Hi, welcome to the You Can Quit Smoking podcast, where we go over stories of success with overcoming smoking addiction. Many people have moved through this radical transformation and use smoking as an opportunity for inner growth, with deeper self-awareness and a greater capacity for compassion. So many have done it and you can quit smoking, too. I'm your host, Jessi Hartnett, founder of Honor Your Heart.

Jessi:

Hey everyone, welcome back. I'm so happy I'm joined today by Sara. Sara, can you introduce yourself?


Sara:

Hi, I'm Sara Kaufman-Bradstreet. I'm the founder of No More Wasted Days. Which is what I mainly talk about over on Instagram, my journey of quitting drinking.


But recently, I started talking about that I am one year free from marijuana. And I did actually quit smoking cigarettes too when I quit drinking. And that was six and a half years ago. That's what I do for work.


Besides all of that, I live out in western Washington. My husband and I built our own house for the last four years and I'm recording out here in our yurt that we lived in during that time. And I was a public school's music teacher before we moved out here and did this and before I started my business of No More Wasted Days. So that is a huge part of my story.


And I have two twins. Not two sets of twins. I have two kids and they are twins. Sometimes that confuses people.


Jessi:

Yeah. I was like, “Whoa”. [laughter]


Sara:

[laughter] Yeah. Right. But they're 14, boy/girl twins. And we've got a little tiny hobby farm out here with our chickens and ducks and dog and cat. Is that the information you wanted? [laughter]


Jessi:

Yeah, that all sounds lovely. So, talk to us about smoking. Let's jump into it. What's your story with smoking?


Sara:

So, I started smoking cigarettes when I was in high school, which I feel like a lot of people do. And I want to say I started when I was 16. I went on a trip to Europe with the choir that I sang with. And while we were there, you can buy cigarettes in Europe, underage. There was no age limit. So, we were like, "Let's do it."


And little did I know that that would propel me into just a full-on addiction to smoking. It should have been my sign. Like, “Oh, you have an addictive personality.” but it was not my sign at all.


I felt like smoking made me cool. I still feel like that. That's so dumb to say, but I still am always like, "Oh my gosh, smoking cigarettes is so cool." I feel like I loved it. I don't remember hating it when I had my first cigarette. I remember just thinking, "This is so cool." And probably the group of girls I was doing it with, too, were feeling the same way.


And it's like, I brought home that pack of cigarettes. I think my mom found it and I was like, "Oh, mom, I just got it because I was in Europe and I'm not going to do that." But I definitely did start smoking after that. I don't know how I got the cigarettes, but I did. I must have had my sister buying them because she was older. But I smoked from 16 to basically 40.


I did not smoke heavily that whole time. I smoked very heavily in college to the point where I was up to like two packs a day. And I think about that now and I'm like, “How did I afford that?” But it was also the ‘90s. But I was a person who was just in their dorm room smoking cigarettes while they studied. Then I moved to my own apartment. Same thing.


And I don't feel like I tried to quit until probably my 20s when I was like, "Okay, I've got to quit." And then I met my now husband. And while we were dating, I was still smoking but not near as much as I did in college. But he grew up with grandparents that smoked and his dad smoked and his stepmom smoked and he hated it. And he finally told me, "I'm not going to marry you if you're a smoker."


Some people are like, "Oh, you shouldn't give somebody an ultimatum." But that was the push I needed because I had become someone who really only smoked when they drank. So it wasn't all the time and it's like I needed that final push. So then I got married. I was 30. And then we got pregnant really fast with our twins. So obviously I didn't smoke during that time.


And then after that smoking was a very naughty thing I could do. If people had cigarettes I was definitely going to ask to bum some. Every now and then I would go buy a pack. If I knew we were going to be drinking that weekend, which was every weekend, but it was kind of like if I knew we were going to be having a party or if I knew we were going to be with other smokers, then I would buy a pack.


