Sober Motivation: Sharing Sobriety Stories - Steve's Journey Through a Culture of Alcohol to Sobriety

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

In this episode of the Sober Motivation Podcast, I talk with guest Steve, who shares his story of growing up surrounded by alcohol. Steve recounts his childhood in 1970s and 1980s Michigan, where drinking was a cultural norm, and how this environment shaped his early relationship with alcohol. He discusses his high school years, during which his house became a hub for parties.  Steve explains how his seemingly casual drinking habit evolved into a daily routine and a coping mechanism for marital stress and life's pressures. He details his journey through the world of craft beer, the financial and health toll it took on him, and the turning point that led him to pursue sobriety.   Link for the Sober Motivation Prints: buymeacoffee.com/sobermotivation/e/443476 Steve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftfreepodcast/ 00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Steve 00:14 Steve's Childhood and Family Background 03:24 Teenage Years and Early Drinking Experiences 07:14 Post-High School Adventures in California 10:11 Marriage and Moving to Florida 11:31 Developing a Craft Beer Hobby 13:51 Marital Problems and Increased Drinking 17:33 Life in St. Pete and Brewing Culture 18:40 Reflections on Drinking and Community 25:34 The Decline of the Beloved Pub 27:33 Realizing the Problem 28:07 Failed Attempts at Moderation 29:56 The Physical Toll of Alcohol 33:10 A Turning Point: New Year's Resolution 34:22 The Journey to Sobriety 35:38 Reflections and Moving Forward 40:52 The Podcast: Craft Free 42:47 Concluding Thoughts    

Welcome back to season four of the Super Motivation Podcast. Join me, Brad, each week as my guests and I share incredible and powerful sobriety stories. We're here to show sobriety as possible one story at a time. Let's go. In this episode of the podcast, I talk with Steve, who shares his story of growing up surrounded by alcohol. Steve recounts his childhood in the 70s and 80s in Michigan, where drinking was a cultural norm.

And how his environment shaped his early relationship with alcohol? He discusses his high school years during which his house became a hub for parties. Steve explains how his seeminglyly casual drinking habit evolved into a daily routine and a coping mechanism for other stress in his life and also the pressures. He details his journey through the world of craft beer. The financial and health toll took on him and the turning point that led him to pursue sobriety. And this is Steve's story on the suburb motivation. podcast. Hey, how's it going, everyone? Welcome back to another episode. We'll get to Steve's story shortly. I want to share with you this incredible creation that my wife and I collaborated on

this cool painting. It's a print that we're selling now, but it started out as a painting. It's got sober motivation stuff in it. It has a let's go in it, has a dry bar in it. And it's really, really cool. It's obviously hard for me to explain a picture in this print here on the podcast. but at the time of releasing this episode, there's 10 more available. I'll drop the link to check them out down in the show notes below. But there's a few, I guess you could call them hidden messages about the suburb motivation. There's the Batman logo with sober motivation in it too. And it kind of brings me back to the rehab I went to.

We were called the quote unquote bat clan. There's the let's go in there. And the whole idea of it is like a sober motivation HQ headquarters. And yeah, it's being cool, collaborating with her on this and helping support her artwork. She's extremely talented. So I'll drop the link down below. If you want to check one out, we want to pick one up. We'll be shipping them out next week.

So let's get to Steve's story right now. Welcome back to another episode of the Sober Motivation podcast. Today we've got Steve with us. Steve, how are you? I'm great, Brad. How are you doing? Yeah, man. I'm doing well, dude.

I'm glad to get connected with you. Have you share your story here on the podcast? So what was it like for you growing up? Well, I always like to say I was raised by wolves. And I mean that literally and figuratively. Both my parents, they were party people. You know, my dad was actually a very educated aerospace engineer. But, you know, back in the day, growing up in Michigan in the 70s, essentially.

