Journey to the Sunnyside | Mindful Drinking & Alcohol Health

In this episode, I’m digging into alcohol cravings and one of the biggest traps people fall into when they’re trying to cut back: negotiating with the urge. Maybe just one. Maybe only tonight. Maybe I’ll reset tomorrow. We’ll look at why cravings can feel so convincing in the moment, what’s happening in the brain and body when the urge to drink shows up, and how a simple practice that can help you pause without fighting yourself. This isn’t about being perfect or forcing yourself into an all-or-nothing approach. It’s about building the skill of noticing a craving, riding it out, and making a more mindful choice that actually supports your goals.
CONNECT WITH SUNNYSIDE:
Listen to Journey to the Sunnyside Podcast: https://bit.ly/4bxCqT3
Subscribe to Sunnyside’s YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/3zuoID4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joinsunnyside/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/joinsunnyside/
Twitter:  https://x.com/joinsunnyside
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joinsunnyside

ABOUT SUNNYSIDE:
 
Sunnyside is the #1 alcohol health app that helps you drink less without any shame, guilt, or pressure to quit. Optimize your alcohol habits to achieve benefits like sleeping better, losing weight, feeling more energy, and saving money. We know that an all-or-nothing approach doesn’t work for everyone, so we focus on helping you set your own goals, celebrate small wins, and build a lasting system of accountability. As a result, 96.7% of our members see a big drop in their drinking after 90 days.
We now offer Sunnyside Med, a new program that provides access to compounded naltrexone, a medication that can reduce alcohol cravings at the brain level, offering a more clinical pathway for people who need it. Sunnyside Med is a complete, holistic approach to help you drink less or quit, including coaching, community, habit change, education, and more to help you create longterm change while the medication does its work.
Disclaimer: This podcast is not intended as medical advice, and the views of the guests may not represent the views of Sunnyside. If you’re concerned about your health or alcohol use, please consider seeking advice from a doctor.

Most people trying to drink less focus on the drink. But for a lot of high-functioning people, that's only half the pattern. There's a whole cycle underneath it. You overdo it, you feel off, you recommit, you clean things up, you get that "I'm back" feeling. Then slowly, without really noticing, it starts again. And because life isn't falling apart - you're still working, still parenting, still showing up - it's easy to miss. You're not in crisis. You're just spending a lot of energy recovering from the same thing over and over. In this episode I want to talk about why the reset can feel so rewarding, how the comeback itself can become part of what keeps you stuck, and how to start making the swings smaller without needing everything to be perfect. The goal isn't to get better at starting over. It's to build something you don't have to keep starting over from.
CONNECT WITH SUNNYSIDE:
Listen to Journey to the Sunnyside Podcast: https://bit.ly/4bxCqT3
Subscribe to Sunnyside’s YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/3zuoID4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joinsunnyside/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/joinsunnyside/
Twitter:  https://x.com/joinsunnyside
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joinsunnyside

ABOUT SUNNYSIDE:
 
Sunnyside is the #1 alcohol health app that helps you drink less without any shame, guilt, or pressure to quit. Optimize your alcohol habits to achieve benefits like sleeping better, losing weight, feeling more energy, and saving money. We know that an all-or-nothing approach doesn’t work for everyone, so we focus on helping you set your own goals, celebrate small wins, and build a lasting system of accountability. As a result, 96.7% of our members see a big drop in their drinking after 90 days.
We now offer Sunnyside Med, a new program that provides access to compounded naltrexone, a medication that can reduce alcohol cravings at the brain level, offering a more clinical pathway for people who need it. Sunnyside Med is a complete, holistic approach to help you drink less or quit, including coaching, community, habit change, education, and more to help you create longterm change while the medication does its work.
Disclaimer: This podcast is not intended as medical advice, and the views of the guests may not represent the views of Sunnyside. If you’re concerned about your health or alcohol use, please consider seeking advice from a doctor.

A lot of people think the hardest part about changing their drinking is the alcohol itself. But honestly, for a lot of people, the real exhaustion comes from the constant mental negotiation around it. Should I quit drinking completely? Can I moderate? Am I overthinking this? Why does it feel so hard to “figure out” alcohol when everyone else seems fine?
In this episode, I explore why our brains become obsessed with finding a perfect, permanent answer around drinking, and how that search for certainty can actually keep us stuck. I talk about the psychology behind all-or-nothing thinking, why the idea of “forever” creates so much pressure, and how a harm reduction approach can create more clarity, self-trust, and lasting change. If you’ve ever felt mentally exhausted trying to figure out your relationship with alcohol, I think this episode will feel very familiar.