And I started being the person who could buy a pack and keep it in the freezer. And now I'm like, “I don't know how I did that.” I think it was also that I didn't want to smoke around my kids. And I knew Ryan didn't like it, but he'd like give me this pass when I was drinking.


And then finally, I quit drinking when I was 40. And the urge to smoke was gone. Like it really was this thing that I only did when I was drinking.


Now, I will not say the urge is completely gone. I still totally have moments where if Ryan goes out of town, I'll think, “I could go buy a pack of cigarettes. No one would know and I could sneak off onto our land and just sit and smoke cigarettes.” Then I stop and I go, "What a sad little existence that would be for that weekend."


But beyond that, I also smoked weed for the same amount of time. Like 16 to 44 basically is when I started trying to quit because I was Cali sober for a long time. I had quit drinking and I was Cali sober for probably four of those years. And then started my journey with trying to quit smoking weed, which was the hardest thing I've done.


I don't know why it's the hardest thing I've done, the hardest thing I've quit and it's definitely the one that I consider all the time, “Would I bring that back into my life?” I think it's the one that is played up as medicinal and played up as, “it's a plant. It's good for you.” And it's really hard for me to not buy into that. I don't know. Does that make sense to you?


Jessi:

It does perfectly. Why were you feeling that call to quit then? Quit weed.


Sara:

I knew my mind wasn't totally clear. I loved how I felt not drinking. And when I first quit drinking, I loved being hangover free. And I knew I could still get a buzz from smoking weed and not have a hangover. So, I was like, "Oh, what a good little pass."


And I was not out of control in my mind. I was not smoking every day. And I was still doing all of the things I needed to do to work on my recovery with alcohol. I was still practicing my gratitudes and just felt amazing. And I feel like it's not that my recovery work stopped. It's that I knew I could go deeper on my recovery work. And I knew I could go deeper on just working on myself if I could be 100% clear-headed.


I also started noticing it interfering with my parenting the way alcohol had. I started noticing it interfering with my social life the way alcohol had. And it started making me incredibly paranoid. And not really when I was high, more when I was not high. I was like, “Everybody knows. I'm such a fraud and I’ve got to quit.”


It took me two big tries though. It took me a lot of tiny tiny tries. And then finally I quit for like 250ish days. I don't remember the count. And then I made a very conscious choice to start smoking again. I was like, “Whatever. I'm going to start again.”


I was experiencing a lot of anxiety and probably mild depression. And I was like, “Maybe it's the weed that was helping that.” I should have known better than to self-medicate because I did it without alcohol. But so I started again and I went back to it for probably 5 to 6 months.


I went on a sober retreat and I heard all these women talk about that they were also struggling with quitting weed. And on that trip, obviously, I wasn't smoking weed because I was on a sober retreat. I set my counter. I was like, "Okay, you're going to set your marijuana counter again. You're weed-free and let's do this this time. Like when you get home, if you feel like you need to go AA meetings to support yourself, do that.”


I couldn't think of what other meetings there were for weed. I was just like, “You can work some steps. You can do this.” I never did that. I never went to an AA meeting or anything for it. But I did lean really hard into an online group that I found, a Facebook group, and I just was like, "Okay, I'm going to read all the posts in there. I'm going to do exactly what I did with quitting drinking." And this time it has stuck.


And I really don't feel the need to go back, especially with my kids being in high school now. I want to be able to have really honest conversations with them about it. And I don't feel like I can have honest conversations with them about it if I'm still smoking. And say like, “Don't do it, but I do it.”


I think it's much more honest to be able to be like, I know I can't say “Don't do it”, and they will never smoke weed. We live in a state where it's legalized. And there are parts of me that would rather have them smoke weed than drink, but I know I can't keep them from either. But I think now I can really honestly tell my story to them and just say, “You know, this is what I chose and this is how you can take it into your life now.”


Jessi:

So, I'm wondering, did your relationship with weed change after you had stopped smoking cigarettes?


