Gray Area Drinking, Clear Head: Life After Alcohol with Sarah Rusbatch

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Welcome to Laughs Without Lager.
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I'm here again on my own.
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And I have in front of me a lovely local lady, quite big in the sobriety world.
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Her name is Sarah Rosbatch.
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Welcome, Sarah.
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Hi, how are you?
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I'm very well.
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Lovely to have you on the show.
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Thanks for coming on.
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You're very welcome.
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Thank you for having me.
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How about you tell us a bit about your journey on what made you ditch the booze?
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Yeah, so I grew up in the north of England and started drinking at 14, which was very common back in the day.
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That was in the um sort of late 80s, early 90s.
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And alcohol was kind of this rite of passage that everyone seemed to go through.
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And I had grown up in a house where alcohol was not modelled to me in a negative way.
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I would say if anything, it was modelled to me in a positive way.
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As a little girl, I grew up watching lots of dinner parties, lots of events that would happen at our house.
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My parents were very social, and I would hear raucous laughter coming from the dining room while all these dinner parties were going on.
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And I think as a little girl, I would look on and kind of be like, oh my God, that looks so much fun.
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Like that's, and you don't realize it at the time, but you're starting to create those associations at that time with oh, this is what grown-ups do to have fun.
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This is what grown-ups do to socialize.
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They there's always alcohol present.
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So for me, it felt like it was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when I would start drinking.
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Um, and that was quite early.
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But in all honesty, that was probably pretty normal for where I lived at the time.
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Everyone was starting drinking around 14, 15.
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It was a pretty standard um approach.
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And I've got a 14 and a 16-year-old now, and it horrifies me when I think about some of the states that I got into at such a young age.
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And I think about my kids now and just shudder at the thought of them being in those situations, consuming that much alcohol.
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But back then, I've heard someone describe kids born in the 70s as it being a bit like the Wild West, while the parents just kind of let you free and just let you roam.
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There wasn't the awareness that there is now, there wasn't the fear that there is now.
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The parents just kind of like go out, come back when it's dark, and just, you know, just get don't do anything naughty, kind of thing.
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And that was the level of parenting that I think most of us had at that age.
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And then I started, and I remember when I started drinking, I loved alcohol.
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Like I just loved how it made me feel.
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I was someone that got lit up like a bloody Christmas tree, you know, like it was a case of, okay, I am on, and the party is getting started.
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And so alcohol was something that I had a huge capacity for.
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I wasn't someone that had a couple of drinks and then was vomiting and had to go home.
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I could drink and drink and drink.
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And I, you know, back then I didn't really seem to get hangovers, there was no negative consequences the next day.
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And so alcohol was just a positive.
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It was a way of creating connection, it was my way of having fun, it was my way of feeling accepted.
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You know, you start getting feedback from other people.
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Oh, you're so fun when you're drunk, you're hilarious when you're drunk, and that just perpetuates this narrative in your mind that everyone likes drunk Sarah, everyone likes me when I'm drinking.
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I have this persona that comes on that's more fun, that's a bigger personality, that makes everyone laugh, that has more confidence, and that seemed to make people like me.
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And so alcohol then became the thing that I did to connect with others.
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And then fast forward, went to university.
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Alcohol's obviously very present during those uni years, and you know, left home living on your own, and then moved to London, got my first job working in recruitment in investment banking.
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And the fourth stage of the interview process was going to the pub to do shots of tequila to see how well you could handle your booze.
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And you were basically offered the job based on whether or not you had a decent enough tolerance for alcohol.
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So, needless to say, yeah, right.
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I mean, this was like 1997.
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So this was, you know, it was a different time.
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And I joined that company, Allie.
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And um, I can tell you that when I became a manager on that team, we would do so.
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This fourth stage of the interview process was called a drink up.
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We would do drink-ups and we would not offer people the job because they didn't drink enough at their fourth interview.
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That is incredible, isn't it?
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It's crazy.
