When Wine Becomes Your Stress Relief: Breaking the Cycle of Overdrinking | TMOHP Episode 180

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm looking forward to a great conversation that you get to listen in on. This podcast is so much about overeating and emotional eating and how we use food to cope or to distance or to numb in ways that are too much or in ways that aren't serving you in ways that you would like to change.

One topic that overlaps with this so much that really has not gotten any air on this podcast, and I think doesn't get talked about enough unless people really feel like they're in a safe place to do so. Is using alcohol in the same way over drinking. So I have invited our guest today to come and talk with us about that.

Sherry Price is a PharmD, APh, MBA, BCBS. She has a lot of letters after her name. She's an advanced pharmacist practitioner, certified life and weight loss coach, and she's the host of the Health Habits and Epic Living podcast, which is where I first met Sherry because she had me on her podcast to talk about hidden hungers. And then I came back again and did an episode on stress eating.

And there was so much overlap that I knew she would just be an excellent person to talk about this topic. Through her transformative holistic programs, her private coaching, her healing sessions, Dr. Price has empowered thousands of women to break unhealthy habits, shed stubborn belly fat and reclaim their health. All while creating a life they truly love.

Dedicated to helping women take charge of their health and wellbeing, Dr. Price integrates lifestyle medicine, mindset shifts and sustainable habit change to foster lasting health and vitality. And I'm so glad to have you here today. Thank you so much, Sherry, for joining us.

Melissa McCreery: So today I want to talk with you, Sherry, about over drinking and overeating and numbing and how do we, how do we, how do we break the cycle?

Sherry Price: Yeah, it's a great question and it's, where I began my healing journey.

I was in traditional pharmacy roles in the past and, didn't pivot to become a life coach until I went through my own journey of over drinking and not really finding tools that really met or matched what I was looking for. So, to be honest, when I started wanting to cut back on alcohol, that's all I wanted to do is cut back.

I didn't want to abstain. I didn't want to, do it the way, like the goals of like a 12-step program weren't quite aligned with where I wanted to be. It wasn't completely anonymous either because you show up and there's your face and then you're in the community. And I'm like, this is really not anonymous.

so I had a professional reputation to uphold a licensure, a residency program, like all these years of training that I felt could be damaged. And I didn't understand where somebody like me can get help. I did want help and the things that I tried weren't working. And that's what kind of led me down this path of like, okay, if I'm not finding exactly what I need, I really need to start learning this for myself.

And for me, I really felt it was a habit. And I think that's, there's a lot of people out there where it's not, maybe full-blown addiction. this gray area drinking, there's a great Ted talk on it that I, learned. And it just felt like something I did by nature not because like I'd wake up in the morning, you know, craving alcohol.

It wasn't like I craved it all day long and I wasn't being, really weird or having any weird practices about obtaining it, right? I wasn't hiding it. I wasn't drinking in the closet. Like I know how some of those behaviors can get way more compulsive and I wasn't that severe. But in the back of my mind, I worried like this could be a slippery slope, and if I don't figure this out sooner than later, like those things can happen to my life.

So it was something that I wanted to unwind and break the cycle of.

Melissa McCreery: I really love the way you just described that because I think that. I think this just, even this place of getting started is, is where a lot of people get stuck. I mean, I have so many people when they mention they're over drinking or, you know, I just, I feel like I've, I've gotten into this habit with the wine that I don't like. Or there's always this question, but I don't know if I, I mean, do I have a problem or, and it sounds to me like what you're saying is you defined it on your own terms.

And you knew what you were looking for in terms of a solution, and it wasn't necessarily some cookie cutter, this is what you have to do, you know, remedy that some of these approaches offer. Am I hearing that?

Sherry Price: I think you reframe that very nicely. it's hard to like say you want like to go with the flow if you're not in alignment with the goal.

Like it would just feel out of integrity if I showed up to, AA or a 12-step program and say, yeah, I'm all in. I want to abstain. a part of me didn't and I was like, well, I can't show up there being. I, that's not like healing for me. I feel like I'd be lying or trying to fit in, and I really just wanted to embrace where I wanted to go.