Sara:

My relationship with weed probably changed the most with quitting drinking. Because I did not smoke a lot of weed when I was a drinker and I was very on and off again with weed. Because weed tended to make me paranoid and I was like, “Eh.” So my relationship really changed with it when I quit drinking. I guess I had quit smoking too.


And it was just my little trick I thought. I'm the person who would smoke weed and clean all day long. And go do chores all day, like have this superhuman power. And it's almost like because I would get so paranoid that I was like, "Well, just keep moving.” As long as I was moving, I wasn't paranoid.


It's such a weird thing when I think about it. Like it wasn't even like it was fun anymore for me. It was just like this little secret weapon that I had for keeping my house clean.


So, is my house as clean now? Absolutely not. But is my brain clear? Definitely. Yeah.


Jessi:

Yeah. I can relate to that too. Sometimes it felt like it was the strain. Like Sativa always made me very active. And Indica made me very mellow, sleepy.


Sara:

Yeah. I didn't even. I'm trying to remember. I think maybe in my pen I had an Indica because it's the one that I would take a hit off of before I would just chill on the couch. And then always fall asleep. Yeah. And now I don't do that.


I mean, I do fall asleep still sometimes on the couch. But I used to do it every night and it was just kind of embarrassing to do it in front of my kids. Like, they didn't know I was smoking, but still I did. So, it was there for me.


But yeah, I would go to the dispensary and be like, “I want the stuff that's going to… I get high and do shit.” That's what I would tell them. Like I had a little song about it even. And they were like, “Okay, this is what you want.” And now I'm just like it starting to seem like such a foreign world to me now which is good.


Jessi:

Absolutely. And then did you have any side effects? Because a lot of times like you mentioned the medicine thing and that is so powerful, just that idea. It's like, “Oh I have these problems. Let me self-medicate. Let me take care of myself.” It feels like a form of self-care in a way sometimes even though we're falling into an addictive cycle. It's like, “Yeah that's not care or that's escape or whatever your pattern is.”


But I'm wondering, so what I've heard is that people they feel like they depend on pot to sleep or to eat. Did you have any of those kind of side effects when you let it go?


Sara:

Yeah, I did not have those. But I was very low for like a while and my anxiety crept back in. I had a really hard past year with my father-in-law passing away, a family member suffering from extreme mental illness and just a lot of stuff happened. And it took me until the end of this year to go, "Oh my god, you quit smoking weed this year." And I ditched caffeine for a while because I thought that I was like, "That must be spurring my anxiety."


So my dopamine levels were way, way low. I just felt flat, like what a lot of my people talk about when they first quit drinking. Like not bored. I wasn't bored. I still enjoyed all the parts of my life. I just couldn't find that usual pizzazz or excitement that I had. I feel like it's back now.


And one thing I did instead of self-medicating, I actually saw a psychiatrist and was like, “I am experiencing severe anxiety. This is my age. I'm 46, so I know I'm in periomenopause.” And I was like, “These are all the crazy things that are happening in my life right now.” But I was like, “I am having panic attacks sitting on my couch. Like I need help.”


And I went on a low dose of an anti-depressant. I'm on Lexapro and I got a beta blocker for panic attacks, which I barely ever take now because the Lexapro like fixed it. So, if I can urge anybody to stop self-medicating and actually see some people who know about this.


And stop reading on the internet because I read and saw that weed had estrogen in it. And I was like, "Oh, I'm probably low on estrogen." Like, why don't I go get blood work done instead?


Jessi:

Yeah. Taking a guess at what we need. And I'm wondering then, so when I quit smoking pot especially. When I quit drinking, quit smoking cigarettes, I noticed a change, too. But it felt like especially with the pot.


I kind of quit them all at the same time. So it's really not easy to differentiate. But I had tried my whole game before where I was like, "Oh, I'll just do these two and let this one go." And so I kind of had done some experimenting.



