Speaker 1: 0:16

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Son of a Blitz podcast. I'm your host, george Blitz, and today is October 13th, 2023, which happens to mark my sixth year of sobriety. Back in 2017, meg and I and my wife went to an Astros game and I had a few drinks, a couple of few more, a couple of few more after that and at the very end of it all, I wasn't feeling too great. The next day decided to go ahead and take off a little bit of time from drinking and, as every day and week progressed, I started feeling better and better, ended up losing a considerable amount of weight, I think, from the time that I was probably my heaviest about 230, dropped down to 171 point in time and that was a little bit too skinny for me and I ended up kind of putting back on some weight, some good eating and stuff, and ended up, you know, now, sitting up to where I've definitely lost, you know, close to 50 pounds from when I was at my heaviest. I feel better, you know, and basically the main thing that I've found is my mental clarity, my ability to really stay sharp and on focus with everything I want to do. I'm a more present father, husband, friend and I just feel better Now.

Speaker 1: 1:31

I'm not saying and promoting this as like something you guys should do. I just wanted to give my testimony about sobriety for me and what it's done. And I kind of wanted to bring us back around, because last year I done a podcast for my fifth year of sobriety and in that podcast I talked to the audience letting you all know that if anybody is having any struggles with alcohol or drug addiction and they wanted to reach out to me that I would be more than happy to receive that phone call. And I received a few phone calls. One individual was really really down in his luck, had gotten in some trouble with the law and he had called me up wanting to figure out how they could get their life back on track. There's a lot of things that were up in the air about their particular life and I don't want to go into details, but it was a very, very pivotal and a very dark moment for them and I've since received a couple other.

Speaker 1: 2:31

You know times where people have called me to ask me about you know how I did this or what not, and for me it was a little bit different than maybe some. I ended up just doing this on my own. I am very familiar with AA and a lot of other types of support networks and I do strongly suggest that people look after that, look into that. Having somebody that is a reliable person to be able to call, having a sponsor, is very beneficial and I find that, you know, for a lot of people you need that kind of that support system in that network. And so, you know, for me it was just a decision that I made, you know, for friends of mine and people who may have tuned in last year, I kind of talk about the idea that there were many points in my life where I would take six months or maybe a year off of drinking just to know that I could, and that was something that you know.

Speaker 1: 3:28

There was, I guess, probably three or four circumstances over the years where I had done just that and just taken a little pause, but this last one kind of felt like it was time for me to really end it for good. I'm not going to say that it was always easy. There was definitely times when you know I had a tough day and you know, going to get a cold drink was something that I really kind of had networked into my mind that I needed something to kind of take an edge off, and I kind of had to start replacing those with some other things. You know, maybe it would be like, okay, I really want to be right now I'm gonna go do 50 push-ups, something that I was trying to retrain my brain to Put something else in place that would be healthy and beneficial for me. And again, you know, this is just me talking about my experience. I know plenty of people who are able to handle their drink really well.

Speaker 1: 4:29

I for one always wanted to have one more, one more. I like to keep that buzz kicking and and eventually there'd be kind of that plateau that eventually come back down and then it would be, you know, too many, or it was just like it was never enough. And so I always kind of wanted to chase that feeling and I liked that feeling, but it was a dangerous one for me and it was kind of on the edge of, you know, of a blade there. It was like if I slip I could really hurt myself. And you know I never was somebody who was Drinking and driving, I never was reckless in those senses. But there's definitely things and decisions or things I said to loved ones or friends, or that I would not have made those same mistakes if I was sober, if something that I recognized very easily. I would get very angry. When I was drinking I was very, or rather, quick to be angry. I wasn't violent, but I had just kind of a knee jerk reaction and I was seemingly always Just easy to unravel in that sense, and I really wanted to do something about Making sure I had control. And so I, you know, put the drink down and I'm baffled. When I look at the years it's like, wow, six years, okay, over 2,000 days, like that's something that I'm proud to have been able to get to that point.

