I ditched my

Former party girl HELEN CROYDON explains why she finally swapped her glamorous lifestyle for five-hour cycle rides, trail runs and freezing ocean swims

WHEN I decided to cut down on booze four years ago there was no epiphany. I didn’t wake up to find a mystery man in my bedroom or parts of my anatomy printed by the work photocopier. It was a realisation that at the age of 36 I could no longer go out drinking five nights a week and still be productive, have clear skin and fit into skinny jeans.

I wasn’t a crazy party animal, just a typical city girl. As a freelance journalist living in London, I’d be out with different social groups four or five nights a week. Work drinks, catch-up drinks, dinner (with wine), networking events (flat prosecco), Sunday lunches which turned into whole afternoons of drinking. I kept fit by using the gym but I didn’t have hobbies, my busy social life provided me with plenty of entertainment.

Yet despite the good times, I had started to feel a pang of self-loathing every time I drank. I’d always wake up early, chastising myself for that “one last drink”. I didn’t get so hungover that I couldn’t function but I’d be just below par enough to put off difficult emails or to be easily distracted by cute cat videos on Facebook. I’d vow that in future, on weeknights, I’d impose a strict two-drinks-only policy.

I never did. Not because I couldn’t. When I was on my own I never drank. If I lived in a hut on a mountain I wouldn’t think about drinking. My problem was not abstinence but that every social event I attended was based on booze.

If I’m honest I was scared of becoming a non-drinker. I didn’t want to be thought of as boring. Being game for a post-work tipple and a gossip had formed the basis of my popularity for as long as I could remember. Almost all of my close friendships had formed from some drunken bonding moment. I couldn’t imagine how my social or romantic life could thrive on orange juice.

Around the same time I went through a relationship break-up, two of my close friends moved abroad and the rest started having children.

My default solution to finding new friends in the past had been to find new drinking buddies. That’s easy in your 20s when you get invited to random house parties and if you join in the shots you can guarantee you’ll find a new best friend by 3am.

However I was tiring of these shallow encounters. If I really wanted to break away from my hedonistic lifestyle I had to do different things.

So I joined a local running club. I was an occasional jogger (20 minutes along the river once a week) but I wouldn’t have dreamt of entering a