Its that time of year again.

Christmas can be a real test for those of us that have given up something or are struggling to gain control. Or maybe you’re someone that struggles to regulate your intake of anything.

Depending on what your poison is will depend on how difficult this festive season might be.

Alcohol is probably the top one, it’s pretty much everywhere anyway, but something happens at Christmas that seems to make alcohol multiply like I have never seen before or is it just me!!

Food and sugar is another hard one, the whole thing is about food. What is it that happens to an office on the run up to Christmas it seem to turn into a junk food feeding ground, pastries, cakes, chocolate you name it its available in the bucket load.

So what can you do if you are alcohol free, attempting moderation or even just want to be healthy. 

Here are my 10 tips for surviving the festive season.

1. Remember there are no rules you don’t have to fit in with everyone...

Is alcohol stopping you from getting that promotion?

At last count a study said that there are 8-14 million working days lost a year due to our alcohol use.  That equates to £7 billion due to lost productivity through unemployment and sickness.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg240.pdf  Dont mix it a guide for employers.

That’s a crazy amount of money and days lost if you are an employer.

However it’s not surprising as we are a nation of drinkers. Approximately 9 million people drink over the recommended guidelines; that’s the population of London.

Some of us will remember a time (it may still be happening in some work places) when alcohol was a lubricant to business deals; a lunchtime meeting with wine, an early evening with scotch.  We like a drink and there is nothing wrong with that (in moderation), as long as it’s not causing you any problems.

Some questions for you.

·         Do you drink...

So the government have announced new alcohol unit guidelines. Are we still confused? I am guessing we are.

What is a unit anyway? What does it mean for us?

In some ways I am pleased that the government have reduced the recommended amounts that we should be drinking. But again I am unsure if we are clear about the messages.

The guidelines might be easier to understand, if they talked in terms of drinks instead of a unit, such as 1 glass of 125ml wine (1.5 units), or 1 pint of 4 % beer (2 units). Check out Drinkaware for more information Drinkaware infographic units

For me there are a few key things I would like people to understand regardless of how many units they drink.

I have worked with 1000’s and 1000’s of people over the years a lot with drinking problems, after all it is our biggest problem when it comes to drugs. Yes I am calling alcohol a drug because that is exactly what it is. A legal drug and let’s face it one of the most harmful drugs in lots of ways....

You will get what you have always got!!!
Sounds obvious doesn’t it?
But you would be surprised at the amount of people I speak to who are doing things they don’t want to do any more. Or maybe they want their life to be different but they just can’t figure out how to get there.

I love these little sayings, they are so simple and clear.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Are you stuck in a routine of bad habits for whatever reason? It could be that your weekend fun has turned into a daily habit, or your weekend fun isn’t so fun anymore, causing you more problems than its worth!! Or maybe your little treat that you had control over, now has control over you.

It’s quite simple really: TAKE ACTION. Do something different no matter how small and then keep doing the different thing until your life starts to change. The rule here is that the new habit you choose needs to be-
• Something you enjoy!
•...

Alcohol is one of those funny drugs (well, not so funny). It is legal, yet it is also one of the most harmful. Unfortunately a large number of the population assume that because it’s legal it’s safe.
It’s also readily available, in supermarkets, petrol stations and on TV. It’s pretty hard to turn a corner without seeing a reference to alcohol.

Drink-related hospital admissions have doubled in the past decade, and a scarily large number of those with alcohol problems don’t realise there’s an issue until their life takes a turn for the worse. Here are some of the warning signs to look out for:

1. Drinking out of habit

Drinking should be a social event, a special occasion. It should be something we do in moderation, like a takeaway. So if you find yourself regularly coming home after a hard day and the first thing you do is reach for the bottle opener. Think again!! This is a habit. Take a week off. If you find yourself unable to go even one day...

You’ve just got that promotion at work…. POP goes the champagne. Handed in your dissertation……you ROLL that spliff. You make it through that dreaded meeting…..TEAR open the chocolate.

Celebration and reward is a big part of first world living. It is all well and good and we encourage you to celebrate and reward at any opportunity. But; the problem is that many of us do so with substances that can be addictive and cause harm to the body. I expect many of us have been in the situation where a reward has turned into a binge event, or turned into a damaging habit.

Rewarding with things that are harmful to the body is deeply entrenched in our culture. I have fond memories of my mum buying me sugar laced flavoured milk whenever I “did good” as a child. It happens everywhere all the time, so much that you don’t question it anymore. We challenge you to question it. Start thinking about how you reward and celebrate things in your life....

There are many different views out there on the various aspects of addiction and bad habits. From what it is, how it affects our brains to what we should do to change our lives.

Our model is all about choice. The way we look at it is that you weren’t born with this particular behaviour so somewhere along the way you chose to do it (consciously or sub-consciously). If you learnt to do it, guess what,,,,,,,,,,,,you can unlearn too!!!!

We prefer to say a habit that you want to change, that isnt working for you anymore, rather than addiction. I personally do not want to have an addiction or be an ex addict. Those words conjure up so many negative connotations, for the person but also within society. I am not a fan of labels, I like to name the behaviour not the person. I prefer to say that I used to do certain things, behave in a certain way, that wasn’t useful for me or others. What I did was recognize this and change my behaviour so I could be the person I wanted to be. I...