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Can you imagine that today?
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Like obviously, HR would just be like, no.
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Well, I would have got it, I would have got a job at your company because I probably would have drank you under the table or come drive.
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Right.
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And so, but that's how it was back then.
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And so, you know, and again, living in London, no one drives, no one has a car.
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Monday is Friday, someone's going to the pub every night of the week.
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And so alcohol just continued in a massive way.
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But again, I wasn't really getting hangovers.
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It was nothing that a packet of crisps and a diet coke the next day didn't sort out.
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I wasn't, you know, I wasn't someone that would spend the whole day on the sofa vomiting.
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I could about I had pretty high resilience to that.
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And so alcohol, I only saw it as a positive.
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And I always say to people I coach now, like, what's the percentage of good versus the percentage of bad with your drinking?
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And for me, back then, it was, I would say 85% good, 15% a bit shit, in terms of just feeling a bit dusty or a bit tired, or maybe you'd have those moments when you'd cringe a bit and be like, oh God, I can't believe that I did that last night, or who was that guy that I snogged?
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Oh my god, I can't believe it.
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You know, like you would have these cringe moments, but there wasn't really any massive negatives for me.
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Like I just saw alcohol as fun, I saw it as a way to connect, a way to let my hair down, and there was just nothing that seemed that would make me question my drinking.
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We I and then I met my husband and we moved to we had a baby, we got married, and we moved to Australia.
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And that was when things changed for me in terms of why I drank and what I was getting from alcohol.
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And I think no one really prepares you for how you will feel when well, I think big things happened to me.
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So, number one, I had a baby, so I wasn't working anymore.
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I'd had a very successful career in London.
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I was very used to earning my own money, going out with my girlfriends.
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We thought we were all like sex in the city and we would go and have these rooftop bars and you know, and all of that.
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And I had and I was completely independent.
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I was living with my husband at the time, but he had his life, I had mine.
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We had a great social life, but there was no kind of like, oh, you've got to be home for the baby, or you know, any of that.
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And then, of course, you have a baby.
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And number one, I wasn't working, and I got a huge amount of personal fulfillment and personal achievement from my job.
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So you're at home with a baby, and plus, secondly, I was on the other side of the world, and so I had no friends, I had no family, I was so lonely.
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Parent, like being becoming a new mum, is hard anyway, but becoming a new mum where you've not got your mum or your best friends or your family around you, and you're suddenly on the other side of the world.
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So it was really hard, and I got pregnant again very quickly.
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So I suddenly had two under two living on the other side of the world.
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I wasn't working, you know.
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We were very fortunate that I'd earned enough money in London to be able to take time off to be the mum, which I wanted to be, and I was so grateful for having these beautiful boys and a girl and this healthy and happy, and we lived in Australia and the sun was shining, and we went to the beach, and on paper I had everything.
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But inside, something I just didn't feel happy.
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And that was when alcohol became the thing that made those feelings go away because I didn't have the wisdom that I have now.
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I didn't have the self-awareness, I didn't have the tools to actually understand there was something going on there.
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And I think there was a bit of postnatal depression as well.
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I think, you know, I think it was a clusterfuck of everything going on in terms of being homesick, being on the other side of the world, suddenly having two kids, feeling really lonely, alcohol becoming the thing that I was turning to more and more, which we know increases your anxiety and makes your mental health worse.
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And so all of that was going on, and and that just was building and building and building, and then it got to the point where I just was like, I can't carry on like this.
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And and and from there on it it all changed.
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Yeah, so how old were the kids when you um ditched the booze?
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So it was 2019, so they were seven and nine.
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Yeah, it's a um it's a tough one.
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Like I was a late start, I was 35 when I had my child, and um I sort of lied at the six-week pregnant uh the six-week baby uh the nurse, and the you know, and she was like, you know, you gotta fill out the form, and I was lying on the form, and then she, you know, an old lady and she just looked at me and she's like, nah, I think you've got postnatal because she could just see that I was, you know, unhappy and um yeah, because one minute, you know, you as you say, you've got your life, you've got your freedom, and you know, as much as I'm love having being a mum, we moved to like a rural farm in the middle of nowhere.
