My eyes tend to get puffy. It's a family trait.

If my diet isn't on point, I can count on my eyelids to be puffy on most mornings. After a while, they typically come down, but it's something I'd rather not have.

Under-eye puffiness is a symptom of improper lymphatic drainage of the face. If you gently massage your face it starts improving after a while.

I recently asked my cousin's wife for some natural skin-care tips. She has beautiful skin and I've seen her doing all sorts of interesting things with natural ingredients. Since I'm in full-blown wedding-prep mode, I wanted to get her latest and greatest.  

I asked her if she had any tips for under-eye puffiness. She suggested a lemonade with honey, ginger and cayenne pepper. And drinking 64 oz of it a day. I was a little hesitant to drink that much sugary water throughout the day.  I don't eat in between meals and I certainly don't drink sweet drinks... but I want it to try it.

I gave it a go.

• 64 oz water

• 3 large lemons

• Honey - enough to balance the acid of the lemon

• 1 tbsp grated ginger

• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

After the first day, clearly it was delicious. But the constant sugar consumption from the honey was NOT what I wanted to do. The next day, I had gained weight.

The second time I made it, I skipped the honey altogether and reduced the lemons to 2. It was still drinkable but not that tasty and so it was harder to drink.

So then I added stevia the third time around. All it took was 8 drops of stevia. Voila!

I have to say that I do believe I am noticing a difference in my body's shedding of excess interstitial fluid (that's the extra liquid around your cells that can make you look puffy).

And then I realized, well truly this is really a modified Master Cleanse lemonade. It makes sense that it's working!

Cayenne pepper has an astringent property and ginger also has a powerful anti-inflammatory kick. The water is certainly spicy but it's yummy to me.

If you have fluid retention or you notice puffiness in your body, give this a shot. I definitely don't recommend using sugar or any other sweetener other than stevia. You don't want to put yourself on a constant sugar high, and you definitely do not want artificial sweeteners for a plethora of reasons.

Give it a shot! Let me know what you think.