Today’s question is how do you plan for your vacation without booze, for your holidays, without booze?
Well, definitely don’t go to these places where you know there’s going to be a lot of booze, like you know, these places where you go on a cruise and there’s free booze everywhere and you’re locked on a ship, you know for the duration – that’s not a good idea.
But I mean you can go back to those things later on, but you know, try and avoid them now as much as possible.
A lot of this…
When I used to go on holidays, that was my focus, was to drink.
I mean, no matter where I went, the secondary focus was going to the destination but the first destination was always – “How could I get a lot of drink into me?
Started early in the day and whatever – finishing.
Once the thing was over, I’d then deal with the hangover the next day by getting loaded up again and basically doing that, until the holiday was finished and having nothing left of it, at the end of it.
That was always my focus, right?
Second thing I’d say to you, is to think about all the vacations you’ve been on in the past – the recent past – and look for the triggers that made you want to drink.
If you’re like me and you went for holidays, based on that.
Based on the fact that you could relax and get drunk, whenever you wanted, then you won’t have to look too far.
And it will be fairly obvious of which parts of this you’re going to avoid and which parts you’re going to take.
But destination is a big thing.
And the third thing, I’d say to you is to try to choose an active holiday.
Do something active every day and aim to do that, plan to do that.
Because if you’re active, you’re not only keeping your mind off the alcohol, you’re also promoting the other side of this which is positive healthy habits and that’s, for me, that’s the whole movement away from alcohol.
Is to get as far away from alcohol as possible, into as many healthy habits as I can take on and move away from the unhealthy habits like drinking and smoking and eating shit food and all that kind of stuff.
That’s really it, you know, there’s, if you go to a destination and you know there’s going to be a lot of drink there.
You know, you’re asking for trouble, at the end of the day.
If you go to a destination and you sit on the beach all day and you’ve got nothing to do, except twiddle your thumbs, you know, you’re asking for trouble.
Because one of the big reasons why people go back to drinking is because of boredom and stuff, you know? And if you put yourself into boring situations then, you know, as I say, asking for trouble.
You know yourself well enough to be able to look at your own triggers. All triggers are not going to be the same.
You know, so you get people drinking, what starts people off drinking and you know, for a vacation it’s going to be exactly the same – there’s no difference.
So, you’ve got to basically look at your own holiday itineraries from the past – see why used to drink in the past – what triggered you to drink and avoid that like the plague – basically.
If you liked this video give it a thumbs up, share, subscribe to the channel, if you haven’t already done so.
Come on over to alcoholmastery.com and sign up for the newsletter, it’s absolutely free.
Sober Holidays – The Best Present you can Give Yourself
Until next time…
Stay Safe
Keep the Alcohol out of your Mouth
Good Luck to You
Take Care
Onwards and Upwards!
Kevin,
Thanks for this. You are doing a bang up job. I’m hoping you are doing well yourself. You offer great advice and model it on your own behaviour, and for that you deserve credit. My success is in no small part due to the ongoing efforts of people like yourself.
Thanks again, and keep up with your quest.
Terry
Useful video, my view is holidays are tricky in part because if your a drinker, your holidays were probably all very much alcohol centered and probably have been for many many years, I know mine was. When you first stop drinking it might be best not to think about holidays. The reason I say this is it gives the alcohol monster (your negative self) something in your head that really latches on to “your fear of missing out”. Its so easy to let the alcohol monster design the perfect sunny day surrounded by great people all enjoying drinking alcohol. A sort of perfect add for alcohol designed and tailored to fire off as many triggers as humanly possible all at once. This can then affect your resolve, particularly at the early stages of quiting the alcohol or could make you feel like your missing out. Your not! Always remember alcohol is a loan shark, a very nasty one. A 20 min buzz for hrs of feeling shit. My view is don’t even think about holidays until you have 3 or 4 months of none drinking under your belt. Unless like Kevin said, its a very different type of holiday. This may not be possible if all the family want there usual fortnight in the sun.
I would suggest once you feel you have the alcohol quit, rehearse you holiday in your mind, so you have already been hit with the holiday triggers many times before you go. Don’t do this until your secure day to day. I rehearsed a bike ride in France 100 plus times until I could get the same feeling of pleasure sat outside my favorite cafe with a coffee instead of my usual red wine. I haven’t done this yet. But I feel very confident I will enjoy my coffee more than the wine knowing it wont result in getting pissed and feeling knackered and shit latter on.
I have spent a day on my boat and did go to the pub and enjoyed my coffee and on another occasion enjoyed a pint of dilute orange. I had no desire to drink alcohol what soever. I enjoyed the experience greatly and feel I can get back into sailing without fear of the environment pulling back to the alcohol. I would not of risked this until I felt confident that the event and the people around me could not induce the “fear of missing out”.
Alcohol free and proud, the best decision I ever made.