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So isolation equals alcohol, you know.
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So yeah, I I feel that.
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And I think as well, Ali, that what happens is, you know, this also coincides with a time in in culture where alcohol's being promoted and marketed to mums as the solution to being a mum.
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And so everywhere you turn, you're seeing Mother's Day gifts that are, you know, mum-branded champagne and mum and pajamas covered in wine bottles and you know, and cards that are like, I wine, so my mum drinks wine, and baby grows.
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There was this real movement that happened that coincided with all of this.
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So you've got these really vulnerable women who are feeling confused and and maybe lonely and maybe isolated and trying to make sense of it all, plus their hormones are going all through their body, and they might be adapting to not working and solo parenting or trying to do both and all these things.
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And then you've got the alcohol company stepping in and going, here's the solution.
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And the problem is that in the short term, it's a great solution because it makes you stop feeling.
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And so if you're feeling wretched feelings and you don't want to feel them, we're not stupid, right?
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We go to the thing that makes those feelings not feel so intense, and and that's what alcohol does.
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And I've just seen it unravel so many women in a in a very innocent way of what just started as taking the edge off, then becomes something so much more sinister.
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Yeah, I I found that when we moved to back to Perth, um, you know, the I've gravitated towards the mums that drank as much as I did, or you know, probably not as much, but you know, certainly we would have the Friday afternoons and then we'd go out on the weekends, and you could always tell the mums at in the pubs because they were just like out of control.
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Yeah.
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Because they're literally like, This is my night, I deserve to get shit faced.
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Totally.
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But you don't remember the next day.
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Oh my god, you absolutely can't move.
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And you know, luckily I had a partner at the time, so it would be like, Oh, you look after the kid.
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I mean, it was such a cycle that went pretty much all through primary school.
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Um, that's we what we did.
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We just hung out with the same people, went camping.
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It was all alcohol filled.
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And I think that's the thing about grey area drinkers is we surround ourselves with other grey area drinkers, and then you get a false sense of normal because everyone's got like you just think it's normal to have a bottle of wine on a Wednesday night, and everyone in your WhatsApp group is going, you know, you go in there and go, Oh god, I've had a shit day, and everyone's like, Go and have a wine.
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Like we've just normalized a bottle of wine as being a solution to anything difficult in our lives, and when everyone around you is doing that, you just get this false sense of going, Well, that's what everyone else does, so it can't be that bad.
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Yeah, and I used to, I used to, you know, it was always a knowing inside that I just had had enough of drinking, but you know, my my ex-husband was a massive piss head, and you know, of course, that was our connection.
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You'd have a drink, that's how we met, blah, blah, blah.
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And then it's um, you know, I would say to people like the mum's group, let's do dry July.
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Oh my god.
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I was laughed at, like, what the hell would you want to do that for?
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And then it'd be, oh no, my birthday's in July.
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So then it'd be like, Oh, let's do sober October.
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Oh no, bugger that.
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And of course I just went, okay.
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And just kept drinking because like I just, you know, no support.
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But the messaging was, why the hell would you want to do that for?
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Alcohol is key to our relationships and our um lifestyle.
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So to take that away, we just it just wasn't a thing, right?
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We just thought I couldn't live life without it because, like you, I just loved it in air quotes because it was my friend, it was my number, it was my, you know, it was my go-to, it was my crutch.
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Um and you know, as you say, when people are saying, come over for a wine if you've had a great day, well, of course that's enticing, right?
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Absolutely.
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And and going back to what I was saying before about that percentage thing, I think slowly but surely the percentage starts to go in the other direction, and it's 20% fun and 80% shit.
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And and I think that that happens for women anyway, like, regardless of whether your relationship is very dysfunctional or it's mild alcohol use disorder or whatever you want to talk about.
