Hello world!

Welcome to the very first post of a brand spanking new blog.

This is an anonymous blog to document my journey to being my best self. Sexy, sober, and vegan. Let's look at each of these in turn:

Sexy.

Yes I want to feel sexier. I'm 29 years old and I guess you could say average shape. Bigger than I would like to be and probably slightly in the 'overweight' section of a BMI chart. This is not where I want to be. I should be in the prime of life and fighting fit, but at the moment I'm nowhere near what I'd like to become. 

Maybe I'll get down to business in later posts about my exact weight and measurements (need to put new batteries in my scales and dust them off first, oh, and buy a tape measure).

Luckily for me, my partner is a personal trainer, so I will be taking full advantage of that and reporting everything here. 

This blog will keep me accountable and maybe even help others also trying to be their best selves.

Sober.

Yikes, what a scary word. I gave up alcohol for Dry January, as many, many people do, and I haven't gone back to it. That makes me seventy-three days sober according to 'Sober Time' - a little app on my iPhone that counts the days sober and the money I've saved along the way (over £200 now).

Ever since moving away from home to go to uni I've been drinking too much, I worked in a bar for years and could always be counted on for entertaining stories of antics the night before. I always wanted to go 'out out', heck, sometimes I even went out drinking on my own! Not only silly and a waste of money but also dangerous and reckless.

Over the course of Dry January I read a couple of books on sobriety, The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Gray and The Sober Diaries by Clare Pooley. Both have really inspired me to go without alcohol for the long-haul. I know that being alcohol free helps me sleep better and gives me more energy to get stuff done, plus I always seem to have change in my purse. 

I sometimes miss a glass of red with dinner, but so far I'm really proud of how it's going and I intend to continue.

I'm already wondering what on earth I'm going to do with a potentially sober 30th birthday later this year. Any suggestions gratefully received. If money were no object I'd go and lie on a beach somewhere tropical for two weeks, read books, eat fabulous food and swim in the sea.

Speaking of fabulous food, let's move on to...

Vegan.

This is the big one, and arguably the one I'm most passionate about.

Just over a year ago I watched the film Cowspiracy and was totally inspired to jump into veganism with both feet.

It's been quite a journey but at the moment I'm stuck at the stage of being vegan at home, and vegetarian when I'm out of the house. This gives me a handy get-out clause if I'm at a lovely restaurant and really really want the camembert starter and the chocolate fudge cake (starting to see why I need to lose a bit of weight). Or if I need to grab lunch on the go and there aren't any nice-looking vegan options.

However, this 'vegan-lite' attitude hasn't been sitting well with me. I'm the sort of person that, if I do something, I want and need to do it properly. So, with this blog keeping me accountable, I'm going to attempt to take veganism out of my home and into the wider world. Wish me luck!

So there we have it, over the course of the next few weeks, maybe I'll set a few more concrete goals in these three areas and see how I get on.

Thank you so much for reading this far. I'm excited to start this journey!

Until next time,

SSV