And I found that weed kept me in that kind of hazy state where I was really cut off from my sense of intuition, my sense of knowing what I needed. And it just kind of numbed me out so much that I would neglect myself in a lot of ways. And so like you said, it was just kind of like a guess. I'm just throwing whatever I can at the problem, trying to fix it, not even really in touch with myself, like what intuitively I knew that I needed to do. So, I'm wondering if that was the case with you, if you've noticed a change in your intuition with that?


Sara:
Oh, yeah.


Jessi:

Okay.


Sara:

Definitely. And I've done a lot of work this past year on my emotional sobriety. Even through it being a crappy year, still really tuning in to like, “Okay, it's crappy. But what would it have looked like if you were relying on weed or still drinking?”


And even seeing people smoke cigarettes is still a trigger for me. I feel like that's the hardest. I mean, I always say quitting weed was super hard. But I can be around people who are smoking weed. It's very rare that it happens, but it does. Or I can be walking through like Seattle and you smell it and I'm not like, "Oh, I want that." But I will walk by somebody smoking a cigarette and I'm like, "Oh, I want that.” Which is just crazy to me. It's probably the one I quit so early because I knew it was so bad for me.


Jessi:

Yeah. And it has that reputation.


Sara:

Mhm. Yeah. And the other two don't. Alcohol is really like really normalized. And weed is not so normalized. But weed is like this secret club. And I wanted to be a part of that.


Still I want to be like, "Hey, I'm still cool." And I'm like, “I don't have to… I'm not hanging out with stoners, so I don't need to try to have this show put on anymore.”


Jessi:

Well, I'm sorry that you've had such a rough year. I'm wondering if that's bolstered you in a way, to get through something so hard without a crutch.


Sara:

Yeah. You know, just because it's the new year and we all start looking at what our goals are going to be and stuff. And me and my daughter did the…. have you seen the thing on Instagram where everybody's doing like the 13 wishes for the winter solstice?


Jessi:

No, that's beautiful.


Sara:

And it's like you write down your 13 wishes on 13 pieces of paper and then each night you burn one. And at day 12 you're left with one and that one is the wish that you're going to work on the whole year. The other 12 are the ones that the universe is going to take care of for you.


So, it's like we started doing that and I thought I feel like this could be a little turning point for me. And even when you said, “Getting in touch with your intuition”, I feel like I'm back. And I do think it was marijuana leaving my system.


And obviously, it doesn't take a year. I don't want people to think that. But I think it takes a while for us to become really back in touch with who we are without a substance.


Jessi at midroll:


I hope today's guest is giving you a new perspective on what is possible. If you want to make sure you never miss a story like this one, take a quick second right now to hit the follow or subscribe button on your app. Not only does it ensure you get a fresh dose of inspiration every week, but it also helps the 'podcast robots' realize this show is worth putting in front of new people who might be struggling. It only takes a second to tap that button, and it helps us keep this community growing. Let's head back to the episode.

Jessi:

Yeah, it can be so uncomfortable in that in between phase like you were talking about just what you were feeling. So, I'm glad that you were able to seek support with that time because sometimes it is a little too much for us.


Sara:

Yeah. And I think it took a lot for me to be like, "Oh, maybe this is what I need to do." And it's so funny. I was getting my prescription refilled with my doctor and she's like, "How's everything going?" And I was like, "Uh, amazing." Like, "Why didn't I do this like years ago?"


Jessi”

Yeah.


Sara:

And she's like, "I mean, that's just how it goes. You don't realize." And I told her,”You know, I quit drinking, that helped my anxiety. I quit smoking weed, that helped my anxiety. I quit coffee.” Then finally I was like, “Okay, I've done everything. Now I need to see if I can do anymore.”


Jessi:

So, just to kind of go back a step, and I'm just curious. Llike you said, when you're in a cloud of cigarette smoke, you're like, "Ooh, I want that." Like, what goes on in your mind then? What methods do you have to regulate yourself to get out of that state? What kind of thoughts do you have? How do you prevent yourself from, going up to somebody and say, "Give me that." Or going to the store and buying it. What keeps you in check?


