Maureen (00:01.94)
Hey everybody, I have really been looking forward to today. I am so excited to have Hadley Sorensen. Is that how you say last name? Sorensen? Okay, great. Hadley Sorensen on Sober Fit Life to share her story and also to talk about her book, The Dirty Truth on Social Drinking, Everything in Moderation and Other BS. I love that. She's a mom of three.
Hadley Sorensen (00:10.21)
It is, yep, you got it.
Maureen (00:27.336)
A lifelong runner and a writer who spent years questioning her drinking. Not because of how much she drank, but because of how it made her feel. But three and a half years ago, she woke up after one last hangover and decided she was done. No rock bottom, no medical crisis, just a gut feeling that life could be better without alcohol. Now through her book and her platform, she's helping others see that anyone can quit drinking at any time for any reason. No rock bottom required. So,
I want to welcome Hadley and I want to definitely jump into her story, but I also want to say I talk a lot about gray area drinking on this podcast and in my coaching and that's how I'm certified as a gray area drinking coach. And the actual definition for that, I just want to review before we start is, and this is by the dietary guidelines, two or fewer drinks, so fewer being the keyword, you are not a gray area drinker. You're like a tea totaler. I call those unicorns. Those are people who
Hardly drank and it's never been a big deal to them. And then it is also not rock bottom. So the other end of the spectrum, the one we've always been taught that's only reason you should be concerned about your drinking, rock bottom, gray area is in between. So three or more drinks, you are in the gray and before you hit rock bottom. So Hadley talks about that in her book and I would love to just let her take it away and...
Tell us a little bit about your story, Hadley, how you started to come to this realization that you just didn't want to drink anymore.
Hadley Sorensen (01:58.894)
Sure, and thank you so much for having me. And I love that you started with sort of that definition of gray area drinking because that fit me to a T and I had no idea that was even a thing until I stopped drinking and dove into the space and started learning all there is to learn about alcohol and sort of the world of sobriety. So my story starts with, I think it is similar to so many other women of my, our
Maureen (02:17.824)
Mm-hmm.
Hadley Sorensen (02:27.084)
you know, generation. I started drinking as a teenager. I was, I was as a teenager, I felt like I didn't fit in. I was socially awkward. I was shy, very normal teenage stuff, but I stumbled onto alcohol and discovered, well, this is a way to kind of smooth out all of those rough edges. It helps me fit in. It helps me be more social. So I, you know, went down that path. And as a, as a teenager, it looked like
Maureen (02:46.688)
Mm-hmm.
Hadley Sorensen (02:56.224)
drinking, whatever, we could get our hands on in a field somewhere or, you and that sort of evolved over time and went to a big college where the binge drinking culture was very intense. And so that was that was kind of how I knew how to drink, just binge drinking on the weekend. And I went right from college very seamlessly into what we refer to as the mommy wine culture.
Maureen (02:59.636)
Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (03:26.082)
Right? It was still binge drinking on the weekends, but now we were lived in nice houses and we were wearing nice clothes and we were sipping expensive wine around the cul-de-sac with our neighbors while we had the baby monitors to check on the kids, that kind of thing. But I never felt good about my drinking from the very first time I drank as a teenager. I always had this sort of sense that
something about my drinking was different than those around me. It it always felt sort of toxic or off. I couldn't really articulate what the issue was. A big part of that is because I was a blackout drinker. So I would go into the night saying, I'm only gonna have a glass or two of wine. And then I would wake up the next morning wondering what the hell had happened. And that brought with it so much shame and regret and anxiety and
Maureen (04:07.668)
Mm-hmm.
Hadley Sorensen (04:24.842)
angst, just if you've ever experienced that, you know all those feelings, you wake up with the next morning and it's horrible. And that was just on repeat for me for decades, which is so ridiculous to admit now.
