The Not Drinking Alcohol Today Podcast
Meg and Bella discuss the ups and downs of navigating an alcohol free life in Australia's alcohol centric culture. This highly rated podcast, featuring in Australia's top 100 self improvement podcasts, is a must for those that are trying to drink less alcohol but need some motivation, are curious about sober life or who are sober but are looking for some extra reinforcement. The Not Drinking Alcohol Today pod provides an invaluable resource to keep you motivated and on track today and beyond. Meg and Bella's guests include neuroscientists, quit-lit authors, journalists, health experts, alcohol coaches and everyday people who have struggled with alcohol but have triumphed over it. Our aim is to support and inspire you to reach your goals to drink less or none at all! Meg and Bella are This Naked Mind Certified Coaches (plus nutritionists and counsellors respectively) who live in Sydney and love their alcohol free life.
The Not Drinking Alcohol Today Podcast
Merry Christmas 2024 from Meg and Bella
Meg and Bella wish all of our dear listeners and podcast guests a huge Merry Christmas! Are you celebrating your Christmas at a Bowling Club? Probably not! We are! Meg and Bell discover they are each heading off to Manly and Balmain Bowling Club for a family game of bare foot bowls for Christmas. It's cheap, it's outdoors, it's fun and what's more, you get to delegate everything! Yes!
As the festive season unfolds, we're thrilled to announce our upcoming podcast plans, featuring curated episodes designed to ease the holiday stress, no matter your relationship with alcohol. With grateful hearts, we extend our warmest holiday wishes to our listeners, eager to continue this journey together into the new year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
MEG
Megan Webb: https://glassfulfilled.com.au
Instagram: @glassfulfilled
Unwined Bookclub: https://www.alcoholfreedom.com.au/unwinedbookclub
Facebook UpsideAF: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1168716054214678
Small group coaching: https://www.elizaparkinson.com/groupcoaching
BELLA
Web: https://isabellaferguson.com.au
Insta: @alcoholandstresswithisabella
Bi-Yearly 6-Week Small Group Challenges: Learn more: https://www.isabellaferguson.com.au/feb-2025-challenge
Free Do I Have A Drinking Problem 3 x Video Series: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/JTFFgjJL/checkout
Free HOW DO I STOP DRINKING SO MUCH Masterclass: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/7fvkb3FF/checkout
Online Alcohol Self-...
Hi everybody. Meg and Bella here. We haven't been on the pod together for a long time, have we Meg?
Speaker 2:No, we haven't. It's so good to be here. How are you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, good, really good, managed to get up from Sydney up to the Central Coast, which is always my calm, easy, relaxing spot. God, sydney just was getting hotter. It was humid. I think I was getting hot flushes. The traffic was chaos, it was road rage. So that's nice to leave. Yeah, so pretty good Got a busy few weeks, because that's when our work gets a little bit crazy. Tell me what's going on with you. How are you spending Christmas?
Speaker 2:Well, I've thought about it a bit. I mean, things have changed for our family with Christmas. It used to be all my cousins and it was the best thing ever, but since COVID it's sort of we and more babies have been born. It's getting too big so it's a bit smaller than it used to be. So Christmas Day is just my family and that's great. It's not a problem. It's lots of little kids around and it's lovely. But in the lead up there's a few things happening. So I've got a couple of Christmas parties and I'm lucky with my work Christmas party. I we do an activity and I have to say having an activity is the best. So we're bowling this year. No, way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're bowling. We're bowling, we've booked. I've booked um barefoot bowls at Balmain, at the Balmain bowling club. Uh, but we're doing it a few days early. That is so funny. Tell me what, tell me what's. What are you doing and who's going? We're doing it manly it is.
Speaker 2:We're doing manly in Sydney and, um, I've done it before, I love it and I did used to do it when I was drinking. But I've done it before, I love it and I did used to do it when I was drinking, but I have done it without drinking and it is so much fun, I just love it and it's so good having an activity. I'm doing it with my other job, where I work at a school with children with autism, so all the staff are going. It will be a really nice end of year, yeah, but it's so good have you done that before.