We also discuss:
 mindful drinking 
 alcohol moderation 
 gray area drinking 
 overthinking and alcohol 
 all-or-nothing thinking 
 sobriety anxiety 
 harm reduction 
 alcohol and mental health 
 changing your relationship with alcohol 
 the pressure to quit drinking forever 

CONNECT WITH SUNNYSIDE:

Listen to the Journey to the Sunnyside Podcast: https://bit.ly/4bxCqT3
Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3zuoID4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joinsunnyside/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joinsunnyside/
X/Twitter: https://x.com/joinsunnyside
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joinsunnyside

ABOUT SUNNYSIDE:

Sunnyside is the #1 alcohol health app that helps you drink more mindfully without shame, guilt, or pressure to quit. Members use Sunnyside to reduce drinking, improve sleep, increase energy, lose weight, save money, and build a healthier relationship with alcohol.
We know an all-or-nothing approach doesn’t work for everyone. That’s why we focus on helping people set personalized goals, build awareness around their habits, and create sustainable change through accountability, coaching, tracking, and community support. As a result, 96.7% of members reduce their drinking within 90 days.
We also offer Sunnyside Med, a program that provides access to compounded naltrexone for eligible members. Naltrexone is a medication that may help reduce alcohol cravings and support people who want additional clinical tools alongside behavior change, coaching, education, and community support.
Disclaimer: This podcast is not medical advice, and the views expressed by guests may not reflect the views of Sunnyside. If you have concerns about your health or alcohol use, please consult a qualified healthcare professional.

In part two, Sunnyside co-founder and CEO Nick Allen continues his conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Egler, Chief Medical Officer at Noom, with a deeper focus on behavior change. They get into why willpower usually fails, how systems and structure make habits easier to sustain, and why tracking, micro habits, community, and even medication can help create momentum. If you’ve ever struggled to make healthier choices stick, this episode offers a more practical way to think about lasting change.

CONNECT WITH SUNNYSIDE:
Listen to Journey to the Sunnyside Podcast: https://bit.ly/4bxCqT3
Subscribe to Sunnyside’s YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/3zuoID4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joinsunnyside/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/joinsunnyside/
Twitter:  https://x.com/joinsunnyside
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joinsunnyside

ABOUT SUNNYSIDE:
 
Sunnyside is the #1 alcohol health app that helps you drink less without any shame, guilt, or pressure to quit. Optimize your alcohol habits to achieve benefits like sleeping better, losing weight, feeling more energy, and saving money. We know that an all-or-nothing approach doesn’t work for everyone, so we focus on helping you set your own goals, celebrate small wins, and build a lasting system of accountability. As a result, 96.7% of our members see a big drop in their drinking after 90 days.
We now offer Sunnyside Med, a new program that provides access to compounded naltrexone, a medication that can reduce alcohol cravings at the brain level, offering a more clinical pathway for people who need it. Sunnyside Med is a complete, holistic approach to help you drink less or quit, including coaching, community, habit change, education, and more to help you create longterm change while the medication does its work.
Disclaimer: This podcast is not intended as medical advice, and the views of the guests may not represent the views of Sunnyside. If you’re concerned about your health or alcohol use, please consider seeking advice from a doctor.

In this episode, we dig into the strange grief that can show up when you start drinking less. Not regret. Not a craving exactly. More like the quiet feeling of missing something you’re genuinely glad you changed. We’ll look at why alcohol can become woven into your rituals, identity, stress relief, celebrations, and even the future you quietly imagined for yourself. And why feeling some sadness along the way doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It just means something real is changing.
CONNECT WITH SUNNYSIDE:
Listen to Journey to the Sunnyside Podcast: https://bit.ly/4bxCqT3
Subscribe to Sunnyside’s YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/3zuoID4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joinsunnyside/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/joinsunnyside/
Twitter:  https://x.com/joinsunnyside
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joinsunnyside

ABOUT SUNNYSIDE:
 
Sunnyside is the #1 alcohol health app that helps you drink less without any shame, guilt, or pressure to quit. Optimize your alcohol habits to achieve benefits like sleeping better, losing weight, feeling more energy, and saving money. We know that an all-or-nothing approach doesn’t work for everyone, so we focus on helping you set your own goals, celebrate small wins, and build a lasting system of accountability. As a result, 96.7% of our members see a big drop in their drinking after 90 days.
We now offer Sunnyside Med, a new program that provides access to compounded naltrexone, a medication that can reduce alcohol cravings at the brain level, offering a more clinical pathway for people who need it. Sunnyside Med is a complete, holistic approach to help you drink less or quit, including coaching, community, habit change, education, and more to help you create longterm change while the medication does its work.
Disclaimer: This podcast is not intended as medical advice, and the views of the guests may not represent the views of Sunnyside. If you’re concerned about your health or alcohol use, please consider seeking advice from a doctor.