Maureen (04:38.618)
You know, I'm nodding my head voraciously because our stories are very identical. So, except for the mommy part, but go ahead. Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (04:42.474)
Yes. Yeah. And so I just was under the impression that this must be a normal part of adult life because it was what everyone around me did. No one seemed to think that my blackouts were a red flag. No one seemed to think that the way I was drinking was a red flag. No one in my life had any idea that I was struggling with any of this ever.
literally until I quit. kept it so quiet and so private, but it just ate away at me for years and years. And I was constantly, you know, striving to find that moderation balance that, you know, the elusive idea of moderation that everyone seems to think we should be able to achieve. And I was high performing. I was successful. I could figure out everything else in my life. Why couldn't I?
Maureen (05:15.402)
Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (05:38.594)
figure this out, why couldn't I just be a good little drinker that didn't have to worry about these things?
Maureen (05:41.898)
Right?
You are describing a gray area drinker to the tea. So I just, yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (05:47.436)
Yeah, yeah, and I just kept trying. I was like a dog chasing its tail. And things seemed to sort of escalate a little bit. I was never necessarily a daily drinker. I wasn't, you talk about that rock bottom, the stereotypical rock bottom that we think of. I never hit that, right? I...
Maureen (05:52.032)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (06:12.128)
Mm-hmm.
Hadley Sorensen (06:13.806)
wasn't drinking in the mornings. wasn't, you know, I would do the Google search, am I an alcoholic? And I didn't hit those check boxes. So of course that kept me thinking, well, I'm supposed to be fine. I'm supposed to just keep going. I'm supposed to figure this out. And in 2020, 2021, through COVID, through a lot of personal stuff we went through, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. We had a whole bunch of stuff going on.
Maureen (06:18.057)
Yes.
Maureen (06:22.046)
Mm-hmm.
Hadley Sorensen (06:41.87)
My drinking did get more daily in the sense that that five o'clock glass of wine was like a non-negotiable. I still wasn't drinking really more than that usually. Still most of my big drinking episodes were social in nature. But I was depending on it more. And then in 2021, we sort of had this trend where we have a lake house about two hours from our house. And we were, the world was kind of opening back up after COVID.
Maureen (06:44.416)
Mm-hmm.
Hadley Sorensen (07:11.886)
So we were having friends come visit every weekend, friends and family that we hadn't gotten to see for a long time because of my husband's immune system and all of that, we'd been really locked down. And so everybody would come to the lake house and they would want to drink like they were on vacation. Vacation drinking is a whole nother category of drinking.
Maureen (07:25.684)
Right.
yeah, breakfast drinks. Yes. All right.
Hadley Sorensen (07:30.87)
Right, anything goes, nothing is off the table. So we would drink like that every weekend. And I really started to finally connect, again, it's ridiculous that it took me this long, the connection between those weekend binges and my mental health. Like Sunday night, Monday would roll around and I was like a shell of a person. I was depressed and I was anxious and I was...
Maureen (07:55.658)
Yes. Gosh, me too. Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (08:00.482)
I was a mess and then it would take me to like Wednesday, Thursday to kind of emerge from that fog. And then we would go back to the lake and we would do it all over again. And it just kept building and building until one morning.
Maureen (08:06.962)
my gosh, yeah.
and do it again. Do it again.
Maureen (08:18.058)
Can I ask you what was building like for you? Because you're just, again, we're similar stories. What was building? Was it guilt, the shame, the living out of alignment with who you are? Like, what was it if you could categorize it?
Hadley Sorensen (08:22.519)
Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (08:29.494)
all of the above, the guilt, the shame, the living out of alignment with my values. was really starting to, because of the nature of these weekends, I was really starting to, my eyes were sort of opened to the impact that this might be having on my boys who were getting, who were now old enough to notice and understood what drinking and being drunk was. I was never like outwardly drunk in front of my boys. However, other people,
Maureen (08:46.11)
Mm-hmm.
Hadley Sorensen (08:58.51)
that were there for these weekends were. So they were noticing stuff.
