How I stopped drinking alcohol

Tuesday Boozeday!

Thursday: almost the weekend so let's have a glass of wine!

Friday night: pizza and beer!

Saturday night: spurious excuse to celebrate something = prosecco!

Sunday evening: dinner and wine and a movie!

I wouldn't say I had a drinking problem; I didn't. I was very rarely even tipsy.

But I did drink more alcohol than I wanted to, and it was habitual.

Since Christmas 2018, I've probably had fewer than 20 alcoholic drinking occasions – and when I have had a drink, it's generally been one small one.

And it hasn't been a struggle.

In fact, I started the whole thing as a kind of experiment: what would happen if...?

I was interested. Could I stop drinking? Did I want to? Would I sleep better, concentrate better?

The answer to all those questions was "yes" – and today's email is about how I did it.

This isn't about giving up drinking, by the way; it's about changing a habit you don't want and building a habit you do want.

I found two things super-useful.

1. Realising I wanted to be a person who doesn't need alcohol in their lives. I've never enjoyed being drunk and I've definitely never enjoyed the hangover. I wanted to be a clear-headed person who could operate machinery whenever she wanted. I wanted to be someone who was confident and fun-loving without any lubrication.
2. Changing my environmental cues. Instead of pouring a glass of wine, I'd make a hot chocolate or a herbal tea. It wasn't really the wine I wanted, I discovered; it was simply that I wanted something a little more special than water. An occasion. Instead of having lots of beer and wine in the house, we'd have non-alcoholic beer and Seedlip (it was fun experimenting to find the ones we liked). And instead of staying up late finishing a bottle of wine, we'd get an early night instead... or, as we do now, go to a tee-total home and play Dungeons & Dragons on a Sunday afternoon and evening.

What habits would you like to make or break?

Maybe you want to build a daily writing habit so you can write your book – but you're not sure how to start or what to write.

In that case, come with me. I have something to share with you: my free 29-Day Writing Challenge. It's unlike anything you'll have done before.

It'll poke you uncomfortably, it'll make you laugh and smile, it'll get you to think and it'll help you find your truth and get brave enough to use your real voice.

Sign up here: https://team.moxiebooks.co.uk/29-day-writing-challenge/

p.s. I'm not completely teetotal. The difference is now I choose to have a drink if I want one, in a situation that feels right. And it's just the one or two, not half a bottle out of habit. And I wake up clear-headed and annoyingly smug.