Alcohol-free version

Flying dry

In the first few weeks of the new year, many people make resolutions to give up certain habits, including drinking alcohol. But sometimes, as life goes on, that decision becomes more difficult to uphold. Alcohol-free coach ROSE ANN FORTE offers advice on how to give up drinking and tells of her own experiences with the substance

Interview by Sarah Olowofoyeku

THE start of a new year can encourage people to resolve

to live more healthily. Magazine articles and TV shows highlight the health benefits of going to the gym, eating a more plant-based diet and reducing or cutting out alcohol consumption. But, while many people start the first few days of the month full of enthusiasm, as the weeks chug on, their determination can waver.

US-based alcohol-free coach Rose Ann Forte explains that part of the problem can be aiming to give up something for good, which she says can be ‘super daunting’. Instead, she suggests aiming for a specific period of time.

‘There is a much higher success rate when you say just 12 weeks. That gives your body a chance to document the changes – to notice that you’re sleeping better, your blood pressure is lower, your weight is down, your confidence is up, your joy is up.’

She also talks about that length of time being most effective because the task moves from being a detox to a change in habit, which takes at least 60 days.

Rose Ann speaks from experience. Before she began coaching she had an alcohol problem that was getting worse. What had begun as heavy social drinking turned into heavy anxiety, depression and stress drinking after her marriage broke down, and it was affecting her health.

‘It was a serious problem,’ she says, ‘yet I hid it fairly well from a lot of people. If I went out to the bar with friends, I’d have a few drinks, control myself, then go home and start drinking more.’

Eventually, Rose Ann took part in a 12-week coaching programme that helped her to address the root causes of her drinking and taught her how to respond to anxiety and learn to have fun in different ways.

‘I was shocked at the complete transformation that I went through in my programme,’ she says. ‘But I recognised God’s word being taught in it – concepts of forgiveness and staying the course.’

Despite the problems she was having, Rose Ann did have a strong Christian faith. She believed that it was her faith, together with the coaching programme, that helped her to overcome the drinking.

Her experiences prompted her to write The Plans He Has for Me, a 12-week devotional book that each day gives readers a Scripture and a ‘mindful minute’, which is a short thought. Then there is a space for people to write down their

Rose Ann Forte

‘daily gratitude’ and their ‘reflections’.

‘The book is about the science of the brain and how God designed our brains,’ she explains. ‘We practise and we do things over and again, and they become embedded.

‘It means that we don’t have to relearn everything every day. But it also means that bad habits get stuck in our brains too. Nobody is immune to this, no matter There’s a lot what their social status is. We are all capable of falling into problem drinking of deception if we use alcohol for the wrong reasons. I want to let people know that they about alcohol don’t have to suffer alone.’ Rose Ann refers to problems with alcohol as ‘secret suffering’, because people often do not want to talk about them.

‘While working on a coaching programme, I spoke to hundreds of people who would tell me they had never shared their alcohol problem with anyone, including a spouse,’ she says. ‘There’s a lot of deception in the world about alcohol. Advertising is built around fun, relaxation and all these wonderful romantic things, and I believe that’s the big lie.’

Through her book and her coaching, Rose Ann wants to empower people to choose freedom from alcohol and to find new ways of enjoying life. She uses faith as a key component.

‘Faith gives you hope for something better,’ she says. ‘The title of the book is based on Jeremiah 29:11 in the Bible – “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to give you a hope and a future.” In my darkest moments, I was reading those words and wondering what in the world the plan was, because I was done. But I trusted that there was one, and there was. I want to tell people that God has a plan for every single one of us.’

Rose Ann explains how her life changed when she was able to remain free of alcohol.

‘I went from somebody who was super sick, was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and was praying to God to take me off this Earth to somebody who wrote a book that is changing lives. I’m thinner, I’m calmer, I’m happier. I have a life full of purpose and joy. And I want people to know that isn’t reserved for me alone. Nobody is excluded from God’s promises.’

l The Plans He Has for Me is published by Xulon Press