Maureen (09:01.608)
Yeah. You actually share a story in your book about your boys getting upset, thinking you were drunk. Can you, were you going to go into that? I'd love to hear that. Yeah. Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (09:08.152)
Yes, I certainly can. Yeah, that was kind of a wake up call that was one of the early wake up calls that kind of led up to this. And the kicker was I actually wasn't drunk. was like, yeah, was Halloween during COVID 2020 and nobody was really trick or treating in our area. My husband was really sick from chemo and radiation. All our neighbors were just gonna meet outside. We always had these Halloween parties in our cul-de-sac before Halloween, before the kids would trick or treat.
Maureen (09:19.144)
that time,
Hadley Sorensen (09:37.198)
And we said, okay, we're just gonna get together. We just miss being with people. We're gonna let the kids dress up. We're gonna hang out in the cul-de-sac, do a fire pit, whatever. And I had had like a glass, a glass and a half of wine. We were all just really excited to be together and hanging out. The kids were having a blast. We were laughing, cutting up, nothing exciting. One of my boys ran inside to get a drink and I guess went up, my husband was in bed.
down for the count and went up and said to him, I think mom is drunk or something to that effect. And so I start getting these texts from my husband outside and he's like, you got to come in here, what's going on? And I'm like, for once, nothing, nothing is going on. And I guess one of the neighbors had sort of introduced them to that idea of being drunk.
Maureen (10:12.064)
Yeah, Mm-hmm.
Maureen (10:20.681)
Right.
Hadley Sorensen (10:30.766)
We said, so they were sort of on the lookout. We were all laughing. We were having a good time and they thought, oh, this is it. And so I was horrified and I was so ashamed and so embarrassed. And I'm going, I'm actually, I'm not, this group of neighbors knows how to throw down and this was not one of those times. And so of course I'm trying to explain that and it just wasn't, it just, I just felt like a,
Maureen (10:47.038)
This is one of the times you weren't. Yeah. Right.
Hadley Sorensen (11:00.11)
failure all around. really got to me. was like, how do I explain this to my kids? And do I even have to? So it was one of those defining moments kind of leading up to the end. So similarly that summer, I mean, they were seeing lots of people drunk at the lake house. And it was really giving me the ick, you know, it was really starting to bother me. So that
Maureen (11:03.136)
Yeah, I bet.
Maureen (11:11.562)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (11:18.954)
Right, adults drunk.
Mm-hmm.
Hadley Sorensen (11:28.736)
in combination with the impact it was having on my mental health, these kind of cyclical depressive episodes and the anxiety. And so I woke up on August 6th and I'd had shared two bottles of Rose with a neighbor at the lake. We were kind of got day drunk. I was in bed by 8 p.m. but still woke up at three with the spins and the rotten stomach and the hot chills.
Maureen (11:53.516)
yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (11:56.886)
And I just remember so clearly lying there going, why do I keep doing this to myself? And acting like I'm powerless, like I have no control over it. And I was supposed to go for a long run that day. I was training for a race and I knew I was not going to be able to run. And I just thought, I am so sick and tired of feeling this way. And I think I'm done. I think I want to be done.
Maureen (12:03.008)
Yes.
Maureen (12:14.399)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (12:24.98)
Wow.
Hadley Sorensen (12:25.792)
And so I made that decision and I...
Maureen (12:29.662)
And what did that look like? Did you get up and tell your husband that morning or did you keep it to yourself? How did that?
Hadley Sorensen (12:35.382)
I kept it to myself at first. I knew, like I knew that something was different. I had taken lots of breaks over the years, you know, a month or whatever, but there was always this goal of, you know, I was resetting so I could go back to drinking and be fixed. Yes. And I knew this time was different. But I, you know, it's kind of funny in hindsight. I felt like I needed an alibi. I wasn't sure how to talk about it.
Maureen (12:40.872)
in your bones. Yes.
