Having followed the AF beer club for a few weeks and attended (virtually) some of the AF beer festival YouTube’s, I decided I would start my first ‘proper’ journey into AF beer with a subscription box service curated by them and fulfilled by Wise Bartender. At £24.99 a month including 48 hour delivery I am to get 8 carefully selected beers sent to my house every month. As I no longer drink to get drunk but for the experience, this was a luxury I felt was warranted and still allows me to savour the taste of fine beer from around the world. I missed the cut off for the official beer box in time ..read more

This last few months has give me a lot of time for reflection. Without meaning to sound like some sort of soppy old toad, or stereotypical reformed sober evangelist, I have had the time to stand back and realise just how much I love and under appreciated being a dad and what I have learnt from my daughter. Man tear’s Peter Blegvad hit it out of the park with his lyrics to ‘daughter’. Of the few times in my life I actually remember tears pouring down my eyes, that song is responsible for at least one of them. For those of you who don’t know the song it’s played on the movie Knocked Up in the sc ..read more

Smoking for me is an interesting observation on human psychology. All we hear in regards to smoking is negative. Smoking puts a strain on the NHS, smoking increases cancer risk, smoking makes you impotent and smoking costs you money and so on. Before you can actually buy a pack of cigarettes you have to look at an imagine of a dead baby, a destroyed lung or a man quite clearly dying from a smoking related disease. As if this wasn’t enough there is generally a warning such as smoking gives you cancer, smokers die younger or my personal favourite smoking kills. I still look back and smile at the ..read more

The revolution is coming! Or is it already here and it’s just been missed as we’ve been so alcohol focused? The UK market for alcohol free beer is still quite low but growing with AF beer accounting for an estimated 0.3% of the market share of total beer sales in the UK. Over in Spain however its estimated that 10% of all beer sold is alcohol free. My social media pages in January were filled with people jumping onto the Dry January bandwagon. Some with great success and others giving up after a few days tagging #YOLO in way of reasoning. Others are just finding they like to have a beer and st ..read more

Some of the more simple ways I have found which have helped me stop drinking and stay on the sober wagon over the last few months If you have read any of my other posts you will maybe have come across my first post here. It’s a bit about me and why I started the blog. It sums up the ‘why’ I made the decision to stop drinking. To spoil the story for you it was either my marriage and family or alcohol. Having a big enough wake up call made it an easy decision to give up alcohol. Immediately going from drunk every night, smoking 20 cigarettes a day to nothing wasn’t as hard as I had imagined. As ..read more

Finish work early and settle in for an afternoon session in a beer garden or COVID friendly garden party only to start falling asleep in your pint by dinner time? It may be that you have been working to hard (haha) but more likely alcohol is sending your body into sleep mode. The Nervous System There is a neurotransmitter in the brain called GABA-A (Gamma Aminobutyric acid A). GABA A is a mood regulator and alcohol directly affects GABA-A by changing the way it does its job. It reduces the ability of the body to regulate chloride ions which play a large part in controlling the neurons. The neu ..read more

What im investing my sober money in As I have previously written. All the money I have saved by no longer being a slave of the demon drink and tobacco monster, I have been trying to let it grow by investing in the stock markets. I have no official financial training other than what I have self taught myself through reading articles, books, watching videos and following successful investors. So do not take any of my rambling and opinions as financial advice of any sort. If I continue to be in the green at the end of every month then it is a huge bonus! I have dabbled in the market at various st ..read more

Without a doubt, one of the most embarrassing side effects that can be caused by heavy drinking and the bain of over 40% of UK males lives are moobs. It is so prolific in society that the Oxford English Dictionary has defined it moobs informal British ‘Deposits of excess fat on a man’s chest that resemble a woman’s breasts.’ oxford english dictionary I mean that pretty much sums it up. It would be impossible to summarise man boobs more succinctly than that. Having spend most of my adult life having little kids poking my boobs, ex girlfriends comparing their own breasts to my own and even havi ..read more

Falling into bed and drifting into an alcohol induced state of sleep coma, followed by waking up feeling drained, lathargic with zero lustre for leaving my bed. This was pretty much standard for me during my heavy drinking years. I became an expert in functioning whilst battling anxiety, sleep deprivation and weakness. Stumbling through the first few hours of the day fulled by coffee and nicotine – sooo rock and roll. All the shakes, pains in various limbs and organs and bloodshot eyes were just par for the course. There has been various studies over the years that attribute this feeling in lo ..read more

If you have read my first post you will know I have touched on how much money being sober has saved me. The biggest driver for me besides a happier more fulfilling life is seeing my wealth grow and spending power increase. I am roughly £400 a month better of by not drinking and by not smoking I’m saving another £200. So almost overnight I suddenly had gained 20% in spending power a month. Now I am all about future planning and financial freedom I am constantly looking for the best places to increase my money pot. Having scrolled through as many personal budgeting and financial freedom YouTube ..read more