And where was that? Can you say more about like what did you Yeah, I would say this all the time to my husband. Can I just get back to the place where I could take it or leave it again? Because every night I would come home and have chardonnay. You know, Chardonnay was my drink of choice. And so, you know, the witching hours would start about 4 30, 5 o'clock on the weekends that would be way earlier. Because, hey, it's the weekend this is what you do.

You know, there's a part of it that feels, that I would make educational. We'd go to wineries. We would do date nights together with other couples, and it would be kind of wine centric or at least, a nice restaurant where nice wines were available on the menu.

And it felt like, you know, a little bit of an educational experience, a little bit of, this is what we get to do now that we've achieved this status in life. So it was a status symbol. it was a way adults get together and hang out and have fun and cut a rug and let loose and go dancing.

Like it just meant a lot of fun to me, but I didn't want to get to a place where I took it out of my life completely. Mm-hmm. I know no amount of alcohol is good. I get that. But if you're not in alignment with the goal, it's very hard to put yourself in an environment where you just feel like you're kind of in, but you're not all in.

So I don't know if I would really resonate with all the stories that we're being shared in those kinds of environments. Since my problem didn't seem to be as severe. There was just a lot out of alignment for me that I didn't think that would be my route to healing.

Melissa McCreery: So what do you consider over drinking to be?

Let's, let's kind of back up.

Sherry Price: Yeah,

Melissa McCreery: yeah,

Sherry Price: yeah. You can define it so many different ways. I think the best definition for an individual is really tuning into, like your body will tell you, is if it's too much. I really think your body speaks to you. So the next day, how do you feel about that behavior the night before?

Do you have, you know, cotton mouth? Do you have a headache? Do you feel like you need extra cups of coffee to get going? Are you, not carrying through like I did on going to the gym? Because you're a little bit hungover. I. Are you feeling like, wow, I said to myself I was going to have one drink, but man, that led to a whole bottle.

What the heck was that about? My recycling bin, hearing ching ching ching from all the wine bottles going in, emptying the recyclables. Like I think I you just get prompted, whether it's by your body, by your habits, by the way you're judging yourself. so I don't always think of it as a cutoff, although there are cutoffs put by the CDC or the world Health Organization, so you can look at those for guidance.

But I think when you connect with yourself, you are going to hear your inner wisdom or you're going to hear the barometer or the lack of integrity that you are maybe not upholding around an area of your life where you want to say. You know, it's time to reign this in. It's, it's been a while and I really want to feel better about myself and my behaviors or habits.

So I think that inner knowing is one of the best ways to know if you are over drinking. Because look, you, you know, somebody who's six foot tall can handle and metabolize alcohol differently than a female who's little more petite or, so there's a lot of parameters that go into it, which is why I don't like a certain drink count.

I really like using your intuition and using your like, ah, yeah. Or, or for me particularly, I notice how I metabolized alcohol in my thirties was way different in my forties, and I hear that of women in their fifties and sixties, right? Like, wow, this drink amount is the same. Man, it's really causing sleep dis disorders or problems.

I'm not sleeping anymore. That's exactly, yes, yes. Or I'm gaining weight, like gaining weight is a real issue for women as we age. And so maybe this is another factor that maybe you didn't want to consider reigning in in the past, but now it's maybe more important to you.

Melissa McCreery: The other thing that you were talking about, which really overlaps so much with overeating cycles is how, when you were talking about trusting yourself, right, listening to yourself and, but also how you get into this cycle with this habit where you're not trusting yourself or you're not keeping your promises to yourself anymore. Yeah. You're waking up in the morning and saying, today's going to be a different kind of day. And which with food, it's like, I'm not going to binge at four o'clock. But yeah. So why do you think, because I feel like there's also this glamor, glamorization of wine culture. And, oh, I'm so stressed, I should have some wine and I mean, the little plaques that you can buy and put in your kitchen.

Sherry Price: Oh yes. The para paraphernalia is everywhere.

Melissa McCreery: Yeah. So why, why are women over drinking?

Sherry Price: Oh, it could be so many factors. I think if you want the, the overall category, and we can go down the category veins, but the overall category is, it's emotional, right? We are emotionally trying to feel differently. Whether that's not feel.

Whether that's to numb out bad feelings. Whether that's to bring in more good feelings. because we don't know how to do that on our own, or we're too self-conscious, or we need the liquid courage or the, all the, all the things alcohol has been called.

we need those, you know, sexy spirits in our life, right? To make us maybe feel more intimate with our partner because we have so much judgment or shame in the bedroom, or it's taking off clothes. Like it could be so many different layers. It could be, I don't know how to unwind and this is the quickest way where I can do that.