I mean, I think of the 80s as my decade. But, you know, I was a little kid in the 70s and early. 80s. It was everywhere drinking. My parents partied with aunts and uncles and friends and, you know, it was, it just felt like that was part of the culture. That was what adults did. Lots of going out, lots of late nights, lots of people coming over for, you know, card night, playing cards and drinking. And the kids, you know, we kind of were meant to be, you know, scarce. We'd all go play somewhere and stuff, but it was always around. And then I remember my father bringing me fairly regularly to like pool halls. And I was fascinated, you know, by it. He was

exceptionally good at billiards, at shooting pool. So he'd go out and drink and smoke. And I'd sit on a barstool quietly off to the side and look at this cast of characters. that, you know, was a bunch of oddballs that he hung out with and spent time with. And they were funny and goofy and scary all at the same time. I feel that was really sort of ingrained in me. I mean, I remember when Star Wars came out and the canteena scene, you know, the famous bar scene with all these different characters from all over the galaxy. I was 10 years old when that came out.

but I knew I wanted to go to that bar. I wanted to be in that canteena. I just, that was my favorite part of the whole movie was all these guys getting together, having a drink, and, you know, talking shop, you know. So I found it appealing at a young age. But I remember some scary stuff. I remember my dad getting, you know, super inebriated and coming home.

And, you know, there wasn't any violence. but there was arguments. I remember my mom getting in a horrible car accident, and my parents sort of trying to explain it away, you know, to me to some extent that, oh, your mom just had, you know, an accident. And, you know, she was on the couch for weeks, just all beat to hell. But it was a result of alcohol consumption.

And, you know, she was kind of lucky to be alive. And then I got little tricklings of stories of, you know, know, my mom almost Odean and stuff because she not only was a drinker, she was using, you know, like pharmaceutical drugs and, you know, whatever was available. You know, later on, you know, me and my cousins, my brother, when the parents would go out, we'd sneak into the liquor cabinets and try things, you know, just out of curiosity. You know, it felt like being an adult. So, you know, none of that seemed out of the norm growing up outside of Detroit, up in Michigan. It didn't seem like we were really doing anything all that different than most young kids.

Yeah. Looking back now, I mean, what impact do you think that had on you have kind of seen it everywhere, kind of being normalized to just being a part of, you know, life in the culture, looking back? It just felt normal, I think, at that time. My parents ended up divorcing when I was about nine years old. And I think when you're that young, you can roll with it. I had an older brother, five years older than me, that all of a sudden my mom quickly remarried and we had some stepbrothers and a couple step sisters. And they were closer to his age. So he couldn't deal with it. And he moved with my grandparents and sort of finished his school. years with them where I stuck around and then eventually my step siblings, you know, moved on also. And so I was sort of like a what they call latchkey kid. You know, I was home alone a lot. You know, I'd just leave food. I'd fend for myself and they'd, you know, either be at work or go on vacations and I'd beg them to leave me behind. This was later in life, you know, I mean, but I think

I remember staying home alone on, you know, family vacations. young as 14. So I was trusted, but then in the high school days, my house was the house for the parties. Everybody came over because Steve's parents are, you know, they're away on vacation. And it got quite raucous, you know. I mean, it just was a small town in Michigan. That's what young people did on Friday, Saturday night, especially once you got to driving age and stuff like that. This beard that you and I are both rocking, I can.

could grow when I was like in 11th grade, you know, so I had no problem buying alcohol for like everybody. And what a great way to, you know, meet girls. Hey, can you go buy me some wine coolers? So in fact, I got a DUI when I was 16 years old and I left my own party to drive a girl home. And I really wasn't heavily intoxicated, but I was goofing around and the roads were empty. So I just jokingly started driving down the other side of the road. And all of a sudden I get pulled over and, you know, we both got taken to the local police station. And I think her parents had to come get her. And then I had a friend of my parents come get me.

And I ended up pretty unscathed. At that time, I lost my license for about a month. And, you know, it really wasn't that big of a deal. So I just chalked it up as, you know, stuff happens. Yeah. And I know we chatted to it before is that, you know, kind of the way I think you put it, too, is that this really didn't become like a quote unquote problem until later in life. So as you're kind of going through all, this is, I think, a very relatable story.

of this kind of what people are doing and this is the way we're doing it. I mean, it's not getting too at a hand. Sometimes it does a little bit. And then where do you kind of go after high school? Well, as soon as I got out of high school, I wanted to get out of that little town. And I had a friend that years prior had moved to Northern California with his mom. So I really at that time wasn't terribly interested in like higher education yet. So I just hopped on a Greyhound bus with all my shit and went to Napa, California and lived with my buddy. And, you know, we did odd jobs. We thought we would potentially start a band. You know, we were big into music. You know, I didn't have realistic goals. It was sort of like, oh, you go out to California and you're special. You'll

get noticed. You know, while nobody was really banging on my door, I did end up being an extra on a TV show. That was about as far as I got. What was that? What was that? The extra, the show was Falcon Crest, which was a spinoff of the famous show Dynasty back in the day. Oh, cool. Felcon Crest was a winery, so they did a lot of filming around the Napa Valley. So I ended up sort of in the background on a couple episodes.