Maureen (12:49.96)
Right. Yes, detox and then retox. Yeah.
Maureen (13:04.873)
yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (13:05.454)
So I said I was doing 75 hard. That kind of 75 day challenge where you drink a gallon of water, you do two workouts a day, you follow a new trip and you don't drink.
Maureen (13:17.214)
Yes. So I relate to this so much because I did figure competitions. for me, that felt like, everybody will accept this because I'm getting up on stage and, you know, and so no one, and I felt relief. So I had to have this excuse, isn't it? That's what you're saying. You need it. You felt like you needed a viable excuse that people go, okay, well, that makes sense why you're not drinking. Like we needed their permission almost. Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (13:26.764)
I can't drink because yes.
Hadley Sorensen (13:42.86)
Yeah, and again, because I had told my husband, didn't even know that I struggled with this. I kept it so private and I didn't know how to talk about it yet. So I said, I'm doing this 75 day challenge. I have to do all these things, not drinking is just part of it. And like two weeks in, I started saying, mentioning to close friends, you know, I think this might be it.
Maureen (13:49.108)
Mm-hmm. I know.
Hadley Sorensen (14:10.274)
But I slowly got more confident as that time went on and I slowly started talking about it more and more.
Maureen (14:12.234)
Yeah.
Maureen (14:17.536)
Were you coming out of your mental haze and fog? Were you starting to notice? Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (14:22.926)
I know people experience sort of the benefits of eliminating alcohol on different timelines, but I saw lots of benefits very quickly. And one of them was my mental health. mean, it was clear the impact that it was alcohol that was having such an impact on it. And that fog started to lift.
Maureen (14:35.872)
Mm-hmm.
Hadley Sorensen (14:47.906)
I was sleeping better. just, and I think part of it was mental, just knowing that I was doing something that I had needed to do for so long.
Maureen (14:56.606)
Yeah, I think people underestimate how bad that feels, feeling out of alignment with who you are.
Hadley Sorensen (15:01.992)
yeah, yeah for sure. Yeah, so I noticed a difference very quickly.
Maureen (15:06.078)
Yeah, yeah, great. And then, well, when did you start thinking, well, I'm going to write about it? Were you writing all along or you, or you?
Hadley Sorensen (15:14.702)
So I'd always been a writer in some capacity. And at this time, I was a health and fitness coach. And so a big part of what I did was kind of sharing my story on social media. However, I was sharing that kind of toxic mommy wine culture stuff, that ugly kind of intersection between the world of wellness and alcohol. Like you can...
Maureen (15:16.842)
okay.
Maureen (15:25.716)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (15:34.325)
Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (15:40.108)
I can have it all, can be balanced. Everything in moderation, yeah, I run, but I also really love my wine. Which, know, of course I cringe to look back on. So I'd been sort of out there sharing and so I started talking about what I was doing, about the alcohol piece and how I had given it up and how much better I was feeling.
Maureen (15:41.28)
Everything in moderation.
Hadley Sorensen (16:06.7)
And I was sharing little bits on social media and I was getting, of course, so many people who were following me had been following me for my mommy wine and workout content. And I'm sure. So I'm sure they were going, what the hell is going on? But so many people were coming out of the woodwork and saying, me too. I feel the same way. And I kind of thought, maybe I'm onto something I'll keep sharing. And at the same time, I was devouring.
Maureen (16:16.624)
So you really flipped it. Okay.
Hadley Sorensen (16:36.366)
I was reading so many of them and they were a huge part of my journey and they were so inspiring and I learned a lot.
Maureen (16:36.97)
Yes, yes.
Maureen (16:44.874)
Yeah, I want to just stop you there and share with the audience. That is so important to do that because it helps us realize we're not alone. There's a whole world out there of people having the same thoughts we were having, like, I don't want to drink anymore, but, you know, I don't look like rock bottom. And when you read this quit-lit, it helps you feel more and more empowered. So I highly recommend including Hadley's book that you read to help, yes, to help you.