And it's socially acceptable, right? Alcohol is everywhere. It's on planes. It's, it's in airports. It's in, in California we have it in Targets and Walmarts, and it's everywhere. So the ubiquity of it, I think also. The perception of it is it's not that bad. We all do it. so it kind of gets a haul pass. Where like heroin wouldn't, or, you know, other chemicals that our bodies don't need don't get that same level of, of a haul pass. Because it's not as ubiquitous.

Melissa McCreery: So. Where do you start? Yeah. If you're, if you, if you're listening to this episode, you either really like this podcast and you listen to all the episodes or the title jumped out at you and you want to know, like, okay. And, and I think for so many women, it's like, well, you know, I'm not, I'm not passing out every night and I'm not, but I, it is, I would like to rein it in or I would like it to be different.

And, so they resonate with what you're saying. What? What did, I don't know. Is it, should we talk about what you tried that didn't work and why you think it didn't work or…

Sherry Price: I think that's helpful. I think that's really helpful. because if you are in that space where you're like, wow, I didn't consider my relationship with alcohol. If that's something I wanted to change or didn't want to change. It didn't seem so severe. So I don't think you need to change it until it gets severe.

And I just want to let all your listeners know, you don't have to hit rock bottom. I think we hear the rock bottom moments, or that's the time where we want to change.

I didn't have a personal rock bottom. Did I have embarrassing moments? Yes. Did I have conversations I couldn't remember the next day with my girlfriends because I hit the sauce too hard. Absolutely. you know, did I say foot and mouth things? Right. You know, the filter's gone and, oops, I shouldn't have said that she told me to keep that confidential and that just flew out of my mouth. Right.

Of course, they had the embarrassing things, but I don't think we have to wait till like, hey, I got a DUI or my liver enzymes are now elevated. Or you know, it could be anything that's like not feeling good in your body. That you're like, okay, I just want to reign this in.

Give yourself that permission to get a head start on it, or just make that small change before it has to, before your life fizzles out of control or the marriage, you know, goes south or any of that. So you can change it any time. Which is, the change process is something I love and I know you do as well.

That's why we get along so well and bond. but yeah, you can give yourself permission to change at any time. And what I do want to highlight for me and for your listeners is also recognizing what didn't work. Because I will read like Glamor Magazine or you know, some blog or something I find on the internet about here's the 10 ways to cut back, you know, generally on that list is, set a plan, a drink plan, and follow through. Okay. I've tried that. That didn't work.

Melissa McCreery: It's so much like eating Yes. It's right.

Sherry Price: Like get your food plan. Yes.

Melissa McCreery: And then just follow it.

Sherry Price: Right, right, right. It's just going to be the magical thing, the magical tool. I would do so many sober Octobers and dry Januarys and think, okay, 30 days I'm going to be fixed.

I'm going to be changed. It's going to change my relationship with alcohol. You know what I would do February 1st and November 1st, I would go back to drinking a whole bottle of Chardonnay. It's like I didn't even do one glass and then let up to two, four weeks later. Then three, like, it wasn't this slow progression like I thought. It was like right back on the saddle. Right back on the horse, drinking again, the same quantity.

And so all these things I was reading, right? Take a break, for a long period of time. Follow a drink plan, drink water between, you know, the drinks. Yeah, that will slow you down. But it never really changed the amount of the quantity of alcohol. I still managed to get in the same amount of alcohol in a night.

You know, none of them taught me how to deal with my emotions. None of them taught me like, okay, when it's hard, or here's the great one, do yoga instead, or go for a walk instead. So these substituting behaviors…

Melissa McCreery: Take a bubble bath.

Sherry Price: Yes. It's like, okay, what if you don't feel like doing yoga? What if it's raining outside and you don't want to go for a walk? And then does alcohol become okay?

So, it was like such a, like a laundry list and check boxes, but those check boxes didn't work for me personally. So I want people to hear that, whether it's with food or with alcohol, that if you're reading those top 10 lists and they aren't working for you, that's not a sign that you're broken.

