Who: Mary Barrett
Lives: Singapore
Loves: her husband and two kids
Does: mindset coach and podcaster
Find: https://marybarrett.global
Last year I found myself drinking wine on a daily basis instead of just on the weekend. It was triggered by home-based learning! Anyone who knows me knows I’m a positive person and I get great results inspiring clients, so I did some coaching on myself. I knew I didn’t want to continue that way and decided to make a change.
Lockdown and the pandemic radically affected my approach to drinking.
I started listening to the podcast, Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee, and in one episode he has a conversation with Andy Ramage, the Founder of One Year No Beer. They talked about about how to take a tactical break from drinking. To be honest, I’d avoided listening to it for a long time as I knew I’d have some changes to make afterwards. And I did.
It prompted me to do a 28 day challenge and I managed to go 35 days without drinking alcohol. It was the longest consecutive time in my adult life that I’d proactively abstained.
I love the benefits of a clearer head, less snacking on non-nutritious food and having more patience with my children and life generally.
As a result, I am 100% more tactical about my approach to alcohol. I still enjoy drinking champagne and wine, but I am very conscious about who I’m drinking with, where I’m drinking and what I’m drinking. I find the adage, 'alcohol steals the joy from tomorrow', to be true for me so I’m more mindful of my intake.
Being in control of my choices and discovering good substitutes has been an amazing self empowering process.