is proud of how she’s physically and mentally grown since cutting out alcohol.
“This week was my 2-year anniversary of being alcohol-free (July 15th) I can remember a time when the idea of going 2 weeks seemed impossible,” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 55, wrote via Instagram on Thursday, July 19, sharing a fitness selfie. “I’m proud of the fact that I’ve had the willpower to stay on this path. I know many people would love for me to start drinking again. Even friends with the best of intentions. Everyone loved ‘Party Kyle.’”
She continued, “I think that was the hardest part of all of this. The resistance from others. The old me, the people pleaser, did struggle with that aspect of it. And I realized right away that I wasn’t going to have a ton of encouragement. But I’ve dropped enough splits and whipped enough ponytails to know when it’s time to call it a day.”
For Richards, she decided to stop drinking in 2022 for the importance of her “mental and physical health.”
“I’m not going to lie … the fact that I looked better because I l wasn’t drinking was also incentive to not veer from the road I am on,” Richards wrote. “But the real reward is how I feel on the inside. I feel strong, energetic and grateful for my body. I want to take care of it like it has taken care of me.”
One year after Richards gave up alcohol, news broke in July 2023 that she separated from husband .
“It would have been a lot harder going through these difficult times if I had been drinking,” Richards said on Thursday. “I want to wake up every day feeling my best. Mentally & physically strong enough to face whatever comes my way.”
Richards previously told Us Weekly in her December 2023 cover story that she doesn’t “miss” drinking at all.
“After two glasses of wine, I’d wake up and feel [like I was] dragging. Like, ‘I’m going to skip my workout today. I’m tired, and I feel like having In-N-Out,’” she recalled to Us. “It was a domino effect. I was never a big drinker, so you’d think, how much of a difference could it make? But it really does.”
According to Richards, she can’t “see [herself] drinking again” and she loves “the way I feel and look.”
