A Satisfying Mug

I went off wine and chocolate for a month, among other sugary treats to see if I could stabilize my blood sugar levels throughout the day. It definitely helped, but I also started to get tired of the monotony of herbal tea and water. I started buying every brand and variety of chai out there for a stronger flavor and still wasn't satisfied with what I tried. Now that I'm phasing out of my chocolate and wine ban, I'm finding that I'm much less tolerant to both, much more so with wine. What to do…what to do...for a few days there I was starting to wonder what kind of life I could possibly have without these essential luxuries when I finally found a great blog post by Elena Amsterdam on 10 Hot Drinks to Keep You Warm this Winter. So now I'm more calm about the whole situation. I loosely based her Hot Toddy recipe on my own crockpot rendition, adding double the ginger, less honey, and some tea bags of Celestial Seasonings, Bengal Spice (amazingly spicy!) to the pot. I kept it cooking all day, filling my cup periodically and feeling completely satisfied every time. I didn't even think about chocolate once, well, maybe a few times…

Not only does it taste wonderful but it smells powerfully rich and tastes better throughout the day as the ginger and cinnamon sticks release more flavor. At the end of the day, I thought I'd try out my new interest in the hard stuff. Rum. Added a bit to the tea and yea, I'm pretty much hooked. After finishing this very informative book, Your Personal Paleo Code, some hard liquors are approved (for those who tolerate it) as a periodic drink versus wine due to having less sugar helping to keep glucose levels stable. I've never been one to drink liquor but maybe it's time to enter into this realm of mixed drinks and see what it's all about...