097: Health + Hustle with Nika Lawrie097: Health + Hustle with Nika Lawrie
You're Sober! Now What?
Certified health coach Nika Lawrie shares her experience of loving an addict, healing from trauma and building a coaching business rooted in health and purpose. The conversation links everyday habits, mindset shifts and lived experience to creating a meaningful life in recovery.
41:27•10 May 2021
Health, Hustle and Healing: Nika Lawrie on Purpose After Addiction
Episode Overview
- Health habits like movement, nutrition, sleep and stress management are presented as core pillars for clear thinking and sustainable sobriety.
- Trying to fix or save an addicted partner can lead to exhaustion and codependency, highlighting the need for boundaries and separate healing.
- Mindset work means challenging the stories you tell yourself, looking at facts, and shifting focus from self‑doubt to serving others.
- High performance is framed as consistency in small actions rather than perfection, with tiny daily changes adding up over time.
- Entrepreneurial life in recovery is described as messy but rewarding, especially when built on personal experience and a desire to help others feel better.
“I was clinging to people who needed love, and I was trying to fix them. And you can't fix other people. They have to fix themselves.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol and then build something bigger from it? This conversation with certified health coach and behaviour change specialist Nika Lawrie connects the dots between sobriety, health, and high‑performance living in a way that's easy to relate to. You’ll hear Nika talk openly about growing up off‑grid with hippie parents, dropping out of school, and later spending nearly a decade in a relationship with a heroin addict.
From her side of the story, she shares how codependency, exhaustion and loss of self‑worth can shape those relationships, and why "you can't fix other people, they have to fix themselves" became such a hard‑earned lesson. For anyone in recovery who’s also healing from toxic relationships, her description of the emotional and psychological toll of loving an addict is likely to feel very familiar.
She and host Tamar Medford chat about the parallel recovery that happens for partners and family members, and how boundaries, different kinds of relationships, and "living amends" can play a part in rebuilding trust. The episode then shifts into practical health talk: movement, diet, sleep, hormones, gut health and mental health as everyday foundations for staying sober and functioning as an entrepreneur, parent, or professional.
Nika breaks it down into small, realistic steps rather than all‑or‑nothing gym marathons, stressing that your gut and brain are tightly linked and that clear thinking often starts with what’s on your plate. Mindset is another big theme. The pair chat about imposter syndrome, the stories we tell ourselves, and how looking at evidence, focusing on service, and setting tiny, incremental goals can move you from feeling stuck to feeling purposeful.
Nika keeps it honest about entrepreneurship too: it’s messy, up‑and‑down, and absolutely worth it when you align it with helping others. If you’re sober, curious about health, and wondering how your messy past could fuel a meaningful future, this episode might be just the nudge you need to rethink what “living your best life” could look like for you.
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