Soft Reset, No Hard Rules

let's take care of ourselves this month

Happy New Year and welcome to the first 2026 Substack I’m writing. I’m starting with a topic that’s very personal to me and one that a lot of us have chatted about often over the last year, and that’s cutting out/reducing alcohol.

I shared often in 2025 that I had cut out alcohol entirely in May of 2024. I was abusing it, had been for years, and I am so grateful for over 600 days of sobriety.

Cleary not everyone who wants to cut back abuses alcohol, but there are oodles of really legitimate reasons to want to cut back or stop drinking. Maybe you want better sleep, to set the example for your teens, lose weight, or address a lingering concern in the back of your mind.

I’m not an expert - I won’t and shouldn’t take the place of a professional, but I am going to share my tips, tricks, and some moral support if you want to get on this bandwagon (either permanently or temporarily).

I’m calling this a soft reset because I do not want this to become another stressor during a busy month with kids, work, school, sports, family, and the inevitable winter illnesses. I hope these next few weeks will give you some easy ideas to cut back and feel better. That’s the entire point.

Cutting back/cutting out alcohol will improve your sleep, how you respond to stress, and how you physically feel. I’m not here with hard and fast rules - if you feel like you need those, I highly recommend getting in touch with your primary care provider and getting a referral to alcohol abuse resources or walking yourself into an AA meeting.

So let’s dive into the three prep steps we’re going to tackle this week - the key to all of this is to get the supplies now when your motivation is high that will provide support when your motivation inevitably wanes.

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First, I highly recommend downloading the Reframe app. I downloaded this on my first sober day and still use it now. It has lots of resources for education about alcohol and its effect on your body, chats for anyone looking for anonymous support, and importantly for our purposes, a drink goal tracker. You can set a weekly goal for drinks and it will craft a schedule for you that you can modify or customize. I set mine to zero drinks and each day when I go in and add the little check beside “did not drink” it feels so satisfying.

Second, this is optional but helpful, some really fun and beautiful mocktail glasses. I want you to look forward to your mocktail or soda or whatever you end up crafting and the feel of a drink glass in our hands is such a huge part of the drinking experience. I’ll share some favorites on my instagram throughout the week.

Third, it’s a clean out week. Get the alcohol out of the house so we aren’t literally inviting temptation into our lives. Talk to your partner and top drinking friends to create that accountability.

That’s it for this week! The motivation is high and the month will go more quickly than you think. Please shoot me a message if you’ve got questions and let’s do this!

xx,

MB