Singer and actress Suzanne Shaw, founder of The Happy Health Club, embarked on a journey to transform her life. After a two-decade battle with anxiety, depression, and an inconsistent relationship with food, alcohol, and fitness, she decided it was time for a change.

Can you share what led you to make the decision to embrace sobriety, and how has it impacted your life since then?

It was a few years of trying and really I think I knew my relationship with alcohol wasn't the healthiest. I was somebody who could take big breaks. But when I did drink, I really struggle to moderate one glass. It turned into two and then a bottle of wine later and then second bottle in would be regretting my life. I used to have this thing where I could cope of a hangover of a bottle of wine. And just really be able to kind of grit my teeth and get through the next day. But if I get past and I go into one and a half bottles of wine, right, I would then be floored for days. Now, that was the case. And then it started to become where I couldn't even do like two glasses of wine and feel good afterwards. My intolerance is just going further down and down and down until I just had no tolerance to alcohol anymore. After just a large glass of wine, it would really affect me. I found white wine was the worst for me. I was able to moderate red wine, maybe because it's a heavier kind of liquid. Then I just started to think, "Well, tactically, if I don't want to drink much, I'll have red." And then what I'll do if I don't want to get a hangover is I'll have tequila. Then I thought, "What am I doing with my life? I am trying to basically dodge the bullets of a hangover." I'd take charcoal tablets before I'd go out because I had those, and it would just go. It just became like tactics and hacks to be able to drink loads and try to avoid the hangover. But the reality was it was never going to happen, and every drink that I was having was taking me further and further away from who I actually was and the life that I wanted.

I think it was about two years of trying to quit alcohol while hoping that I would be able to find a way to become a moderate drinker. And just knowing that, in the end, I was never going to be able to moderate; I could take the big breaks, Dry January and Sober October. And then one time I did like two months, and I felt absolutely amazing. I even did a holiday without drinking, and I was like, "I can do this." But then it was coming away from the drinking culture, which I found really difficult because then when there was a wedding, the peer pressure just got to me, and I was hooked right back in, and I wasn't able to just have a glass of wine. It was a bottle of wine and regretting my life decisions the day after. So yeah, basically, it's a couple of years of trying the big breaks, feeling amazing, knowing that I was a much better person off the booze until it was time to really go. One day, enough was enough, and I had to find a way to come away from the drinking culture. That was the next thing that I needed to understand.

What kind of steps did you take? Did you have people around you who didn't drink?

So I went sober at the start of January 2020. I was in Barbados; I had just worked over Christmas on a cruise ship, and I had overindulged in Rum and Coke in Barbados along the beach. I said to my husband, my partner, "I'm done. That's it. I'm absolutely done. I'm not doing this. When we get home, I'm doing a whole year off alcohol." It marked 20 years in the entertainment industry for me because I got into it. So in 2020, I thought, "Wouldn't it be amazing to make some significant changes for the length of time I've been in the entertainment industry? It's like a new me. That was the old me. Now, let's get on with a new, healthier version of me." I had thoughts of pulling away from the entertainment industry. I checked off all my to-do list boxes. I performed in Chicago, was part of a pop band, featured in a soap opera, won Dancing on Ice, did numerous musicals, and had an incredible career. In the end, I wasn't really enjoying my job like I used to because I'd achieved so much at such a young age. I even had my own perfume and other incredible accomplishments that would take a whole lifetime for someone to achieve.

I thought, "I just want to start a brand new chapter, go on this health journey, and quit drinking." I adopted a plant-based diet, took up running, and it was all part of celebrating the new me. I always envisioned this person I wanted to be, someone who was really active, and alcohol just held me back. It took my life away from me, stopped me from being active and adventurous, and kept me in a trap. It prevented me from truly living. It's funny because the irony is you drink alcohol to set yourself free, but it does the exact opposite. It certainly did for me.

Do you feel more confident now?

"Oh yeah. I've gained a lot more certainty about who I am, which obviously boosts my confidence because I don't have to doubt myself. It's amazing. You learn that you can really trust yourself and become the master of your own destiny, can't you, when you know. I used to always say, if I could quit alcohol, that would literally be the making of me because it would give me the ability to set boundaries, say no to things, and really uphold my values. And that's what I can trust myself to do: have my own values, establish boundaries, and have this inner confidence that I'm going to show up for myself. It's all from quitting booze. One thing. It's funny because I used to take courses to try and reach this point, to become that person. I would explore topics like confidence, how to achieve financial success in seven days, or finding your true self. You know, all those self-help books; I had a stack of them so high. I would think, "How can I do this?" All I needed to do was quit alcohol. That's what I needed to do.

