 James Swannick here and we're talking to another success story, a gentleman who is now 99 days alcohol-free, as we're recording this, will be 100 days tomorrow. His name is Johnny Deloach. He works in technical sales for a mechanical contracting company in Denver, Colorado. He's 37 years old. He's engaged to be married. He's a golfer lover and apparently now he's an alcohol-free lifestyle lover. Johnny, congratulations mate, well done. Yeah, thank you James. It's kind of crazy to hear you say that in 99 days, but yeah, it's true. What's the longest you recall going alcohol-free previous to this? Probably two weeks. Since I was probably 16, so 21 years now, probably two weeks is probably the longest I've ever gone prior to this. And now you're 99 days, about to be 100. So what's changed? What's shifted? Well, you know, just in my life where I was living with my fiancé and going through COVID in 2020, really just brought to the surface issues with my drinking and it really made me think about it more personally, internally, and do a lot of reflecting on that. And me just realizing that if I wanted to do something and have a long, healthy, happy life and I needed to really seek out some help. What was the, when you said you wanted to have a long and healthy life, how was your life not healthy when you were drinking? Well, I mean, I always considered myself active. I had a somewhat healthy lifestyle. I always watched my diet and I lost my father a little over 10 years ago to health-related issues, mostly dealing with alcohol or alcoholism and bad life decisions because of alcoholism. And as I've been doing my yearly wellness exams, I've just noticed that blood pressure was creeping up, you know, cholesterol was creeping up. And so I really wanted to get my arms wrapped around that the best I could. And so for years now, I've always tried to exercise and eat right all the meanwhile, you know, consuming alcohol and drinking a lot. And that was the only culprit to, you know, having that unhealthy high blood pressure and having my cholesterol and my lab work and stuff like that be wrong. And then it kind of just dawned on me that, hey, you know, not drinking could possibly cure all this. And did you track your metrics from when you began or when you started the process of not drinking to today? Like, have you been able to track some of those metrics? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, as far as, you know, overall weight goes, I remain pretty constant in that, but blood pressure completely dropped. I started noticing that after about a week and a half or about 10 days, my blood pressure bounced back down to normal, you know, roughly 125 over 80. And then when I was drinking heavily, if you get all the way up to the 150s over 95, 150 over 100, simply due to, you know, drinking. So let me just get that right. I want to write that down. So your blood pressure when you were drinking was 150 over 95. And then what was it when you checked again after 90 days? Yeah, for example, this morning, it was, you know, 123 over 82. Oh, wow. Okay. So you went from 150 over 95 to 123 over 82. Yeah. Yeah. And that was something, you know, I always asked my doctor about it, said, well, you know, I think I have a family history of elevated blood pressure. I'm really concerned about my genetics and, you know, my father passing away at a young age. And, you know, they ask you, well, how much do you drink? How many drinks do you have per week? And I go, well, God, a lot. And they go, well, that's probably a contributor. Why don't you try going without it? And previously, I would, like I said, I got to roughly two weeks. And I can notice some health benefits. But then, you know, I would just fall off that cliff and be back where I started. But this sustained period of alcohol-free lifestyle that I've been going through with you guys's help is just, you know, one, I feel great. And that's obvious. But two, being an engineer by trade and education, those metrics are outstanding. And it's incredible how much better my numbers are. My sleep is great. I track my sleep too with a device that I use. And so I love seeing those because that brings it to the front. That brings it to the front of my mind and realizing and knowing that I made a smart decision doing this for myself. Yeah. That's pretty incredible. Those blood pressure markers, aren't they? What do you think that tells you now about the impact of alcohol on your life? Well, it says a lot. And the research that I did, I know it has different effects for different people. For me, my body really did not like alcohol. At the same time, my body in my mind really did like alcohol. So the differences between, you know, somebody like me having a couple of drinks, my body reacting to the poison, trying to filter it out, trying to recover those two or three days would cause a lot of strain on my body, even though I may not feel it directly, my blood pressure, my levels like that were skyrocketing. And everybody knows over a sustained period of time that that is one of the contributing factors and early mortality rates for men. So my body had a hard time filtering out the toxins of alcohol. And that was shown through elevated blood pressure for multiple days, that's where I drank. And now without it, it's just night and day. It's great. Has your fiance noticed anything different about you? Or has she given you any verbal feedback about the different Johnny over the past 99 days? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, she was great in helping me get to the point to where I wanted to, you know, reach out, find help. She has gone through similar relationships in her life where, you know, both her brothers are addicts. One of them is a recovering addict as a year under his belt. He actually moved to Denver a few months ago and he's now back in our lives and he's doing really, really good. Her other brother, not so much. He's still struggling. He's still trying to find the help that works best for him. But so that resonated very closely with her throughout this before she met me, before I came into her life. And she knew that, you know, that would be a deal breaker if we were to continue our relationship and eventually get married. So, you know, me coming from a background of everybody in my life drinking, you know, alcoholism all the way back in my family, going way back, me struggling with it myself. And then me finding her getting to a point to where, you know, we have a long-term relationship and me wanting to be that person, right, for her. So she had a huge effect on that. She helped me. It was not easy. It was a struggle every week, every weekend it seemed like, you know, prior to me starting the P90 program. And then, you know, since I've been doing it, you know, nothing but help. Our relationship has gone incredibly smooth. You know, less fighting, less arguing. And it just comes down to our argument was based around my, you know, abuse of alcohol previously and that's sad, but I think that's really common and really detrimental to relationships to face that. I think a lot of people would agree, but yeah, she was quite a strong facet in my rehabilitation, whatever you want to call it, but me and being where I am today, you know, almost 100 days. And does she, does your fiance drink alcohol for herself or how and how much and how is that dynamic now that you're not? Yeah, so she does, you know, very little. She drinks maybe, you know, one or two glasses of wine on the weekend, you know, if we're out with friends or if we're at a dinner, she may have one drink and she'll have that one drink last her throughout the night. Needless to say, I wasn't that way. I was always thinking about my next drink, always thinking about, you know, am I going to have enough? The classic, you know, mouth spinning in the wheel in your brain about the alcohol, but she, you know, she drinks alcohol the way I think it was intended to be consumed, you know, very responsibly. Okay. And so how's that dynamic going to play out now and in the future? Do you think, like, with your intention around alcohol, what is your intention around alcohol in your life and how will that play out with your relationship? Yeah, well, I think it's great. You know, we've, you know, for example, we went out last weekend, her parents were in town, me, her and her brother and her parents went out. Her and her mom and dad both had one drink each, me and her brother didn't, right? And we don't, you know, intend to. And then it's kind of like what I've explained to them. And it's great because as you go through the program, you kind of learn, you know, how to talk about the situation and social anxiety and different aspects of how, you know, your life is going to change and how you can use that to your benefit and how people are going to ask you questions and how you can come at it with a positive attitude and stuff like that. So what I tell them is like, look, you know, moderation was always the most difficult for me. I would go out, I would have a drink, I would think, well, can I have another one? Can I not? Okay, I do now. I really don't need another one, but I want another one. And then you're playing that, that back and forth was just really tough on anybody who's who's tried that. And me, myself, knowing that I'm going to go out and I'm not going to drink. Like, I don't have to worry about having one drink. I don't have to worry about as too, too many. I can simply just rest on the fact that I'm not, I don't have to drink and I'm not going to, and that's fine. And I can tell people that. And that's what I explained to them. I said, as soon as I made the realization in my mind that, you know, zero is the perfect number for me. All that other anxiety or that, you know, snowballing effect of the thinking inside you, it just goes away. It went away from me. It was surprisingly simple in that aspect. So how did you get over the mental hurdle of getting help in the first place? Like, what was some of the different things that you entertained doing to try to break the back of alcohol? And what was it that finally got you to say yes to doing what you did, which was going through our 90 day experience project 90, which we talk about here on the podcast quite a lot. So what was, you know, what did you research online or in person? What did you try? What didn't work? And how did you end up doing doing what you did? Yeah. So for years, I was, you know, always a high-performing individual, you know, with work all, you know, never had any problems with work, being successful in sales, and, you know, doing what I had to do to make a living, be, you know, good in my professional career. But in the back of my mind, I was like, man, I'm getting tired of being just like hungover all weekend and, you know, everything that comes with that. So I, you know, my fiance and I, we started dating. I started kind of thinking about, well, this is not sustainable and I need to start drilling