Sara:

A lot of times I'm with my kids because we're walking through downtown Seattle and I'm like, "Well, I would never do that." But there are times when it's like me and my husband and I even tell him like, "Oh, I really thought about asking that person if I could have a cigarette."


And I think for me it is knowing that it will just open the floodgates again. And I know that that neural pathway will open and I can get back so fast to an addictive piece of me.


And I absolutely don't want to spend money on cigarettes. Now, people have told me about how much they cost and I'm just blown away.


And as much as I say like, "Oh, it is so cool to smoke." That whole idea that I had in high school, I know that it's not. I know that it's so terrible for me. And I know that it would bring out this side of me trying to hide it from everybody. And I don't want to go down that rabbit hole.


There's so much work that goes into that. I will actually think, "Oh, I could wear rubber gloves. I could….


Jessi:

Yep.


Sara:

go to all these steps so I don't smell like a cigarette. And I'm like, “Absolutely not. You are not going through all these steps so you can have cigarettes.”


I think that I just always, it's kind of like with drinking. I just think through the drink or play the tape forward, however you want to say it. And I see the side of me that I don't want that side that feels guilty or shameful.


Jessi:

That's great practice is to play it out. What would that really look like? Because when you think through all the steps, it's a burden. It's just too much.


Sara:

Yeah.


Jessi:

And you don't want to lose what you've got.


Sara:

No, it's a good life without cigarettes and definitely without weed and alcohol. It's a really good life.


Jessi:

So, what other gains have you found? What changes have you seen with quitting smoking?


Sara:

With quitting weed, for sure, I just have such a clear mind. And I love that I can go do anything at any time. There were a lot of times on the weekends where I would be like, "Oh, no. I'm not going to do that because it's gonna totally cut into my getting super high and cleaning my whole house.


Jessi:

Yep.


Sara:

I'm like, “How nerdy does that sound?” But I was like, “Nope, I can't go.” So, really, the freedom to just be able to go anywhere at any time and not be worried if I'm going to be paranoid. And I'm just totally free. It's great.


Jessi:

Yeah, that's priceless. I remember that feeling, too. It's just like, “Whoa, I can handle my life now.” Which is ironic because you turn to it because you feel overwhelmed, but..


Sara:

Right. Yeah, I would smoke weed and get super stressed about the things I needed to do the next day. And I thought I was smoking weed so I could chill and it did not work like that.


Jessi:

So I've been talking this through that it seems like the thing that we turn to smoking for the need we're trying to meet is the thing that it takes away.


Sara:

Mhm.


Jessi:

I don't know if that happened to you. Like you were talking about maybe feeling cool with it, that it was something that made you feel cool. But then when you're actually in it maybe it's something that doesn't feel cool. Like, did you notice any pattern like that?


Sara:

Yeah. I mean, you feel like, with smoking cigarettes, it actually would make me feel so shameful, right? Like, especially because my husband is like, “I do not like this. It's not going to work for me if you're going to be a smoker.” So, I would be hiding it from him.


I remember even if we'd have parties at our house and some of the moms would smoke, I'd run to the other side of the house so Ryan didn't know that I was off smoking cigarettes with all the smokers. And I just don't have to hide anymore. I just get to be me. And it's so much easier.


And you just feel good. Like I remember waking up after I would smoke so many cigarettes that your chest and your throat hurt. I'm glad to have that gone.


Jessi:

Absolutely. So I'm wondering someone that's in it right now, they're struggling. This can be for either cigarettes or weed. They want to quit. They've tried. They've not been successful. What piece of advice would you have for them?


Sara:

So with smoking weed, I distanced myself from it. I let my pen run out,which was not a thing when I was in high school. But you know, we all have our… are they vape pens? I think that's what they would be called.


