Love in the Time of Chronic Illness

Self-love at its most necessary

Dear Gentle Reader, I need your help.

Have you ever had a mojito? Despite living in Puerto Rico, being a daughter of the Caribbean, I’m not a huge fan of rum. 

But I recently discovered that a virgin mojito (or Nojito/Faux-jito if you will) is little more than Sprite and water (plus the lime and mint) and I gotta tell you, I’m in love. 

Thanks to my chronic condition¹, mild poison (aka alcohol) is now my #1 enemy. It’s not even mild—even an itty-bitty sip is downright lethal.

Which sucks, especially when you’re married to a homebrewer. We’re hoping it’s temporary🤞because this is hard.

I have absolutely zero interest in being completely sober. I’m no connoisseur, but I am a sucker for a good champagne. Before lockdown, the husband and I were training to become certified beer judges. We keep a collection of incomparable Belgian beer from our honeymoon. My sweet and dirty martini recipe has won an award! 

I sweat to you that’s my honest-to-goodness own picture of that ribbon, despite the watermark

All that to say that I enjoy a good social drink.

But I also love to breathe, I love air in my lungs, I really enjoy being alive!

And like guest Karenna Soto taught us in episode 65 of La Vida Más Chévere, burnout (and its aftermath, this disease) is curtailed, managed, and potentially completely avoided by creating the tiniest of shifts. 

Removing poison from the diet is one little step in that direction for me. (I‘m also playing pickleball very poorly 3 days a week, but that’s a different story.)

So mocktails it is!

I got the nojito recipe from Skinnytaste and it’s incredibly simple; basically idiot-proof. Even if you’ve never made a mocktail.

Over the last week I’ve tinkered a few times. My first attempt, the Trader Joe’s carbonated limeade + sparkling water, tasted just as good as the second, carbonated Brisk lemonade “juice” “drink” + plain water.

You probably can’t go wrong with a 1:1 combo of Sprite and water (carbonated or flat) either. The magic is in the muddled mint and lime with a dash of sweetener (stevia, in my sake). 

And it’s perfectly refreshing over ice in a sturdy glass. 

For me, that’s a beer glass. Because you can take the beer away from the girl, but you better let her keep her damn beer glass.

Remember, small shifts, not seismic ones.

Here’s to loving your body in all its forms, even when—especially when—it’s trying to kill you.

So here’s my ask to you: if you have a favorite mocktail recipe to share, by all means drop it in the comments. I fear that I’ll grow weary of minted Sprite and water before long…help a girl out, yeah?

Cheers!🍸

1. In case you’re new here, it’s detailed in episode 64 and episode 65