ALAYNE'S SPICY MOCKTAIL

"How many drinks do you have?" My doctor asked me at my annual check up last year.

"Do you mean in a day or in a week?" I asked with a smirk.

She gave me a knowing look; after all we have had so many intimate conversations in the more than twenty years I have been seeing her.

I trust her advice. If it hadn't been for her reminder to get my mammogram that I had mistakenly put off for four years, I may not be here today.

We began discussing reasonable drinking if there is such a thing for my type of personality.

"You know Alayne, it is a slippery slope," she said in all seriousness. "Not just with your family history, but there has been much more research done that any alcohol is not good for people with cancer history too."

Oy. Another thing to worry about, to feel bad about, to feel shame with. I laughed it off, thinking yeah, right. No one gets out alive. I work hard, I am not giving up my beautiful bottles of crisp white on a hot summer night or a robust red on a cold winter evening by the fire.

But the words, Slippery Slope kept repeating themselves every time I opened a bottle of wine, or looked at my bank transactions at the number of times it listed my favorite wine store with the extraordinary dollar amount next to the name.

Slippery Slope kept rearing its ugly head each time I found myself pouring a second (or a third) glass, or looking forward to the first glass a little too eagerly earlier in the day.

But like the rebel I am, I ignored it. I am party girl, hear me roar. I don't have cancer anymore, I have two very upright boobs as permanent markers in case I ever need a reminder that mammograms do work.

I kept pouring.

I ran into an old workout friend at the beach a few months later, also a fellow party girl, and we got on the subject of alcohol.

"I don't drink anymore," she said as my mouth dropped open. We started discussing the whys and the hows and unbeknownst to her, she planted another seed in my sober curious brain. (yet another buzz word, oy again.)

Then one day I was at work and mentioned a new bottle of wine to Kristina who has worked for me on and off for twenty five years.

"I don't drink anymore," she said. And she mentioned a book that made her wake up to the bad parts of drinking. This Naked Mind, by Annie Grace. "Everyone is reading it," she said.

I purchased it promptly and devoured it like a glass of bubbly. I stopped for that day.

NOT DRINKING TODAY

And the next day for that day. And every day for today. And all of a sudden it is almost one year. And I keep saying, I am not drinking today. For some reason, that feels less like a rule and regulation to break and doesn't have the same forever sort of commitment.

What made me finally decide to stop for today? When I read that alcohol is really ethanol and ethanol is what we put in our cars to make them go. I know this is a very simplified definition, but so many of clients are interested in clean products and clean food, it does make me do a big sigh.

We are so interested in eating better and not dousing our skin with endocrine disruptors, but then we go and like a wrecking ball poison our insides.

I am often asked, Are your products clean? Are they organic? 

Now I want to reply, Do you drink alcohol? Because you can be as clean as you think you can be with food and cosmetics, but if you are drinking alcohol, you may as well just eat at McDonalds and call it a day.

When I stopped drinking last year, it was more of an experiment for my mental clarity.

And that was the biggest reward. Immediate mental clarity and creative force. Like a tornado of creativity swished back into my life and I haven't stopped since. I wish I could add that I dropped twenty pounds too, but unfortunately one of the side effects of quitting is massive sugar cravings which I allowed myself some grace and just leaned in. A year later, I am working on this as another clean up, but this one will never be a total absence.

A chick has to live, right?

HERE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOCKTAILS just in time for the holidays. If you want to add alcohol, vodka is delicious with this too. I mean not everyone is all or nothing like me. You do you.

I love love love this YES Cocktail mixer, but you can make your own too using jalepeno and simple syrup with some lavender or cucumber or orange.I use a highball glass and lots of ice.

Here are the 2 that I use (and also sell)

1-2 oz Jalepeno Cucumber or Blood Orange mixer (if you are trying to stay off the sugar, you could just use a few slices of jalepeno, but the flavor is so great with the sweetness.

1/3 San Pellegrino or sparkling water

Splash of Rose Water (Optional)

Splash of Cranberry, I use the one that doesn't have sugar in it by Lakewood. You can also get this at your local market. Clements carries this.

1/3 of this delicious mixer called RECESS MOOD MAGNESIUM CALMING BEVERAGE, It is expensive, but so is wine so I justify a case of this and use it in all my mocktails. I cover it and put it in the fridge if I don't use the whole can. If you don't want to splurge, soda water with some orange slices are great.

A splash of fresh lime juice OR a squirt of this delicious KEY LIME JUICE I always have on hand.

An orange slice or a strawberry or some fresh mint, I also love sprigs of basil in my drinks, adds some pretty.

Once you have it all nice in the glass, pour it back and forth in a shaker and sip and enjoy. Delicious!

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