this in. So I just talked to her about it. And she's like, well, let's just start somewhere. So what I did was, you know, through my work, we have some access to different counselors, but I just, I found a counselor. I talked to her about my situation. I, you know, I kind of just listened to her. I probably had four or five hour-long sessions, you know, with her. And then I was like, okay, I got it. I'm cured. You know, thank you for your help. I appreciate it. I'm going to go, you know, about my life and, you know, just never really took hold. It wasn't really anything substantial that I could just, you know, lean on and depend on. And then I, you know, kind of fell down again. So I had to get myself back up. And I was just doing research and I came across you and your company and the things that you offer and between the 30 day challenge and the P90 that was just, you know, right up my alley. Because personally, I didn't need somebody to hold my hand every day. I just needed somebody that I could ask questions. I could look at the material. I could be on the calls every week. I could participate when I wanted to participate. And I was, you know, I was invested, right? I was invested in myself, in the program, in my relationship. And I really wanted this to work because I think, you know, the program, no matter what you choose to do, is going to be a challenge. And no matter there's, it's never going to be the best day to do it. It's never going to be easy, but it is going to be something that if you invest your time, you know you're in the right place, then I just found that the, that your program is just exactly what I needed. It's not too little. It's not too much. And it's right in that sweet spot of, you know, they're going to give you everything that you want as much as you want. And if you only need a little bit, which I think I was probably on the bottom, and I just needed, you know, a community that I could listen to, speak when I wanted to speak and talk about. And when I did that, it was perfect for me. Yeah. And the community, what type of people were you associating with? Who are also going through, you know, getting power over alcohol? What type of people did you meet and interact with? I mean, just really nice, normal people. You know, just people who, I mean, you could see when they started talking, you'd be like, yep, I know exactly what they're talking about, because yep, that was my situation. And that is my situation. Or you kind of hear from a different person, it's a slightly different perspective, but it's all rooted in this dependency for a poison that has taken control of our lives, maybe for a couple of years, maybe in my case, for 21 years. In some cases, a lot longer than that. So we all had that common standing, that common ground that where you felt really comfortable and you didn't even really know the people yet. And as you got to know them, you got more comfortable. And Victoria was my coach, or is my coach, and she's just very friendly, very welcoming. And when she shares her struggles, you're like, wow, this is some of you guys have done really great with what life has thrown at you. And me, I'm just sitting here complaining about my alcohol problem when people have alcohol plus health plus children plus relationships. So it puts everything in perspective when you talk to different people who have a very similar challenge that you're dealing with. Yeah, I've been to, I went to an AA meeting some years ago to support a friend. So I wasn't going for my own need to quit alcohol, because when I first went to AA, I'd already been alcohol free, but I went to support someone else. And I'm trying to choose my words carefully because I don't want to just bash AA. However, I do have a strong opinion that it's very ineffective for most people, very effective for some people. But when I went there, what I didn't really resonate with was there are people with, there's a lot of navel gazing. Do you know what I mean by navel gazing? I mean, kind of like just looking down and in shame and having really, really serious drug and addiction problems and challenges. And I couldn't really relate to that. I sympathized with the struggle, but I couldn't relate to that. So part of me creating Project 9E really came out of wanting to create a safe space that wasn't that, where it was an aspirational type of group of people as opposed to, oh, my life sucks, and I'm in shame, and I've got all these kind of issues. We've all got issues, we've all got shame, right? But I couldn't relate to the depth or the level of that in an AA meeting. That's just me sharing my own experience. I guess my question is, did Project 9E feel aspirational to you? Did it feel like there was, or did it feel more like an AA type of meeting, the way I just described? Could you just maybe describe for the listener how it felt? What was the energy like? Yeah, I haven't participated in AA. I've read versions of the book, and my fiance's brother, he's one of the success stories from that. So I definitely applaud what he can do. And I have shared my commonality between your program and what I needed personally. So I think you are correct, and I would agree with you based on my limited experience with AA, but I really think that what you offer in the program is really good for those individuals who have their life right there where they want it. They just have alcohol as this barrier between them and what they really want to be for their spouse or for