Hadley Sorensen (17:07.31)
Yes, thank you, yes.
Maureen (17:10.78)
realize you're not alone and this is a cultural thing and you have a choice to change. So yeah, I'm glad that you mentioned that. So you're like, reading all these books and you're like, I'm going to write one. Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (17:17.581)
Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (17:21.728)
Yeah, basically. I thought, you know, at the time, three and a half years ago, there weren't many books that kind of delved into the gray area. Most of the books I was reading while they were amazing and they were so important and inspiring to me, they were those more stereotypical rock bottom stories. So I couldn't totally relate. I didn't see my experience reflected in them. They were more kind of like cautionary tales, like I think.
Maureen (17:30.975)
Yes.
Maureen (17:39.669)
Right.
Maureen (17:45.822)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Hadley Sorensen (17:49.294)
wow, if I had kept going, would I have ended up here or, and it just wasn't quite my experience. And I started thinking, well, maybe I can be the one to tell it from a different angle. Yeah, and now there are several amazing books in that space and they're so important and we need more because we need to hear, you know.
Maureen (18:13.0)
There are, but I love your title, the dirty truth about social drinking, because that's sort of like a label everybody gives themselves. I just drink every now and again socially, you know, and that's a very subjective, you know, we don't really know what that means. Like that for me, that meant binge drinking, you know, socially. Right. So I love how your title is very, very important.
Hadley Sorensen (18:30.488)
Same. Yep.
Hadley Sorensen (18:36.29)
Thank you. I wanted to sort of lower the barrier to entry for people who might be afraid of quit lit books. Like, well, I'm just a social drinker. I can't have a problem. Like, it's not an issue. Like, social drinkers aren't the people who quit drinking. And that was the trap that held me for so long.
Maureen (18:39.231)
Yes.
Maureen (18:54.512)
Mm-hmm. And I think another thing you mentioned in your book or I read in a write-up was, I drink really like high-end good wines, you know, so it's sophisticated. I totally bought into that, you know, or I'm drinking potato vodka because it's gluten-free. So it's healthier, low-carb, low-sugar. You know, I would fool myself in many ways.
Hadley Sorensen (19:09.097)
Hadley Sorensen (19:17.432)
Yeah, there's like the fit vine. this is great. For me, it's organic and it's, right, it's not the pesticides that are the problem. It's the ethanol.
Maureen (19:20.208)
Right. Organic.
Maureen (19:29.888)
It's the toxin, it's the ethanol. yeah. And so talk about, you talk about it, the hamster wheel in the drinking culture. And I call that the detox, retox cycle in the fitness world. you're detoxing and then you just retox on the weekends, especially, and then you think you're sweating it out and green drinks and protein shakes and working out, but that's not how it works. But your hamster wheel, what do you mean by that in the drinking culture?
Hadley Sorensen (19:58.338)
Well, I mean, sort of a lot of it is the mental hamster wheel, right? This process we go through and trying, you know, so many of us who kind of grapple with moderation. It's that idea that, well, this is normal. Society, drinking culture, advertising, all of this tells us that we should be able to drink moderately. I don't seem to be able to figure that out.
but I better keep trying. So I'm going to make all these promises to myself. I'm gonna make all these rules that I have to follow. I'm gonna do all these things. And then, oops, I fell short again and you're beating yourself up and you're mad. Well, I'm gonna start fresh. Monday is a new day, a new week, or I'm gonna take a break. I'm gonna do all this. And you're beating yourself up. And then you just find yourself stuck in this loop.
Maureen (20:26.164)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (20:39.712)
right.
Maureen (20:45.237)
Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (20:55.63)
Um, you know, I, I like, I tried to master moderation my entire drinking career, what spanning three decades. Uh, and I could never do it, but it was that I, again, like a dog chasing its cha- tail. I'm, I'm, the world tells me I'm supposed to be able to drink moderately. If I can't, there's kind of something wrong with me. So I better figure it out.
