I Love Keto, But I Miss Wine!

I miss wine.

I cut wine out of my diet to avoid surgery for carpal tunnel. Just picking up a pen could send shattering, excruciating pain shooting through my hands, and when I wasn’t feeling like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my hand, they throbbed dully and continuously. Surgery was next on the list of treatments to try, and the only thing I hadn’t done to treat carpal tunnel…except for changing my diet. Once I cut inflammatory foods, including sugar, the pain started to decrease within days, and within weeks, it was nearly gone.

Win for my body; lose for my love of wine and all things wine related.

In the first months of cutting sugar, I would treat myself to a glass or two of wine as a treat, but would inevitably suffer for it for the next week, fighting cravings for more sugar and waking up during the night from the throbbing in my hands. Every one of those cheat glasses of wine tasted so good! The pain, however, wasn’t worth it, so my indulgences became fewer and farther between. Now, when I treat myself to wine, it’s rarely more than a half a glass, and it’s not just because of the carpal tunnel rearing its ugly head if I do, but because it doesn’t taste good anymore, and this may be the saddest part of changing my diet. More than a few sips and even dry reds start to taste like syrup.

But I still miss wine!

I miss the feel of a stemmed glass in my hand, the rich feel on the tongue as it swishes around my mouth, the wonderful taste in the back of the throat of a great dry red. I miss the way just taking a glass of red in hand and enjoying the first lingering sip meant instant relaxation, much the way I imagine smokers must feel with the first drag when they light up. I miss the way a beautiful glass of wine enhances the look of a fantastic dinner. I miss how the perfect goblet filled with the perfect wine got me into a medieval mindset for writing my stories or for watching Game of Thrones. I miss that “Fun Lois” was so much easier to bring out of her shell with a glass of wine (I’m really quite laid back and contented to turn in early with a good book when I don’t have wine in my life).

I still miss wine.

But it doesn’t even taste good to me anymore, and maybe what I’m missing now is more the pewter goblets and the beautiful crystal glasses. I do have some fabulous goblets, and I hate to see them go to waste. I think I will start to take my ice tea in a wine glass when I’m at home from now on to see if it helps to fill the void.

I miss wine…

So please don’t judge me to harshly if you see me sipping an ice tea from a pewter goblet, closing my eyes to enjoy its aroma, or letting it linger on my tongue to get the full effect in the back of my throat. I know I may look stupid, but for just a few moments I can pretend I am indulging in a fabulous Super Tuscan and that I’m not missing wine.