It's just a sign that that doesn't work for everybody. Maybe it works for some, but it's not going to be, a recipe that works for everybody.

Melissa McCreery: Thank you for saying that. I think that's so important because those checklists, I mean, they oversimplify it and they then they just make it sound like whether it's for stress eating, you know, 10 ways to not stress eat. Or that somehow if you don't do it, you need to just jump back in there and try again.

Yeah. Next month. Yes.

Sherry Price: Yes. Like that's the only strategy and that's, that's, you know, I'm not, opposed to support groups or aa you know, I know they work for people. I just knew they wouldn't work for me. Right. So there are multiple strategies you can get to somewhere to the goal. And so if those top 10 list that strategy you tried over and over, like me.

Wait five years, sober October, dry January again and again and again and again. I'm like, if I'm like, okay, there's something I'm not getting, I can abstain for 30 days, but why do I go right back to the habit, the exact same patterning I had before?

Melissa McCreery: So yeah, I think that's the part I want you to tell us about now.

Sherry Price: Yeah. and so when for me, I tried so much on my own and then I read this article about toxic independence. And everything in that article was so me. I'm a hyper achiever, hence all my degrees, and I love going to school. I love learning. But I think I can accomplish everything on my own. Partly because I have, right?

So it's, it's like you learn to be self-sufficient. but you know, trying to do this cutting back, I. I wasn't able to succeed on my own. And at one point I said, okay, let me just humble myself enough and reach out to somebody who would be goal aligned with my goal.

So, lo and behold, searching the internet, not, you know, the first time, but a couple of times going back and going back and Googling and I found somebody who says, I can help you take it or leave it.

And that's my tagline. She said it, I can help you stop over drinking. So I said, what the heck? Let me just try it because this, she might have a different approach. And sure enough she did. And I'll tell you, it was really looking at, what am I thirsty for? You might say in your group, what are you hungry for?

I'm hungry for, yes, yes. So there are these holes that we have in our soul or in our conscience that we might not be aware of that we're trying to fill or trying to soothe. And we are doing it with these outside substances, which will never truly numb or fill or allow us to heal.

And that felt like, oh you're right. because there's never enough alcohol. I'll always want more the next day. I'll always want another drink. I'll always be craving it. so once we started, slowly, I. Because I think a lot of people want to go super fast like me. Mm-hmm. But slowly pulling back the layers. And saying, okay, what's the main, for me, the emotional response that I was wanting from the drink.

A lot of times my perfectionism was the day didn't go exactly as planned. I had 17 items on my to-do list, and only 15 got done. Do you see these other two? And you get disappointed with yourself. You get the self-critic; you get the day should have went differently. My child should be acting differently towards me right now.

So you know, a lot of what you talk about, the stress that builds up. Stress from our mind because we think it needs to go a certain way, stress from others because we think they should be behaving a certain way. And really just not like giving myself the time, to settle my own self and relying on the alcohol to help me settle.

So seeing it from that perspective initially helped us develop a plan to go deeper and further.

Melissa McCreery: And so it sounds like what you're saying is the first step wasn't I'm getting rid of all my wine.

Sherry Price: Exactly. And we kept, stayed all in my house and, I, you know I will assess people's, fear level or comfort level.

You know, some people need to reduce the quantity slower than others. Because there's this fear of, oh my gosh. I was working with a woman. She's like, oh my gosh. Well, I still love my husband. I don't know. I haven't been sober minded for a long period of days strung together, and we're having some issues right now.

And will those issues seem worse? That makes me a little scared. so I in context, I like to take in like the whole person, what they're going through. You know, what their anxieties are. What their fears are. Will my friends have to change? Will my friends still like me?

Melissa McCreery: You know, there's, can I still go out with my friends?

Sherry Price: Yes. Yes. What will I order? What will I say? I, I'm too old to say I am not pregnant. Right? Like, so like they, we think we need these like, elaborate ways of opting out. when I don't think we do. I think we think we do. So it's looking at all those fears too. And if you don't want to take it away or it's too scary at first, that's okay.

We're going to eventually get there. And I think that's a different approach than some of the organizations out there where it's like, once you join, that's it. It's gone. Your whole life is going to change. And that could be scary for some people or for people who, you know, taking it out of their life completely isn't, is not what they're up for.

