Find Your Sober Glow!

First of all sorry for the delay in this weeks post – gosh what a week it’s been!  To cut a long story short, my week has been taken up with two very poorly children and now a sick dog thrown into the mix too.  Seriously, dogs can catch human sick bugs, who knew!  I feel like I have been in some sort of sick zombie time warp, living in a world of Calpol, snot and sick!  Anyway the eldest has gone back into school today so I am actually up, dressed and normality seems to be resuming! (fingers crossed!)

So I actually need this post more than anyone, you guys are helping ME get some positivity flowing again today so THANKYOU!

The title of this post is a quote that I have seen a lot dotted around the soberista social sites and I LOVE IT! And you know what it’s only recently that I have truly ‘got it”, and that I really feel it.

When I first quit drinking, my focus coupled with exercise, was basically just getting through the days, weeks and months without picking up a glass of wine.  It was a year of first times to tick of my sober list – first sober Friday night, first sober weekend, first sober night out, first sober Christmas, first sober holiday, fist sober Birthday – you get the picture!  That was enough to keep me motivated and inspired me to keep going.

Fast forward to the end of the first twelve months and feeling really pleased with myself, I  remember posting my one year success on my personal Facebook page and also the lovely Clare Pooley (sober mummy) mentioning it in one of her blog posts.  Now you can imagine the response from Clares post was a lot more positive than my personal page, although a handful of close friends and family have been behind me all the way which I am SO grateful for (but that’s a whole different blog post for me to discuss at a later date!)  But basically it was Clare and the comments from other members on her blog that inspired me to set up Lifting Weights Not Wine.  So my second sober year has really been spent setting up my blog and Instagram page, but I’ve also had this feeling that I want more.  I want to change what I do on a daily basis.  I have felt restless, unsettled and frustrated – what next?

From being a Mortgage Advisor before children, to setting up my own ironing business to fit around the children when they were babies, my work has never really been something that I loved doing or felt passionate about.  It has just got me from Monday to Friday with the promise of the weekend (normally unless pregnant a boozy weekend!) getting me through the week.  But all of a sudden the sober me wasn’t happy with that, I didn’t want to just get by, waking up every morning and only really looking forward to the workout or run I could squeeze in but feeling bored and tired of my actual job.

It’s then that it CLICKED – I didn’t come this far to only come this far!

So I have slowly been putting changes in place and it feels like this year, so far that its actually happening!  I know I have mentioned my goal to be a Bodypump instructor before, that’s now all booked in to start at the end of March, but I have also now become a Tropics Skincare Ambassador.  Now both of these changes excite me, I have a passion (as you all know ) for exercise especially weights and to be able to actually teach that to people is just AMAZING for me.   The move to Tropics has come from a love of their products, which I have been using for about 8 months now.  Clean, natural skincare and cosmetics that totally fit in with the new me and my sober lifestyle, trying to be as healthy and toxic free as I can possibly be.  Both of these career changes together will eventually replace my current ironing business, which worked for me and served a purpose when the girls were babies.  But now I want to do something that I love and feel passionate about, something to wake up excited about!

Now I know these career changes are small and some people are going to work and making multi million pound business deals or managing hundreds of staff, to them this will probably look like nothing.  But these changes are HUGE to me!  They are EVERYTHING! These changes would have scared the drinking me to death and I would not have had the courage to make the change.  And lets me just point out the majority of my business will be done at pamper party’s on Friday evenings, imagine the thought of the old me leaving my wine and the settee on a Friday night! I thought  I was happy plodding through the week, living for the weekend and then spending most of it drinking and feeling hung over – dreading Monday morning.  Now I have got this new-found confidence to change ,to look for new goals, trying to be the happiest and best version of me that I can be.

So to those of you who are smashing their way through Dry January and starting to think “yes – I am actually feeling good!”  Why stop?  Why start drinking in February? Why not carry on?  Why would you want to go back? Why not see where this sober journey is going to take you? How exciting is that!!

Look if I had given up I would still be exactly where I was, I wouldn’t be making the positive changes that I am making now.  The only initial change i made was that I stopped picking up the wine glass and look how many positive things have happened as a result.  So just ask yourself, do your REALLY want to stop now?

How about any of you guys who have more than a few weeks of not drinking behind you, are there any big changes that you have made or are in the process of making? What are your plans for the sober you?

Quickly getting back to the Tropics Skincare, I’m not sure if you have heard of it but it really is a beautiful skin care and cosmetic range that I have totally fallen in love with – they promote a positive, healthy and clean image that I am all for!  Have a look and see what you think, and if you’ve a sober milestone coming up why not treat yourself!!  Don’t worry I am aware that you guys are looking for sober inspiration and not necessarily skincare advice so if you would like to  be part of a my own Tropics Facebook group where I will share videos, tips and offers then please find me on facebook @tropicswithangie or click on Tropics Skincare to go straight to my Tropics Online Shop.

 

I hope this post has inspired you to look at the bigger picture of not drinking, because believe me there is a bigger picture and you can make that as vibrant  and colourful as you want it to be!!

Happy sober Friday and let’s have an amazing hangover free weekend sober warriors!

Angie xx