Kate's Blog

2025 In Review: Our Alcohol-Free Highlights Of The Year

One of my favourite traditions at The Sober School happens every December. 

I ask the women I’ve coached throughout the year if they’d be happy to send me a photo of their alcohol-free highlight of the year.

The pictures that come back are incredible. Sometimes it’s a moment they’re grateful they were able to experience, sober. Other times it’s something that would never have happened if they’d still been drinking.

These aren’t stock photos or posed shots – they’re real life glimpses into what a happy, alcohol-free life can look like. I can’t wait to share them with you in today’s video.

What about you?

If you’ve got a favourite alcohol-free highlight that you’d like to share, let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear about it!

If you feel inspired by these photos and you’d like to make a fresh start in 2026, make sure you join my free New Year Masterclass! It starts just after Christmas. Fill out the form below to join.

Hi, I'm Kate

I founded The Sober School to show you there’s another way out of your shame that doesn’t involve AA or rehab. 

Comments

18 responses

    1. Thank you! The women here are amazing and I’m so grateful they let me share their stories – inspiring for us all. ❤️

  1. So brilliant to see and read of so many happy ladies who have escaped from the torment of alcohol and are experiencing freedom and renewed lives !
    I will have been sober for 4 wonderfully happy years on New Year’s Day .
    Can’t thank you enough Kate for giving me my life back

    1. Congrats on four years AF, Lesley! I too will be sober four years on New Year’s Day 2026, and I’ll be celebrating with you! YAY US! Four years, 48 months, 1460 days! Woo hoo, amazing!!!

      Thanks for this fabulous highlights video, dear Kate! It’s also my favorite, each year. Well done, everyone! Hugs, kisses and happy holidays to you all!

      1. Hey that’s fantastic, four years alcohol free on New Year’s Day! Wishing you many more happy AF years to come. ❤️

  2. Such an uplifting and inspiring video. It’s amazing what you can do when you remove alcohol from your life. I’m excited to be celebrating two years AF in February. I never would have managed this if it wasn’t for you and your course Kate! Thank you I’ll be forever grateful to you! X

    1. You’re most welcome Lisa and congratulations on nearly two years alcohol free – what an achievement! Enjoy the festive season hangover free. 🙂

  3. Wonderful picture of everyone’s celebration of sobriety ladies.
    1 year and 5 days sober, lost 2.5 stone and loving that I am present for all life’s moments. Merry Christmas everyone

    1. Merry Christmas to you too Jackie and what a transformational journey you’ve been on. It all stems from one decision, to ditch the booze! Congratulations ❤️

  4. Well done everyone! I also want to thank Kate and the whole team who helped me get my life back on track. I took the January 2023 course so it will be 3 years AF for me on 1st January. Going AF enabled me to stick at being smoke free too! I stopped smoking one year ago on 1st January so I have a double celebration coming up! Happy Christmas and I hope you all have a wonderful 2026!

  5. I’m nearly one year AF having started Kate’s January 2025 course while I was attending a family wedding in Sri Lanka! So much seems to have happened this year, I have travelled extensively been to Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, Morocco, Holland, Germany, Switzerland all alcohol free and never felt better. I haven’t lost any weight (due to too much sugar substitutes) but I have just started to join yoga classes, and made some great friends. People keep asking me if I am going to start drinking again after my year off and the answer is NO! Why would I ? Life is so much better sober and I keep feeling and remembering things from when I was a teenager, before I started drinking, it is as if I have finally got my life back. I am also half way through writing my first novel and very pleased with it so far, so thank you Kate for giving me the push to stop and the strength to keep going.

    1. Wow Eira, such a lot has happened in your first year of alcohol free living. It’s inspiring to hear how much can be achieved without alcohol holding you back. A published author next? I’d love to read that! 🙂

  6. Kate, What can I say but, THANK YOU!!!! Nov. 28,2017 I stopped drinking after finding your blogs and took your course in January, 2018.
    I would not have made it through all the ups and downs of farming life without this gift… Everyday is a struggle, but I am alive and able to make clear decisions that my older husband won’t make. All the women on your course are a gift to help us all realize we are not alone… You put all the facts that are hiding in plain sight together to realize how this drinking controls us and not ourselves. A thought provoking course by a woman and her team who care..
    xxoo, Jean

    1. Ah Jean, that’s fantastic to hear! Removing alcohol doesn’t make everything perfect, but it sure makes life easier to navigate when you have a clear mind. So happy for you and thank you for your kind words, I do appreciate them. ❤️

  7. Beautiful video, it made me teary-eyed! So happy for all these lovely women enjoying life to the max. Over 6 years for me, and I am happy for every single day that I am no longer living in a fog. Thanks for reminding me Kate!

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