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My family and I held a London 2012 Olympic torch at the weekend, then watched the relay come through our village, where I may have been the only man without a pint.

On what would have been a friend’s 28th birthday, I remembered him losing his battle with Cystic Fibrosis at just 18, never once complaining despite years in hospital.

At day 74 of my alcohol free year, with 20% of 2012 done, I slept better on the flight to Brazil without a drink and shared 20 surprising facts about beer and booze.

Heading back to Brazil in 2012, I skipped the caipirinhas made with cachaça, lime and sugar, and faced my first ever sober long haul flight.

I remembered a friend who died from Cystic Fibrosis aged just 18, never once complaining despite years in hospital, as I carried on my alcohol free year in 2012.

This weekend marked the anniversary of my cousin’s son losing his battle with cystic fibrosis at 18, and I shared a BBC blog post from Tim Wotton on what life with the condition is really like.

I swapped my evening pint for juicing in 2012, starting most mornings with a green smoothie of apples, pineapple, celery, cucumber, spinach, wheatgrass and avocado.

News of riots at Sao Paulo’s carnival parade took me back to my own trips to Brazil, where Caipirinha made with Cachaça was always my favourite drink, now swapped for juice on my alcohol free year.

Jason Vale’s 17 a Day juice packs in way more than the UK’s five a day guideline, matching Japan’s recommended portions. I tried the recipe after feeling under the weather.

To replace my usual glass of red wine, I made a juice from apples, beetroot, blackcurrants, blueberries, cherries and red grapes, a tasty alcohol free alternative.

I used my year without beer to reboot my health, after regaining weight in 2011. A juice detox at the start of the year helped me lose 12 pounds in a week.

Thirty seven days into my year off alcohol, I rounded up what I’d learned so far, from the UK’s 15 billion pound drink spend to a Dutch study on apples and stroke risk.