The Fat Diaries: Drinking Away the Cold
Cold enough for you? If you’re like me, or anyone else in the D.C. metro area, you’ve been appalled by the unseasonably cold December we’ve been having. It’s not the sleepy gentle cold that sends a pleasant shiver up your spine, with the gentle tinny smell that precedes a magical snowfall. It’s not the comforting chill that gets the kids excited for winter break and the holiday season. This monster is the blow your hair off, freeze your feet and hands into blocks of ice, expletive shouting, full-body muscle spasm variety of cold.
Right now, the wind is whipping under the door and making the entire house feel like a meat locker. The space heater upstairs has been going full blast and I’m wearing fluffy socks, legwarmers, a sweater, a house coat, a scarf and…wait for it… fingerless gloves. I look like a reject from “A Christmas Carol,” except everything I own is an ostentatious shade of magenta.
What’s been staving off the colds and making the weather a little bit nice has been mug after mug of hot drinks. This has proved both a boon and a problem. The first problem, was that my hot beverage of choice (coffee) was over-caffeinating me like crazy. When I stand up and black spots dance in front of my eyes, it’s time to stop with the coffee – I was dehydrated and losing sleep. So I decided to explore other options. I decided to dedicate my morning to caffeination as per usual.
I usually fill up the coffee pot to “level 6” whatever that translates to in real-world terms. That’s just enough coffee to fill both my “Fozzie Bear” mug and my large brushed metal thermos mug. (By the way, while brushed metal does an admirable job of keeping beverages hot, it becomes an unpleasant game of Russian roulette when there is a LOT of static electricity generated by dry winter air and a chenille couch). I’m thinking of buying decaf for the first time in years, but I don’t know how effective that would be.
After the coffee, I have a few options. Hot chocolate used to be an old standby. I’d get a million of those flavored hot cocoa packets from Land o’ Lakes. My favorite was the mint flavored. The only problem is that at 150 calories a packet with 20 grams of sugar (8 oz. serving without milk), it’s easy to do a lot of damage. One a day isn’t great for you, but I was once up to 3 mugs a day.
Black tea seemed the answer, only trouble is while I’ve learned to drink coffee without the sugar, I’ve no luck with hot tea without sugar. I’ve slowly whittled my sugar intake to an 8th of a teaspoon per mug, but it adds up over time. So does the caffeine, sadly. While a cup of coffee generally has 8 mg of caffeine, there are 40 mg in a cup of tea. Five cups of black tea in the afternoon is enough to keep me up until 1:00am. Herbal tea is low on caffeine, but I don’t like herbal much. Drinking herbal tea always reminds me of being sick. Most of my herbal teas are meant to help with stomach problems or colds anyway, and more for function than taste.
I do have a favorite herbal infusion I like: I take 3 tablespoons of peeled ginger and steep it in hot water with a lime wedge and a dollop of honey. It’s very “spicy” and incredibly warming. It’s also good for your stomach, but not to be taken in large doses. I did that the other day and I had wicked acid reflux well into bedtime.
Hot apple cider is good and caffeine free, if you get the kind with no added sugar or fructose, but while it comes in at 120 calories (8 oz serving), it tops the hot chocolate with 28 grams of sugar. I suppose if you consider that it’s naturally occurring fructose it might be a better choice than hot chocolate. I like mine spiced with cloves and cinnamon with a dash of orange juice for zing. At any rate it’s better for you than coffee shop caramel apple cider. The Starbucks version is 228 calories (for the 12 oz. serving) and 50 grams of sugar. If I’m on the go, I make mine in the microwave and put it in my Thermos. I find that the coffee shops don’t like it so much when I do that and usurp their outlets for an hour of writing, so I’m forced to go with the bad-for-me kind if I’ve had too much coffee.
And of course, for the, “**** it! I’m not going anywhere tonight,” option, there’s mulled wine. I like to reserve this for parties and make it in my crock pot, but again, you can make it in your microwave with a mug, cinnamon stick, whole allspice, and orange juice. Sadly, this is yet another hot drink to be taken sparingly. I have some fond memories of drinking mulled wines at intimate holiday parties, but without the party to justify the headaches, I stop at one mug at home.
So among all these options, one could reasonably stay warm all day, but you’d consume a lot of sugar, and caffeine (and alcohol) along the way. Each one is good for the 10 minutes it takes to savor it and then you’re freezing again. Hot drinks is a fun way to stay warm on chilly days, but I might need to talk to the landlord about weatherproofing the door for next year, and hope I get very cozy slippers for Christmas. Stay warm!
