Sober Fit Life

About Sober Fit Life

Sober Fit Life is the podcast for anyone caught in the cycle of drinking more than they want to, swearing it off, and ending up right back where they started—sometimes in the same day. If you're tired of the bloating, brain fog, shame, and mental tug-of-war over alcohol, you're not alone—and you're in the right place. Hosted by Maureen Benkovich, a former weekend binge drinker turned alcohol freedom coach, the show features real conversations with health pros, wellness experts, and people who’ve broken free from the cycle and reclaimed their health, clarity, and confidence. This isn’t about perfection—it’s about alignment. About finally living like the version of you that’s been buried under regret, excuses, and habits that don’t match your values. Expect honest stories, science-backed insight, and the kind of support that helps you feel proud of your choices—and strong enough to make new ones.

Publisher

Maureen Benkovich

Category

health & fitness · health & fitness · health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 Sept 2024

Latest episode

19 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

2 of 65 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   19 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   EP 64: What Are You Really Craving? Food, Alcohol & the Search for Something More with Elizabeth Harris

   Host interviews registered dietitian Elizabeth Harris about uncovering the deeper needs behind cravings for food and alcohol, promoting curiosity over judgment.

2. 

   28 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   EP 63: The Cortisol Cure: Why Lowering Cortisol Isn’t Always the Answer with Dr. Erin Kinney

   What if the problem isn’t that your cortisol is too high? We hear it everywhere: lower your cortisol. But according to my guest, Dr. Erin Kinney, we may be misunderstanding one of the most important hormones in our bodies. Dr. Kinney is a naturopathic doctor, stress physiology expert, founder of the Kinney Clinic, and author of the new book The Cortisol Cure. She’s also someone I know personally because I’ve been her patient, and I wanted her back on Sober Fit Life to help us make sense of what’s actually happening when we feel exhausted, wired, overwhelmed, or burned out. Dr. Kinney explains why cortisol isn’t simply the “bad stress hormone” we’ve been taught to fear. It helps us wake up, gives us energy to respond to stress, and plays an important role in managing inflammation. The issue is what happens when we continually ask our bodies to spend more than we’re putting back in. That’s where Dr. Kinney’s Cortisol Bank Account comes in. Think of work, exercise, traffic, parenting, deadlines, emotional stress (and yes, alcohol) as withdrawals. Sleep, rest and nervous-system regulation are deposits. The goal isn’t to eliminate every stressful thing from your life. It’s to make sure you’re actually replenishing what you spend. We often reach for a drink because we want to relax or shut off after a stressful day. Dr. Kinney explains how alcohol can interfere with restorative sleep and affect blood sugar, creating additional stress on the body, meaning the thing we’re using to “relax” may actually become another withdrawal from our cortisol bank account. We also talk about what happens when alcohol becomes the tool you rely on to downregulate. Removing it can feel uncomfortable at first because your body has to relearn how to relax without an external substance. The good news? As Dr. Kinney explains, your nervous system is trainable. Retraining your nervous system takes consistency. But small periods of intentional rest throughout the day can begin teaching your body that it knows how to come back down after stress. Connect with Dr. Erin Kinney 📖 Buy The Cortisol Cure (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/153877741X?tag=hacboogrosit-20): The Secret to Resetting Your Stress Response, Boosting Energy & Feeling Better Than Ever 🧠 Take Dr. Kinney's Free Cortisol Debt Score Assessment (https://www.drerinkinney.com/the-cortisol-debt-score) 🎙️ Listen to The Dr. Kinney Show (https://www.drerinkinney.com/the-dr-kinney-show) 📱 Follow Dr. Kinney on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/drkinney) 💬 Want to learn more about the tools I offer? 👇 Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz (https://www.soberfitchick.com/amiquiz) Six-Week Alcohol Reset (https://www.soberfitchick.com/alcohol-reset-waitlist) Drink Less By Monday (https://www.soberfitchick.com/afw-optin) Book a FREE Discovery Call (https://calendly.com/soberfitchick/30min?month=2025-07) Follow me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/soberfitchickllc/)

3. 

   7 Sept 2026

   EP 62: You Can Run a Business, Compete in Triathlons, and Still Have a Struggle With Alcohol

   I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: willpower is not the issue when it comes to alcohol. And nobody on this podcast has illustrated that more clearly than today's guest. Chris Asher is a financial services professional, husband, father of two teenage daughters, Naval Academy attendee, former obstacle course racing world championships competitor, and USA Triathlon All-American. He trained 10 to 15 hours a week for half Iron Man distance races. He kept 12 years of workout data in meticulous spreadsheets. He counted his blueberries and his cashews. And for years, he could not stop drinking. Chris and I actually work out together at Peak Custom Fitness Solutions in Annapolis, and when he shared his story with me I knew immediately he had to come on Sober Fit Life. Because if there's one thing I want people to hear from this episode, it's that high achievement, intense discipline, and a serious fitness lifestyle do not protect you from a complicated relationship with alcohol. If anything, they can make it harder to see. More than four years sober now, Chris says he is performing at the highest level of his life, getting stronger and faster at 52 than he was in his 40s, sleeping better, thinking more clearly, and living with far less anxiety than he ever thought possible. And the alcohol he thought was helping him recover from training? It was wrecking everything. In this episode we talk about: Chris's background as a multi-sport elite athlete and what his training load actually looked like while he was drinking How COVID and life stress accelerated his drinking until he was hiding the recycling because he was embarrassed by the volume Why having the willpower to complete world-level athletic competitions did nothing to help him stop drinking, and what that tells us about alcohol's effect on the brain His life-changing alcohol-related event and what finally shifted What his workout data actually shows: performing at a higher level at 52 than he was in his 40s, attributed entirely to removing alcohol How he navigated social situations early in sobriety, including realizing nobody actually cared what he was drinking The realization that we're in a cultural moment similar to the shift around cigarettes, where the science is catching up to what the alcohol industry has kept quiet Giving back, including speaking at youth conferences to help teenagers understand that alcohol is a dangerous drug 💬 Want to learn more about the tools I offer? 👇 Am I Drinking Too Much Quiz (https://www.soberfitchick.com/amiquiz) Six-Week Alcohol Reset (https://www.soberfitchick.com/alcohol-reset-waitlist) Drink Less By Monday (https://www.soberfitchick.com/afw-optin) Book a FREE Discovery Call (https://calendly.com/soberfitchick/30min?month=2025-07) Follow me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/soberfitchickllc/)

Inside a recent episode

EP 64: What Are You Really Craving? Food, Alcohol & the Search for Something More with Elizabeth Harris

Published 19 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] It's information. Yeah. Information. If you can flip that that reframe, guilt is information. Yes. And that's something that I say to people all the time. It's, you know, I talk about it as like putting on your food anthropology hat. And if you think about what does an anthropologist do? Anthropologists study cultures, but not to judge them. They seek to understand them. And if you can put on that same kind of hat to explore your relationship with food or your relationship with alcohol, just get curious and ask questions. just to gather information. And then you can sift through it and figure out what's serving you and what's not serving you. […]

Who has been a guest on Sober Fit Life

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Elizabeth Harris
• Rebecca Guevara Wingler
• AliceAnne Loftus
• Paulette Kengg
• Gwen Dudley

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

21 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 37 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

54

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

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Questions about Sober Fit Life