Hello

I suppose I'm accidentally alcohol-free... I never intended to give up booze, but started producing the Over The Influence podcast and decided to give it a go for a few months to see what all the fuss was about. Two years later, I can look back with hindsight and say its one of the best things that's ever happened to me.

 

I didn't drink every day, but when I did drink it was always too much - I'd drink faster than everyone else, and I'd drink more than everyone else. I also didn't realise it at the time but I'd started to drink because of stress - in my twenties I drank because it was fun, in my thirties I'd started to drink to escape.

 

One of the things I'm hugely passionate about is that you don't need to have a rock bottom to decide to rethink your drinking. I believe that anyone can benefit from removing alcohol, no matter where they are on the drinking scale - and that there's power in prevention.

 

As someone once said to me on an OTI Zoom call, "I didn't have a rock bottom but I could see it from where I was standing." Or as Billy Connolly said, "I decided to stop drinking while it was still my idea."

 

I have no idea where my drinking would have gone if I'd not knocked it on the head when I did - but I'm so glad that Over The Influence came in to my life when it did.

 

If you want to hear more about my story (and hear from my fiancée Gem), Shaz surprised me on my two year soberversary with a podcast episode where me and Gem were the guests. Giving up alcohol hasn't just been good for me - and I honestly don't know if I'd be where I am today if I'd not knocked it on the head when I did.