So a very, very brief amount of fame there. but, you know, I had no parental guidance. I moved out there, you know, I graduated young at 17 years old, and my buddy and I just went to a ton of different concerts in San Francisco. We were going to see you two and the simple minds and the Smiths and the cure. And we drank a lot. We partied a lot. We worked just enough to, you know, have fun and do things.

So it was a pretty, again, normal sort of life at that time. I got introduced to like better beer. I was working at like this deli restaurant. And me and my friend were both pretty mature for our age. So we seemed to be able to get the trust of adults. So at the end of every shift, my boss and his buddy, he'd come in and we'd shut things down. My friend would come over. And they'd let us pick one, you know, beer.

out of the cooler. And at this time, at this place, they had like an exceptional selection of, you know, beer from around the world and beer made, you know, locally in the San Francisco Bay Area. And, you know, so we would just generally grab, like, something in the biggest bottle we could find, and it'd be, like, out of, you know, Germany or something like that.

And so we thought we were kind of cool by drinking, you know, fancy beer at that time. But that didn't really stick. I didn't really get deep into drinking until later. But that was like a little sampling of it, you know, so to speak. I ended up meeting a girl, and I'm going to jump ahead here and get married fairly young. I was about 20, 21, and I got married pretty quickly out west. and we lived in Napa for a while.

She was a California girl, and then I had family here in Florida, where I'm at now, and so we wanted to be where there wasn't snow, and it wasn't as expensive, which California really pricey, so we decided to move to Florida and had a good life.

And I ended up going back to school and getting into the medical field, and she was a business professional, and it was a good life. I mean, we'd go out to dinner, and oftentimes I'd just order iced tea. I didn't really drink more than very little moderation. And as you and I talked prior, it didn't take much for me to get a real bad hangover. So those occasional getting invited to a Super Bowl party or a wedding, you know, I would just get crushed. and it would knock me out of commission for months.

I just hated how I felt so bad. You know, it was one of those I'll never drink again and that kind of stuff. And then I had a patient. I do physical therapy rehabilitation, and I had a patient that was big into beer. I mean, he traveled to Belgium, and I was boggled by that. I'm like, you mean, you're going across the planet just to drink beer? and he's like, oh, yeah, yeah.

It's like, this is like beer mecca. And I'm a curious person. I found it fascinating. And then he told me about some local places that had a beer selection. So I was kind of intrigued by it. And I started to dip my toes into that. And it started innocently enough.

I'd get a raspberry wheat beer and flavored, you know, Sam Adams cherry beer and some of these things. And I grew kind of acquired this taste for it. And then it sort of progressed from there where I was drinking more and more craft beer, but it wasn't really a problem, if you will, but it was definitely forming itself as a hobby for me, Brad. I mean, I definitely was, you know, if I wasn't going to a brewery, which came later the breweries, but there was always good bars that had nice selections. There was always that one liquor store

that had, you know, stuff from around the world, and you could choose stuff. it was good. It was high quality. So it was kind of a beer snob, essentially, you know, and innocently enough was sort of started as a hobby, you know, until it got out of hand. Yeah. Which is interesting you bring that, you bring that up too, right? Because I think the craft beers introduce like beer drinkers to that world that maybe the tequila drinkers, the whiskey, and maybe some of the wine people were kind of already like, I've heard it before, like a wine connoisseur, you know, but actually drinking too much. And then the craft beers like kind of opened it up to where you could,

you try different things. And it could be a hobby of sorts, right? And then the, check out the different breweries as that came further down the line. How old are you? Like, what year is this that you kind of start to lean into them? Probably mid-30s, 30 to mid-30s when I started, that started to pop up on my radar, you know. And then, you know, I'm still kind of happily.

