know what? I feel just super. Amazing. So tell us about what was life like before you ended up doing 90 days of alcohol freedom with me and my program? What were your drinking habits? What was going on? I was drinking too much. I was drinking when there were things to celebrate and I was drinking when things bummed me out and I was attracting chaos into my life and it all was a bit unmanageable. What was your drink of choice, Jana? Well, I quite liked glass of white wine. I also make rhubarb juice and I did quite like having vodka and rhubarb juice. Rhubarb juice is really healthy and vodka isn't. I thought it kind of offset each other, but now I just have rhubarb juice. You were saying to me yesterday when we were speaking that you identified that you had a traumatic incident happen in your life about four years ago, the death of a friend of yours and you think that that kind of led you down a path of drinking consistently. You want to just share a little bit about that? I think that's true. My dear friend passed away from a nasty form of cancer. She and I had been friends since we were seven years old. We lived two houses away from each other and her passing away was just really hard and also, I think I never said this to you the other day, but also I was going through a divorce and I had a four-year-old son who is now seven, so I guess I had a three-year-old son and I have a full-time job but a not-for-profit. There was no time to properly grieve her and I think maybe I didn't know how or didn't want to and I grew up in a British culture where wakes seem like an appropriate way to deal with death, so just get a little wasted and cry it out, but the wake continued for a long time and I could justify it for quite a while and just this year I realized that I needed to shift something because my life was not how I wanted it to be. And so how did you identify that it was alcohol that was causing your life not to be what you wanted it to be? I feel it was quite obvious. I have a lot of positives in my life and it was quite clear to me that alcohol was a negative. It was probably impacting my career and my friendships and I don't think actually there was any impact on the relationship with my son that's always been a non-negotiable but it was clear. Like I said I tried to justify it for a long time but I think I always knew that that wasn't the way to work through anything. Yeah and so you've reached out to me in my program to get some help and support and some structure. So what was your experience like of that and what happened? Well I guess from the very beginning I just looked at a few different advertisements that were these kind of programs. What I really enjoyed was that your program and it seemed more like a program than a program and it seemed more so than the other ones where positive business entrepreneur focused and completely dismissing the idea of denial or missing out on the pleasure of alcohol. So we would dismiss this idea that alcohol was joyful or pleasurable. So I thought do you know what I'm going to give this a try and if it doesn't work fine. I mean right now it's not working either and if it does work I feel pretty sure that things will be better than they are right now. Yeah great and so how are things better now that you've gone through the 90 days and now you're like on the other end of a hundred days because you got to 90 and you said you're going to keep on going and certainly that's the intention that I have for all the members of the 90 day program which is you don't get to day 90 and celebrate with a drink. You get to day 90 and you celebrate by continuing on on this alcohol free lifestyle. So what have some what have been some of the noticeable changes or feelings or benefits that you feel like you've had from being a hundred days plus alcohol free now. Well one of the tangible viewable things is that periodically I would get all stressed out or whatever and I eat all my fingernails off and I haven't done that for about 70 days. So I think I think that's a good sign. Makes me feel better about my fingers too because chewed up fingernails are so ugly. Okay. But other than that I think I think that's what comes out of shifting shifting how I am in the world. I'm really enjoying the moments as I move through them and I used to even if I was doing something fun I would have my eye either on the next thing or when it would be over or something that was worrying me that had happened or that would happen and now I find that I am experiencing the world more in the moment. I'm enjoying just doing things and part of that is the idea of choosing what you are going to do and choosing what you're not going to do and that's incredibly valuable. I think I was letting the world just blow me around like a willow wisp and now I have some kind of a rudder and some kind of a steering wheel I guess which is great and I like driving. Wonderful. So what I experienced you saying is that you feel a lot more present maybe a lot more have a lot more clarity maybe reduce stress and anxiety less manic behavior which is what you referenced before less chaos I think is what is what you said. That's exactly right. Yeah and who have who has noticed that in your life who said something or you notice them different because of your new way of being. Well people close to me half and people who aren't close to me who I run into in the grocery store or what have you. They say you're looking good these days or it seems like when I walk into a room I am able to boy it up more than I ever have before. Because I do feel just positive and energetic and real so that is all incredibly valuable. And when are you returning to drinking. Not today. Good answer I like that. Do you know what's your intention do you know how long you want to go without alcohol. Well I feel like it's not part of my life anymore. Although one of the bits of wisdom I've gleaned during this is if you say I'm never doing something again then potentially that can set you up for failure. So you know think about now and it's just all my habits and ways thinking have shifted so. I don't see why I would going through all these fun adventures that were all firsts for me like going to a theater show and not having a glass of wine or going to the bar and not having a beer. All of those things felt like I was on safari off on some kind of a weird adventure and all of them were thoroughly enjoyable and cheaper. And I made friends with the drinking people because I buy them drinks sometimes that's way cheaper than putting your own tab you know. And so what would you say to someone who is watching this now and thinking about joining our 90 day program to quit drinking. What was your experience like and what would you say to them. I would say that if they are interested in having a thoroughly enjoyable supported time learning a bit more about themselves then why is the heck not you know that's what I would say. I for me it has been just a magnificent experience and. I don't know everything just keeps getting better so I don't see that trajectory ending I know that you talk about. The master expects the what is it the law the plateau the plateau and. That's OK because the plateaus are just kind of spots in between all the upward trajectories so. It's great Mount Everest is little apparently. I like that I'm going to borrow that I think I like that Mount Everest is little I like that that's good OK. Well congratulations and thank you so much for sharing a little bit about your experience in the program and congratulations on being 100 days plus now. Yeah well thank you James because I mean who knows you may well have saved my life. Like my physical life but you certainly have saved my my mental health life. So thank you for that. You're so welcome and thanks for playing full out and thanks for being such a fun positive energy in the group as well. I know that you allowed yourself to be coached but most of all by you sharing your experience along the way you were able to coach and support and inspire other people. So it's not just that you know possibly we've inspired you. I know definitively that you have inspired those who've come after you and those who are watching this now. So thank you Jenna. Thank you James. Thanks very much. Thank you so much for listening. I have some free stuff for you. If you go to JamesSwanick.com forward slash guide I will send you my formula for reducing or quitting alcohol. If you'd like to watch the video versions of these episodes then you can watch them at my YouTube channel which is at JamesSwanick. If you'd like to send me a direct message on Instagram you can do so at JamesSwanick if you would like to try a three day challenge a free three day challenge. You can go to JamesSwanick.com forward slash three day challenge. If you would like to try the 30 day no alcohol challenge you can go to 30 day no alcohol challenge. If you would like to schedule a 15 minute exploratory call with one of my coaches to see how we may be able to help you in your alcohol free journey. You can go to JamesSwanick.com forward slash schedule. And my request is if indeed you enjoyed this episode or you have enjoyed the podcast would you please go ahead and rate the show in iTunes. And would you please write a review a review might just be a sentence saying great listen hey this was fantastic I really enjoyed this whenever you give a rating whenever you write a review. It surges our podcast up in the rankings enabling more people to see it and hear it and potentially inspiring someone out there to reduce or quit alcohol and potentially transform their life. So yes while it does help me to get ratings and to get reviews you will actually be directly contributing to helping someone's life by having them discover this podcast. So if you are open to inspiring others and to helping me in the process would you please go ahead and give this episode a ranking and would you please write a review. Thank you so much for listening and I will catch you on the next one.