Sober Not Somber Hour

Hi all. Welcome to sober not somber hour. Promises of fun, sober interactions. Today, even though my mood is a bit gloomy. I'm in Minneapolis. As you come in to the stream here Cadresphere, let me know where are you logging in from today. Yeah, my apartment is on the fourth floor. Overlooks downtown Minneapolis. But yeah, it's just been gloomy and cold and we know this, we know, you know, April 1st, spring is sort of a joke actually. Yeah. So as I'm talking about sober not summer hour today, which is all things non alcoholic beverages, mindful drinking, happy hour time rituals.

I'm your happy hour host, Jen Varale. Ten years of sobriety over here. What I call sober necessary. Each week I'm liking to highlight like a new non alcoholic bed that I really enjoy. This one right here is a strawberry sh sh Shrub. And that is the name of the company. It's been around since 2016. Alex Zweiber, locally here in Minneapolis. Just listen to that. Oh gosh. To me that just signals. Okay, let's get the bubbles flowing. I do a little bit of that and it's, you know, it's like a kombucha with the strawberry vinegar, champagne freshness.

And then I like to add sparkling water. I have sparkling water on hand all the time. That's a tip. You know, if you want to make your beverages exciting. I get my San Pellegrino at Costco in bulk and I buy the glass super affordable and I just keep it stocked. It's always good to have bubbles. Friends. Cheers High speak wonder. I wish I could share this beverage with everyone, but you can get it locally. So yeah, this company has been around since 2019, so they've been at it eight years. I love to serve this at my events because it's refreshing and light and low in cal and super easy.

And you can get it at local bottle shops and there's three of them that I always talk about and I list those at the end. But the founder, Alex just does a great job with getting his product out there and intentionally crafting and developing them. So people love this after sauna and yeah, it's go to drink of mine. So coming back to today's theme, which is a little bit around sobriety triggers. And this could be. Hey, Luke. Yeah, Bubbles are great sobriety triggers. And I think I mentioned last week I had someone accidentally gift me what they thought was a non alcoholic bottle of white wine.

It was not. I didn't realize it when I was faced with having to make decisions to not drink in Certain situations. So what I want to ask you all today is, you know, think about how you show up when you're tired. Decisions and it could be anything. But I'll talk specifically for me about the lens of inactive addiction. Trying to make a different choice at happy hour every single day. And the tiredness of coming into this time of the day being sort of anxiety ridden, distraught. And an alcoholic beverage is what I reached for.

So defense is down. Made the decision so many times, so many days after saying, I'm not going to drink tonight, I'm going to get through the workday, I'm going to do something different. Yet 5 o'clock happy hour would roll around and I would be like, I know what solves for this uncomfortable, uncomfortable feeling that I have the coping mechanism and it would be alcohol. So right back into it. So I think this time of the day can be particularly triggering because of our rituals in America and also because of our work days.

Oh my gosh, we bring so much stress, so much anxiety into this time of the day that's supposed to be, you know, a healthy transition from work to maybe family and some evening activities that are not work related. You guys, seriously. So good. They have like four different kinds. Mm. They have a pineapple coconut. That's fantastic. They also have some with lotos. Thc, if you're interested. They have a blueberry poblano which has a smoky flavor to it. Yeah, Just love it. So yeah. How do you make decisions when you're tired?

I'm sure we've all just said, eff it, I'm gonna, you know, drink or do whatever the thing is that you're trying to avoid. Eat, make a different choice than the healthy one that you intended to make at this time of the day. Cause you're just tired. You're tired. So bringing that back around to being aware that this does happen, we get tired at this, this time. It's hard to make the right choice sometimes. Bringing it back around to like creating some tactical things you can do in your life for this time of the day to make better choices.

For example, for me it's having really great non alcoholic around. And I just came off of a sobriety coaching group today where 20 of us coaches are actually in recovery, long term recovery. And the conversation was all about triggers and what we were concerned about because we know when we get in a certain state of anxiousness, tiredness, that our decisions and our best, best intentions to make a better, healthy choice just go out the window. So I'd encourage you to be just thinking about that when those things come in, they just try to thwart your like healthy intentions.

It could be that you intended to work out after work. What are some things you can do to make sure that that happens before you find yourself in a situation? Sobriety. Yeah, sobriety is tough and based on, you know, whomever is out there, you could identify with any type of just, you know, long term sobriety or just trying to make a different choice for yourself and your health. And it's hard. It's hard you guys. And I applaud those that make that choice intentionally and now are stepping into that and seeing some of the values of, you know, changing how they do work happy hours, all those things at this time of the day.

So yeah, thank you for hanging with. Just been one of those days. And again, I think kind of, gosh, I saw some snow flurries happening. Oh my God. What? Hopefully when I come at you next Tuesday, we won't be dealing with 32 degree temps and snow here in Minnesota. That also feels triggering just weather. Right. So understanding all those things that can kind of sidetrack you when you're trying to make better decisions. So in closing, thank you for tuning in if you're catching this after. Yeah, I'd love to hear, you know, what are your strategies for end of day not drinking and perhaps making that healthier choice?

How are you making sure that happens? Love to hear them. I always say, you know, it's 5:00 somewhere and with non alcoholic beverages and if you're not drinking, it doesn't even need to be that. You can have happy hour at any time of the day with that at a beverage. Take care all. Have a fantastic Tuesday evening. Cheers. Na Cheers.