Journey to the Sunnyside

you are a nutrition, fitness, wellness, and big advocate and practicing that yourself. So is that the direct, the direction you went immediately?

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: I wouldn't say immediately, but to kind of paint the picture in between the age of, you know, 19 to 27, I was working for Hooters, which was a very image, uh, image focused, uh, Entity, we had to fit in the uniform. We had to look good. We had to, you know, look like we stepped out of the calendar. So in that I started to get very interested in the [00:30:00] gym.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: I, you know, want to go work out, but there was always just this thought of I'm working out to be skinny. I'm working out to look good at my uniform. And a lot of that was hungover workouts. A lot of that was very inconsistent workouts because I focused on drinking for two to three weeks. And then I'd say, no, I'm going to go to the gym.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: I got to look good in my uniform. So I enjoyed the gym and I was interested in nutrition, but I was always pussyfooting around. I was always straddling the line of being healthy, but being party girl Maggie. And there was an era when I was about 23 where I took three months off and I journaled about, Oh my gosh, the gym helps me feel so good. This is the first time I felt good without alcohol. What if I were to use a wellness concept to help other people quit drinking? Because I obviously see the AA isn't helping me, but like this thing [00:31:00] is, this thing is working. Then I started to look into how much it costs to be come certified as a personal trainer and a nutritionist and substance abuse counselor and getting an LLC and all of that stuff terrified me because I was so anchored into my identity of I'm party girl, Maggie, how am I going to afford all that stuff?

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: How am I going to take time to do all of those certifications and that professional work? So that idea was then tucked away, kind of filed back in the, the very, very dark corners of my mind. And then, January 2020. I did dry January. It turned out okay. I had some slip ups, but it gave me traction. It gave me some sense of success. Mid February, I had one more drinking event where I just woke up feeling so ashamed, so angry at myself. I said, this is the last time. So it was between February. 16th [00:32:00] and when quarantine, uh, went down,

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: was that like March 13th or something? When we went on the nationwide lockdown, I was sitting on the couch with my husband while he was having an old fashion.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: And I was like, I don't want the nightcap. I need to do something different with my mind. I started to think about that old journaling of what if I were studying nutrition? What if I were Applying different techniques of professional training, not just going to the gym and pulling up an Instagram workout.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: That's random, but rather like having a program to follow where I'm getting stronger week by week and I can see it. And I ordered. The glute lab book by Brett Contreras. And I started to do my own workouts in our garage gym every morning. And I would repeat the same workout, something I had never done in almost 10 years of going to the gym. I would repeat the same workout and I would see from [00:33:00] Monday, repeating it on Thursday. I got stronger. I felt better. I could add more weight. I could do more reps and it literally taught my mind to focus on the goal for the next day, for the next day. And when I thought about drinking, it would be this ick effect because I would remember how lethargic I felt in the gym. When I would go hung over and it was like this magnificent experience. I feel good in the gym. I'm actually getting stronger. I didn't know that I could do this for myself. I didn't know that I could literally manifest better outcomes for myself. And it just changed the way my brain worked. And that was kind of the first time that I saw how much I had been living in the past. And spending my time thinking, I wish I could have done this. I wish I could have done that. And it brought me to the present moment of if I want to squat more tomorrow, what do I need to eat today? What [00:34:00] do I want to drink as far as my, my BCAAs and my wine glass, or just getting extra water, being extra hydrated. And it lit up my soul to be so driven. With this program that had nothing to do with sobriety, had nothing to do with alcohol, but it was connected to wellness, which I think is tangential to sobriety. And then I started to really feel confident. I need to bring this to the world. I want to go ahead and get my personal training certification.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: I'm ready to invest in becoming a nutritionist. I'm ready to invest in this new program called behavior change specialization. And it just kind of was this positive snowball effect of if this worked for me, somebody who Has this genetic predisposition. Somebody who has been through the rigor mortem of AA Al Anon [00:35:00] never worked.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: If it could work for me, I need to bring this. And even if it only helps one other person, I want to be their coach. I want to be their support. That person that I was looking for all of my drinking times. I want to be that for somebody else, somebody else who's tired of focusing on not drinking and then exhausting willpower.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: Somebody that's like, I'm ready to create my new identity. I'm ready to be somebody different that is literally just kind of turned off by alcohol. And. That was kind of that, that starting point right at quarantine. I remember everybody like, do you recall people doing memes at like 10 AM and they're like drinking mimosas on my work zoom or

