I'll be honest - my husband and I probably drink more than we should. With a two year old running around at home, I'm not talking about big nights out or even hard core spirits (most of the time). I'm talking about the 'I've had a stressful day at work' glass of wine or even the 'Well done we made it to Thursday' bottle.

How did this woman do it?

How did this woman do it?

We don't live a particularly unhealthy lifestyle otherwise - plenty of dog walks and healthy food - but the wine glasses do add up and I've particularly noticed it in my increasingly snug-fitting jeans and sallow skin. So I persuaded my other half to do Dry January this year with me to give our livers a break. How hard can it be?

Turns out, quite tough actually. The beginning was easy and I think my smugness irritated almost everyone I talked to. But then we moved into the middle of the month - January began to feel like a marathon and we hit the wall. But with a week to go, I'm proud to say we haven't cracked once largely thanks to the Shloer Light that we've been consuming in copious quantities. It's been a lifesaver.

We haven't quite made it to the finish line yet so here are my top tips that are going to get me, and you, through the next 7 days.

  1. After a bad day at work, I'm going to treat myself to a soak in the bath (once the toddler is in bed obviously) complete with glass of cold Shloer Light and a good book. Who needs wine?
  2. It's Burn's Night on Monday which could pose us a few problems with my husband's Glaswegian heritage. But we're going to face it head on with a healthy twist this year - I'm going to serve a Scotch broth using up some of the leftovers from the Sunday roast and accompany it with our Dry January version of a Hot Toddy: Shloer Light White Grape warmed with a cinnamon stick, cloves and slices of orange and lemon. Yum.
  3. There will be moments over the next week when I wonder what on earth I'm doing this for, I'm sure of it. When that happens, I'm going to write down five things that I'm grateful for because we all need a reminder sometimes that life isn't really that bad.
  4. I already know that January 28th will be a big obstacle - it's pay day for me and the night that my other half and I would usually treat ourselves to a particularly nice meal and bottle of wine or two. Tempting, but I will not be defeated this month. I'm going to jump on the scales and show myself how a month of abstinence has really made a difference. And I might just spend that wine money on a different treat instead.

Once February 1st arrives, I know that the temptation will be to fall straight back into the same drinking patterns and it will be as though Dry January never happened. Except I've seen the benefits of a whole month off the booze and I'm determined to not slip back into bad habits. The odd glass of wine, definitely. A bottle a night, absolutely not.