married at that time, but, you know, it started to kind of progress. And then for whatever reason, maybe the drinking, I don't know, we started having problems in my marriage. And it got to a point where, you know, I'd leave work and I'd quickly stop at a pub and bang back like two beers as quickly as possible. So you're drinking beers that are sometimes 10% alcohol. you know, heavy hitters. And you're banging them back like you just mowed the lawn. So just to go home to then cope with some marital problems. So you drink two there quick, go home and then quickly crack one open at home so you would, you know, not have the noticeable scent of alcohol on you. And so that was kind of my M.O. for a while. And then that just progressed where my now ex-wife and I were having,

you know, some issues. And we ultimately separated for a couple of years. And I sort of lived my life like that marriage was over. I was kind of living like a bachelor. And I didn't have any filters or restrictions. I was, you know, working and got my job done. But soon as work was over, I was heading to the pub. And then shortly after the brewery thing just started popping up everywhere, the craft beer thing, everybody, you know, started getting breweries to the point where even I, who loved them, thought, well, this isn't sustainable. We've got like five in this town. How is this realistic? But they all brought something different to the table, and people were into it. They were really into it. And they're still seemingly getting into it. You've got kind of people that

newer to that. And, you know, I mentioned to you earlier that it's no longer going to a CD bar. You know, you talk to your, you know, if you're a young woman with a child and a baby and you tell your mom on the phone or your grandmother on the phone, oh, we're going to the brewery. What do you mean you're going to the brewery? Well, it's not like a CD bar mom. They do yoga and they do Pilates. and they have a run club, and, you know, the kids are welcome and dogs are welcome. So here's this family-friendly, welcoming environment, yet at the root core of it all, alcohol is being served and encouraged to consume. So I was kind of in that world, you know, anytime I traveled, I'd look up breweries in that town

and, you know, I'd quickly, oh, hey, do you hear about that new IPA, you know, that they've gone? or that new stout, and I'd call my brother. We've got to go check this out. So it was an every single day thing for me. But I still didn't quite view it as a problem because I wasn't getting in any trouble, you know, although my marriage had seemingly ended. I wasn't getting in any trouble. It was something I enjoyed, and I still was framing it as this hobby, you know.

Fast forwarding, my ex-wife and I took some marriage counsel. and tried to get back together, and that lasted a year or two, and then it still wasn't there. It wasn't working, so we ended up getting divorced. And I moved about an hour out of the town I'm into up to St. Pete, Florida, which is a very vibrant, hip town with lots of breweries, lots of bars, lots of restaurants, very artsy, kind of cool. And I loved it. It was my first taste at sort of city living. You know, I could leave work, go up there, park my car, and have no need to get back in my car until Monday morning when I had to drive back into town for work. And it was everywhere. And again, I had no

interest in quitting. It was still the occasional hangover. And I got better at functioning with a hangover. But I'll tell you, it got to a point where my anxiety was so ramped up that, you know, I'd stand in the shower in the morning and think, wow, is this the day that I kill somebody or is this the day I get a DUI and really mess up my life? But, you know, come four or five o'clock, I was heading right back to the pub or the brewery. So you mentioned the thing, the thing earlier when we were chatting is that it's kind of like maybe the modern day pool hall. Because to bring your family and everything, I'm thinking of the one pool hall we have where I live, like it's in a basement under this old mall.

It's probably not going to be the place everybody hangs out like maybe before. But now it's like the modern place where you can bring everybody gather with kind of beer at the center of things. Do you ever look back? I'm really intrigued here how, you know, for the longest time anyway. for some time there, you're able to, you know, have a bad hangover, take a couple months off. And then, you know, when you were with your wife, go out for dinner and get iced tea or whatever. And then you kind of get into the beer thing.

And it's a lot of people's story, I think, right? It's like, it's a slow burn for some to where, you know, one day it's like this. And maybe five years later, it's completely different. Do you have any idea or put a finger on anything of like what that looked like at the time or or what was kind of going on there to to keep you going in that direction? The thing with the craft beer is it was never about getting drunk or even the buzz per se. I absolutely love the taste of a really hoppy IPA. And these breweries just kept up in their game and making these things more.

and more desirable. And again, I think, you know, my way to justify it was this is sort of a hobby. And I would look for people at work to join me, you know, oh, I want to go work out. And I'm like, work out. Screw that. Let's go get a beer. Come on. But then, you know, I started realizing that I was medicating myself when the marital problems occurred. And I started, you know, going. And I started, you know, going and pound in a couple before I went home. I'm not, you know, a real young guy. So I've got, you know, different health issues that come with that. I've got really horrible tinnitus, tinnitus in both ears. You know, the ringing in the ears is constant in my life. So after a stressful day at work and those other aches and pains, some of it self-inflicted and, you know,

what have you, I would go to the pub or the brewery. Once I got that second one in me, you know, all that crap would melt away, you know. And then there was also the element of escapism. I look at drinking booze, drinking alcohol as like virtual reality, you know. You remember, I went out to California thinking I might become something. I wanted to be America's version of Bono from U-2. I wanted to be on the front of the stage with 100,000 people, commanding their attention.