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: hiding the behind the screen, like all of those things are happening.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: And I felt like such a bad ass because I was like, for the first time ever. I'm not going with the crowd. And I [00:36:00] think people went into quarantine and either ended up drinking more or they kind of got their wellness under control. And I was so thankful that I was the latter. I don't know that I would have made it out of quarantine had I been still party girl, Maggie.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: Yeah. Isn't that crazy to think about how, how circumstances can really change with just daily small decisions. And this is one of those. And so I love, I love hearing in your story, the replacing, not just removing a habit, but replacing it with something that brings you joy, because that's actually how, at the root of it, you, you make and you make changes and create new habits.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: And. And if it's healthy and and also I just want to mention what I love is that you said I want to bring this to the one person because it. That is just like me because that's how I felt. That's the reason I wrote my book. I thought, is anybody going to read this? I don't know. You know what? And I didn't even start writing it to [00:37:00] publish it, but I decided to publish it because I said, if there's just one person that felt the way I am, this is exactly where I was.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: This is the book I wish I had like 10 years ago. And The way I totally look at things, like some people have very, very strong opinions, as you know, probably with, with the people that you've had conversations with about what's the right solution. And my, my opinion is that there's nobody should be competing for who's right.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: And every, the more solutions that are out there that are offered for more people that connect with them and give them results, or at least to try to see if it would work for them is, is a good solution.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: Mm hmm, yeah. And for me, you know, one of the biggest goals is looking back and, and, and because I am a nerd, I love to figure things out about myself and why I am a certain way and I stumbled upon literature around what is known as the Children of alcoholics and then adult children of alcoholics. And even in Al Anon, I had never heard [00:38:00] of this.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: I didn't know there were entire studies of like the, the effects and the social aptitude of a child of an alcoholic when they grow to be an adult child of an alcoholic. So over time, my goal is like, I want to help those kids or that one kid who is living with a parent who's struggling with alcohol. If I could help them, somebody who is like my brother or somebody who is like me, then that would be my entire life made. And how do I help them from where I am now? Will I help the parent? I help the mom or the dad who's struggling. And it was like, if

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: Yes.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: so lucky since then that I've had many, many clients who have children and it drives me with such fulfillment and passion that I'm helping impact a [00:39:00] little Eric or a little Maggie, because I don't want a kid to grow up with these. Responsibilities and and a sad statistic is, uh, children of alcoholics almost always grow up to become one or they marry one and that was certainly true for myself becoming my mother and if I can help break that cycle, even just in one family unit. That ripple effect, it brings, it brings tears to my eyes because I'm, I just, I hate to see kids going through that.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: And I know what they're going through and then what that's going to lead to as an adult. And, uh, That's kind of where my heart was pulling me saying, if you can just help one person with fitness and nutrition, if they have kids, like you never know, maybe their kid is meant to be president. Maybe their kid is the scientist that cures cancer. How cool would that be to be able to help that person?

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: I love this [00:40:00] so much. Yeah.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: I resonate with where you were when you wrote your book. You're like, I'm just going to do this kind of for myself and then see if it helps one person. And that's really what has kind of evolved.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: Yeah. Well, I just love that you're helping kids that would probably be in the same circumstances as you, but, but I totally agree like breaking that family Cycle has it's such a downline effect that not only does it affect the child by changing the parents behavior, but all the all the people that the child comes in contact with their partner, their kids, kids and so on and so on.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: It's literally if you can make positive impacts at that level, that's how you change the world literally is as hyperbole as that sounds. That's how you can change the world is by legacy, changing the legacy in a positive direction.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: Yeah, definitely [00:41:00] and I look back and you know kind of to bring it full circle to the beginning of our conversation I look back and a lot of my drinking days were filled with this feeling of why me, why did I get this childhood? Why did I not get what my best friend had with a parents that were still together and they just had this perfect life.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: And, you know, there was a lot of envy in my soul for the kids that got to be kids. And as I got older and I, I distanced myself from alcohol, I said, I'm so thankful as weird as it sounds. I'm so thankful that I had that mom. I had my mom because she gave me some sense of purpose to do good in the world. And I have a deep level of understanding and empathy and compassion now for people that are struggling with alcohol. Maybe this is what I was sent here to do. And I think overall for [00:42:00] anybody drinking, especially, I think we have to find what we believe our purpose is. And when I started to say that, like I went through all of that because maybe I'm supposed to help one family unit, one kid who wants to grow up and be something great. Maybe that's why I went through what I went through. And then doing that gave me gratitude and even more compassion for my mom and myself and my brother to where. I'm like, you know what? I'm pretty happy I didn't have a vanilla childhood because I might just be working an old boring nine to five and like,

