 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. I am one year, 365 days alcohol free. Yes, John Keltoner who joined our 90 day program exactly one year ago today and what has happened in one year of no alcohol, John? Well, I've gotten a lot more clarity. My health is much better, I've lost some weight, had to get slightly smaller glasses because of all of the loss of puffiness in my cheeks and one of my goals going into it was to improve my relationships, especially with my children and my 15 year old son who lives here with me and that has worked out great. All of those things have improved. Amazing and you lost 20 pounds I think over the years, is that right? Yes, I'm wavering around the 20 pound mark as we speak. Wonderful. Wonderful. And you said your sleep is better as well from not drinking? Absolutely. Yeah, sleep through the night and I've continued to kind of get up earlier and earlier trying to fit things in before I have to start my regular professional day and so at this point I'm getting up at around 4.30 every morning and fitting in some stretching and some movement and some meditation and three times a week I fit in some basketball. Wow, it's amazing. And just remind me what was life like when you were drinking? What were you drinking? How much? What was life like a year ago before you got on the call with me and before you enrolled in our 90 day program and obviously now you've gone a year with no drinking. What was your drinking life like pre-joining our 90 day program? Sure. So it was pretty much every day and I would basically look forward to the end of the day when I would head over to my local pub here in town and as far as what was I drinking, tour's light, whiskey, etc. and pretty much didn't sleep well, wasn't very clear headed, did not look forward to getting up in the morning and getting going and really had a sense of and I think I've expressed this to you before what led me to you was a sense of having kind of suppressed potential. I was really feeling like I was not taking advantage of my abilities and that alcohol was really holding me back. So I'm glad that I found you and reached out to you and I'm glad that you convinced me that day a year ago that it's time to make a change and I can expand on that story if you'd like me to because that's kind of a good one too. Yeah, go for it. You know you had you had walked me through the process of why and I really appreciated that and I still I still have my notes from that day and then we got down to talking about the group and joining the group and the cost of joining the group and I said well you know James you kind of gave me the price and I said well you know James I really don't make buying decisions that way I'd really like to think about it and here it was you know late December and I was thinking I'll put it off until after the new year you know like a lot of people do and I said I don't make buying decisions that way and you said how's that working for you and I've run that I've run that script in my head many times since then when I come to a tough decision about moving forward with something or making a decision is kind of the why wait right what how's it how's that working for you and I would tell you that making that decision before the holidays last year was really great because you know the holidays can be a tough time and I was kind of put to the test fortunately you gave me some tools and some resources to help me with that but I really felt like man I got through the holidays and on to the new year and you know by the new year's 10 10 or 12 days into it I really felt like I was off to a good start so it was it was a good it was a good time to start there was no need to wait right and and I appreciate that push that you gave me yeah you're so welcome and what was your experience like within our program who did you meet what did you do what was effective that maybe you hadn't had you know for years before trying to reduce or quit drinking right well I think I think a lot of what I felt was that I was alone I was by myself in this predicament in this state of mind that I was in and it was nice to meet the group that you had assembled that were people like me entrepreneurs professionals and so on that felt the same way that they were somehow limiting themselves by their you know by their use of alcohol and and so it was nice to not be alone and then Kevin was a huge help I mean he just his guidance was tremendous throughout the process and the way he would help me to kind of reframe things on our weekly calls and work through things and then to see the progress that everybody was making and still to see the progress I mean I realize I'm not on the calls or or very active in the Marco Polo group and so on but it's fantastic to see the people as they make progress and really to have some accountability you know I mean I don't I don't think of the count day by day anymore but you know kind of the the 20th of each month I'm on to the I'm on to the next to the next month so it was really it was really a great great great group and a great program and and it was just so happened that the 90 days for me your wellness weekend was right after that and that was a that was kind of great timing for that weekend because that was fun too and what are your friends or family members or colleagues or associates or acquaintances or people down the pub where you're not drinking alcohol what do they say to you now what have they noticed about you now in this year of you being alcohol free so I can tell you when I first started and again it was at this time last year and and kind of the first event that I went to because one of the things that was appealing to me about your program was you said hey John you don't have to give up your friends you don't have to change your lifestyle necessarily I'm going to teach you how to do things without using alcohol but you don't have to change and that that was appealing to me because because I have friends that that are that I associate what you know with that down at my down at my local bar and so on and I do things with them outside of the bar in any case at first they were of course oh come on you know just have one and they were trying to encourage me and and you know called called me some colorful names just having fun with it and so on and but you know I was able to kind of stick through that and that all worked out fine and in fact that's where I got the name as you've called me a couple of times the soda crayon man because that's what you know after a week or two of doing this now my one of one of my bartender friends started calling me the soda crayon man right and so I took that on and I think that they they along with the other people that I and I I didn't I didn't announce it to my family or friends outside the bar right away I kind of waited until I had my feet under me and felt a sense of confidence so that was probably about a month or a month and a half into it that I started letting my family know and they were all very proud of me and thought it was very good but I know that a lot of them were just kind of waiting and seeing you know how would how would this go and and so on and and still up still today when I see people and they'll hey John you're still not drinking no not drinking oh man that is great that is fantastic and of course physically I've changed and everybody compliments me on that although you look like you've lost weight and some of them kid me about being skinny and all this kind of thing and it it's it's been really good and I have a sense of accountability to them too in terms of continuing this and I think that's that's important you know it gives me a gives me something to continue to shoot for and and to to lead really and and I think that's part of it too as I have now kind of regained my sense of leadership in terms of I have nothing holding me back I'm only you know I'm I'm kind of limitless now and I can you know I still have all of those self-doubts around other things but I have no no physical things holding me back so it's been great yeah wonderful and just finally just before we wrap this up someone's watching you now whether it's on an email or a video or a youtube video on a facebook or in a facebook or someone's watching you at some point either now or in the future somewhere and they're thinking man a year sounds like way too much like I don't think I can even do in 30 days or I don't think I can do 90 days like maybe I should just do moderation I don't know about this what would you say to that person who's also also knows that alcohol is holding them back but they have that fear that they won't be able to do it so what kind of words would you have for that person well I would say first of all that fear is totally understandable based on our kind of our cultural conditioning and I had all those fears going into it because it was part of my identity right amongst my family and friends so the first thing I would say is reach out and try to get some help try to get some coaching right and that's like with your program with project 90 is you know commit to some coaching and some and a group and a community of like-minded people and then you just take it day by day and it tends to it will you'll find that it'll just come compound on itself in terms of how good you feel and how now time I'll tell you that time will sometimes it'll seem really fast and sometimes it'll seem really slow throughout this process but how quickly this year has gone and how much you know I've been kind of taking notes to myself on on the things that I've been doing this last year and changes and and progress and so on and it's just amazing how quickly a year can go and how good you end up feeling and how excited I am now going into a new decade into 2020 with my you know with my full capability and and looking forward to it so I would say the main thing is go for it and and reach out and find somebody that can help you with it wonderful well John congratulations mate you want to do a one more one more thing it's like I am one year alcohol free did I go and do it with the big finger and come into the camera do it loud and proud all right I am one year alcohol free 365 days amazing well done John high five virtual high five it was a year ago today I was in this very room and you were in that very house talking about it and now a year later we're here celebrating you being a year alcohol free so I acknowledge you for that mate well done thank you James thanks Kevin and thanks to all the P90 past and present 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 James Swanick if you'd like to send me a direct message on instagram you can do so at James Swanick 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 oh 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