And I didn't really put a lot into play to achieve those goals, but it was something I fantasized about to the point where you could put on that music at home and open up a couple beers and sort of become sting for an hour. You know what I mean? You could sort of fantasize that that's you. And I don't know, it sounds kind of silly, but it was definitely that virtual reality escapism

that, you know, the mundane nature of my life, things not working out necessarily like I would have loved them to. That all tied together. So the alcohol definitely served more of a purpose than just the taste. You know, it starts with me choosing, oh, I bet that's good. Let me try that. Oh, yeah, that's good.

I'm going to drink that. And then by the third one, it wouldn't matter what the hell you were drinking as long as there was alcohol in it, you know. And then you better be careful because it gets away from you and you get behind the wheel. And I'm sure I many, many times was beyond the legal limit out on the road, you know. And knock on wood, never got in any trouble and never had, you know, any. accidents or anything like that, but that's, that's just dumb luck. Yeah. I was talking with a friend the other day, too, about alcohol too.

And it's just so many, there's potential for so many things to go sideways when alcohol is involved. I was like, hey, the second I quit drinking, of course, my life still happens and there's all these moving parts. But when I eliminated that aspect of things of like not acting as who I am, like, I became somebody else, not every time, but a lot of the times I became somebody else, did things or said things that I would never do or never say that I didn't believe that aren't aligned with my values. Right.

And because he was asking, like, what do you think? You know, this is someone who's drinking and for him, whatever. I mean, that's up to him. But I was just like, because I was telling him, I'm like, all this kind of stuff that you're experiencing, like if you don't drink, believe it or not, like goes away. That stuff, you don't really deal with that. And so I think that's, it's kind of like one of the massive benefits, obviously, of the whole thing. So to kind of catch up to where you're at here, I think, is that you're going to go through this cycle.

I mean, this is a hobby, but you're also identifying, too, that it's checking other boxes in your life of things. And, you know, maybe it's providing a purpose or something to plug into community, I think, too, right? I think of these breweries and everything. I know there's this one in town. And I'm not saying it's a good idea to go to all these places, but this one place has good pizza. So I go there, get the pizza. But they have mugs. And on the wall, it's full of mugs.

And then I think each guy comes in and he gets like his own mug with his name on it. You know what I mean? And I'm like, it's kind of interesting, right? But I think that's sort of the sense of belonging and sense of community and, you know, stuff to kind of draw you in and keep you around. Brad, my picture was literally on the wall next to where I sat at the pub here in this town. There was a picture of me and my dog. and I started taking her the moment I got her, she would sit on the bar stool next to me,

put her chin on the bar stool, and I would jokingly say that she's my designated driver. But our pitcher was right there on the wall. And so I was definitely the norm from cheers at that particular pub for years. I mean, that was my comfort zone. I mean, I said many times in my life, I'm never happier than when I'm on a bar stool.

I'm sitting on a bar stool talking to you right now, Brian. Did they give you the bar stool when you retired? No, and then that particular bar became a brewery. It's a craft brewery now. And that was part of the downfall. You know, my picture came down. I wasn't special so much anymore. You know, these owners and these bartenders, you know, they make you feel welcome and special.

It was a Superman's fortress of solitude, you know. It was a escape from all the, you know, the world often is shitty and it's like shark-infested waters. The pub was an oasis. You know, the brewery was an oasis. And there was multiple to choose from, you know. And then if you traveled, I'd do the same thing. I love, love going to Ireland and England and, you know, those pubs over there in the history. and what I loved a lot about it was the fact that all ages were welcome.

You know, you didn't have, you know, just young people. You had young guys and young gals, but you'd also have older folks that they were all intermingling, and it was just part of their culture. And I'm like, man, I want to be here. This is, you know, this is home. This feels right, you know. So I have a lot of other interests. but there's just something about that world.

So, yeah, there's times that I drank alone here at my house, and I'd have, you know, decent quality beer or sometimes make a bourbon or what have you, wine with dinner, you know. But I was spending on average about $700 a month just on beer. And I'm like, man, I'm like, yeah, and then, you know, occasional six-pack here in the house. but I'm like, man, I could really be driving a nice car.