They just want to do harm reduction or just to reduce the amount, that they're, you know, that to a level that feels better and more in alignment with who they want to be.

Melissa McCreery: Hearing you talk about just mindset, right. And the stories that we have in our head about why we need the alcohol, but, but also what will happen if we give it up.

Yes. Right. What will happen, what we will have to lose if we give it up. And those, those, those beliefs and thoughts and stories are so powerful. And I mean, that's something you and I have talked about, like just how important it's to have respect for those, yeah, but also like, so how do I want to ask you this?

When you did start to drink less

Sherry Price: mm-hmm. Did it feel like you learned more about yourself? Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Hands down. So just to give you an inkling of my drinking at its, let's say worst. I would count my drinks. it was something I wasn't willing to do, but once I'm like, you know what? I want to be in integrity.

I want to really understand this relationship I have with alcohol. Because if I don't understand it as it is and not face that reality, I'm not sure what goal I'm setting. Because if I'm not even aware of how much and what that looks like and what my goal is, like, I used to have goals like Monday through Thursday, no alcohol, and then Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Well, that just led to binge drinking, right? Because I felt so deprived four days during the week that Friday, Saturday, Sunday came, and it's like, you know, just suck it down because it's like, I've missed you.

So I don't want to swap these weird behaviors and play this mindset Jedi tricks with myself. So my worst was about 35 to 45 ish drinks of alcohol.

and that's proper measurements, right? So that's a one and a half ounce of, spirits. That's a five-ounce glass. So I used to actually measure my cocktails and spirits and then measure my wine. because it was my wine and cocktails for me. Cocktails mostly on weekends. Wine mostly during the week.

Melissa McCreery: So you're talking about in a week?

Sherry Price: Exactly. Oh, yes. Thank you. Yes. Not a day. No. My gosh. Thankfully. Thankfully. right. But that's still, that's still a lot. Like women should have seven or less, less than seven, less than one a day.

So when you're thinking, wow, what does the CDC and the WHO say? Like, wow, that's significantly a lot. And I, I imagine people hearing this would be like, wow, you're an alcoholic.

I didn't feel that way. I had all those drinks in a concentrated period of time. But yeah. but other parts of the day I wasn't like, where's my alcohol? I got to have it. Anyway, so that was the worst part. But then just drinking less to me, if I, I even said to my coach when I first started working, 50% less would radically change my life.

And she's like, great, let's do it. There was none of this. Oh, you still want to drink? You know, whatever, whatever half of that quantity is, 17 drinks a week. You, you know, like there was no judgment. And that felt like safe. That felt me for me to be like, oh, I'm not going to get punished. There's no gold star here. It's what I want.

And, and helping me develop that relationship with myself, saying that's what I want. Now that's what I want. I love that.

Yes, yes, yes. And being supported and guided towards that. And how am I going to keep my word to myself? And what am I going to do with these hard emotions at the end of the day? When you're exhausted and you still have a toddler and you still got to make dinner, and you have all these commitments that you're, you're happy about. You wanted the toddler, you wanted these commitments, but you know, they can wear on you if you don't have emotional release techniques.

So working on that took months. It wasn't an overnight process and I was comfortable with my new level of drinking and I didn't think anything of it. Until a couple months later after I stopped working with her, my mind started saying, you know what? I think you could do better. I think you want a lower count.

And I'm like, huh, okay. I did 50% or more decrease from the first time. And I was about averaging 12 drinks a week. So I was way under even the 17. And I'm like, I think I can do better. So I think it was about a year, year and a half later, I'm like, okay, let's try this process again. I engaged with another coach. because I found, somebody else that can help with different tools. And slowly and surely it just kept cut, cutting back the layers so I can be in a better relationship with alcohol.

Not perfect, better.

Melissa McCreery: It sounds like it was so different when it stopped being, I have to do this, or I should do this. Yeah.

Sherry Price: Yeah.

Melissa McCreery: And it was, this is what I want.

Sherry Price: Yeah.

Melissa McCreery: Like, I'm in charge. I get to choose. And yeah.

Sherry Price: It was so, it was so good. I said, I want to drink on my own terms. She's like, great. What are those terms? And then I'm like.

Oh, I don't know. That's so interesting. You asked me what drinking on my own terms would look like. And I don't know if I've defined that for myself. So we went into this exploratory process of like, oh, what would Sherry, in her ideal way, want to show up as alcohol? And for me it was like, take it or leave it.