Maureen (21:01.792)
Yeah, me too.
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (21:12.064)
Yeah.
Maureen (21:20.948)
Yeah, and the alcohol industry is very much behind that. You know, they were able to lobby to say drink responsibly because that puts the onus on you. You're the drinker and if you can't drink an addictive substance responsibly, then you have a problem. Not that maybe you're drinking an addictive substance on a regular basis is the problem. Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (21:29.25)
Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (21:39.416)
Right. Exactly. And you nailed it. is not only is it an addictive substance, it's one of the most addictive substances. I was looking up the list because it always changes if you look up like the top 10 most addictive substances. It falls somewhere around like heroin, depending on where you look, heroin, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol, like fentanyl. They're all, mean, so it's literally doing its job.
Maureen (21:52.383)
Yes.
Maureen (22:09.365)
Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (22:09.912)
by being difficult to moderate. It is an addictive drug. No one would say, well, just enjoy heroin responsibly, just moderate, right?
Maureen (22:12.426)
Yeah, it's a detective.
Maureen (22:19.331)
Yeah. Or when you quit, when you stop doing heroin, no one would be like, ooh, did you have a problem with heroin? But with alcohol, that's what happens.
Hadley Sorensen (22:26.572)
Right, right. And even with smoking, it's the same way. No one would say like, well, you're gonna, you're gonna smoke on special occasions, right? It's bizarre, but yet we believe it and we think, gosh, I should really be able to, I should do a better job moderating this. And that cycle just kept me stuck for so long.
Maureen (22:37.374)
Right? Yeah.
Maureen (22:53.322)
That mental chatter, it's exhausting. Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (22:56.022)
It is, it is. And it was so liberating to realize how much easier it is to quit completely than it was to keep like wrestling with that idea that if I just tried one more time, I could probably figure it out. Cause it was never gonna happen.
Maureen (23:17.502)
Right. And it's so hard and neither one of us are speaking from a judgmental perspective because when we were both drinking, I would never have believed this. I never would have believed it at all. So it's only until you get on the other side of it, until you try to allow your body and your brain and yourself to experience what it's like without alcohol. That's the only way you can really know.
Hadley Sorensen (23:22.722)
No.
Hadley Sorensen (23:39.992)
Yes, and that's not to say that any of this is easy. I never wanna minimize the process of getting to that other side, but it's so worth it because it is so liberating, so liberating and freeing and peaceful.
Maureen (23:49.054)
Yeah, it's a process.
It is so worth it. Yeah.
Maureen (23:57.938)
I know I'm three and a half years now not drinking and I'm still amazed by it. Like the things that happen. I was going to a party the other night driving my friend, she used to drink too, she doesn't drink anymore either. I'm like, isn't this cool? We don't have to like worry about getting an Uber. We're just going to drive there and we're going to leave when we want. It's just simple stuff, but it's so freeing, like you said, the lack of mental chatter and that hamster wheel.
There are so many takeaways in your book. Do you have like a few favorites that you like to share with people?
Hadley Sorensen (24:32.558)
Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest one is, you know, to keep in mind this idea that it doesn't matter how bad you are. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you are, you know, meet any of those criteria on the online, am I an alcoholic checklist? If you feel like your gut, like your intuition is telling you that something is off,
in your relationship with alcohol. You owe it to yourself to listen. Don't ignore that voice like I did for so long. It doesn't matter how bad you are. You can quit drinking anytime for any reason. You don't just have to be at that stereotypical rock bottom and don't wait for it to get worse. Explore it and figure out what life might really feel like without it because you
Maureen (25:09.12)
Mm-hmm.
Me too.
Hadley Sorensen (25:32.258)
you you'd be doing yourself a huge favor.