Yeah. So, you know. Yeah. So I'm just curious, too, like, where do things turn around for you? And how do you come to the conclusion, too, like, how do you land that, like, I'm just going to air quote it because I don't know if it's the exact way that you frame it up. Like, this is a problem in my life. Yeah. What lands are there?

Yeah, I knew it was a problem off and on for quite some time. well before quitting, but I still was adamant that, no, I'm not giving it up. I'm, you know, what's the point? Why would I? You know, so I would do the stupid thing that many of us have done where you, like, quit for two months, three months to prove that you're not an alcoholic, you know, because we really don't understand that full definition of that. So I'd be like, yeah, I just went three months without drinking. I clearly don't have a problem. and then you're on vacation and you have a couple drinks. And then soon as I got back home, I was right back to daily consumption.

I just, I kept trying to make rules to moderate. For every beer I drink, I've got to run a mile tomorrow. You know, and then if it was one, I would do it. But if it was beyond that, I'd be the hell with that. I'll make it up next time. Only on weekends, only when I travel. And I just, I had to have it every day. And people don't understand that still when you tell them that you're sober and well, can't you just have one?

No. If I could have just one, it'd be a perfect friggin' world, but I can't just have one, you know. I've worn out my welcome with it. And, you know, I had enough anxiety as a child that I don't even know where that stemmed from. And then you often drink because that sort of melts it away for that hour or two. But then everything's amplified. I mean, I was a wreck, you know, I was shaky, and it was amazing. I was able to pull it together and do my job.

I mean, I hung my hat on the fact that I was just always a real person. I didn't try to pretend that I was something I wasn't. So I think most of the patients that I've dealt with have always appreciated my candor and my honesty. I'm the same guy here as I am in that pub, you know, and I think that worked for a lot of people. Not everybody, but it worked for a lot of people. So I was that guy. But the problem also became physical. I blew up to 400 pounds because I was drinking on average a thousand calories a day.

These IPAs are like 300 calories of pop. So you have three of them a night on average, which was, I was easily exceeding that. You know, I would have sometimes only one, but I had 10 on Sunday. You know, or it's football or it was Saturday. I'd go and have seven. So, oh, it's Tuesday. It's bingo night at the brewery. So let's go there. And it happened to be Bogo. So you had four or six. So I was, you know, and then when you drink that much, you make horrible food choices. You know, it's, it's, well, let's stop at Taco Bell. I've got to get something in my system to soak up all this alcohol. So one thing led to another, I blew up to 400 pounds. So then, like an idiot, I thought,

you know what, I'm not going to quit drinking. I'm just going to stop eating. So I started fasting, which later in my life became beneficial, but I was fasting, but still drinking. Holy crap, was that a problem? What's that like? You, I did the goofiest shit. I, became like a sleepwalker, I scared the hell out of my fiance. I mean, there was one time that I'm just in the middle of the night getting up and trying to move a dresser and she's like crying, what are you doing? And I'm just hell bent on moving a dresser at three o'clock in the morning, but I was asleep. I was just, you know, on this autopilot. It was so bizarre because I, you know, had all this alcohol in me, but I wasn't eating, you know,

for like days and I'm like, oh, I figured this out. I can still drink, but I'm going to lose weight because I'm not going to eat. Dumb. Really dumb. And then, you know, one time I got up and didn't go to the bathroom and in my dream, I was at the bathroom, so I'm peeing in the corner of the room. And I had a flashback of when my dad came home once and did that. And I'm like, what the hell is going on?

I've, what have I become, you know? And it finally just dawned on me. when I, you know, again, up to 400 pounds really struggling just getting up my stairs, I thought to myself, I said, you know what, you're going to die in your sleep one of these nights at this rate that you're going sooner than later, and nobody's going to be surprised. Nobody's going to be shocked. They're going to be like, well, you know, God, he was 400 pounds. He drank like, you know, an animal.

He had angst and anxiety and anger, you know. So it was then and there that I said, I've got to just leave it behind. And, you know, I don't recommend this, but, you know, as humans, I think we like to make things sort of monumental. We like to be able to celebrate things. We like things in timelines and time periods. And we like to mark our calendar. So I decided on New Year's Eve on 2022 that those would be my last beers. and I was pretty adamant that I want this now.