Did your passion for running start before your sobriety or literally since you started?

It was literally since I basically quit alcohol and realized I have loads of space and time on my hands. I was waking up early and thinking, "Well, no one's out of bed yet. Yeah, I'll journal or do something." I just wondered, "What should I do? What shall I do on weekends as well?" because I wasn't interested in going to pubs and just sitting, listening to other people talk nonsense. I set up a business, and I now work as a motivational speaker. My life is completely different. Normally, I'd be on the road for six months doing a musical or participating in a reality TV show. Now, it's more like, "I'm going to do a motivational speaking gig in Wales or Scotland," or "I'm going to do podcasts about health and wellbeing." I'm participating in fitness festivals over the summer. My life has completely transformed. I never thought I would be like this, even a vegan now.

My food choices are entirely different, and everything about me is the complete opposite of the person I used to be.

How did your group of friends, your family respond to you when you said, I'm not drinking anymore?

They had to get to know a new me, and not everyone likes that. You know, and I've noticed that some people are no longer as present in my life as they used to be, and that's okay. I think it's a bit like we haven't spoken, and that's fine; we'll just leave it at that. We don't really need to get back into those types of people anymore. The type of people I hang around with are the kind of people I would probably have teased with my friends.

Why did you start the business?

I started to document my story online, and my account blew up - sharing my alcohol-free journey. I began by sharing my mental health story and being completely transparent about my struggles with mental health. Then I mentioned, "You know, I've now been three months sober." I think before that, I didn't want to say anything in case I'd fail. So I wanted to see how it was going for me, and then I started to completely share exactly what I was doing. I began doing the lockdown workouts with friends, and I called it the "Shower Happy Plan." I did workouts on one day, which was a big boost on Wednesdays because I was working with a company called Pict Fresh. As part of that, we brought in cooks and plant-based doctors and anyone I could find from the plant-based community. We did these cook-alongs online, chatting while cooking recipes. I'd learn something new, and people would join in. And from there, we attended something called "Habits Chat Tuesdays," where we talked about my alcohol-free journey. I was just documenting my running challenges and the accountability factor - all the stuff I was doing online was to help hold me accountable on my journey. People started asking, "What's next in the Happy Plan? What are you doing? What workout are you doing? What cook-along are you doing? What are you talking about?" I talked to people on Happy to Chat Tuesdays, which included discussions about alcohol-free journeys, mental health, expectations, and their stories. It wasn't limited to just talking to celebrities or high-profile influencers; I talked to everyone, and the response was great. I thought, "There's a business in this, a community of people coming together who want to celebrate wellness."

That's where the Happy Health Group was born. I started with challenges, like who wants to do a 28- day challenge, "Eat Clean," "Get Fit," and it was quite structured. As the community evolved, it became a wellness community. We offer alcohol-free support, all our recipes are plant-based, and we host plant- based cook-alongs. We focus on eating whole foods and making plates more colourful. Sustainability is a key message, and every company we partner with has to be sustainable. It's a place of wellbeing, and I believe that if you thrive, we all thrive, and the planet thrives. When you start looking after yourself, you become more mindful of your plastic usage and travel habits. It certainly was a domino effect for me. I thought it would be amazing to have a home that covers everything - fitness, alcohol-free support, personal growth, and mindfulness. We now emphasize mindfulness as a leading part of the company, with daily journaling, motivation, meditation, yoga, and Lisa, who you saw in the ecstatic dance, leads our yoga meditation sessions. It's a hub of wellness for you to nourish yourself in all areas, and you can dip in and out whenever you want.

How can people get involved, find out about the Happy Health Club?

So it's £9.99 a month and we do different challenges. We have ten minute workouts which will really change your mindset towards movement. We're partnered with a company called Wild Training who are possibly for me, one of the best kind of fitness companies I've ever worked with because they're not they're not about doing things traditionally. They just shift your mindset towards movement and this like really effective workouts that you feel like you've probably done a work out for an hour, but you've done 10 minutes.