Woah, WHAT was that?

This week, in spite of doing my best (last post), I had a couple of really bad days, mentally. I think it's ok to put that out there on the blog and not have you all run screaming from the crazy lady. We're a progressive bunch here. Before I adopted a healthy lifestyle and Omega 3's, I used to struggle severely with moods. Now and then I still overdo it and find myself feeling a bit out of control. 

Unlike Miranda, who is always in full control of her emotions.

The big thing I deal with is insomnia when I get too busy, and I'm really busy right now. Exams, work, Sana and a big family gathering with lots of visiting relly's (my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary, amazing, huh?). Once my brain gets fired up and I stop sleeping, it pretty quickly turns messy with crying spells, eating sugar, drinking lots of coffee and wine, lack of motivation and just that totally stressed out, tense, hyper 'I'm going to explode' feeling, which usually comes with a brain-sucking headache, sweaty palms, difficulty catching my breath, all the fun stuff. I can't handle the slightest stress in that state. The Programmer came home and found me in a hysterical pile of tears just because my email wasn't working. Wow.

That was two days ago. Today I'm almost back on an even keel. A lot of it was just letting the mood subside (everything passes), but also I took care of myself and did some re-prioritising. I think like a lot of 'type A' people, I am very hard on myself when it comes to academic achievement. If I don't get an A (or preferably an A+), I feel like I've let myself and everyone else down. I had a think about that and decided to button off a bit. I don't absolutely have to get any higher than a B at this stage and my family life and work for clients is more important. Better to get a B than lose my marbles.

I contacted my big client and let them know that I won't be available during next semester, asked The Programmer to take care of dinner for a few days, started breaking out the yoga moves in work breaks, listened to piano music and generally did all I could to lower the stress hormones in my body. Stress is toxic, did you know that? All of my joints were flaring, particularly the ones that have arthritis. Usually I have no joint pain at all.

Such a fun time, yes?. I suppose I could be a little bit nuts. Everyone has their thing, don't judge. One thing I've found is absolutely necessary for getting my mood and sleeping back on track is to avoid alcohol. I'd been reading about 'alcohol removed wines', for example, those from Edenvale and Fre, and decided to get my hands on some. Yes, yes, I know.. why not just drink water?, why pretend to drink when you are not really doing it?, etc etc. Maybe some day I'll be in the mood to address that. I located them in PAK'nSAVE, covered in dust. Haha, obviously wildly popular then.

For the record, the Edenvale Shiraz:

is only slightly less drinkable than the Rosemount Cab Sav. 

In other words, it's undrinkable. Shades of vinegar mixed with a little grape juice. I made a pretty good red wine sauce out of it though.

The Sparkling Cuvee, however, is actually really nice.

I can go with that one. It's got the goodness of a fermented drink, but without the insomnia and pizza cravings and a whole bottle is less than 200 calories. Also, only NZ$11. It's a win/win as far as I'm concerned. I'd prefer if they didn't put preservative 220 (sulfites) in it, but have not found any wine in NZ without it. 

Ok, that's my blogging time used to the max. I'm off to bed now with my hottie (hot water bottle, the other hottie comes to bed later), my fat, furry cat and my notes on nutrigenomics, which is truly a fascinating area of nutritional science that will spur some blog posts in the near future, for sure.

Now tell me.  Do you have any recommendations for alcohol-free drinks (wine or otherwise) that actually taste good and aren't full of sugar or juice?