Welcome to New Habits
New Habits was created out of what actually saved me from my addictions. After my health and consulting career were affected due to a 2017 house fire, I used alcohol and weed to cope with severe lung injuries, depression, and anxiety—convincing myself that it was safer and cheaper than painkillers. It wasn't.
It took 13 months away to rebuild my life through faith, community, AA, and most of all, simple distractions and new habits.
Today I am addiction-free for two years and counting. I am not a therapist or a coach; I am Yasmin—a sister in Christ, business consultant, and single mother who walked through the fire and found freedom. I want to show you in my store what habits helped me reclaim my life, freedom, joy, and peace.
Tools for Your Journey
Inside my store, you will find the exact practical resources and daily habits that carried me through and still do to maintain my sobriety and joy for life:
- Faith & Growth: Bibles, uplifting books, music, and motivational resources.
- Grounding Cravings: Simple hard candies like mints, butterscotch, and fruit drops to ride out the hard moments.
- Focus & Distraction: Construction toys like Lego, arts, crafts, and painting to keep the mind engaged.
- Restoration: Exercise equipment, relaxation products, journals, and music to heal the body and spirit.
Take a look around, find what you need for your own journey, and remember: you don't have to fight the fire alone. Welcome to New Habits.
— Yasmin Goetz Ramirez, Founder
What I Learned the Hard Way
When cravings hit, willpower alone isn't enough. What made the difference for me was simply having something better to reach for—a mint, a craft, a book. Something sweet or engaging to give my mind a break while the moment passed.
It wasn't about fixing everything overnight; it was just about making one small trade at a time.
How It Works:
Notice the Urge
Acknowledge the craving without panic. It's just a wave, and it will pass.
Reach for Something Small
A mint to ground you, a project to distract you, or a book to inspire you.
Let It Pass
Most intense cravings only last a few minutes. Give yourself those minutes, take a breath, and move on.
That's the whole idea behind New Habits: practical everyday tools to help you make that small trade when you need it most.
Me, these days.
No Willpower Required —
Just One Small Trade
Leave the guilt at the door. Building a new habit isn't about being perfect; it's about making practical choices in the moment.
The
Old Way
- Willpower & rigid rules
- Guilt & shame
- Quitting everything all at once
The New
Habits Way
- Small, simple replacements
- Grace & progress
- One small trade at a time
Not just sobriety.
My whole life came with it.
- Mornings without the dread of replaying last night.
- My son trusts me more than he did. Not fixed. Getting there.
- Sleeping through the night. Actually tasting food again.
- Room in my head for something other than managing the next drink.
This is what one small trade a day can turn into.
This is just the beginning.
The candy, the mints, the small trades, that's what got me through the worst nights alone. What I'm building next is somewhere to do it together. A free weekly space built on faith, no diagnosis, no admitting you're powerless, just people trading one habit for a better one, out loud, with company.
Get notified when it launches
Questions you may ask
Does this work alongside AA, or instead of it?
AA was part of how I got sober, and my faith and my church were too. I'm not here to talk anyone out of any of that. What I built is something extra, one small, practical habit that helped me in the moments none of those things could reach fast enough, the two-minute craving that hits at a bad time. Use it alongside AA, alongside whatever program fits what you're quitting, alongside therapy, alongside your faith, or on its own. It's not a replacement for anything. It's just one more tool.
What helps with cravings when you can't afford therapy every week?
I'm not going to tell you therapy doesn't help, because it does, and if you can afford it and it's working for you, please keep going. I couldn't keep affording it. Fifty dollars an hour doesn't sound like much until it's every week, on top of everything else falling apart. What I found instead were things that cost almost nothing, a bag of candy, a book, a walk around the block, and they got me through the moments where I needed something right then, not an appointment three days from now.
Can candy help with addiction withdrawal?
I'm not a doctor and I'm not going to pretend I understand the chemistry of it. What I can tell you is what I watched happen, in myself and in the women around me, some getting through alcohol withdrawal, some getting through meth or fentanyl withdrawal. The ones who reached for something sweet seemed to get through the worst of it a little easier, regardless of what they were coming off of. Candy helped with cravings, both kinds. It isn't a treatment for withdrawal, medical or otherwise, and nothing on this site is medical advice. Alcohol and drug withdrawal can both be medically serious, and for some people it's dangerous. If you use heavily, talk to a doctor before you stop, and if anyone has a seizure, severe confusion, or hallucinations, call 911.
What is the New Habits method for sobriety?
It isn't really a method in the way that word usually gets used. There's no workbook, no steps to check off. It's just the thing I figured out in jail: when a craving shows up, you give yourself something else to reach for instead of fighting it head-on. A mint instead of a drink, a few pages of a book instead of a cigarette, a walk or a workout instead of whatever your hands are used to reaching for, small trades, over and over, until the new habit is the one that's easier to reach for.
Who is Yasmin Goetz?
I'm the founder of New Habits, New Hope, a Christian-inspired ministry for people trying to quit something, drinking, smoking, whatever has its hooks in you. I grew up in Puerto Rico, lived in Miami, Houston and now Orlando, more than twenty years all together, built an independent consulting career from nothing, and later a real estate business with my cousin, and I thought I had it together. I had also been fighting alcohol since long before any of that, growing up around it and quitting and starting again most of my adult life. Then the house I was living in caught fire in January 2017, and one thing led to another until I was spending thirteen months away from my life. I'm two years sober and counting now, I'm a single mom, and I started New Habits with my son's encouragement, because I wanted to hand people the same small, unglamorous thing that got me through, something I actually learned from other women, not something I invented on my own.
Is New Habits a nonprofit?
Not yet. Right now this is Phase One, me and a small shop, spreading the word and building this community online. Short-term, the goal is to become a registered nonprofit. That would mean opening real, in-person spaces for daily meetings and support, working toward affordable housing for people rebuilding their lives, and offering real help with work and school, business start-ups, the practical stuff that actually gets someone back on their feet, not just the emotional support. That's the plan. It's just not built yet.