Alcohol and Nutrition - EP 227: Naked Life Story – Harvey

Alcohol and nutrition – two topics with seemingly very little in common. When today’s guest started to improve his health and nutrition, he quickly realized that there wasn’t room for alcohol in his healthy lifestyle. Subscribe to This Naked Mind on YouTube - https://goo.gl/ZJQAZ8.

Annie welcomes Harvey, who is now a nutritionist. Harvey shares tons of interesting information with us today, including how, as a child, he lost both of his parents and eventually began to use alcohol to cope with that childhood trauma. But things are totally different today! Harvey is a healthier and happier version of himself. Find out how he healed his relationship with alcohol with the help of This Naked Mind.

Episode Links:

Life Coach School with Brooke Castillo - https://thelifecoachschool.com/

Harvey's Website - https://www.harveyslater.com/

For a part of my childhood, I was raised in the Mormon religion, which is strictly no drinking. Yet, my father's family was sort of split down the middle with drinking. So, I was exposed to alcohol in a sort of different way in that it was this outside thing that I didn't have access to as a child.

Abruptly taken from my childhood home and really had a pretty rough childhood from there on out, starting about age seven. So, when I became old enough to actually have access to alcohol, it was really, for some reason or another, it just became a component of what helped me cope and helped me feel ... I just couldn't wait to become an adult. I felt like I had gotten just an unfair shake in life.


The alcohol just made its way into my life as soon as humanly possible. I started drinking with friends, getting people to buy alcohol for us, and it just became a regular part of my life. The regular drinking probably started as soon as I got out of high school, I was so ready to get away from my sisters and get on my own. It's like, I just wanted to be a grown up.The day I turned 18, I was legal, I packed up my car, and I drove out, and went out on my own. Pretty much drank every day for my whole life.

Around 2012, I was looking for a new career. I was looking for better health. Had no idea what any of that looked like. I was introduced to a network marketing wellness company. The entrepreneur in me was curious. They had a nutrition component. The way I was able to embrace that was, as a chef, I started a Facebook support group. People who bought my nutrition products then received healthy recipes & support from me.

I wasn't really a very healthy chef, I had just started my journey of just kind of eating healthier, I really had to start learning a lot. I was still drinking pretty much regularly, at that point. The group itself went viral. There were 1,500 people on it within the company. People were starting to call me a health guru. So, I started to really evaluate my authenticity in this situation. Especially when it came to alcohol and nutrition.

I thought, "If I'm going to represent a health product, I really need to accelerate this health thing." Consciously drinking less but not really taking it that seriously. I was improving a lot just from my diet. You know when you're in the bottom of the pitcher plant, like you point out in your book, you're looking for every reason to just justify that you can keep drinking alcohol or abusing alcohol. I hadn't made the connection between alcohol and nutrition yet.

I had this drinking buddy who invited me to do this Dry January thing. So, I was like, "Okay. I've really never thought of stopping before." I was like, "Well, this is going to be challenge. Can I really do this?" Naturally, just because of the way I am, I just kind of take things on, full on, usually. I did really well & aced it. Outlasted everyone else in the group. I was super proud of myself. Of course, that emboldened me to drink more, because I was like, "Well, this is great. I can just stop for a whole month, so I'm fine."

Another year goes by. We tried to do Dry January the next year. This time I couldn't stop. Waking up one Monday, it was like, that typical thing of, "I'll start next weekend." Repeating this a few weeks over & finally realizing -  "This is a serious problem."

I was just sitting on my computer one day. Of all the social media platforms, I think LinkedIn is the one that I use the least. I happened to be on LinkedIn. You popped up out of nowhere.Talking about your book. I looked at the book thinking, "This looks really interesting." There was something inside of me that was like, "There's got to be a better way to do this."

You can learn more about alcohol and nutrition. Download the first 40 pages of This Naked Mind for free today! https://www.thisnakedmind.com/book

So, I downloaded your book & devoured it in two days. The book just spoke to me on so many levels. It made so much sense. It definitely healed my relationship with alcohol.

Tune into the complete podcast to hear just how alcohol and nutrition go together for Harvey.