I”ve been working with a nutritional therapy practitioner in hoping I can clean up my dirty little secret – my lifestyle.  This is someone I know, someone that I am comfortable with, and someone that I can be completely honest with what I have been putting my body through that last few years.  It’s been a mess.  My sugar handling was out of control, I felt nauseous after I would eat, I craved food ALL DAY, and was loosing a sense of my self within all of this ugly behavior.

I’m going to share the outcome (a few TMI moments, but you can stop reading); my gums stopped bleeding when brushing my teeth (I can’t remember a time when they haven’t), my face “changed”, my belly stopped gurgling at every moment, my nails look pretty, my skin is glowing…and, yes, I lost some weight.  Not pounds and pounds (thank you hormones of a 47 year old woman), but my pooch has diminished, I can fit into my dresses, and I feel more comfortable going to bed at night.  Tons of work went into this – a blog post soon to follow on my plan.  What was the main culprit to my demise?  Yes, you guessed it, alcohol.

And let’s just put this out there, as it has been put out there before; I am not a big drinker.  I am actually a terrible drinker.  So when I was told alcohol had to leave my life for a stint, I wasn’t to broken up about it.  You don’t need to guzzle a bottle of wine and still be in the wine business.  I’m not out to judge those whom indulge either – you do you.  I became compliant, and did what was asked of me.  However, there may have been a little slip…

Something else to put out there; I love my time alone.  Even on a weekend evening when I could be with friends, family, dates; I would rather be on my couch.  Thank god for that big brown couch. It’s not the most comfortable thing, and is in a room that is slightly awkward and bizarre, but it works.  Last weekend I turned my back on this great nutrition plan and opened a bottle on said couch.  A bottle I know would top off the evening, comfort, love, and satisfy the hell out of my slightly down mood. I’ve said it before; Stags’ Leap Winery will bring immediate delight.  It doesn’t matter where I am, what I am doing or whom I am with – this is my anchor winery, my “it will be ok” friend, and an all over warming moment shared with just me.

I always open a bottle when I have a desire to taste the wine; not on my mood.  I never feel like I “need a drink”.  That evening, I felt like I needed Petite Sirah to solve my problems – first mistake.  I expected the wine to float me to a place of amenity – what the hell was I doing.  On an empty stomach, I opened the bottle.  Here is a wine that is big (or huge) in flavors, tannic as all hell, with a palate full of crushed blueberries and chocolate, and a high – bracing –  acidity.  All I tasted was that acidity and bitterness in the back of my throat, and then into my belly.  If I had to guess, stomach acids came to play.  I’ve been keeping them at bay, and they now realized they had a chance to shine once again.  The bottle, upon half a glass consumed, went down the drain.

This blog isn’t much of a review, teaching agent, judgement, or guide.  This blog is also not a bash on Stags’ Leap Winery, even though I may be emotionally a little mad at them. This blog is more of an investigation of why we drink wine, why we make the wine choices we do, and do we need to make them at all.  I’m not telling you to stop drinking wine; I’ll be out of a job.  What I think I am examining is how to serve you better choices, and better outcomes to those choices.

I’m thinking of teaching/facilitating/enjoying a few in home wine classes.  Maybe a guided wine dinner?  Maybe a wine focused/led holiday party?  What do you think?

A small documented history of myself and Stags’ Leap Winery….