It's not a matter of my ex-wife wanting it for me. It's not a matter of my fiancé, who I lived with and loved and wanted me to end it. I made the decision it's time. And I'm a believer that when it comes to quitting alcohol, it really just has to be what you want to do. You can't do it for legalities and be made to go to AA. You can't do it for other people.

you've got to just truly want to do it. All the ultimatums in the world don't matter. It's just got to be your choice. So I went to a couple of buddies' house. I brought like four or five different IPAs. I don't know if I even told those guys. And they weren't real big drinkers. One of them wasn't a drinker at all.

The other one, you know, a little bit here and there. But I knew in my mind this is going to be it. And the reason I was with them on New Year's Eve, my fiancé is a nurse. She works a lot. She happens to be working. that night. I wasn't going to see her. So I just went and hanged out with them. And then the next day, I hit the ground running. I started focusing on my gut health. I set some real rules and parameters when it came to sleep and my sleep hygiene. I started studying the philosophy,

the ancient Greek philosophy of stoicism, which has really extremely helped kind of guide my daily life and this problem of alcoholism. So I just put a plan together and started climbing up and down the stairs. And within eight months, I lost 100 pounds. I was sleeping like I'd never slept in my life. Nothing seemed to faze me. Man, I could get cut off in traffic and just not give a shit. I mean, you know, and worse things, too, not just the simple little stuff like that.

Other things that would have really set me off in life didn't phase me. And that's still kind of where I'm at. I mean, I just, I feel like I'm firing on all cylinders with sort of the system I've put in place. But, I mean, you can hear from my voice. I look at some of that as envious. I was recently just real quick, I was my fiancé and our little dog, we drove up to Charlotte, North Carolina. It's about 10 hours from where I am. And on the way back, we'd never been to Savannah, Georgia. So I'm like, well, let's stop in Savannah and just walk around. We're walking around,

and that's sort of like a New Orleans-y kind of drinking town on a little smaller scale. And all of a sudden, we're walking past this bar. Really cool sign out front, really cool little layout. It kind of looks like a dive, but kind of hip. And I walk towards the door and it's open and I can smell the beer, not in a bad way. It's not like stale. It smelled like a brewery kind of in a good way. And I just stopped and looked in. And I remember saying out loud, Brad, I remember saying, wow, that looks like heaven. So all of a sudden I took this gut punch of a, you know, holy shit. Oh, my God. Let's just keep walking. Let's keep walking. We got to get the dog to the car before she overheats. Let's get moving. But man, that stuck with me for,

a while, how that really, I'm like any other time, I would have just said, all right, we're going in here and we'll get a hotel room tonight and, you know, we're going to hang out here. So it's still there, you know, but I don't see me ever turning back. It's two and a half years now, over two and a half years of sobriety now. And with one caveat, and maybe you can make me feel better about this. About three weeks ago, I had a patient show up at work, and it was his last, his last visit, and he wanted to bring something in for everybody, and it was mostly me he worked with. So he hands me this lovely, what looks like a bun cake from this really gourmet bakery around the corner, and, you know, it's got the white frosting on top of it, and he's just,

thanks for everything. And I'm like, oh, that's really not necessary, but that's, well, I'm sure it'll get eaten, no worries. And I'm like, all right, I'll have a little piece of it. I want to try it. It's from a good bakery. And I'm assuming this is carrot cake. So I don't know if you know where this is going. Yeah, I do, yeah, yeah.

So I take a bite of this, and I instantly feel that mouth feel of like I just had a shot. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is rum cake. And so I spit out most of that bite. and then I quickly Google, you know, with rum cake, does all the booze get cooked away? And it doesn't necessarily because they'll cook it with rum and then they'll like drizzle rum on top of this. And then I'm thinking, who the hell brings somebody at work? A rum cake, we all got to work. So I'm going to put an asterisk, I guess, by that one.

But I just thought that was kind of a fun story. It is. I mean, it is too. And like, you know, even with the mock tales and like the NA space really growing too. Yeah. I've had a I've had a handful of conversations with people like about, you know, like the bartender accidentally did, you know, whatever. And I mean, I was even served one. I went out with my wife. And I was ordering a, I think it's called Perroni. Peroni. It's a green, green thing. So I never had it before. But they were like, that's what we have for the NA options. I was like, okay. And then it came in like a draft. And I was like, I was like. Oh, that's weird. I've never seen like, N.A.'s not that big to where they're doing draft. So I was like, yeah, I was like, just to make sure we got the order, right? Like, if you could bring the bottle, that'd be great. Because I always, like, want the bottle of yourself or see it. But yeah, you know, she had ordered the other one. You know what I mean?

