A hard stop, moderating your intake or drinking less as a gateway to going alcohol free? What sounds good to you and what did I do? Listen in to find out!

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Hello darling heart, and welcome to the Drink Less Live Better podcast. This is the podcast that helps you to see that drinking

less doesn't need to be stressful, lonely, or boring. I'm your host, Sarah Williamson, and I decided to have a year drink

less adventures. I'm here to tell you that you can relax, connect, and have fun without alcohol in your life. Join me here

each week to find out how. If you listened to episode 4, you'd have heard me talk about why I decided to tell some people

about my alcohol free experiment, and not others. Today, I'd like to tell you a story about how and why I came to drink less

before I decided to go alcohol free. During my late thirties, I'd started to become uncomfortable about the way that I drank,

but couldn't figure out what to do about it. In an average week, I didn't drink more than the UK government guidelines for

safe drinking limits in women. But when I went out with my girlfriends, I always drank more than I intended to and always

had a hideous hangover the next day. As far as the chief medical officer's guidelines are concerned, if women drink more than

6 units in a single sitting, that is considered binge drinking. On average, one large glass of wine contains 3 units of alcohol,

so I only needed to be drinking 2 large glasses of wine to be binging. I hate the word binging. It even sounds ugly. Anyhow,

binging is apparently what I was doing when out with the girls, and the price I paid seemed to get heavier and heavier over

time. It was making me feel physically and emotionally exhausted. In 2017, I had a night out with some friends in London,

and the next day I suffered one of the worst hangovers I had ever had. I've kept the travel card from that night out in my

purse ever since. I keep it as a reminder of how I never ever want to feel again. The feeling of shame lasted well over a

week, and I still have flashbacks that catch me out from time to time. Through 2018 and 19, the idea popped into my head every

now and again that I should cut back my drinking on nights out. However, I never got round to actually cutting back. I just

thought about it most of that time. I thought I had to behave the way I always had, as that was what my friends expected of

me. When I was ready to change, I started with changes I could make at home. I started buying those really small single serve

bottles of wine so that I didn't feel the need to finish a full sized bottle. Sure. They're more expensive per millilitre

of alcohol, but I knew I was benefiting my health massively by not drinking a whole bottle of wine, so I didn't care. I then

began to tell myself a new story about who I was on a night out. I would tell myself, I am the person who goes to the pub

with friends and enjoys 2 glasses of wine and no more. This took me a while to perfect, but once I had it as a firmly entrenched

belief about who I was, it worked a dream. Drinking less over time was a massive part of my pathway to being able to choose

alcohol free for myself further down the line. I had a good 2 or 3 months successfully moderating my drinking before I took

the plunge and went alcohol free. We should always choose what works best for us, and drinking less led me very neatly into

alcohol free. For other people, a hard stop works well, and for others, getting their drinking to a place of moderation is

their dream goal. Each to their own, I say. You can sign up to my 5 day drink less experiment and find out about working with

me one to 1 at drink less live better dot com. Thank you for listening today, and please listen in again next time to learn

some key tools to help you through your early days of your drink less or alcohol free adventure. It would make me happier

than a Buddhist monk if you would please subscribe, 5 star review, and comment on my podcast on whatever platform you listen.

Imagine it like the tasting notes on the finest wine I am never going to drink. Thank you. And PS, I believe in you.