Under the Influence

October 30, 2013 — 4 Comments

This holiday season I have decided to create a diet plan. Each year we splurge eating outside of our normal diet to enjoy some seasonal goodies both at home and out and about. I think it is silly to deny yourself all relatively unhealthy foods since it creates a special power around the food. You can taste almost anything, then put it down and walk away without harming yourself.  Moderation in all things may seem stingy in comparison to  the commercial holiday cheer with merchandise at the base of it all.  Gifting or not gifting is easy at our house. We like experiences better than items so very few presents are given unless they are special yard sale finds.  We love art, but filled our home already, so we have to go to galleries and museums to see anything new.  Our tradition involves making treats and attending special events.  This season I am mindfully setting a budget, not so much in dollars, but in calories, alcohol, and fat.

If I allow myself to be mindless at the supermarket I end up with a lot of unhealthy treat ingredients that will become cookies, etc.  I have become a creative bartender and now have a vast array of interesting liquor with which to mix cocktails.  The idea of the taste profile of the cocktail is to enhance your snacks or meal.  I enjoy creating new cocktails from recipes and sometimes by experiment.  Since I enjoy taking risks in the kitchen, my bar tending is a natural extension of that exploratory spirit.  I am carried away with using seasonal ingredients and the fruit from my garden in cocktail recipes.  I could not work at a bar since I know few classic drinks, but in terms of kinky creations I get better all the time. Therein lies the problem.  These tasty spirits take over the situation and decide that moderation is out the window for the night.  One good taste leads to another.  Last winter I did allow the spirit of alcohol to leave the barn door open for the spirit of sugar and other inferior foods to enter my body in mass quantities.  My general health suffered from this overdose, and required reform of my diet in order to recover.

This winter as the nights grow longer and the wood stove glows I am starting a written log of what I eat and drink.  This is not for publication, but for my own information.  I will not allow sneaky spirits, holiday or otherwise, make me fat this winter.  They have no power over me.  I never drank hard alcohol until a couple of years ago when I bought some cheap bourbon to pour on my dad’s grave on All Soul’s Day.  My parents both loved to cocktail way too much, which was responsible for many of their health problems.  I have chosen to have a different relationship with alcoholic spirits.  Cheers! Happy Holidays! Think before you drink!!!