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But like I think for every woman, because our liver starts shrinking in our 30s, so our body can't metabolize alcohol as effectively.
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We've got perimenopause going on, alcohol starts impacting our sleep more, it starts increasing our anxiety more.
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Like all of those things start to happen.
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But then it's like this whole identity crisis because we might have spent 10, 20, 30 years as Sarah the Party Girl, and that's who I am, and all my friendship groups are based on that, and that's how I connect with my husband, and that's what I do on the Saturday night at the footy.
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And you know, you've got this whole persona and identity that's built around alcohol.
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So then, even though you've identified it's not working anymore, the idea of changing is so big and so scary and so overwhelming that we just stay stuck for a really long time.
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But I think it's Craig Harper that talks about like that tipping point of I think there does come a moment where we kind of just start going, enough is enough, and I can't do this anymore.
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And and then we start to get curious.
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And that's what I love is supporting women in those times of curiosity, of well, let's we don't have to say forever, but let's take a break and see how you feel and what starts to change.
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Yeah, it's um very much so when you were talking about that percentage when you were growing up.
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I was thinking, you know, like of course, then we get to that age of um, I mean, I think I was 52 when I decided enough was enough, and it just got to you can only do it until you can't.
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But of course, that's also um, you know, menopause, marriage breakdown, and then you give that, they have that distance, will I lose friends?
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Like all of that stuff just shifted enough for me to to, you know, just but get curious, and then I think it was a hundred days, and then you feel so good, right?
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But I didn't have those friendships to go come back, you know, you can just have one more, or now I can moderate because that's the moderation fairy.
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Um, you really just, you know, when you make that decision, like with smoking or sugar or anything that you're addicted to, you've got to slam the door shut and then do the work, okay?
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And you know, and it there is life after booze, let's face it.
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I mean, uh you're on a podcast with me.
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Um I would never in a million years, all those mummies around the sitting around gossiping pity parties and the barbecues that was so small, and yet we're all so worried about losing friends and that identity, the party alcoholic alley was my my thing, AA.
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All those labels that we had, and then you sort of take that away and then work on ourselves with the menopause and you know, I had to have a marriage breakdown or whatever it is, you know, after 50, this is a second chance, and that's what people, women, um, you know, that ditch the booth, you know, it's look at it, reframe it, and just think, you know, we've got a second chance and we can reverse the damage and uh look after our bodies uh in a positive way, and then uh our world expands, you know?
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And that's why we do this what we do.
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I'm sure that's your passion as well, because when we know it, we've experienced it.
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So we can actually say, girls, you know, women, men, whatever, like ditch the booze and then your life will begin.
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Yeah.
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And I think it just takes it takes time.
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I think that we're very impatient in the modern world and we make a decision and go, right, that's it.
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Um I can't drink anymore.
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It's it's messing with my head, it's impacting my anxiety.
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I'm gonna take a break, and then we want to feel better immediately, we want our life to be amazing immediately, and when it's not, we get disillusioned and go back to drinking.
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And I I did, you know, like I took my first break in 2017 and I didn't stop properly until April 2019.
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It took me two years of taking breaks, going back to drinking, taking breaks, trying to moderate, you know, really, really trying, thinking that I had to try and keep alcohol in my life in some capacity, because life without alcohol would be just awful and a prison sentence and dreadful.
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But in actual fact, the moment I just fully closed the door, turned the lock, threw away the key is when my life fully began.
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But I would never have got to the point of being able to do that without that two years of dabbling and stopping and starting.
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Because the first time you take a break, I don't know anyone actually.
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I try, I'm trying to think, I don't know anyone who took their first ever break from alcohol and that was it, and they never ever went back to drinking again.
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It's it's a process.
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The process of change is a process and it takes time.
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But what we give ourselves when we take that first break is we give ourselves information.
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And that information is okay, well, does my anxiety disappear?
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Does my sleep improve?
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Do I have more energy?
