Today we’re going to talk about the 5 best life changing habits to stay sober forever.
Habits to Stay Sober
My name is Erik Johnson, welcome to this channel if you’re new here hit that subscribe button and get your notebook out because these are going to be very important, life changing tips to stay sober.
I have been sober for over 13 years, I’ve created lots of techniques that can create everlasting sobriety and happiness, so let’s get right into it with:
Number five: is physical (diet)
So the first thing you want to change when you get sober is your body, because what you eat will affect how you think.
So if you’re eating fast food, if you’re eating crap, if you’re eating a lot of sugar, if you’re drinking lots of coffee, your mind is not going to be operating at its full capacity.
You’re going to crash from the sugar, and you’re going to not feel good. You could possibly even get shakes from coming off of sugar so it’s very dangerous.
My fiance and I switched to stevia instead of sugar so that’s a really good step to take right away. You can buy stevia at Walmart, or HEB – all the big stores have it. At first it might taste a little bitter but then you’ll get used to it and then it tastes just like sugar. We’ve been doing that for the last three years and it’s made a lot of difference.
The other thing you can do is get on a keto diet, and that’s where you get rid of all carbs, and you want to get into ketosis.
Once you get into ketosis your body then switches from burning glucose to burning fat, and it’s a wonderful feeling to be in ketosis because you know that all of your energy is coming from your fat, and you can lose a lot of pounds without even realizing it.
I love steak, so for me a keto diet is absolutely exciting because I can eat as much steak as you want. That’s the other thing with keto is that you can have as much meat or cheese as you want.
To some of you that might sound gross and there’s also a Paleo diet which will add in some vegetables and nuts and olives so that’s very good. There’s the Mediterranean diet which is a lot of fish. You can get into shakes.
There’s some really good shakes online. My fiance and I really like pure trim shakes, they’re very filling and they’re vegan protein so check them out.
The other thing you can do is start walking and then work your way up to jogging, you can do HIIT training, high intensity interval training, that’ll really start to make you feel alive and get those endorphins and adrenaline going, and the natural dopamine.
Because as ex alcoholics, we’re pretty much addicted to dopamine because alcohol once gave us a dopamine hit, but eventually that goes away and then it just starts destroying your life so look into those things.
Number four: is spiritual
So, one of the steps and I believe it’s the second or third step of AA, is to turn your life and your will over to the care of God as you understand them.
So that means that you can’t do this alone, because you pretty much created the life you have now by your own will. So the most important step is to turn your life and your will over to the care of God as you understand them.
That means that if you don’t believe in God, you can still worship something it could be nature, it could be, you know, symbolism, whatever, it could be music, it could be making love, but it has to be something outside of yourself.
Because, spirituality goes hand in hand with sobriety. AA has a lot of spiritual teachings and prayers, and it’s just a good thing because alcohol can become pretty demonic. It makes people do some horrendous things a lot of us have a lot of guilt and shame and regret, from what we did when we were drinking.
They call it demon alcohol for a reason, and it can summon some pretty nasty spirits, I know for a fact because I’ve been possessed when I was drunk before, and it’s a very scary thing. It’s something I never want to experience again.
Basically a demon took over my thinking and I hurt somebody and I actually got enjoyment from it because I was possessed. So pretty scary stuff you want to look into spirituality, and that should be something that you put in your life for the rest of your life, pray in the morning.
Just pray to God that he or she takes away all of your sins and all of your guilt and shame from your past, and just wipe the slate clean. You can look into a Community Church, or you can look into monasteries.
I really like the monastic lifestyle, just becoming really clean spiritually, and really getting close to God, it really makes a difference.
I don’t have any cravings after I pray or after I watch a preacher for an hour, you can find some really good preachers online, on YouTube, there’s Dan Mohler, Todd White, Steven Furtick from Elevation Church, there’s Jesus Image, which is a really cool church out of Florida so check those things out.
Number three: is Financial
Most ex-alcoholics have serious financial problems. The first thing that I did that made me feel really good and lighter, was to pay down my credit cards, and a couple of them I cut up, a couple of them I paid off, and a couple of them I keep at a minimum balance because that’s good for your credit score.