Speaker 1:As a family we did hire out the Balmain Bowling Club I think it was for each of the parties after the baptisms of the boys. So we've been there before because we all used to live in Balmain, you know, yonks ago, and we've returned. So I thought, hey, let's all go back there now with my gorgeous stepdaughters and my boys and mum, and now that Erin and Jessie's partners, so it's a bigger group. Yeah, activity-based was great, being able to go outsource it outside of the house. But I was having a laugh because when I was booking it in, the guy who was arranging it said it was $10 a person and we're doing Kris Kringle and I thought I might just get through Christmas at $50 for Christmas Winning that is amazing.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I love it. Well, our Christmas parties. Actually, that's interesting because my work is like we will pay for the food and so we are paying $30 a head. I feel like I'm being ripped off.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't look, I've got a feeling maybe Manly Bowling Club might be a bit more glam. Is it down in the water?
Speaker 2:No, it's not no water view. But yes, it might be busy and they can up their prices. But for $30 for a Christmas party, no money spent on drinks. That saves a lot these days. Well, they're not providing the drinks, but my you know, even if I got one mocktail, it's not a huge expense. So it'll be reasonably cheap for me as well, which is nice.
Speaker 1:I've also got in place a little road trip from Sydney up to Byron, with a few stops at Seal Rocks and Yamba along the way with the boys. So the idea is, just because they're teenagers, like they're 15 and 16, and you've got to keep these boys moving, you don't want them restless and doing nothing in Sydney, because it's just, you know, alert, alert. They're good boys, they're good boys, but it just. I remember a friend of mine went to a talk of Paul Dillon, who's been on the podcast, who said that Christmas period for boys in Year 9, transitioning into Year 10, is the riskiest holiday period when it comes to drinking alcohol and getting into spots of trouble.
Speaker 2:It's a horrible, horrible time For us, for us, for mothers around the world. So I'm bracing myself. I'm not looking forward to the holidays, unfortunately. So anyone parenting teenagers, like my girls, were different. This is just next level and it's hard.
Speaker 1:You sound like you parent a bit like me, meg, in the sense that you're the mum that's driving around dropping them off, picking them up, speaking to the parents. Yes, and one of my sons he was just why you need to know the number of the parents. Why are you calling up? Why are you? He goes, none of the other mums do that, and I was just said darling, yes, they do, we all do it and it's to show that we care. And you know, I wait till you have. I think I did that line that my mum used to say to me wait till you have kids and you'll be doing exactly the same thing. It is exhausting, it's not fun, is it? It's so not fun. And he said to me recently no one else's parents the same thing, it is exhausting, it's not fun, is it?
Speaker 2:It's so not fun. And he said to me recently no one else's parents have to know. I said, oh yeah, they do. And you know what he asked last holidays Can I go camping overnight down at the local park? No, no, you can't. Why not? I said no, it's not. Yeah, give me a good reason. Give me a good reason. I said no, I'm a mum, I can just say no.
Speaker 1:Emma, has that been a good idea? You can't even remember to put sun cream on or wear a hat or pick up your towel. Yes, absolutely, you want, you want to. You want to do what now?
Speaker 2:yeah it's, uh, it's logic.
Speaker 1:It's a battle with logic, but we you know it's parenting, isn't it? This is what we do, it's parenting.
Speaker 2:I did ask my brother, who's got a five-year-old, if maybe we could go camping for a few nights. So we'll see. We'll see if we can do that in january, just to get. It was purely to just get my son occupied and get him out of trouble. So fingers crossed. But yeah, joy, joy.
