Mission Driven Monday
In the early days of our marriage (circa 1996), date nights happened at our local Outback Steakhouse. We could order a plate of loaded cheese fries, and two waters for just under $10 (including the tip!).
CHAZE FROYS PLAZE! (That’s how you order the dish with an Australian accent, by the way.)
Now, we regularly frequent the quaint dinner establishments that have three or even four dollar signs next to their menu on Yelp. At these top tier restaurants, the hostess will set a cocktail menu at our place setting, not as an afterthought; but as an expectation. She will encourage us to order something refreshing from the bar, a Manhattan on the rocks perhaps or at the very least a glass of the house wine.
And yet…we always politely push this menu to the side and focus our attention on the featured entrees.
Kudos to the waiter who doesn’t bat an eye. Oh, they try to hide their disappointment, but sometimes we can tell (Oh, yes, we can tell!) that he/she is slightly miffed.
“Just water this evening then, ma’am?”
“Yep. Just the water.”
Did I just see her making the mental calculations about how much less the tip is going to be now that she’s got a table for two that doesn’t want to drink anything but WATER?
I used to feel bad. I didn’t want them to think I was cheap. But that’s silly. I like water. I like to drink water with meals. It’s what I drink at home too.
Alcohol is the only drug in the world where, when you stop taking it, you are seen as having a disease.”—Quit Like a Woman by Holly Whitaker
Let’s just make a pact right now to stop apologizing for our healthy choices.
Maybe you still enjoy a drink every now and then. And that’s totally fine. But I will not apologize, when every doctor on earth will tell you to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate…
WITH WATER!!!
At a brain forum I attended last Spring, Dr. Neill Graft-Radford of the Mayo Clinic said this:
“Alcohol consumption, even at moderate levels, is associated with decreased hippocampus size and memory impairment.”
I’m not an alarmist, and I have no moral authority whatsoever to tell you what to eat or drink. I’ve just seen too many people, women especially, apologize for things like:
Going to bed early
Getting up early
Reading books rather than watching TV
Being off social media
Using cash instead of credit cards
Wearing thrift store clothes
Driving a hand-me-down car
You do you, boo.
These are all GOOD things, and you don’t need to apologize. It’s hard to be healthy in all things, but we can all be healthy in something.
I choose not to drink alcohol, but I’ll be honest—gluten in any form is my desert island food, and I have hidey-holes all over my house filled with chocolate and other sweet morsels. There’s no telling what my family will find once I’m dead and gone.