2 Years - Alcohol Free

Well that has flown!! I am only blogging about each year that passes now as I am not great at posting regularly and besides it would get very boring lol. I haven't even blogged on here for a while and I should commit to being more consistent :-/

Anyway, the past year has seen me go on a few holidays to some grat places. I was able to afford to go on these holidays because I no longer spend my money on nights out that I don't rem mber or afternoon sessions in the pub. Instead I choose to fill my life with activities and making memories.

Last year I visited family in South Carolina, which was a rellty big milestone for me as it was something my grandma always said she was going to do when I was younger. Sadly she never managed to get there so it had always been a mission of mine to achieve that and not make the same mistakes of always saying you want to do something buy never actually doing it. I went via Atlanta which was fun and it reminded me how easy it is to travel solo and not have anybody else to worry about but yourself. Not so great thog when your bags are left in Manchester becuase of a power outage at the airport. That siad it all added to the adventure and made me buy new clothes from America that I otherwise wouldnt have. It was also so nice to see the real america wher my family live and not just a tourist area.

I also travelled Business Class for my first time becasue I had a reward flight to use from airmiles I had acrued with my Virgin Atlantic credit card. That was such a great experience but it has ruined me for future trips when it s a long flight and you don't have those same comforts. At least I can say I have done it.

I went to South Korea on a food tour which was fantastic and I got to see so mahy sights and try things I probably wouldn't have done had we not go a tour guide. I have alredy booked the next trip for March this year again with Intrepid as they were such an organised company to do a tour with.

Next Stop is Costa Rica in March via Toronto on the outbound and Houston on the inbound so we have tagged on a couple of nights in each destination.

I also started my Content Creator journey on Tikok in May 2024 and I really think it is something I was meant to do. It's all the things I love rolled into one. Silly lipsync videos, reviewing products, getting free stuff and building a community as I did with The Virtual Tavern.

I am so glad I made the decision to give up alcohol. I can honestly say I have not drunk a single drop since deciding to go alcohol free and it's the best decision I've made and I am loving the new life I have. It's not even something I think about and I have never really been tempted to be honest as the positives far outweigh the negatives. I also have done a lot more self-analysis and looking at different areas of my life that I want to change etc. I have still have a lot of work to do as nobody is perfect (despite the opinions of those who always like to point out your flaws or tell you what you should be doing with your life).

I am often asked if this is a temporary thing and I will ever revert back to having 'the odd drink' or decide to drink regularly again. I can think of no reason why I would ever want to go back to wasting nights of my life that I don't remember and waking up feeling horrible and low mood for days. I still have days where my mood dips as it is, adding alcohol into the mix would just make it even worse. I want to think I am a better person without it in my life. Don't get me wrong I didn't have a drink problem I didn't like how it made me feel afterwards. I also made choices that I would not make had I been sober, and then blamed alcohol for my actions. That is just a cop-out becasue if you know you behave in a certain way be that loud and annoying, flirtatious or you are an aggressive drunk (I wasn't the latter) yet you still drink, then you are enabling that behaviour and effectively saying it's okay.

I have noticed that some friends have fell by the wayside during my journey and I am at peace with that. If the only thing we had in common was going out with the aim of getting as drunk as possible, then we probably don't have much in common any more. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them still doing that, it's just no longer my idea of a good night out.

I am the happiest I have been in for as long as I can remember and look forward to what the future holds.

Oh and I will try and do more posts too, especially with anything significant like trips abroad etc.