insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 23 - January 2017 | Page 36

FOOD+DRINK

HOW TO MAKE IT THROUGH ‘DRY JANUARY’ cont.

36

PLAN A HOLIDAY

RECRUIT A PARTNER IN SOBRIETY

EMBRACE EXERCISE

Planning a holiday and then putting all
the money you’ve saved on booze into a
‘holiday fund’ will be a visible inspiration
to keep going throughout this punishingly
weekend-heavy month. Dreaming of
hot sun and white sandy beaches is a
guaranteed motivator, plus you’ll have a
shrinking bikini/speedo body too: win, win.

Your dryathlon will be about a million times
easier if you have a least one of your friends
on board the good ship sensible. You’ll have
a sober partner in crime to go out with and
look suitably smug with while your other
friends are being drunken idiots around you
and then feeling dreadful the next day.

Kickstarting your fitness regime for an entire
month will not only boost your levels of
serotonin, but will also give you a suitably
time-consuming goal to focus on. Try a
group fitness class and see it as a social get
together without alcohol – opt for Zumba or
salsa classes and you’ve even fulfilled your
weekend dancing quotient too. Turn to page
66-67 for some inspiration and advice on
getting fit this year.

STAY POSITIVE

TELL EVERYONE AND ANYONE

BACK UP YOUR EFFORTS

Many people picture a month of sobriety
like some sort of ghastly community service
sentence, but don’t see your forthcoming
challenge as negative. Instead, flip it and see
it as something fantastic that you’re working
towards achieving for yourself and for your
health. Rather than focusing on the fact you
can’t unwind with a drink, try and envision
how happy you will be when you have
reached your goal.

Telling everyone you’ve ever met that you’re
never drinking ever again (well, for January,
but it might feel like forever at times) will
increase your chances of success. Why?
Because your feelings of shame will verge
on 100 per cent unbearable if your friends or
family catch you clutching a sneaky glass of
red when you shouldn’t be.

There are oodles of ways to put goodness
into your body, so why not go the whole
hog – up your intake of fresh fruit and
vegetables, drink at least two litres of
water daily, work out regularly and take
a supplement to keep your mineral and
are sure to alleviate any January blues, and
if they don’t, well, it’s only 31 days until you
can reunite with your good friend G&T.