Speaker 1: 5:58

I don't see myself going back to drinking. I do like non-alcoholic beers. I used to brew my own beer, megan. I used to do that, and I did that with some of my friends as well, and I like to taste the beer. So sometimes I will sit down and have a non-alcoholic beer, but I'll tell you it's different.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Like I went on a ranch trip with some of my buddies Matthew Mitchell and Johnny Bolts and we're there for, you know, a couple days and we're all waking up feeling good now. We all had a cold beverage at the end of the night. It was an NA and sick. The fridge was like stocked with that. It was just quite a difference to the days, for, you know, after a hunt you kick back many of drinks and hang out with friends and stuff, which were wonderful times. You know those. It's Just that there was times I kind of carried that too far and wouldn't feel good the next day and you're waking up at 4 am and it's just like, oh, I'm hungover. And then, you know, not feeling good now I'm like waking up and I may still be tired, just because you know getting older here, but I'm feeling good and Not feeling that hungover. I got that sharpness and clarity kicking. So it's something that I thoroughly enjoy and it's been fun to kind of share that. You know sober weekends and things with my friends out there at the property and, and you know it's it's been, it's been a journey.

Speaker 1: 7:14

Like I said, you know it's not for everyone. You know some people can handle their stuff. I just Couldn't very well and, you know, had to make that decision for the betterment of myself and my family and all the things that I'm doing in my life, but I just kind of wanted to come on here real quick and just mention again that if there's anybody who feels like they are struggling with alcohol, with any kind of drugs or scripture medication, whatever it may be, you know you need to reach out and talk to some people. Don't keep those things to yourself. Those are secrets that can come to hurt you more, bringing them out into the light, as ugly as they may be at times.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Really, it's important to, I think, face that truth, looking that that, you know, mirror and see what is it that I need to change, what is it that I want to do to you know, better my life and more constructive ways. And for a lot of people it really does mean put down the drink or whatever the drugs may be, you know, putting those down and and trying to build a new, you know, neural network of being able to, you know, deal with things in your life and go and have a therapist, psychologist, whatever it may be, you know, support system a, a there's a lot of different programs out there. There's a lot of people that are ready to help, the ready to take that call. I love sponsors that that are are wanting to make sure that you know you Get things under control and that you are able to build those bridges of success, to be on the other side of it. And I Just want to encourage people and any of my friends are listening to or any listeners, you know it's easy to get my contact the fact that a couple people have reached out and have been in those dark places and we've had some some of those conversations. I really am honored that someone took me up on that and I hope and I think that those situations Were able to be successful.

Speaker 1: 9:21

It seems like those two individuals are moving forward in their lives and kind of making some changes in order to Put themselves in a better balance and so just if it was worth it, just to talk about my sobriety, that could maybe have someone have that one little bit of change. You know one person, two people, you know three people. If there's people that I can be able to help affect, I feel like it's my responsibility To be able to do that, because I could talk about yes, it is a struggle, it's tough, but you can get through it, you can't get over it and you can be on the other side and count on all the blessings that you know you've made those strides. You know hard work is hard work and but at the very end of the day, if you're able to do that hard work, you can look back on it and be proud of yourself and, you know, be a testament to others and an example that it is possible, because a lot of people don't think it's possible. You know you might be at the very, very, very deepest part of you know, a hole that has been dug for you that you've dug yourself, and you know sometimes you just need someone to throw a ladder down. So people, please, please, please, if you need any help, seek it. Don't do this alone. You have people that can help, support and you know.

Speaker 1: 10:36

Once again, I want to thank, you know, my family, my friends, who have stuck by me in times when things weren't so pretty in life, and I really just blessed to be here today feeling Stronger than I ever have before, mentally, physically, minus the knees and ankles. You know, get kind of all the soccer stuff. You know it's wearing tear, right, but aside from that I do. I feel better than I've ever felt before in my life and I'm just happy and a blessed man, and so I want to also thank everyone who's been listening to this podcast. It really means a lot to me. I've gotten some wonderful feedback lately. I keep talking to so many amazing people and I just feel so blessed and happy To have this space and be able to meet with so many incredible people. Thank you very much and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week, and I really appreciate you tuning in. Take care everyone.