I also got two jobs when I got sober, because I had a lot of nervous energy and I didn’t want to just sit around the house. So once I got my body back into shape I got two jobs. I worked from morning until night, and then eventually I started to write in a blog, which goes into the creativity section, which we’ll get to in a second.
But I started a blog and I started to write every day, and eventually that allowed me to come home and work full time from home just from my blog and a YouTube channel.
So definitely look into that because once I got home and I could work from home and I didn’t have to use the alarm clock anymore. My life drastically improved. I could do what I wanted when I wanted with who I wanted. And I got to promote stuff that I really enjoyed using myself.
For instance, in 2018 before CBD hit mainstream, I created articles about CBD and people started to sign up in my CBD business, left and right, just from a few blog articles that showed up on Google. So very exciting stuff.
Definitely take care of your finances, because you’ll feel a lot better because as an ex alcoholic, we want to reduce stress as much as possible, because anger, sadness, despair, all of those things can lead back to a relapse because we just can’t handle the stress, our coping mechanisms are a little shot when we get sober, so you definitely want to keep your stress levels down as you get stronger in sobriety.
Number two: is community
This is where you can join a supportive community. AA is probably the fastest and easiest to join. You can also look for online sober communities, you could use Zoom meetings with people who are sober, you could find a sober sponsor online.
You can start your own tribe, you could start a fan page on Facebook and create a community of like minded people like yourself. It’s a very good thing I started the Asperger’s community because I have Asperger’s, so for me it’s a really good community to be a part of because they’re all like minded.
So definitely, you have to form a tribe or join a community because it’s really hard to do this all alone. I did that the first two years of sobriety, I didn’t hang out with anyone. I just went to work, and came home, because I lived in a small town and there were tons of drinking triggers all around me.
I didn’t feel safe going out, so I just stayed home after work, but eventually I got with a girlfriend who didn’t drink, and she supported me and my sobriety and that’s really what I needed.
So just hang in there, I know it’s hard in the beginning but you’ll find people that can support you.
Don’t go back to your old friends, they will not do anything good for you. They’ll pretend they support you but they can turn against you because they’re lonely and they miss drinking with you.
So they’ll try to slip it in there once in a while and it’s just not the support that you need.
Number one: is creativity
It’s really exciting when you get sober because your old hobbies can come back, your emotions will come back and your creativity might come back.
I revisited a lot of things that alcohol took away from me. I started to play racquetball. I started to write in the blog, like I just mentioned earlier, I created a full length music album, which was basically like Lo Fi alternative hard rock, but I got to do it all by myself.
My girlfriend sang on a couple songs. It was a lot of fun, it was really bad. I mean it’s not like a best seller or anything but I got to play drums, guitar and sing, and finally got, you know, my own album out there which is really exciting.
So definitely tap into your creativity, listen to music, paint, start journaling about your journey into sobriety because you can inspire a lot of people with your journey, and you’re not alone because right now if you’re watching this video, or reading the article, you’re connecting with me.
I created something and you found it. There’s a technique online called attraction marketing and what you do is you create stuff and eventually people will find you through your creativity.
So people found my blog, they found my YouTube, through social media. So it’s really an exciting time to do stuff on the internet, there’s plenty of apps to do creative stuff with.
These five best life changing habits will keep you sober forever I guarantee it. Even if you do relapse, it is okay because relapse is part of recovery. I had a couple two day slip ups when I finally got sober, but I didn’t set the clock back.
I didn’t start back at day one because I think that can create a lot of guilt. I knew for a fact that I was going to stay sober forever. So I have over 13 years of sobriety now. And, you know those relapses were the first year of sobriety so I don’t really count those, and everything is pretty good in my life.
I’m still not perfect, I still make mistakes, I still sneak in some sugary treats once in a while, you know, and I can still lose weight, so hang in there, you’re a work in progress, and even if you improve just 1% a day looking back after a year, you will do tremendous things and you will change.
The light will come back in your eyes, you will smile again you will laugh again. You will make amends with family and friends. You will repair a lot of stuff that you destroyed while drinking so I love you guys hang in there, hit that subscribe button, and we will talk to you soon.