Maureen (25:35.156)
Yeah, I like how you use the word explore because that implies curiosity. You know, so instead of staying in that shaming, blaming, beating yourself up, just get curious and be willing to explore it, right? You can always get back to drinking, but give it a good shot and see what happens. That's the only way you're going to know is to show yourself. that's such a huge takeaway. It doesn't have to be rock bottom, no big mental breakdown. You just knew it was no longer something you wanted in your life. And has this...
changed your relationship with your husband and your sons, have you seen a difference in what you're modeling for them?
Hadley Sorensen (26:10.892)
Yeah, absolutely. My sons are teenagers now and it's been a really cool time to kind of go through this whole process because I could kind of bring them with me. I mean, we have so many really open, honest conversations about drinking and people love on social media to attack me for, like you think your kids are never gonna drink, you're an idiot, like all teenagers drink and all. you know what?
Maureen (26:20.885)
Yeah.
Maureen (26:36.597)
Yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (26:39.854)
no point do I think that, am I naive enough to think that my children are never gonna drink? And that is never the point of these conversations, but they understand why I quit drinking, why I choose to talk about it. And when they do at some point choose to try drinking, they're gonna be so much more educated than I was in that field at the age of 14, right?
Maureen (26:51.284)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (27:00.136)
Aware. Yeah. Same.
Well, I just want to stay on that for a minute because you bring up such an important point. So many people say, it's just a rite of passage. This is what all kids are going to go through. Well, maybe so. They're always going to be around and introduced to it. But it doesn't mean you can't plant seeds and share your experience and talk about it. So they have more of an awareness. And on our conversation before we started recording, you said you're actually in the process of writing a book for teenagers. I love this idea. I don't think there's really anything out there.
Hadley Sorensen (27:31.468)
Yeah. Yeah, I'm in the really early stages of planning this, but it's something that has been on my heart because there are so many misperceptions about teenage drinking. Contrary to popular belief, not all teenagers drink. And the teenagers that don't drink are not being left out and ostracized. like people see, I mean, the stuff I have heard on Instagram from people who think
Maureen (27:36.02)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (27:41.938)
Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (28:00.066)
that if your teenagers don't drink, they're gonna go to college and they're gonna die of alcohol poisoning their first day. And all of the research shows that essentially none of that is true. We all have anecdotal evidence or stories of somebody that went to college who was a good little girl in high school and didn't drink and then went crazy. But you can find examples of stories about anything.
Maureen (28:05.855)
Right.
Maureen (28:19.988)
who just didn't drink.
Hadley Sorensen (28:28.622)
The science shows, the research shows that we should be keeping our kids from drinking for as long as possible because the earlier they drink, the more likely they are to have problems. That's it.
Maureen (28:40.542)
Early exposure increases the likelihood that they're going to become heavier drinkers later on. Like we were both exposed at a very young age. So I love that you're going to be a thought leader in this and you know those responses to you are not about you at all or even your topic. It's right back there immediately looking inside and thinking what does that mean for me and how I parent. it's you know but it's a message I think that needs to get out there. So I can't wait till that comes out. And what else are you doing? I mean
Hadley Sorensen (28:47.116)
Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (28:54.491)
yeah.
Hadley Sorensen (29:05.998)
Thank you.
Maureen (29:08.67)
Like writing one book is enough in my world, but like what else are you doing?
Hadley Sorensen (29:11.534)
Well, I'm currently working, and it's been so fun, on a novel because I wanted to mix things up. It is still very much in the alcohol space, but it is sort of a look at, it follows a group of friends who are all kind of connected in different ways, but they all have very different relationships with alcohol. So it sort of explores this idea of,
Maureen (29:35.636)
Mmm.
Hadley Sorensen (29:38.84)
like the very different ways that we can struggle kind of being in different places on that alcohol use disorder spectrum. So.
Maureen (29:41.844)
Yes.
Maureen (29:47.522)
I can't wait for that one to come out too. That sounds great. You're so creative. I really admire writers. I think it's just such a gift and a talent. And I love that you're sharing it in this alcohol free space because it's so necessary, you know.
