I had a drinking problem where I would drink at least a 6pack almost every evening. Some nights I'd buy a small (200ml, the one below a mickey) vodka to go along with it. When I became more health conscious, I moved on from beer to vodka soda (it's basically sparkling water with 5% alcohol, no sugar/hops or anything else). All this did was cut down my drinking calories, not much else.

Finally, after a few months of that, I decided to stop drinking. I had some weed laying around for ages that I didn't touch because I prefered alcohol. That made it virtually effortless to stop.

I've gotten drunk a few times since then but it's always been a regretful experience. Wake up feeling like shit and then remember how you drank 1,000 calories the previous day.

Now I smoke weed several times per week, which means I'm still inclined to avoid sobriety, but at least I'm losing weight, have energy, am not depressed and my liver isn't slowly being murdered.