 I am James Swanik from Project 90, the program that helps people quit alcohol, and I'm with Joe Worley, who's a 50-year-old plant manager from a $250 million home windows business in Holland, Michigan, who's now 120 days alcohol free. Joe, how does it feel to be 120 days alcohol free? Oh man, I feel like a new man, James. So what was your drinking like before you joined my Project 90 program, which helps people quit alcohol? Yeah, it was really problematic. So I was just using way too much around my family. I was using it way too much when we were out for business dinners and just really struggled. And you know, I couldn't drink socially. I couldn't have one or two or three. It was always somewhere between four and 10, and it started to become a lot more eight, nine and 10, and then it felt lousy the next day. So it was a vicious cycle and it was affecting my performance at work. It was putting stress on my family and it was really stuck. So I'd had a couple of goes in AA and that worked for a while, but it just, it kind of kept you stuck in shame and it kept you always identifying yourself as an alcoholic. I didn't feel like it was, but I couldn't break through and stop and deal with social situations. So that was the beauty of your program. That's why I'm so excited to do it. And let's skip forward to the results that you got from being now 120 days alcohol-free. You were telling me before we started recording this that you've lost 25 pounds, that you're sleeping better. You've reduced the stress in your marriage, that you have more confidence at work and you're getting more results at work. So how did that happen? Why do you think you lost 25 pounds just from quitting drinking? Well, the nice thing is you feel a lot better when you're not drinking. So you're not craving, macaroni and cheese or potatoes or just the crazy stuff you crave when you're hung over. So I've always enjoyed eating right and exercising and now I can do it all the time and it's amazing how quickly the weight came off and just build confidence and then just kind of go with more and more. So it's great. I had to clean out my closet and I was able to pull out a bunch of 32-inch waist jeans that have been sitting there for a couple of years. So I'd always hope to get it back to them and by golly, I fit in them again. And what was it that inspired you to give up alcohol this time round? Because you said you tried Alcoholics Anonymous and you'd had a little bit of success but then you found yourself back drinking again. So what was it about my program Project 90 that inspired you to book a call and ultimately join our group of people that quit drinking? Yeah, I'd always had this nagging fear in the back of my head about how am I going to break this cycle and what I would do is I would always muscle through and stop drinking first part of the year and then I would kind of start to pick it up in the spring and summer and by fall and the holidays it was full out again. So I went through this vicious cycle of shedding some weight and then putting it back on and my wife watched me do this over and over and I just always had this fear that I wasn't going to be able to stop. And what was different about this was it just it gave me a way to deal with social situations because that's what always triggered for me again. My family likes to drink a lot. I mean it's just so common in society but this taught me a way to positively get through it. So and especially at work and things like that so that was the big difference for me that was the big change and it was really quite frankly really easy but I would never have figured it out on my own. So yeah and so just tell Alvia a little bit about what Project 90 is and what you found to be the most benefit from it that got you to the point where you're now 120 days alcohol free as opposed to what you tried previously that didn't get you there. Sure you know it sounds simple but a lot of it's just semantics and wording but you start telling yourself that I'm choosing to live alcohol free instead of oh I can't drink I'm doing this thing you know so you're just much more positive it's a lot easier to deflect criticism when it comes your way or people that are challenging you and I found that pretty quickly they'd be like oh okay no big problem and um and then now I'm finding out some of my friends are actually like geez maybe I'm gonna give that a go because you're looking really good so I've got friends they haven't joined your program yet but if they're interested I'll certainly steer them your way but um you know it just it just taught me to get through those those types of things and deal with the social pressure of it and now it's no problem at all I've got enough confidence and people love you when you're the designated driver and my wife's a heck of a lot more interested in me when I'm not falling asleep when we get home from a date so it's just that simple and I know that you were concerned about socializing without alcohol doing some business deals or even just having fun without alcohol what have you found using my methodology in terms of socializing without alcohol now? Right yeah I mean you just you just learned to order first or just hey I just want club soda and a lime and what I've noticed is actually not as many people drink as I thought they did because when I was in it I was the instigator I was ordering wine I was bringing rounds from the bar and now that I'm not doing that I'm actually noticing Jesus actually a lot of people that don't drink and the ones that do that's fine carry on they're the ones that are tired the next morning or late for the first meeting of the day you know and I'm there sharp and feeling well so it's just a lot better spot to be in and it was all great fun I can't change the past but boy it's a much better spot to be in. Yeah and what were your what was your skepticism or your reservations about doing my methodology when you when you began I mean ultimately you signed up you joined you took the action now you're 120 days alcohol free and continuing to go but what was the story in your head about why doing this Project Naughty program wouldn't work for you? Yeah and first you know I read through I did all the accelerators which is kind of your homework and then your commitment to the program at first and I had heard a lot of that I read a lot of leadership books so I'd heard bits and pieces of that and I was like really that's it there's no magic but I was like all right I spent some money so I'm going to pour myself into it and then it was just the simple little things like sitting down every morning and doing my daily 20 which is one of the 20 things I'm grateful for and that really set me off to a positive spin in the morning so it was just the simple things like that and then just celebrating the wins the group calls are great because then you're going through with people that are in a similar situation so when you first join in you know the veteran folks are giving you advice and then as you progress then you're giving the newcomers advice so