00:19:52.460 --> 00:20:05.419
Like the one of the things that the ladies in my challenges always say is that the voice inside their head just becomes so much kinder and so much nicer, and their experience of themselves becomes more positive.
00:20:05.819 --> 00:20:22.939
And and then that feels really, really contradictory because inside you're feeling better, but on the outside, you're worried about your external life, you're worried about what people are going to think of you, you're worried you're not going to get invited to things anymore, you're going to be judged, people might say you've got a problem.
00:20:23.179 --> 00:20:33.179
And I always just say, just don't overthink it, just one day at a time, because the process takes a while to to reveal itself and to take the journey that it will.
00:20:33.579 --> 00:20:34.859
Yeah, 100%.
00:20:35.419 --> 00:20:42.460
And that's the thing, is you get curious on um why did you drink the way you drank?
00:20:42.619 --> 00:20:59.419
I mean, you've got to think, you know, we all romanticize it, you know, like, oh yeah, it was getting giving me connection, or you know, I could only go out if, you know, you go out to basically get obliterated just to forget about your shit dry parenting at home.
00:20:59.899 --> 00:21:05.500
But then when you you really strip it back, I mean, at at a young age, that's why I started drinking.
00:21:05.579 --> 00:21:13.500
And I, you know, even though the people in my class who I still see now, they never had an issue with alcohol like I did.
00:21:13.579 --> 00:21:26.059
Like, you know, when when you're sort of uh wanting to fit in or you don't feel worthy and stuff, you do become like a heavy drinker in as you go through life and that's what you rely on.
00:21:26.139 --> 00:21:39.259
And then so yeah, when you take it back, yeah, it's certainly it's not rainbows and unicorns and it's not a race, it's a time to actually get to know myself because I I started like you, I started drinking at 1314.
00:21:39.339 --> 00:21:44.299
I I don't know who I am, who is Ali without those labels, you know?
00:21:44.619 --> 00:22:00.779
So to be self, yeah, a lot of compassion when when you do uh decide to quit and uh you know uh work out the whys on why you were drinking and see a therapist or see a coach, do a course, that's what I did.
00:22:00.939 --> 00:22:17.500
Um and then it solidifies it and helps you instead of just dry dry knuckling it, being a dry drunk, and because you'll you'll just go back to drinking because your brain's not you know, you've just got that little door open because you just nah.
00:22:18.220 --> 00:22:25.179
So you're you know, just tell us a little bit about your um, you know, you you mentioned your ladies in your course.
00:22:25.419 --> 00:22:28.859
So yeah, tell us how you help women.
00:22:29.740 --> 00:22:39.899
So I um after I got sober in twenty nineteen and and I knew that was it, I knew that everything in my life was better when I didn't drink and that the door was now closed.
00:22:40.220 --> 00:22:41.339
And then I went inward.
00:22:41.659 --> 00:22:46.379
I did a year of deep personal therapy and sorted a lot of shit out.
00:22:46.460 --> 00:22:49.659
And that was so healing and so incredible.
00:22:49.819 --> 00:22:53.419
And then I knew that I wanted to support others.
00:22:53.740 --> 00:22:56.699
And I, and that was when COVID hit.
00:22:56.859 --> 00:23:06.379
I mean, thank goodness I just stopped drinking before COVID hit because although we didn't have huge lockdowns here in WA, it was still pretty impactful.
00:23:06.460 --> 00:23:09.019
And it was still, you know, we were still locked in WA.
00:23:09.099 --> 00:23:09.740
We couldn't leave.
00:23:09.819 --> 00:23:15.019
It was hard not being able to see my family, not being able to get back to the UK and everything like that.
00:23:15.179 --> 00:23:18.139
And so I then decided to retrain.
00:23:18.220 --> 00:23:23.980
I closed down my recruitment business and retrained to become a health and well-being coach and a gray area drinking coach.
00:23:24.059 --> 00:23:26.539
So I studied with Jolene Park in America.