Hadley Sorensen (29:50.136)
Thank you.
Hadley Sorensen (30:01.486)
Thank you. It's a fun way to sort of contribute to this space. enjoy doing it.
Maureen (30:06.27)
Yeah. And just like you said, teenagers look around, not all teenagers are drinking. I don't know if you experienced this phenomenon, but when I stopped, I realized, wow, everybody isn't drinking like I was drinking. A lot of adults don't drink. A lot of people are having iced tea at lunch. They're not having wine and many people don't even finish their drinks that they're having. So that's also eye-opening too, to see not everybody is drinking the way we thought or the way we're marketed to. So that's important to learn.
Hadley Sorensen (30:33.846)
Yeah, and I think conversations like the one that we are having, they're becoming more commonplace and I think people are starting to open their eyes.
Maureen (30:37.076)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (30:43.934)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I love to ask this to anybody I interview. What do you do in your life to do feel sober, fit? So that could be mental, physically, emotionally, all three.
Hadley Sorensen (30:55.758)
Well, you know, I am a fitness lover as well. So running is a really big part of my life and working out. I run and I lift weights kind of on rotation all week long. And it is kind of critical for my mental health as well as my physical health. And I have recently started walking more. I'm sure.
Maureen (30:59.701)
Yeah.
Maureen (31:11.37)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (31:15.476)
Yes.
Hadley Sorensen (31:24.716)
you know, women will get this like even as much as I work out, I realize on days that I wasn't running, I might, I would lift weights for an hour. But then I would have like 3000 steps for the day because I was sitting on my butt behind my computer. And so I've really started just incorporating more movement in general. And it just kind of has been life changing, which seems, yes, I get outside this weather is killing me.
Maureen (31:38.901)
Right.
Maureen (31:42.997)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen (31:49.14)
Do get outside when you walk? Yeah. So it's that nature.
Hadley Sorensen (31:53.582)
but it is the nature thing. feel so much more kind of connected to and in tune with nature since I quit drinking and time outside is really important to me. So that's been a big shift for me.
Maureen (32:06.516)
Yeah, I love that. And just briefly for our listeners, have you noticed an improvement in your running and your weightlifting and since you stopped drinking?
Hadley Sorensen (32:14.93)
Yes, I noticed a an improvement in my running very early on because I wasn't running hungover anymore. wasn't. Right, I wasn't pushing myself through a 10 miler because it was on the schedule, but I was dehydrated and miserable. I was just beating my body up instead of building it up. So, yes, I have noticed a difference. I feel better.
Maureen (32:24.042)
Right. You weren't punishing yourself anymore.
Hadley Sorensen (32:44.702)
I use that time productively in my head instead of kind of agonizing over what I did the night before, the weekend before. I just feel so much healthier in general.
Maureen (32:57.822)
Yeah, that's so good for everybody to hear because it just makes such a big difference when you remove this toxin, like you said, that's dehydrating, it affects muscle protein synthesis. And now you're working out to get better instead of just to check it off the list and say you did it. Big difference. So how do people get in touch with you Hadley if they'd like to reach out and...
Hadley Sorensen (33:13.87)
Big difference.
Hadley Sorensen (33:20.098)
Yeah, Instagram is where I spend most of my sort of online time. My Instagram is just at hadley underscore Sorenson. My DMs are always open. I love chatting with people. I'm constantly sort of sharing out there. My website is hadleysorenson.com and you can get in touch with me there. And then my book is available on Amazon. So I'd love for you to check it out.
Maureen (33:45.63)
Yeah, yeah, everybody read that the dirty truth on social drinking, everything in moderation and other BS. Love that. It was such a pleasure interviewing you and talking with you. We have so much in common. I want to talk to you more afterwards.
Hadley Sorensen (33:58.328)
I know, we need to take this offline and continue our chat. This was great, I loved it. Thanks for having me.
Maureen (34:02.208)
Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Hadley.
