Cocktail Friday: Skinny gin and tonic

So we are now a full week (plus change) into the new year and and I think my body has finally started to come to terms with the new and improved healthy routine. I have taken it fairly easy on the exercise front mostly because I think I need gradually improve my fitness levels before I take on any punishing exercise regime. I have been eating really healthily for the most part and I kind of love how it is forcing me to come up with new recipes and ideas. Healthy eating also means, you guessed it, healthy drinking. As in, NO drinking. No glass of wine with dinner, certainly no beer and most assuredly no cocktails.

I was talking to a doctor before Christmas and he was saying how weight gain is not something that happens overnight. But eat over your daily calorie allowance over a long period and the weight will start piling on slowly – especially if your lifestyle is not very active. Soon after this conversation I was having lunch with an old friend from my Wine Magazine days and she mentioned how there’s been discussion about adding a calorie labels to bottles of wine and spirits. A couple of glasses of wine can push even someone who eats a healthy diet over their daily calorie allowance. Sobering thought (pun intended).

So I am going cold turkey? Ummmm, no. I have certainly cut down on alcohol consumption but I am not going completely dry in January. I did do that for two years running but I am not sure it helped in the long run. Instead I am limiting drinks to a glass or dry white wine or a skinny gin and tonic (which comes in at about 55 calories) on weekends. This Hendricks and tonic cocktail is incredibly refreshing and definitely my favourite ‘diet’ drink.