00:23:27.019 --> 00:23:33.099
And in early 2021, I set up my business and I did an interview in Mamma Mia.
00:23:33.899 --> 00:23:38.619
And I remember reading it after the journalist had interviewed me.
00:23:38.699 --> 00:23:44.299
And it was me being very, very open and honest about my story with gray area drinking.
00:23:44.539 --> 00:23:49.419
And I remember reading it and going, Oh god, we can't share that.
00:23:49.659 --> 00:23:51.740
Like this is really honest.
00:23:51.899 --> 00:23:54.460
What if like my kids' teachers read it?
00:23:54.619 --> 00:23:57.339
And you know, I was so kind of scared.
00:23:57.579 --> 00:24:04.699
And Polly, who was the journalist at Mamma Mia, said to me, But Sarah, what if it changes someone's life?
00:24:05.099 --> 00:24:09.819
What if someone reading your story goes and creates change with their drinking?
00:24:09.899 --> 00:24:11.899
So I said, okay, let's publish it.
00:24:12.779 --> 00:24:16.939
8,000 women contacted me within 24 hours.
00:24:17.339 --> 00:24:17.980
Wow.
00:24:18.299 --> 00:24:22.139
And all of them said, You've just told my story.
00:24:22.539 --> 00:24:22.779
Yeah.
00:24:23.099 --> 00:24:28.299
And what I realized was there were so many women identifying with this gray area.
00:24:28.460 --> 00:24:30.139
They knew they were not an alcoholic.
00:24:30.220 --> 00:24:32.859
They knew they didn't have physical dependency on alcohol.
00:24:32.939 --> 00:24:37.339
They knew they didn't wake up in the morning with withdrawal and shakes and needing to drink.
00:24:37.500 --> 00:24:47.419
But they also knew that their drinking wasn't healthy and that their drinking was dysfunctional in some way and they were turning to it too much, and their attempts to change their drinking were unsuccessful.
00:24:47.500 --> 00:24:55.980
But they didn't know where to go to get help because they didn't want to stand up in a room and say, Hi, I'm Sarah, I'm an alcoholic, because that wasn't how they identified.
00:24:56.539 --> 00:25:03.819
And that was when my business just pretty much exploded and has been so busy ever since.
00:25:03.899 --> 00:25:13.259
And I run 30-day alcohol-free challenges to give women the opportunity to discover how they feel without alcohol.
00:25:13.339 --> 00:25:16.699
Now, 30 days is a drop in the ocean of the rest of your life.
00:25:16.859 --> 00:25:27.419
And I always say to people, if you sit there and say to me, I can't do 30 days, you bloody need to do 30 days because that's a really clear sign that there's a level of alcohol use disorder there, right?
00:25:27.899 --> 00:25:31.019
And then I have ongoing support that I offer women.
00:25:31.099 --> 00:25:41.259
So those that want are really curious, I have a program called Rediscovering Me, which is all about the identity piece of well, who am I if I'm no longer Sarah the Pisshead Party Girl?
00:25:41.419 --> 00:25:49.419
I do a programme around menopause coaching and nutrition and well-being because some women find that alcohol's really been masking so many of their menopause symptoms.
00:25:49.579 --> 00:25:53.579
And when they remove alcohol, they they are struggling with a few different things.
00:25:53.740 --> 00:26:04.460
And so I became a menopause coach and a menopause weight loss coach because a lot of women, as well, they they want to remove alcohol or they want to drink less because maybe their primary factor at the beginning is I want to lose weight.
00:26:04.539 --> 00:26:09.259
And we know how much sugar is in wine, but then they find, oh, well, the weight is not dropping off.
00:26:09.339 --> 00:26:09.899
Why is that?
00:26:09.980 --> 00:26:18.059
And so I became really curious about understanding what are the weight loss factors for women in midlife because it's different to when you're in your 20s.