Okay. Well what's that definition of it this week, this month? What does take it or leave it look like for you? How can you live into that? And what tools would you need to help to live into that?

So it was, you know, peeling back, peeling back, peeling back. But yes, I loved it when I was like, this is what I want. Not what society's telling me to do, not what my husband's telling me to do.

Not that he, he intervened. But I hear that from a lot of women is that they just don't get in touch with themselves because they're so bombarded by other people's and society's messages. And what would my friend think? And just to tap into what you want and just to know that drinking 50% less is healing. So healing.

I mean, it's incredible how much better I felt. It's incredible how much I wasn't pooping out on my word in other categories of my life. It was amazing how proud I became of the 50 to percent or more reduction.

Melissa McCreery: But by not doing it in this cold Turkey. Which, and, and I don't, I don't want to come across as, because I agree with you.

I don't think there's one approach that is right for everyone with any of these habits, right? But what you're talking about in terms of listening to yourself and getting what you need along the way so it could be sustainable, is so powerful. There are people who, who cold Turkey and all at once works really well for them with all sorts of things.

And there are a lot of people that it doesn't. But, but that, that idea of, okay, this is what I want. And knowing what that is. Because what I'm always talking about in my program is how when we get really clear on what we want. And we know it in our bones, that's, there is so much momentum there. Yeah. When you do have to do the hard thing when you are feeling like, oh, maybe, or whether it's an ice cream or it's a Manhattan or it's a right, yes, it's. But when you know what you want for you and what your future self tomorrow morning wants, and you really want those things. It doesn't feel like deprivation in the same way as, oh, well my program says I can't do that.

Yeah, it's a completely different action.

Sherry Price: Yes, yes. Like I've seen people love the medallions that they get in, you know, AA and support groups. And then I've seen some people feel like, oh, I didn't make the medallion. So, you know, it's, it's again, how you perceive that environment and if it's working for you.

And I bring up that exact example because when I was working with a lady who had spent eight years in AA and would relapse. You know, like when she would relapse, she was so hard on herself. You know, like almost to the point where she didn't want to emerge. In from her house, right? She was just like; I can't tell anybody.

I don't want anybody to know. I don't want to call my sponsor. I don't, you know, all of this. So even just working with her to love on herself when the relapse happens. because look, it's not like, you know it was a steady decline. It wasn't a steady decline on me as well, right?

I'd relapse and go back to binge drinking. Or some weeks, it wasn't 12 drinks, right? It was more, but how can you love on yourself and what can you learn during that process and not be so critical? So that when it happens again, you don't, you don't shrink in shame and feel like you're a bad person. You can say, oh, this is the habit that I've been doing and I'm still working on breaking it.

And here is something else that wasn't illuminated before. And now it's like, oh, like I uncovered, I have a bit of a, I'm a redhead, right? I'm a bit fiery. I'm like, oh, there's, when I get angry, I really look to alcohol because I don't want to have the wrath of Sherry come out to my husband or my daughter, right?

And that's what would happen if I didn't control my anger. It's like, Ooh, I need some anger management tools. And so then I began on working with that with my coach, right? Because it's like, ooh, it's the anger that got me to binge right there. I just slugged I didn't even pour the wine. I just opened the fridge and drank from the bottle, right?

So it's like looking at those behaviors to better understand yourself so that you can support yourself differently moving forward.

Melissa McCreery: Instead of getting lost in perfectionism.

Sherry Price: Exactly right.

Melissa McCreery: Yeah. So okay, I want to ask you about how you help people with this. because I know you do. Yeah. And I just love, just even looking on your website when you describe how you do the work you do.

We're so aligned. And, and I, I love the way you've talked about this today because it, it just, it sounds so approachable. Right, and there's so much what we didn't talk about directly, but it's all the guilt and shame. Yes. That so much can keep people stuck with this stuff.

Sherry Price: Yeah. Right? Yes. Yeah. Like, I'm so smart. Like, I'm so smart. Why couldn't I figure this out? Like, I would say that to myself all the time. I'm so smart. I get it. I'm so disciplined in other areas of my life. What, what is wrong with this one area? Right. And that's, that's not a compassionate way to talk to yourself. And you don't get good answers when you talk to yourself.

