Two celebs reveal how ditching alcohol for good has led to more stable lifestyles
Lisa Riley
‘I don’t ever want to look that bad again’
Emmerdale’s Lisa Riley has turned her back on boozing after becoming the ultimate party girl in the early 2000s.
The 45-year-old, who at one time had a bar in her house, says she started drinking more in 2012 after the death of her mum Cath, from cancer. She calls quitting alcohol in 2015 ‘the best decision I’ve ever made in my life’.
BEER FEAR
Lisa insists she is a ‘better person’ without alcohol and doesn’t miss the ‘beer fear’ – that juddering feeling of waking up wondering what you did the night before. She also credits ditching alcohol with helping her to achieve her incredible body transformation – losing an amazing 12 stone over the past eight years, and dropping from a size 30 to a size 12-14.
‘These days, I associate drinking alcohol with being at my absolute biggest, and it’s that association that has helped me to give up,’ she says. ‘There’s one photo of me at an event wearing a red and black dress, when I was out for the third night on the trot. I look so bloated and ill. I don’t ever want to look that bad again.’
The soap star admits hangover cravings were a big part of her weight issue. ‘There wasn’t enough food in the world to satisfy my hunger when I had a post-drinking sugar craving. And funnily enough, it wasn’t apples and carrots I gorged on,’ she said in her book, Honesty Diet. ‘It was crisps, heavily buttered toast and takeaways. I was drawn to anything beige and loaded with fat. I could easily eat a thick-crust margherita pizza laden with mozzarella and pineapple, a side of chips and gravy, all washed down with two litres of non-diet Sprite.’
RICHER LIFE
The former Loose Women star says she can’t imagine being tempted back to wine now she is in a much better place. ‘I can’t see me ever having a drink again. My life is richer without alcohol in it. I didn’t like the relationship with alcohol after my mum passed. I used it as a comfort blanket. A bottle or two of Malbec took the pain away and made me sleep, but it stopped me dealing with my grief.
‘I love getting up and feeling good every morning. And if people say I’m boring, I laugh it off. I have never felt less boring.’
Michelle Heaton
‘I let a lot of people down’
Following her public battle with drink and drug addiction, singer Michelle Heaton has revealed that at the height of her problems she would prioritise b