00:26:18.139 --> 00:26:23.740
And so I'm a as well as being a gray area drinking coach, I'm now also a menopause and menopause weight loss coach.
00:26:23.819 --> 00:26:30.059
Um and I run a program called Thrive After 40, which is super popular and really helps women get on top of their nutrition habits.
00:26:30.220 --> 00:26:47.980
Lots of women swap alcohol for sugar when they first remove booze, and so I really help them with that side of things as well, with understanding the brain, the dopamine um-seeking tendencies that most of us have, how to get your dopamine fix elsewhere so you're not looking for something of an evening going, where's the sugar?
00:26:48.139 --> 00:26:49.099
Where's the things?
00:26:49.339 --> 00:27:02.299
Um, what to eat to actually feel full, to turn on your um your leptin um hormone, which is the signal to the brain, I'm full, I don't need to eat anymore, what nutrients we're giving our body.
00:27:02.460 --> 00:27:07.019
So, yeah, there's lots of different ways that people can work with me, but it's it's super rewarding.
00:27:07.099 --> 00:27:13.339
I absolutely love it, and I love seeing the changes that women make in their lives as a result of ditching booze.
00:27:13.899 --> 00:27:17.019
Yeah, and you've written a book as well, Beyond Booze.
00:27:17.259 --> 00:27:17.740
Beyond booze.
00:27:17.980 --> 00:27:18.699
Congratulations.
00:27:18.939 --> 00:27:20.619
Yeah, I mean, that was a couple of years ago.
00:27:20.699 --> 00:27:22.379
I went to your book launch actually.
00:27:22.619 --> 00:27:22.859
Yeah.
00:27:23.179 --> 00:27:24.859
That was what, 2024?
00:27:25.500 --> 00:27:29.659
January 24 it came out, but it still just sells so well.
00:27:29.819 --> 00:27:34.859
It's on audio, it's on Kindle, it's hardback and like softback, paperback from Amazon.
00:27:35.099 --> 00:27:39.819
But we still just get so many sales, and so many women are just passing it on to other women.
00:27:39.899 --> 00:27:44.779
And I get messages every week saying it's the book that has really helped them and really supported them.
00:27:44.939 --> 00:27:45.899
So I love that.
00:27:46.220 --> 00:27:46.539
Yes.
00:27:46.619 --> 00:27:53.659
Well, I was in my local library uh a couple of weeks ago doing a composting um course or whatever.
00:27:53.740 --> 00:28:00.699
This guy was there, and he turned around and pointed out a book that said, um, he sort of went, Oh, there's a book on the shelf called Soil.
00:28:01.099 --> 00:28:06.139
And so the class turned around, but next to that book, a couple of books down was your book.
00:28:06.379 --> 00:28:07.259
Ah, there you go.
00:28:07.500 --> 00:28:11.019
And I went in my mind, I went, Oh, and I actually got it out of the library.
00:28:11.099 --> 00:28:22.059
So I've um also read it as well, and and it's great that there's steps, it's not just um, you know, talking about your partying in a sense.
00:28:22.299 --> 00:28:38.939
Um, it's really, you know, helpful for um because I was the same, I swapped vodka for uh vanilla slice and you know, feeling that real um yeah, but l reading that it it certainly does give you tools and tips.
00:28:39.099 --> 00:28:43.579
So it is a great read for the ladies that haven't read it and also men as well.
00:28:43.740 --> 00:28:51.579
I'm actually um gave it to my twin brother um because he's um questioning his alcohol.
00:28:51.740 --> 00:28:55.339
You know, he sort of rang me the other week, he goes, sis, I I've I've had enough.
00:28:55.500 --> 00:29:00.460
Um, you know, I only had a few last night, but I woke up and I just felt like shit.
00:29:00.779 --> 00:29:07.980
And I said, bro, come to the come to the other side because alcohol is a a poison.
00:29:08.379 --> 00:29:12.379
So you know, yeah, just let it go.
00:29:12.699 --> 00:29:14.779
Um and you know, we're not getting any younger.
