Chalene Johnson Opens Up About Getting Sober

But recently, well known fitness influencer Charlene Johnson revealed her decision to stop drinking. And you might have even noticed that this is actually becoming a pretty common or popular thing for people to do. More and more people are making the decision to stop drinking alcohol because they're getting honest with themselves about what the impact of alcohol is having on their physical health, their emotional health, their relationships, their self confidence, even their financial and career aspirations.

Because I didn't want to look at it myself, I really enjoy having a glass of champagne. I like going out with my husband. I like some of the things that we do that involve celebrating with alcohol.

And there may be like a tiny bit of truth in that. It's still conventional wisdom that unless you're an alcoholic, there's no need to stop drinking. Some of us are even hanging on to the idea that a little bit of alcohol is healthy. But science has long since proven that to be not the case. You know, that idea started to get popular a few years ago that there's some nutritional value found in like wine or alcohol. The reason we get that euphoric feeling because it's actually poisoning our nervous system. So in reality, there is no amount of alcohol that's safe or even healthy. Now, I'm not saying that no one should ever drink alcohol. I'm just saying that it's time for us to get honest with ourselves. One of the things I really liked about Shawne's video was how she talked about this process of coming out of denial about the impact of alcohol. She even mentions the active decision to not watch Andrew Huberman's video that came out a few years ago about alcohol. Even though she's a big Andrew Huberman fan, she actively decided, decided, hey, I'm not going to look at that video. Because deep down inside, she knew there's something in there that she probably doesn't want to know. We all sort of do the same thing. We turn our head, we close our eyes, and we don't look at information that we kind of don't want to know the truth about.

And I remember, I'm going to be honest when that, when I saw that video come out because I obviously subscribed to his channel. I'm a big fan. I thought, I am not going to watch this video because I don't have a problem because I drink healthy champagne.

But if we can be brave enough to open our eyes and take a look at what's happening, we can see that alcohol has a negative impact on almost every area of our life. Even if we're not drinking alcoholically, just the amount of time, money and energy that we spend consuming alcohol, drinking alcohol. Even if you're just a social drinker, don't forget to count in the time and energy that you spend recovering from it, dealing with relationship problems that happen because of something that happened while you or a loved one was drinking. You got to factor all that in place. Now, Charlene goes a lot more into the physical impacts, what's happening in your body, what's happening to your appearance. And she even addresses the rebound anxiety that we get after a night of drinking those things.

A lot of people call it hangxiety. It's like this anxiety that sets in the night after you've done some drinking.

Now, I also want to mention that not only is Johnson a well known fitness influencer, she's actually a very well known coach in the space of productivity and online entrepreneurship. And the reason why I bring this up is because I want to point out that Ms. Johnson is a very productive, successful person. So she's not making the decision to stop drinking alcohol because it has ruined her life. She's making the decision to put the shovel down before it burns any breaches, before there's any damage that can't be fixed.

This is one of the other things that caused me to make a serious change in my relationship with alcohol. And that is when learning this, I started looking back at photos and realizing that my eyes look puffy and hooded after a night where I've had, quote, unquote, my healthier organic champagne. But in the morning I still look puffier. So it's causing inflammation. And there's just no denying that. And I don't want to be inflamed. It's also very important to recognize that alcohol, even if you're trying to choose a healthier form of alcohol, is addicting.

The idea of waiting until you hit bottom, of waiting until all these terrible consequences happen, is old school and really just doesn't make any sense.

It's made me change everything. It's opened up my eyes because I care about my husband, I care about my kids. I want to live forever. I want. My goal is longevity. Are you ready for this? Women who drink two drinks per day increase their risk of cancer 74%.

Please don't wait until alcohol, or any other substance for that matter, takes everything from you. If it's interfering in your life in a way you don't want it to, that is a good enough reason to walk away from it.

And I want to share with you this information because sometimes. Sometimes when we know better, we can do better. Maybe you need to cut back. Maybe you need to quit completely. I don't know. And I'm not the person to make that decision for you. But I am here to tell you I need to make a lot of changes.

Now, not only do I suggest that you check out Charlene Johnson's video, which I'm going to link right here, I'm also going to put in the description a link to other videos where you can hear other people talking about making the decision to let go of alcohol before they hit bottom, before they lose everything, before they identify as an alcoholic. If you're one of those people who's made the decision or is thinking about making the decision to let go of alcohol or any other substance because it's just not worth it for you anymore, I'd love it if you put a hands up emoji in the comments.