Poison

You know what really confuses me?

How has we as an entire collective society decide that it was okay to poison ourselves as a little treat? According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism alcohol use accounts for an average of 178,000 deaths each year, coming in as one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Yet we in the US see Alcohol as a reward for a hard day, a way to forget about reality, a social buffer, and a fun activity. Now don't get me wrong, I drink. I used to drink enough to drown a grown man on a daily basis, to be honest. And every now and then I still like to knock back a Dirty Martini or an Old Fashioned but in way way way less quantities than I did in my 20's. Back then, drinking was just part of my job and woven into the fabric of my being since my university days. I vividly remember counting my drinks while at the club one night anc come to realize I had drank 8 martini's and 4 shots of tequila, and that was before the night was even over. Although yes I remained hydrated throughout the evening with tons of water, and I sweat out the alcohol as fast as I was consuming, it was still a taxing drain on my liver, kidneys, and brain. Each morning I would awake with a splitting headache or an upset stomach, draw the blinds tighter, chug a bottle of water, take some magnesium if I didn't before bed and sleep until the hangover wore off. But not only did I not learn my lesson, each night I went back and did the same thing over and over again. Four to five nights a week I would drink in excess. Some nights I cut back, or drank wine instead of liquor, but at the end of most nights I was scrambling to coat my stomach with a carb-dense meal, chug as much water as possible, and pray that a deep sleep would come. You know how alcohol effects your sleep schedule? Because your body is busy proccessing the alcohol, it's not focused on converting your food into energy, or healing your cells, or allowing you into REM sleep because all that the body can focus on is the overload of toxins flooding through your liver. I say all this beacuse I myself knocked back a few too many glasses of Brandy last night and instead of waking up refreshed and ready to take on the day after the great dinner I cooked up last night, I woke up with the starting pangs of a headache, weak, and definitely not refreshed. Now it's around 3pm and while yes I'm going to still try to hit my 5 mile goal run today, I know it wont be easy. There's going to be wheezing, there's going to be a lot of stops, all-in-all it's going to suck. I'm still gonna do it though. We need to focus on feeding our bodies well, and limiting the amount of poison we are placing in our bodies--- even if it's just as a 'little treat'. I think I'm going to switch to Non-Alcoholic Functional Spirits; brands like Kin or BonBuzz, or Nowadays. We can still feel the euphoria, the inhibition, and joy of sharing a drink with a friend... but in a different way. Try something other than flavoured poison, your body will thank you for it. Love, Alexis Marie Foxx