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: settling for anything.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: And now I'm like, I've been here. I know I can skyrocket up to here. Life is good. And I think it's kind of finding those, those beliefs about your past that can help you propel yourself forward and then make alcohol irrelevant eventually.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: 100%. I mean, I totally can relate to everything that you just [00:43:00] said right there. And that, and that, and that actually ties into how we opened up and just saying, like, I can't sit there and say that the struggle or the regret. That I went through personally was necessarily a bad thing because if I didn't go through it, I wouldn't be able to speak from experience to be able to help other people.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: And so I reframe it and remind myself of that all the time. Like I wouldn't be who I was, who I am now, you know, helping people in the way that I do. If I didn't go through that and and I think anybody can take their own story and give it That sort of lens to look through it. And so before we get going here today, I think there's one thing that's Really from your story that comes through there are so many good points But there's one one thing that I hear often and that is it And that i'm the answer to this is it depends but the question I get a lot from people is You I drink this much amount.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: Is that enough that I can maybe, should I quit? Should I, you know, can I drink less? [00:44:00] Do I drink too much now to be able to drink less? Like, you know, and I, I personally think it just depends, like the depth and of your, your relationship with it, your, Your entire personality, your history, your environment.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: Like there's a lot of factors, but I do like that in your story. It's a, it's a variant of a lot of people that do end up going the mindful drinking or moderation route, but on the sides, a lot of people would just never really drink that much. But to know that that also depends how much it just depends.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: I think anybody asking that question, It doesn't indicate that you have a problem, but the reason you're asking is because somewhere deep down your soul Wants to find out what it's like without it and it doesn't have to be forever You and I are examples of that. A lot of your listeners are examples of [00:45:00] that of It doesn't have to be forever sobriety to become more powerful in your decision making and in your relationship with alcohol. But if you're asking like, is the, am I drinking too much? Am I drinking at the point where I need to go sober, but forever sobriety scares the shit out of me, that kind of narrative, if you're asking. It's nothing wrong with you. It's actually something really good. It's that your spirit and your soul is saying hey Let's try it without it for a little while. We can always reintroduce it But let's see what life is like without it And I think you and I are the same in the same boat of it was that time away Where we gave ourselves that permission to learn who we are, what we like what we want to be. That gears us up to be able to reintroduce it from a more positive discernment. And so if you're asking, there's no shame. It's [00:46:00] probably just an indication that you're ready to try for a little while without

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: Yeah, totally. I like that answer. And we always want to put labels and identification on things and then have somebody tell me, well, if it's this, then you do that, you know, and so that's,

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: that is totally normal. And so before we get going, tell me a little bit about what's next for you and how people can get ahold of you and learn more about what you do and how you help people.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: Yeah. Thank you. So what's next for me? It's funny you mentioned you published your book. I'm working on querying my book with agents and publishers, a memoir called UN Soberly Sober, and it's a story of. Breaking those generational curses, like we mentioned of children growing up and in those environments.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: So I'm working on, uh, getting my memoir published, which has been very exciting.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: Any, any notes from you, let me know if [00:47:00] you have any words to the wise. Uh, as far as my personal coaching goes Any listener can find me on Instagram at magnify Maggie. My coaching business is magnify progressive wellness, and I utilize the laws of achievement, science of success, subconscious reconditioning, as well as. Nutrition and fitness to help people put problematic drinking in the past. You can also find me online at www. magnifypw. com. I host the Unsoberly Sober show, which is a podcast. I don't know if you do interviews, but I'd love to have you on sometime from

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: Yeah, let's do it.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: Uh, Yeah, that'd be great. I know we would have a really good conversation again, and I can hear a little bit more about you, but anybody that resonated with this episode find me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, MagnifyMaggie and know that there's a different path that's not just, you know, [00:48:00] Clunking your way through life saying, don't drink, don't drink. If you're already using sunny side, you're in good hands. You see some really good methods. But I'm out here too. If, if you ever want to branch out and, uh, add some more tools to your resource toolkit.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: Hey, like I said, more help is always better. So I love it. Thanks for coming and being totally vulnerable and opening up about your story and for us to be able to see the triumph and the success and just how happy and healthy you are and how you're turning it around and helping other people in return through it all.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: So just an incredible story. So thanks so much, Maggie.

maggie-jenson_1_01-29-2025_090621: Thanks Mike. Thank you for making this place for everybody to come on and talk. No BS, no heightening, just open book. Uh, this has been really great and thank you for having me today.

mike-hardenbrook_1_01-29-2025_180622: That was great.

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