This is my new favorite way to start the day!  In Vermont winter is dragging on and the brightness of the lemon and the sweetness of the honey and stevia have been doing the trick for coaxing me out of my warm and cozy covers and into a new day.

Feel free to experiment with different ratios of the  ingredients until you find your perfect blend.

I love using just  stevia or the blend of a little honey with stevia because it gives a nice full-bodied sweetness without dramatically spiking your blood sugar, which has been shown to cause fat storage and weight gain. Liquid stevia is  derived from the leaf of a plant found in South America, where the natives have used it for hundreds of years. It’s gained a lot of popularity in the past few years in the natural foods world because it lends its sweetness to foods and drinks without adding a single calorie. Pretty sweet, huh?

If you do not have liquid stevia you can just use a small amount of honey. I  do not recommend using artificial sweeteners like Splenda, Equal or Sweet ‘n Low because they are so far removed from nature and they’ve also been shown in recent studies to trigger the body to store fat and crave carbs – not such a sweet deal.

Not only is Hot Ginger Lemonade delicious, it’s got some wonderful properties too. This recipe was inspired by a drink my teacher used to give us at our yoga teacher trainings in Hawaii to rehydrate after our practice of 108 sun salutations. The blend of filtered water, honey, lemon and rock salt is deeply hydrating and rejuvenating. The lemon water  also helps break up toxins in the body and  the fresh ginger root  revs up your digestion, which is a natural way to flush things out and prime your body for the start of a new day.

Ingredients:

2 cups hot water

wedge of lemon

teaspoon or more chopped ginger root

1 teaspoon honey

3 drops liquid stevia (more or less  to taste)

Optional: pinch of rock salt

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a mug and stir.  Adjust ingredients ratios to suit your taste.

How to:

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