ABOUT JIM

WHO IS JIM AND WHAT IS UNADDICTED?

Jim Huntzicker is an Alcohol Addiction Unaddiction Coach but first and foremost, he is a devoted husband of 17 years and father of two that is dedicated to the health, fitness, nutrition, and never-ending improvement of himself and everyone around him. He is also a passionate life and biohacker, which are both responsible for the person he is today but his true passion lies in helping people overcome major challenges in their lives. He is on a mission to help as many husbands, fathers, business leaders, entreuenpures, and men of god that are struggling with alcohol get the help they are looking for.  The transformative process he created takes them through and shows them step-by-step how to create the abundant alcohol-free future they are looking for, leaving the past behind.

For 20 years, Jim struggled with addiction himself. Embarrassed by that fact, once he finally quit, he didn’t start talking about it until ten years later. With addiction prevalent on both sides of his family and realizing that his life was heading down the wrong path, Jim finally made the conscious choice to make a change. 

Jim quit drinking alcohol on July 14, 2011, marking the turning point that led to the man he is today. But then also subsequently cut out one unhealthy habit after another from his life – including cigarettes, prescription drugs, marijuana, pop, junk food, processed sugar, and even social media, smartphone, and TV/Radio use (he won’t listen to anything with a commercial anymore)  – Jim has rewritten his story and now has dedicated his life to giving back and helping those that want and need their stories rewritten too. In 2012, Jim lost 60 pounds, dropped to 8% body fat, and devoted himself to his to the health and wellness of his family in ways he could only dream of before. Now more recently allowing God into his life, Jim is on a mission to be a force for good in the world and help others that want and need help.

He always says, “If you don’t want help, there is nothing anybody can do for you, but if you do, you are just one day, one decision and one simple mindset shift away from an entirely new life. It can all start right here, right now.”  

Jim firmly believes that overcoming addiction is a choice – anyone who wants to change can get their life on track starting today. If alcohol is causing issues in your life and you are looking for help, you are in a safe place here. If you know you need to quit, today is the day. Reach out to Jim or someone else to get the help you need today.

From Jim:

I guess I have what’s referred to as an addictive personality. I become addicted to things easily. Sometimes good things like working out, healthy eating or life and biohacking, sometimes bad things like alcohol, cigarettes or vicodin. The good news is you can become Unaddicted to anything the same way you became addicted to it. I’ll show you how I was able to do it on my own and how you can do it or your own too. No excuses. Anyone can do it.

“If you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”
– Jim Rohn

For the record, I’m not against alcohol or drinking, it just isn’t for me and I’m not here to try to convince anyone to quit something they aren’t interested in quitting.

Let me tell you about Jim the person before I tell you about Jim the addict.

I am a devoted husband to the kindest, sweetest, most patient (as you get to know me and read my book you will find out just how patient she truly is) person I know, and I feel fortunate every day to have her in my life. Her name is Jennifer “Jen” and I love her more every day. I am a proud father of twins (Liam and Claire – currently 10) and spending time with them and my bride is my highest priority. I’m also an extreme introvert and homebody; I like hanging at home and just doing whatever with my family.

What’s funny is when I still drank I was out at bars all the time and told myself I was a social person because it was convenient for my drinking habit. And if you are a social person, don’t worry you can continue to be without drinking in any environment, personal or career (examples are on here on my website but you’d better be ready because the more you stick with me the less excuses you’re going to have…)

I’m a life and biohacker, a health, fitness & nutrition enthusiast, lover of the outdoors (except for tent camping- hard pass) and now teacher…I guess. I don’t love the term “coach”. It’s become kind of cliche in my opinion. You’ve got all these people that take some “Life Coach Certification” class over a 4-day weekend and now all of a sudden they have more life experience and are a Certified Life Coach??? Qualified to guide you on your journey?

If you have one and it helps you, great. I am for anything that works. Personally, I have a hard time taking directions from someone that has never been down that road. I think your coach or mentor should have real-world experience. So maybe the term “Inspirational Motivational Ass-Kicker” is a better title for what I’m doing here. I’m here to help people that want to quit their bad or addictive habit(s) like alcohol, drugs, junk food, processed sugar, or anything they continue to use, even though they don’t want to anymore.

The reasons you want to quit but don’t can be embarrassing. It was for me at first, so everyone I work with 1 on 1 or even the people that just come to my website for more info have the courtesy of total anonymity and confidentiality from the second you land on my website. No tracking cookies to accept because I don’t have them enabled and never will. So no creepy ads will stalk you around the internet. You have my word. Those ads are called “retargeting” ads in the marketing world. More on that in my book when I cover deceptive and outright shady marketing practices. Which, by the way, is likely why your problem started in the first place. Even if it was 30-40 years ago, the difference today is the ability they have to track us, online or through your credit card spending habits and like it or not, you allow it.