Yeah. Helpful.

Melissa McCreery: Absolutely. Okay, before we wind up, what did, is there anything we didn't talk about? That we need to talk about, that we need to cover.

Sherry Price: Hmm. I love the big parts that we pulled out was really like being in touch with yourself and what is to me, I like action over apathy. Like, oh, I don't know.

Oh, I don't know. Or I'm just not there yet. Or, you know, that apathetic, tone. because we can live in that for years. Right.

Like I, I remember just saying, well, that program won't work for me. That won't work for me. Rather than like, okay, Sherry, what will work? You know, rather than pointing out all the things that won't, and being in like apathy where I'm not willing to change, I don't, I don't see anything or a, a way to change.

It's like, okay, how can I move more into action about what could work? And I love how we talked about what is your end goal? because I think it's really finding a program or a person or a system or a way that's going to support what you truly want. because I wouldn't think that I would be this much alcohol free seven years after I started this journey.

I can actually see right now that being sober would be on my horizon shortly here. Like just giving up alcohol Totally. Because I've reduced the significance and the relationship in my life to it so much that, I've made the bigger pie of life so much bigger and bolder and exciting that that slice of drinking it is gotten so small that I can just see it disappear. And I just say that like make it.

Melissa McCreery: Or leave it that you were, yes.

Sherry Price: Totally. But really like leave it. Like leave it. And I have to say the word sober was triggering to me in the past. I didn't like the word, it sounded boring, it sounded somber. but I can actually see me embracing that kind of lifestyle. Which its early part of my journey. I could never, I could never.

So just embracing where you're at right now, I love, just working with the individual, working with the passion or the motivation you have right now. Because that is part of healing.

Melissa McCreery: So where can people find you? If, if this is resonating and they want to know more, where can they find you? How can they connect with you? How can they work with you around this stuff?

Sherry Price: Yeah, so I have a podcast. I used to do Drink Less Lifestyle and then I switched it to Health Habits and Epic Living. because I don't want to focus just on the alcohol. Because sometimes when we focus on the thing I we're trying to do less of it, it becomes the trap that we wind up doing more of.

So it's like really re-patterning your habits for bigger, better life, more epic living and more health. So health habits and epic living. If you want to listen to my podcast. And then my website is epic, you, because we're thinking about making you bigger, bolder, better, more confident in your life, and having these little habits that we do that just don't serve us.

So Epic u is the website where you can find my programs to work with me. Fantastic. And I do have a; I do have a compassionate way that I coach. I think similar to you is meeting the person where they're at and having them set their goals. because that's really ultimately what you are here for is to meet your goals, not mine.

Melissa McCreery: And we'll, I will put all the links to these, to resources for getting in touch with Sherry in the show notes. And your compassion comes through loud and clear. I, I think you've done such a great service in kind of stripping off this layer of inaccessibility around over drinking.

It's, it's just another thing.

Sherry Price: And if I could tell one more story. Yes. I think being in healthcare, maybe it's just because it's the setting I've spent most of my years in. I think there's such a disservice when I work with nurses or doctors, surgeons or anybody in this field to advance sometimes to department chair or the head of whatever.

oftentimes you will be looked at in terms of your mental health profile. And how many times you've reached out to a mental health counselor or synced mental health support. Or, you know, so if you have any of that that goes through insurance. I just can't believe that that's the way the system is set up. Because the most caring individuals who are giving so many hours of their day, so much of their training, healing others, and helping others in hospital settings and clinics.

Can't, we aren't in a system that's best supporting what they need. And I know a lot of people that do this in silence. And they drink in silence at home. And they don't feel that there's an avenue for them. And that's why everything I do is completely confidential. because there should be, I mean, even police force, like so many first responders, may not have access through insurance because of their job and what gets scrutinized.

So I just want to put that out there because I know suffering in silence doesn't help anybody. And if we can just come together and really lift these people up when they are struggling, is just the best path forward for society as a whole.

Melissa McCreery: I'm so glad you added that on at the end because it's true.

and it's a huge problem. Yeah. Yeah. Sherry, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and for sharing everything you did so openly today. It's been so valuable.

Sherry Price: Thank you, Melissa.

Melissa McCreery: Absolutely.