So. But, yeah, I mean, the way it was always explained to me and like, I'm not a guru that has all the answers or everybody should listen to me. But it's about the intention behind it. I intended to drink something knowing where I was headed. But, you know, I mean, but everybody kind of has their own thing. That's wild. Two and a few years, man. Those are the kind of dreams I have. You know, I think everybody has these, you know, drink dreams.

And it's usually consuming by accident. You know, it's not conscious. You know, it's sort of like, oh, no, I accidentally drank. Well, I guess it's over now, you know. And you wake up very stressed about it, you know. And those still pop up every couple months. You know. Yeah. Great job on two and a half plus years, a little bit over that now that we're just crossed over into like August here. But even with sort of the other journey, too, I mean, you mentioned you lost 100 pounds there too. Like I'm only guessing, right? I wasn't there and I don't know all the details. But like health wise, were you struggling to? Heart rate, blood pressure.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm not exaggerating when I say I was going to probably die in my sleep and nobody was going to be surprised. I'm 58 years old. this month and I have a I've already outlived my father, family history of a lot of things. You know, I'm the last guy that should be walking around at four bills, you know. So, and I'm still working on always trying to level up when it comes to my health and what have you, you know, I talk a lot about this on, you know, I have my small little, my podcast, Kraft Free. Yeah, because I gave up Kraft Beer and it's Craft Free the Weekly Sober. podcast, and it's only on Spotify. It's only audio. And it's a casual, lighthearted approach to, you know, quitting alcohol and the pitfalls of that. I never told that rum cake story, though.

But yeah, I mean, it's a labor of love. It's sort of my meetings, you know. Again, I do it every single week. And sometimes it's 15 minutes. Sometimes it's a half hour. It's only on Spotify. And I started it last December, I think. So I'm about 36, 37 episodes in. And it's fun. You know, it's a labor of love. You've got to come up with a topic and what have you. And I've had people ask me, you know, hey, you want to interview me?

And I'm like, no, I said, Brad's the guy. Reach out to Brad. He's good at that. I'm not going to be able to do that. But, yeah. But it's not just. just about craft beer. I mean, I kind of, I talk about everyday life. I talk about, you know, loneliness and other problems and certain things based on stoicism. I used to do, when I was drinking,

I was doing stand-up comedy, Brad. I can't imagine doing it now without alcohol. I mean, I didn't have to be hammered, but it took a couple to get up on stage. So I interject a lot of humor into the podcast. And like I said, it's sort of a lighthearted approach. I felt there was a niche for it. I definitely try to shine a light on the craft brew industry. I mean, again, I jokingly refer to myself as the Luigi of craft breweries, you know, but I once loved them and now I have a disdain for what they've done. But yeah, yeah, so it's fun and it helps. And I know you've got to go, Brad.

It's been a pleasure. It's been great to talk to you. Yes, you as well, Steve. Thank you so much, man. And I'll drop the link if somebody wants to check out. the podcast too and i mean i think you're right man i think this is a very serious subject and a very serious topic but we have to find a way to have a little bit of fun with everything that we do or it's like yeah it's like why do it all that's where i stay with things like why do if we can't find

a little bit of pleasure and fun and an outlet like that yeah i think that's cool you're bringing that to the table man yeah i'm not the guy that's going to give all the science and the statistics there's you can find that stuff elsewhere but uh you know i try to keep you Keep it real, raw, you know, unfiltered like a hazy IPA. Yeah. And there's been, obviously, I mean, we are at a time here, but there obviously has been challenges to that you've went through. And you mentioned, you know, like maybe people if they're interested in that, go check out the podcast and hear Steve talk about, you know, some of those things. Yeah.

Yeah. All right, Steve. Thank you, buddy. Brad, I appreciate it, buddy. Much love. Yeah, same to you. Well, there it is. Another incredible story here on the podcast.

podcast. Thank you to Steve. Jumping on here. And sharing your story with all of us here, I'll drop the podcast information and Instagram for Steve down on the show notes below if you want to connect. If you could relate to any of his journey with craft beer and how I guess, you know, there's a trapdoor there as well is what we hear from Steve's journey and experience with it all. So keep rocking, Steve.

Thank you, as always for listening. And if you haven't left a review on Apple or Spotify, jump over there right now before you do anything. else, leave a five-star review, and I'll see you on the next one.