their kids or for their career or for, you know, as an entrepreneur or whatever. I think this program is well suited for that type of individual, which I am. The ease of access to it, the like-minded people. I mean, when we started a meeting, you know, all these faces will pop up who are sharing the meeting with you. And it's like, you know, it's you. It's another guy running his business. It's a mom with two kids just trying to figure out a way to help themselves. And they're not at the bottom of the barrel. They're just real people with real struggles who really want, you know, that help, that they know they can do it. They just need that little bit of help. Yeah. Anything that surprised you over the past 99, almost 100 days, whether it was about yourself, your mindset, your body, your relationship, anything about alcohol that you learned, anything that surprised you during the process? Well, I mean, you know, alcohol is a it's a poison and we're branded and we're marketed to and we are told, you know, daily through media that alcohol is normal. When you talk a lot about this in your class in the in the podcast, and I incredibly recommend people listen to those. I went back and listen to I think all of them prior to it. Sorry, my dogs are barking. But I went back and listen to all of them just because I loved hearing the interviews. I loved hearing the people with their stories. I was like, yep, I related that. Yep, I related that. But I learned the most that once you remove alcohol, you're still left with your life in your left with the best parts of your life. And you're left with those parts minus the negative health consequences minus all the anxiety that alcohol puts on you, whether you know, pre alcohol or post alcohol, all that's gone. And decisions to be made are so much easier. It's so much easier to articulate your train of thought and to communicate. And I was just telling my another sales member of our team that I just don't have any problems anymore. And he's like, what do you mean we have all these problems, all these jobs that we have to do? I mean, we have so many. I'm like, no, I didn't say that right. I mean, I had no more problems like I used to have when I was drinking. And he goes, oh, well, because he's one of the guys that I shared it with in my journey. He's like, well, good for you, man. That sounds like what I need. So I really think that's beneficial for everybody. Yeah. I was thinking when you shared that you said the media tells us that alcohol is normal and it's okay to drink and it's funny because as we're recording this, the European soccer championships are just coming to a close. And England is in a semi-final coming up in the next couple of days. By the time this podcast is out, you the listener will already know whether England was knocked out or whether they won. But as we're recording it, we still don't know what's going to happen. And I'm looking at the sun, which is the newspaper, big British tabloid newspaper. I'm looking at it now. And the headline is England fans set to guzzle 30 million pints, cheering on the three lions against Denmark. And then the second sentence is Gareth Southgate's side will be spurred on by millions across the country as hopes soar of football coming home. And with countless numbers set to crowd around the TV at pubs and their homes alike, millions will raise a beer to cheer on England as the stars take to the pitch at Wembley. Hospitality bosses hope it will see beer sales soar. It is estimated more than 30 million pints will be guzzled down during the clash, including at least 6.8 million in bars alone. So the story is almost like a sense of pride, right? It's like, oh, we're going to guzzle down all this beer. It's going to be amazing. And I saw another article yesterday where the headline was something about Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, is extending the pub hours by another hour to allow England fans to be able to drink more beer to celebrate. I'm like, I just don't get this. I mean, am I the only person in the world who sees the hypocrisy in shutting down a country because of COVID, because of health concerns, yet promoting going out there and encouraging its citizens to go out there and drink more attractively packaged poison in order to compromise your health and weaken your immune system, which makes you even more susceptible to COVID, or at least weakens your defenses against COVID. I mean, I don't know. Am I crazy? Johnny, what do you think? It's remarkable. I mean, I know you talked a lot about our president Biden offering to give out free beer, the vaccines. And alcohol is so ingrained in our world culture, not just East or West, but the world culture alcohol is ingrained in. So the commonality between cultures, religions, races, et cetera, alcohol is almost always there. That can be a good thing. Give me a bad thing. For people like me, it's not the best thing. Realizing that and knowing that took me almost 37 years to figure out. But it's not surprising, it is disheartening. But I think focusing on yourself, focusing on the challenges that you have day to day with alcohol, and real understanding your new relationship with it, it's crucial. And things like that are going to keep going on. And I know, meet myself, just call it four months ago, 120 days ago. I'd have been cheering and hoping your team wins. But that's not me anymore. And the class and the program and talking to people, because this is stuff we talk about a lot. Because