00:29:14.939 --> 00:29:24.779
So we know it's you know, carcinogen and um, but yeah, so just that they it just it just has such a hold over everyone because that's the messaging, right?
00:29:25.019 --> 00:29:35.500
You watch the footy, there's just uh alcohol ads, mums, we've just had r Mother's Day, there's all that messaging, and then Father's Day, of course, will be coming the next thing, you know.
00:29:35.659 --> 00:29:40.059
And I remember our daughter came home and she's like, What's mummy's favorite drink?
00:29:40.859 --> 00:29:41.500
vodka.
00:29:41.819 --> 00:29:43.339
And then Father's Day card.
00:29:43.500 --> 00:29:45.419
What's f what's dad's favorite drink?
00:29:45.819 --> 00:29:46.220
Beer.
00:29:46.539 --> 00:29:52.220
And you just think, oh, cringe, but unfortunately, look, you know, we've seen the light now.
00:29:52.299 --> 00:29:55.980
But um, so where can people find you, Sarah?
00:29:56.619 --> 00:30:15.339
So Instagram is a great place at Sarah Rustbatch, so S-A-R-A-H-R-U-S-B-A-T-C-H, or send them, people can go to my website, which is Sarah Rustbatch.com, and I have a free Facebook community called the Women's Wellbeing Collective, where I share tons of resources and tools.
00:30:15.419 --> 00:30:18.379
It's a beautiful community, lots of support, lots of sharing.
00:30:18.460 --> 00:30:20.460
Um, but those would be the three main places.
00:30:20.619 --> 00:30:22.619
And I run alcohol-free challenges.
00:30:22.699 --> 00:30:30.299
The next one will be in July, which supports women all over the world to take a break, but not just to take a break, to actually get the tools and resources.
00:30:30.460 --> 00:30:36.220
We do workshops around behaviour change, we do workshops around what to do when you're stressed instead of reaching for a drink.
00:30:36.299 --> 00:30:41.019
So it's very much geared at midlife women who want to change their drinking and how to change it.
00:30:41.339 --> 00:30:42.539
It sounds wonderful.
00:30:42.779 --> 00:30:46.299
And have you got any retreats uh coming up this year?
00:30:46.619 --> 00:30:49.899
Yeah, we've got two retreats in Bali this year, which are sold out.
00:30:49.980 --> 00:30:53.819
We're looking at a retreat in Mallorca or Ibifa next year.
00:30:53.980 --> 00:30:54.699
Oh, really?
00:30:55.259 --> 00:30:57.980
And one in the Blue Mountains in Sydney.
00:30:58.299 --> 00:30:59.740
Oh, fabulous.
00:31:00.299 --> 00:31:00.779
Wow.
00:31:00.939 --> 00:31:06.299
Okay, well, thank you again for coming uh on our podcast, Laughs Without Lager.
00:31:06.539 --> 00:31:11.980
But I must actually ask you, when was the last time you laughed without lager?
00:31:12.379 --> 00:31:13.899
Oh, I laugh all the time, Alec.
00:31:14.059 --> 00:31:16.379
Life, but it's the best thing about sobriety, right?
00:31:16.460 --> 00:31:19.980
Is I just, yeah, my sense of joy and fun has come back.
00:31:20.139 --> 00:31:21.740
So, yes, all the time.
00:31:22.059 --> 00:31:22.699
All the time.
00:31:22.859 --> 00:31:23.579
Good answer.
00:31:23.819 --> 00:31:30.859
Very common as well, because I thought I was funny out with alcohol, but as it turns out, I didn't need alcohol to be funny.
00:31:31.419 --> 00:31:32.220
So, yeah.
00:31:32.379 --> 00:31:33.659
Thanks again, Sarah.
00:31:34.539 --> 00:31:35.579
Thanks so much for having me.
00:31:35.980 --> 00:31:36.619
No problem.
00:31:36.939 --> 00:31:37.500
See ya.