But I let that run out and it gave me think time because that was the thing that I could hit really fast. So, you know, there was still a cartridge in it, but if I wanted to smoke off of it, I would need to charge it. And that helped me have that think time.


I had flower, but it was like always out in a shed. And I knew I wasn't going to just walk out to the shed in the evening. That was not my one that was super hard to quit. But to have that think time helped me so much.


So separate yourself if you can. Definitely make it so you just don't have it around you if you can. But if you know you're like ready to quit and you still have your stash, distance yourself.


And I don't think I let my husband know I was quitting. I think I did it pretty quietly. And that's how I quit drinking too. I did let him know finally when it had been like 2 weeks like, “I'm 2 weeks weed free.” And he was like “Whoa.” Because he didn't really know how much I was smoking either.


The other thing is to just keep going. There will come this time with smoking weed where you think it's not worth it. I never thought, "Oh, I can go back and control myself." And I think that's just from my years in recovery with quitting drinking. Like I know that's not a fact.


But I knew that I needed to push through that moment. Because the one time I had gotten to 250 days and I stopped. And I was like, "So this time when it gets hard, I'm going to push through no matter what it takes." And that's what I did. Like I stayed very focused on, “Beat the 250 days, get to one year, and then set your next goal to where it can feel like it's a forever thing.” I'm a person who takes a long time deciding it's forever.


Jessi:

That's all great advice. Thank you so much.


Sara:

You're welcome.


Jessi:

And so, can you talk to us more about your work?


Sara:

So, I mainly work with people on quitting drinking. I've been trying to figure out how to incorporate it into quitting smoking weed, too. But honestly, I was trying to find my own footing on that for so long. I found my own footing with quitting drinking so quick. I was like, "Oh my god, this is a game changer."


So, I'm on Instagram @no_more_wasted_days. I think if you search up no more wasted days, you'll find me though. And I'm on all socials under that name.


And then I actually gave Jessi a link to 10 mantras that I have. I think that they would help great with quitting smoking weed too or smoking cigarettes. They are a way to retrain your mindset when it comes to quitting a substance because I think that's the hardest part. You have to step into that new identity of yourself as a non-smoker and it can be really hard.


So when I quit smoking weed, I even had to be like, “I'm weed free and I love my life this way.” That was one of my affirmations. But you can download those 10 mantras and apply them to your quitting smoking journey or whatever it is.


But I do find that the quitting smoking weed piece is a piece where people are lacking support. So I was telling Jessi that I'm so happy that someone's out here talking about this because I feel like it's hard to find.


Jessi:

Do you feel like the processes that you use to quit drinking were supportive to you and quitting weed? I know you said that quitting weed was harder in some ways, but did you use some of the same processes?


Sara:

I definitely did. And one of those two is finding community, which can be I felt like so hard with quitting weed. And that's one reason I've been like, “I wonder if that's something I should tap into to help people with.” But like I said, it's like it took me a while to find my footing.


But I Googled. I went on Facebook and I put in quitting marijuana, quitting weed. And it's interesting because I was trying to find a podcast about it. I was like, I just need to fill my mind and I need other people on this journey. So find that community piece. And if you're listening to this podcast, you're in the right place, obviously.


Jessi:

Yeah.


Sara:

Do you have a community for people?


Jessi:

I do. And I….


Sara:

Oh, awesome.


Jessi:

I intermingle cigarette smokers and weed smokers because…


Sara:

Great.


Jessi:

I find that a lot of people do both, including me. And, you know, there are some differences. People don't always agree. But in my personal experience and the patterns that I've seen in working with clients is that the patterns are the same. And so, I do have a community where it's just smokers and it doesn't matter what you're quitting smoking.


Sara:

Oh, that's great. Very cool.


Jessi:

Because I feel like we're all going kind of through the same thing. It's that compulsive energy. It's the emotional turmoil or just struggle regulating.