you're going to see it, you're going to run into it, it's going to be on TV. And you do notice when you're in the program, and you're going alcohol-free, that almost every song, almost every billboard, almost every movie that you watch has it in there. Alcohol is a part of that. It's a part of that script. It just is. And it's going to be. But what you can do and the tools that you have to use to help yourself and to help your family and to help your career and to help your friends, they're there. And I think this program really brings that to light. Thank you for your insight and also for your feedback, Johnny. I appreciate that. And what a remarkable change in mindset for you from four months ago, saying, yeah, bring it on. Let's go and drink and celebrate to now actually being acutely aware of the brainwashing around alcohol in our society. And being so, like I said, aware of all of that sensory brainwashing, I guess, from billboards and marketing and things like that, to be able to shift your mindset so quickly in just four months is remarkable. So well done. Yeah. Thank you. It hasn't been easy. It hasn't been something that I could just put away, put in a drawer and then close the drawer and be done with it. Still think about it a lot. Still on your mind and you're still having those brief moments of anxiety or worry about, how am I going to react to this? And I think that's fine. I think that's normal. But the way you react and one of the things you've talked about is thinking through the drink. Most people get excited. They think about their first drink and how it's going to make them feel and how they can relax and de-stress. And they're like, I just can't wait for that drink. And then in my mind, in my brain, I've trained to say, all right, if you did have that, then you had another one, then you had five more and then you had 10 more. Then you woke up the next day and you're late for work and you missed the meeting and your spouse got mad at you and your kids are screaming and you have a headache and you can't think. Thinking through that drink has really been profound for me because that's the reality. That first drink is just that little false sense of hope. And once you can get past that and you train your brain to think that way, all of a sudden you're like, nope, I'm good. I don't want to drink. I don't want to think about it. That is a very useful tool that I picked up through talking with your teammates and our teammates and using the program, the podcast I can't recall where that came from exactly. But I know it was from you and that's been very helpful. So thank you for that. Yeah, you're welcome, Johnny. Well, Johnny Deloach, 37 from Denver, Colorado, even though he's a New Orleans man, he's just in Denver, Colorado at the moment. My congratulations again and thank you for sharing your words of wisdom here and happy engagement to your lovely fiancee. I hope your golf game improves as well as you said that you're a golf lover. Maybe you'll have more focus now and if you're able to shoot better scores now that you're basking in those alcohol-free glow, I guess. Yeah, it has helped my golf game. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, it has helped. Good, I like it. Yeah. Maybe that's how I should do with my marketing now, to try and get people to improve your golf game, quit drinking. Yeah, take five strokes off your golf game guaranteed, right? Or your money back. Wow, wow, five strokes off your golf game. Yeah, amazing. All right, Johnny, well, thanks, mate. Congratulations again and thanks for sharing your experience with us here today. Thank you, James. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening to the Alcohol-Free Lifestyle podcast. I want to load you up with some free stuff right now. So if you want to go to JamesSwanick.com slash guide, I will send you my quit alcohol guide, which has helped six-figure entrepreneurs and top professionals produce or quit drinking. You can also text the word quit guide to the number 44222 if you're in the US, of course. It doesn't really work anywhere outside of the US, but if you're in the US on your mobile phone and you'd like that guide, text the word quit guide to the number 44222, or you can go to JamesSwanick.com slash guide. If you'd like to schedule a free 15-minute call with one of my top coaches, just an exploratory call to see if or how we can help you, then you can go to JamesSwanick.com slash schedule, or you can text the word Project 90 to the number 44222 if you're listening in the US on a mobile phone. That's JamesSwanick.com slash schedule, or you can text the word Project 90, that's one word, Project 90, to the number 44222. Feel free to send me a direct message over on my Instagram account, which is at JamesSwanick. You can also watch video episodes of this podcast and a series of other educational videos on my YouTube channel, which is JamesSwanickOne, or you can direct message me on Facebook at JamesSwanickOfficial. And finally, a request. Would you please now write a short review of the podcast inside of the Apple Podcast app on your phone or on iTunes on your desktop Peter? Would you please give the show five stars and write a quick one or two sentence review? This will help the show get in front of even more listeners, potentially transforming someone's life. You can rate and review the show inside of your Apple Podcast app on your phone or over on iTunes on your desktop. Thank you so much and I'll catch you next time.