I live with my family in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. It’s where both my wife and I were born and raised. We’ve been married for 16 years (the first 5 years of which I hid how much I drank). For example, we would go out to dinner with friends and I would almost always pick up a tab, not to be a big shot because I couldn’t actually afford it back then, but because I didn’t want anybody to know how many drinks I had actually ordered. Often I would “go to the bathroom” and seek out our server on the way to have them bring me another.

As a kid my family grew up with very little money until I was 8 or 9. At one point, the 4 of us all lived in one bedroom in my grandparents’ two bedroom house in Chicago. I don’t remember much of it. My parents drank a lot back then so their priorities were all out of whack. We were always loved, had food/clothes, but my parents definitely always had alcohol. The important thing is that my parents realized they had a drinking problem and did something about it. Once they quit everything started to get better- a lot better. The financial turn-around my father made was extremely impressive. He went from laying concrete and driving limos to owning multiple gas stations. I am really proud of him for what he was able to accomplish, especially since the family life he came from wasn’t the most supportive; in fact, his father wasn’t a very nice man at all.

My father told me a story about his dad a long time ago that I will never forget. My dad, my brother and I were pulling up to my grandparents’ house and my grandpa was outside. My brother and I were hanging out of the window waving to him as we pulled up. He looked at us then looked away as he continued to enter the back door of the tavern they lived next to. Never to return while we stayed to visit my grandma. I know that crushed my dad; even all these years later when he told me the story I could tell how it still affected him.

That probably has something to do with why he is such a remarkable father and grandpa to my kids today. He is seriously the best grandpa you could ask for. Love that man; he was an excellent role model for me growing up and is now showing me what being a grandparent is supposed to look like. So now the bar has been set for when/if I become a grandparent myself one day. Now it’s my mission to take what my father taught and showed me to the next level for my family. 

But then I recently thought why stop there…

“You can have EVERYTHING you want in life, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar (the late great)

I’ve had that quote on my office wall for 15 years and just realized why I kept it up there.

I thought it was about helping people get or make money but it wasn’t. I almost took it down a few times because it felt greedy. But for some reason, I knew I should leave it up. Now that I’m a little older and a little wiser, I realize that it’s all about time and freedom. I want more time with my family and I know a lot of you, right now, are how I used to be and need freedom from something in your life.

Where to start with my addictive habits…

Addiction and alcoholism stretch across both sides of my family tree. I had a grandmother and uncle literally drink themselves to death. Plus I have other family members that have been extreme alcoholics or drug addicts most or all of their adult life (to clarify, not all of my family has addiction issues, but most). When my polar-opposite parents met they were both heavy drinkers. I’ve heard stories and seen pictures about both that are shocking knowing the people they are today. They both quit drinking by going to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). 40+ years later my mom continues to go and my dad went once a week for about 10 years before deciding that was all he needed. To this day neither of them drink and I couldn’t be prouder. Shockingly enough they stayed married for 12 years after they quit drinking. Turns out the alcohol was the only thing they really had in common besides parenting my older brother and I.

As for me, I quit drinking on July 14, 2011. I didn’t go to AA, rehab or anything of the sort to quit alcohol or any of the other things I quit or dramatically changed my use of (not only drugs and alcohol are bad for you). So now I am here to nudge you, well really kick your ass in the right direction. Again, I’m not against alcohol or drinking, it just isn’t for me and I’m not here to try to convince anyone to quit something they aren’t interested in quitting. My bride has a glass of wine with dinner almost every night. A key point here is “a glass” of wine, meaning one that she doesn’t even finish half the time. That was never possible for me. I am all or nothing in almost everything I do and if I was drinking, there was a goal in mind.

I quit smoking after 14 years; I was 26 and at 2 packs a day. I still drank for 6 or so years after I quit smoking (yep, you can quit smoking and still drink your heart out if that’s what you want to do- however, I don’t recommend it), and Vicodin/Hydrocodone I found at a back doctor that would load me up. The dude literally only checked my lower back for pain once in 2 years. The rest of the time was just, “What do you need? What can I refill?”. Wait until you hear the story in my book about the drug recovery doctor I went to to get me off of that constipating garbage. This story is wild, scary and sad all at the same time. But the good news is you’re going to get to learn a lot from it. Plus there are natural options available now that weren’t when I quit.