Sara:

Yeah.


Jessi:

And it's the same with drinking, too, honestly.


Sara:

Yeah. It definitely is that piece of you that wants to be naughty for some reason, too. That's something we talk about a lot in my community. Like, you got to find other ways to be “naughty.” And sometimes it's just staying up past your bedtime.


Jessi:

Oh, I do want to touch on that. I know I'm going all over with this podcast, but I…


Sara:

That's okay.


Jessi:

Okay, I want to talk about that piece, that being naughty piece and the being cool piece. So, what other outlets have you found for that?


Sara:

So, gosh, for being naughty, it's probably like, you know, eating chocolate, having a real coke when I'm at my mom's house. Yeah, it's things now that are not naughty at all, right? Like, I don't want people to think that eating chocolate is a naughty thing. But somehow it scratches that itch for me and it makes me be like, "Ooh, look at me. Look at this thing I'm doing."


For a while, I got myself into… I talk about this a lot on my podcast. But I got myself into a pattern of eating Cheetos in my car when I was all alone. And I was like, I'm going to get the bag of Cheetos. I'm going to get the gas station bag. I'm going to sit in my car and do it. And you know, it was not good for me. But I kept being like, “You are not smoking weed. You're 100% sober. If this is the thing you need to do, and then you can tackle that piece later.” And I did and have.


And I feel like it's just those slow pieces, things like go get a tattoo. Oh, I know you can't always afford that. It's like those people that always say, "Oh, you quit drinking, but you must have gotten that ugly tattoo when you were drinking." I was like, "Oh my god, I got that when I was sober and I love it. Shut up.” And I want more. I was like, "No, that's me rebelling."


Yeah. Like find those ways to get out there and be like, "Ooh, so naughty."


Jessi:

Yeah. I feel like it's those cycles, that perfectionist streak that drives us to go to the other side and almost just to kind of have a way to break that up. Break up being perfect and putting that pressure on ourselves to do so much and do it well all the time. I found that for myself.


I heard somebody say it the other day. It's kind of funny to me is that, “You got to feed the demon a little bit just to keep them happy, keep them off your back.”


Sara:

So, yes, I definitely had that in my own life. It is like you got to find the little thing. And that's what I'm always talking to people about my community, too. They're like, "Oh, I'm eating ice cream so much." I'm like, "Who cares?" Like if ice cream is not going to get you a DUI. Ice cream is not going to get your kids taken away. I mean it might cause some issues with stomach.


Jessi:

[laughter] Right. Right.


Sara:

But seriously, it's like find that thing that feels a little naughty. Like go jump in a lake with just your underwear on. Do whatever it is.


Jessi:

Yeah. Give yourself some grace because you know it's a major change. And like you said, “It's all relative.” If you can get past the thing that's really bringing you down, you can have a little imperfection here and there.


Sara:

Yeah. And I feel like so many of us were smoking to feel alive. But it definitely does not make you feel alive at all. It numbs you out. So now go really do things that make you feel alive. Whatever that is for you, go do it.


Jessi:

Yeah, it's powerful. Well, thank you so much for coming on here, sharing your story, and being honest. It's a hard thing for a lot of people to talk about and I just appreciate your work and showing up for people.


Because it's such an amazing thing to see somebody that got through the other side. There's so much power in that. That's why I love the stories so much. It's just everybody has their own unique way to quit smoking and we can all take a piece out of what works for us. Because like I said, it's really about intuition, knowing what's going to work and playing with that.


So, I just appreciate you adding to the story collection and I'm really happy for you that you've moved on from weed now and you're on to bigger, better things.


Sara:

Thank you so much for having this podcast. It's like I needed this when I started searching like 3 years ago being like, “There's got to be something out there. I'm not the only person.”


Jessi:

Yeah, we're not alone in this. Thank you.


Sara:

Thank you so much.


Jessi:

And I'll see you guys next week. Take care, everybody.


End of Interview


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