TSP 062: "Recovery is an Inside Job" with Erin Bahadur, a recovering addict, NASM certified personal trainer, and blogger!TSP 062: "Recovery is an Inside Job" with Erin Bahadur, a recovering addict, NASM certified personal trainer, and blogger!
The SHAIR Recovery Podcast
Erin Bahadur shares how her life moved from pharmacy school and prescription pills to heroin use, prison, and then long-term sobriety. She talks about building a new life through meetings, fitness, writing and the idea that real wellness starts from within, one day at a time.
1:07:18•19 Apr 2016
Recovery Is an Inside Job: Erin Bahadur on Addiction, Prison and Finding Real Wellness
Episode Overview
- Looking at a lifetime of never drinking again can feel overwhelming; focusing on getting through just one day clean makes recovery more manageable.
- Addiction can shift into other behaviours such as compulsive exercise and rigid food rules, so it helps to stay honest about new obsessions.
- Talking openly in meetings and with trusted people can defuse the power of secrets and obsessive thinking.
- Simple principles like “progress, not perfection” can ease the pressure to have flawless recovery or a flawless body.
- Wellness and happiness are more sustainable when they grow from inner change rather than trying to perfect the outside first.
“Thinking about everything in the future is enough to shut somebody down and get them back into using again because it's so scary because you don't have control over it and you don't know what's going to happen.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation with Erin Bahadur shows one way through, and it’s anything but straightforward. Erin, a recovering addict, NASM certified personal trainer and founder of the blog *Erin’s Inside Job*, talks openly about going from honour roll psychology student and pharmacy worker to opiate addict, heroin user and, eventually, convicted felon serving nine months in jail.
Her story shatters stereotypes – as Omar Pinto points out, you’d never match her bubbly personality and Instagram-ready food photos with the woman who once taught herself to inject heroin alone after watching *The Wire* and driving into Baltimore to buy drugs. She explains how prescription pills felt like “a learning experience” at first, then turned into full-blown addiction, a DWI, stealing from the pharmacy and a courtroom shock when the judge handed down a 12‑month sentence.
Yet the same brain that raced through pharmacy school also clocked what addiction was doing to her: when she realised she was spiritually, emotionally and physically exhausted, she called a rehab with just $15 left in her account and stepped into recovery. Erin shares how recovery didn’t stop with putting down substances. Obsession later shifted into over‑exercise and rigid “clean eating” until meetings, honest sharing and simple slogans like “progress, not perfection” helped her find balance.
Her blog grew out of this realisation that “wellness comes from within”, and she now uses food, fitness and writing as tools to support a sober, connected life. The heart of her message? “Just making sure you get through that one day and not super focusing on everything that could happen has been really, really helpful to me.” If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of “never drinking again”, could focusing on just today make sobriety feel more possible?
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