Speaker 1:So do you? You know, every Christmas rolls around, you and I do a little podcast and we roll through a few Christmas tips. For anybody out there that's looking for some kernels of wisdom. That's us, yeah. Well, what do you? Has there been a theme for you this Christmas or a tip that you might want to share to somebody that's in those early days of pulling back from alcohol and feeling that inward pressure to socialise and do all the things that Christmas involves and feeling quite stressed about it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, I've got two I can think of off the top of my head. One of them is pick and choose. You know, you don't have to say yes to everything. I'm still a big believer in picking and choosing and choosing events that I'm more comfortable with and along those lines, if it's something that you feel you have to go to leave early, you know, and I do I sometimes leave early and don't say anything to anyone. You know, maybe I do. I sometimes leave early and don't say anything to anyone. You know, maybe tell one person, but take that pressure off yourself. You know, you don't have to be there all night, you don't have to go to everything.
Speaker 2:The other thing is there are some great drinks these days, and even in Coles I think, you can get a little four pack of soft drinky type thing and then I'm not sure if they're mixes like of non-alcoholic. I think there are some, definitely some non-alcoholic options at Coles, but I found a little four pack. That was a really great little drink, refreshing. Pop some ice in it. No one questions what you're drinking. I also got some from the local Seadrift distillery. So it was a gin, an alcohol-free gin, and you walk in, pop them in the ice bucket. No one has a clue, and you feel comfortable because you've walked in with a drink. So that that's a tip of mine that I like to do. Just take something along, even if it's a non-alcoholic champagne or if it's none of the above. It it might be a Coke, but whatever it is, I like to walk in with a drink, pop it in the ice bucket or whatever, and have my drink ready. Yeah, love it, meg. How about you? What are your tips?
Speaker 1:I think it kind of will very similar to your first one, pick and choose, and also very on theme with our bowling idea. Also very on theme with our bowling idea, and it's kind of the letting go letting go of the expectation that the holidays and Christmas needs to be about spending lots of money, looking a certain way, having to go to all the lunches and putting in boundless amounts of energy to make everybody else feel happy, and it's just kind of letting go on a number of levels and letting go of needing to control outcomes, letting go of needing to make sure everybody feels included and they're happy that you're pulling off a Nigella-like lunch. All of those things that nobody asked you to do, nobody wants you to do, nobody expects you to do, because they know it just turns you into a frazzled, hot, resentful mess because no one's doing what you want them to do, oh God. So pulling it all back and just being in control of me and how I feel and how I want to live and do my day, and it kind of has that ripple on effect within the mood of the household to also feel a bit more chill, not to have to walk on tender hooks. So I'm just going to really embrace low-key, good vibes, easy, calm holiday and Christmas.
Speaker 1:That's the mission, Meg. I don't know how long it's going to last, but so far so good, so far so good, Amazing, yeah. So I would say to anybody out there just do a little scan, a little mental scan of the next two or three weeks of the end of December, moving into Jan, and what gives you a bit of nervous, sparky energy that you are very happy to let go of and just make life a little calmer, a little easier for you. Yeah, yeah that's about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love it. There's some tips for our listeners.
Speaker 1:Fabulous. Yeah, so we will have some awesome podcasts coming up just to push through Christmas and into the New Year's Eve. We know that it's a stressful time for many people, no matter where you are on the drinking spectrum, so what we might do is just also curate some of our top favourite podcasts so that you can think about which episodes you might want to put on on a daily basis. Just to get you through, meg, it's been bloody awesome catching up with you doing another podcast. Really lovely to see you.
Speaker 2:You too, Bella. It's been amazing and we are going to do more together in 2025, but it's been really nice to connect and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year with your family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, might share some photos on the bowling green.
Speaker 2:Yes, we, yes, compare pictures. I'm still super, duper competitive. I I don't mean no, I'm not, no, I'm not.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, yes, I am oh god, well, let me know how you go. We'll compare notes on bowling clubs um wishing you all the best, megs you too, you too, you too.
Speaker 2:And Merry Christmas to all our listeners and Happy New Year, and we'll still be here.
Speaker 1:We will be here 2025. Love it All. Right, see you, megs. Bye everyone.
