A walk-and-talk YouTube monologue in which the speaker (a 44-year-old man) explains his decision to stop drinking alcohol after years of social and career-related drinking. He describes how hangovers disrupted his routines and productivity, recounts a severe past incident ending in hospitalisation, and reflects on social pressures around drinking. The tone is informal, motivational, and oriented toward encouraging men to optimize their lives.
Okay, so walk and talk for today we're going to talk about alcohol. Quick one on that. It's very interesting. But before I start. So this is at the back of my house. Beautiful views, but notice there is frost on the ground. I don't know what the temperature is, but it's fresh. Hence why I've got a couple of layers on. Because before you hit the sunshine, it is fresh. But anyway, alcohol. What is your relationship like with alcohol? I've written before for the whole mannequin e letter about alcohol when I worked in the city. And, well, I mean, basically you had to drink. I mean, you know, some people might say, well, you didn't, but it was just part of the culture. And, you know, you'd take. Who's flying a plane this time in the morning? Ridiculous. You would go out with clients and you would drink. You'd go out to celebrate a good deal and you drink. You'd go out when you were pissed off because you've got something wrong and you drink. You could basically say you'd unwind on a Friday and you'd drink and. And also it end up with dates as well. Where. When. You know, when I was back when I was single in those good old days where I used to go out and meet those lovely ladies. And of course, generally it would involve alcohol, alcohol and usually a bit more alcohol. And I was wondering also, I wonder how much money. Let's say you're a guy like me, I'm 44. So let's say, you know, you start drinking when you were 18, never any earlier than that, but how much money I must have spent on booze going out either. Not even on expenses, but my own weekends, parties, stuff like that. And then the stupid stuff you did afterwards. Someone dropped me off some drugs or something in the Cotspots. So I decided a couple of months ago to stop drinking. Now, it's not that I was drinking loads and I've especially done. Certainly done less drinking since I moved up to the Cotswolds, but I just realized it just wasn't serving me. And I had some of these mornings where, you know, you just feel like you just wake up. You're like, I just feel a bit meh. Bit. And you know, I'm very strict on, or I say strict on. I find it very important to have a good morning routine. But guess what? Those. Those mornings where you wake up with a hangover, you'd just be like, ah, you know, you're less inclined to actually do what you should be doing to Start the day the right way. And it culminated in. Is that the right word? Doesn't matter. On one of my son's birthdays, I had loads to drink because we had a party and, you know, it was meant to be from 2 till 5 and. And then it didn't finish till midnight. And I was, you know, drinking the whole time, enjoying myself, having a great time. And I don't think I made a tit of myself too much. But the point is, the next morning, oh, my God. You know when you wake up and you open one eye and you're like. You do a bit of a body scan and you're like, oh, dear, this is not going to be good. And when I'm hungover, I literally just feel like I have got no energy and I, you know, can't function properly. And it was funny because of course, the next day you've got the party to clear up because it was our house. And I got up, came downstairs, then felt like I had to go back to bed. And I don't know if you had this before, but, you know, there was a lot to be done that day. And I remember my partner coming in and it's quite a technical term and quite a loving term. She's like, get out of bed. Like, you are not laying in bed all morning when my mum and dad, or her mum and dad are out clearing up gazebos and blah, blah, blah. And I dragged myself out of bed, managed to eat like half a sausage and then. And then kind of help. But, you know, it's one of those really painful days. And I realized, how many of my days have I wasted or lost just being hungover and vegetating on a sofa? Now, I'll tell you a quick story. We talked about worst hangovers here at the Whole Man Academy. And let me tell you, back when, Christ, how many years ago was it? I mean, it must be 20 years ago, because it was around the time that Tony, Tony Blair, or you could spell it Blair, like liar instead of Blair. But he, he was just about to become Prime Minister. And I went to a party. It was Ant and Dec, who some of you will know were the. The TV homies. And I went to one of their album launch parties up in London and drunk loads and loads. And I drunk loads during the lunchtime as well. And I got so drunk that I ended up. Didn't even realize, but collapsing outside the steps of the Chelsea and Westminster Town hall, it was a good place to collapse and was taken quickly to the hospital by ambulance, which isn't a good state. And the next thing I remember was waking up the next morning with this lovely Irish nurse who's quite attractive actually, saying, anthony, Anthony. And I opened my eyes. I'm like, where the fuck am I? And, yeah, great. I ended up in hospital and that's not a good place to be. And I didn't drink for about, I don't know, months afterwards. But I think back to then and I was like, you know what? Anything could have happened to me. Who knows what stupid situations we've all got in when you've got drunk and you could have ended up with something nasty happening to you. And this is. This is always my worry with when you get really drunk, especially when I was younger, you could wake up the next day and people could tell you that you'd done whatever. And you couldn't honestly say, I haven't, because you have no idea what you did last night. And that, for me is quite scary considering that I've got two boys who, you know, thankfully, they're still little tiddlers, but in many years time will be out, in theory, drinking. So anyway, I decided to give up alcohol and I've spoke to several of the guys through the whole man academy who haven't drunk as well. So we shall see. I just wonder what your relationship, like, is like with alcohol. For me, it's. It was something that I, yeah, was part of my life. But we shall see how long I can say, do you know what I'm not having it for. The other interesting thing is when you tell people the reason I'm breathing is we're going uphill, we're going pretty well. But it's so funny how people's reaction to you not drinking because they're like, what, you're not going to have any alcohol? I'm like, no, I'm all right at the moment. Huh. And what you realize is that people want you to drink with them because it's the social thing. So I'm very lucky that my partner is like, okay, I'm not drinking as well for various reasons. But I wonder how hard it is when you've got a partner who is like, oh, come on, just have a glass of wine, just have a beer, just have whatever. Could be a partner or colleague, who knows? But that's where a strong mindset comes in. Being clear and saying, I'm doing this for me and my health. If you want to support me, great. If you don't, what's your technical term? Go yourself. So anyway, that's it. That's our walk and talk for today. Later on. I'm interviewing Adrian Lee for the podcast I said yesterday. Really interesting guy that'll be out on Friday. And apart from that, I wish you a great day. I'm in the Cotswolds enjoying a nice little walk. Early doors. What is this? Half past eight? Bang on the nose? And I'll be back tomorrow with more thoughts about the world, about men and optimizing your life. Right. Oh, and remember, the world needs strong men.