you kind of help pull everybody along so I like that and the personal coaching calls are great because then you could get into any junk you had to work through with your coach so it was really a nice nice way to wrap up my week because I'd have my call with my coach and then at the beginning of the week we could talk about yes made it through the weekend you know and it was easy and then it just became easier and easier so why do you think that this methodology has worked when doing AA or willpower previously hasn't worked yeah it's positive you know AA is really a negative thing I don't I don't want to be too tough on them because they obviously help a lot of people but it really keeps it kind of stuck in shame like when you share in AA you say my name is Jo and I'm an alcoholic so you're constantly reminding yourself that and I had quit before I really destroyed anything in my life thank god so they always called me kind of a high-bottom drunk so it's like the program never really fit for me but with your program it was positive it was wins it was reprogrammed my brain that I easily just drink soda and cranberry tonight you know and it was the simplest darn thing so it was just positive and power of positivity so and I'm a half-class full person I'm a very positive thinker so that just paired well with my makeup and the way my brain works and how has your wife responded to the new Jo who's 120 days alcohol-free and continuing to be alcohol-free yeah at first she was skeptical she's like all right we'll see you know and I hope the best form but now she's like you are totally different and she really said that what she always felt like before was there was a third person in our relationship and that was the person was alcohol because she liked me the way I was but once I would start drinking I wasn't mean or violent I was kind of a happy drunk but still I wasn't me and it just bothered her so she's thrilled she's just really excited about she's got the real joe back the man she married back and not you know what this last 15 years really robbed and who else in your life has got to benefit from you being 120 days alcohol-free and counting yeah so my coach really encouraged me to come clean and share with my kids so I've got a daughter that's 22 and a son that's gonna be 20 here in a week and I told him hey here's what I'm doing here's why and you know and I just came clean and said you know I don't have the best relationship with alcohol you guys have seen me drink too much a lot you know and here's why I'm stopping it's affecting my health and my job and all that and they were both like hey good for you dad that's great you know so I'm I'm sure more questions will come from them I haven't had deep conversations with them but they obviously are happy you know that their dad's more engaged now yeah beautiful so let's just summarize what life was like before and what life is like now so before you did my methodology and quit drinking what was life like around your health your wealth your love and your happiness yeah work was a slog I had a rough year in 2018 and I turned alcohol to try to solve that we had a lot of pressure on us we had some new executives and I didn't deal with it well I wasn't sleeping well so I started drinking even more and that's like the worst thing you can do so then I started missing things at work I was late I was making poor decisions I wasn't sharp early in the morning now I've got my confidence back I can make decisions much more quickly I'm getting good sleep so the rest of when I get to work I'm much more engaged so I'm a much better version of myself so that's going to open doors and do time either here or elsewhere as my company grows my health feels better sleeping better I've lost some weight I'm exercising again which is great so my family's happier it's that's a win win win all the way around and was doing the project 90 program did it feel like a struggle did it feel like you were depriving yourself of something fun or did you feel something very different no it was very positive I began to really look forward to my calls when my coaching calls at the end of the week and then the group call on Monday I mean it was something to look forward to I never dreaded it by any means they're really positive and fun what would you say to someone who's thinking about following my methodology following my system who's maybe comparing it to doing AA or willpower or an in-treatment center or reading a book well what would you say to that person oh I think the best of this program and I would encourage anyone to try it it is money well spent and I was a little shocked with how much I spent at first but you can't put a price tag on it and that's that's how you pulled me in and you were totally right on that you can't put a price on getting a good healthy relationship with with yourself and getting past alcohol and just learning how much damage it's really doing to your health your wealth your relationships and holding your career back so it's simple it's beautiful I think that's why it works so well I mean simple things are good like keep it simple stupid right we've all heard the kiss method and that's kind of what this is and it's easy and you'd be amazed how quickly you can reprogram your brain and develop those new neural pathways and you just start thinking positive and it's not a struggle anymore so you're 120 days alcohol free as you and I are recording this so what what does the future hold for you Joe in relation to not just you know your relationship with alcohol but also health, wealth, love, happiness like what do you feel is possible for your life now I'm staying on the train I'm done with it you know I can't go back and change the past but it was it did not have a positive impact on me at all so why would I go back to it you know the reward now for me is good health feeling much more better feeling positive so why would I go back and punish myself my body and start that cycle over so I finally broke it and that's where I'm going to stay awesome well thank you Joe I just want to acknowledge you for your commitment to your health and you showed up and you were super positive and you were sharing in our closed Facebook group of other members and you were supporting other people and you allowed yourself to be supported and so I just want to thank you for your contribution to Project 90 because I know that you inspired other members to stay alcohol free and and to take great positive actions as well so I acknowledge you and I thank you Joe yeah my pleasure and I know this this isn't a religious program but you guys truly are a gift from God you and Kevin my coach have been absolutely fantastic so the work you're doing is absolutely amazing you're truly saving lives so I hope you guys take a lot of joy in that thank you Joe I so appreciate that mate congratulations and continued health to you sir thanks for listening to the alcohol free lifestyle podcast I want to load you up with some free stuff right now so if you 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