TL:DR How do I quit the nightlife, bar scene. I'm tired of drinking but lately only going out due to peer pressure and to hang with my friends who know me as someone who goes out and drinks a lot. I want a better quality of life. But the perception is I'm a drunk and who you call when you want to party.

If I missed advice on this in the sidebar, I apologize, I checked this and can't seem to find anything TRP related on the topic.

Basically, I've decided to quit drinking and smoking cigarettes, and commit to a healthy lifestyle. It's something I've been thinking about for a very long while but I have no idea how to start this process. I'm late 20's and my guy friends and I hang out pretty much every weekend, and most nights of the week and that lifestyle is just getting too boring, too expensive, my productivity levels are WAY WAY down, I sleep poorly and need to lose weight so it's clearly affecting my health some. I realized it is also affecting others' perceptions of me (when I couldn't make an appointment with someone recently and they angrily texted that I was "probably in a bar some where getting fucked up again"--- I was actually at work working on a major presentation but still for that to be their first thought of me...means something about how I've been living my life) My friends and I are usually watching College games at the bar, watching NFL games at the bar, going to bars to try to bring someone home. We celebrate we get alcohol, we get drunk. Other friends come from outta town we do shots. I spend WAY TOO MUCH time in bars, and drinking and I just want a better life. There's a LOT of beer, wine, liquor I have strewn about the house and... it's just alot. I've tried flirting with quitting drinking before and what I've noticed though is on nights when I'm out and not drinking it's like everyone around me is uncomfortable or upset or concerned: "Why aren't you drinking what's wrong with you", "It's just one drink, damn, you're being a (insert some insult here).", "it's cool you're not drinking tonight, you'll just be drunk again by Wed." The smoking is a side thing I started about 2 years ago as well, a result of the many, many nights I spend out. As I was smoking this weekend at a bar late night, surrounded by a bunch of drunk broads and guys getting into drunken, alcohol fueled fights over HB5s that beer googles make them think are HB9's, I just thought "I'm done with this life".

Any advice on how to institute this major life change? I feel like it's going to cause me to lose a LOT of friends--- we're talking about having a boys trip to Vegas next year and the whole purpose is to get as shit faced drunk as possible and bang women. Also so much time is spent in bars or looking for alcohol or going to someone's place for drinking - I'm just not sure what I would do with the extra time, money etc.

I'm just trying to be better and do better.