I lost 60 lbs in 2012 and it was much easier than I thought…well once I figured a few things out it was. It took me two years and finding the right experts to follow before I finally cracked the code and that was trying consistently for 2 years. At first, I lost 20lb and then put it right back on. Sound familiar? I gave up junk food and processed sugar (which is similar to the addictive qualities in cocaine). So eating that Snickers bar (or whatever your sugary “snack” of choice is) is right on par with doing a huge rail of coke. So let that sink in as you eat that garbage, especially in front of your kids. Thankfully I never got addicted to cocaine; I did it several times, only when I was drunk, but never loved it. Fortunately, I felt like a loser every single time I did it.

And the next time you eat anything at your beloved Starbucks check how many grams of “added sugar” are in it. It’s disgusting but they are out to make money and that will addict you to it. No different than adding nicotine to cigarettes to addict you. Both are completely legal. Thanks for having our back Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [sarcasm].

POP! F-ing pop or soda/coke – whatever you call this sugary delicious poison (being from Chicago we call it pop). This was actually one of the hardest and last things for me to give up after I got my health in order (Alcohol was easier to give up). Now I’m so far on the other side of it, that stuff makes me sick even if I have 1 sip. Aspartame is illegal in Europe. Why is it legal here? The point here, again, is don’t assume the FDA or any government or other agency has your back. Do your own research on the stuff you put in your body. Sadly you will be shocked over and over again.

And a dang marijuana addiction! (MJ), this was a more recent and quite depressing realization. The withdrawal from MJ sucks- that’s right, I had f-ing night sweats for 3-4 nights in a row when I took a break from it because it wasn’t helping me sleep anymore. Originally I didn’t plan to quit MJ forever but realized I don’t need it and it only adds another layer of something that I simply don’t need. Once you get to know me you’ll understand why I used it. And it was only the indicia strain which slows you down because let’s just say I have one of those brains that moves a little faster than normal. Not smarter than normal, just faster than normal. When we meet or you hear me speak you’ll understand what I’m talking about. But the marijuana addiction was a shocking one for me. I didn’t know you could have withdrawal from it. Moderation is the key to life and recognizing I am (or you are) an extremist will help you control your addiction issues.

Guess I was overdoing it with MJ like everything that I do because for me it’s all or nothing in almost every aspect of my life. People that know me would describe me as intense, often passionate, brutally honest (sometimes to a fault), a.k.a extremely direct and, most important to me, a man of my word. My father taught me that a handshake agreement means something and to me, it still does and always will. Sadly this is something I have found means “probably” or “if it’s convenient and works for me” to many people these days. Plain and simple I tell it like it is. Why beat around the bush when I can tell you exactly what I want or you need to hear in a fraction of the time? I already told you I want to hang with my family as much as possible. Why am I going to take 30 minutes to tell you what I can in 10? For good or bad that is just how my brain operates. And there’s more to my story but you can read about it in the book when I am done with it.

These days there’s nothing I do in my life that I can’t or don’t quit for 30 days. Take coffee for example I love Bulletproof brand coffee but I stop drinking for at least 30 days a year. Just to show my body and mind who’s in charge, a self-check-in, making sure I can still kick my own ass. In 2020 I deleted my Facebook account, all 4900 “friends” and all. I was looking at it more than I liked with no useful purpose so I cut the cord and I haven’t missed it for 1 second. I will be back at some point but it will be with a different account since I delete that one completely.

You are fighting your own personal war and like it or not it’s one that you already battle every day. And if you’re still reading this I am guessing you or somebody close to you might not currently be winning their war at the moment. I’m far from perfect and I’m certainly not here to judge you. In fact I am putting myself WAY out of my comfort zone sharing this info with you at all.

But in light of recent world events, I said fuck it, it’s time.

Ahhh, it did make me feel better to get one full-on fuck out in this bio because knowing me and talking to me in person is knowing that if I am being my true authentic self I use the word fuck…a lot. I don’t know why. Why do Canadian people say “eh” or, some people say, “and that” after everything…?

If you have any interest in training your brain to work for you and not against you and would like to give up literally ANY bad or addictive habit that you currently do, then you are in the right place. Check out my post on overcoming self-limiting beliefs.

Here are a few of the bad/addictive habits off my personal list that I quit:

• Alcohol
• Cigarettes/Tobacco/Nicotine
• OpioidsVicodin/Narcotics/Prescription Drugs
• Coffee/Caffeine
• Processed Sugar
• Junk Food
• Pop/Soda
• Marijuana
• Social Media / Facebook
• Internet
• Smartphone