The Food Hangover

Imagine my surprise when I was reading Julia Cameron's book, "The Writing Diet," and one of her chapters is titled "The Food Hangover." I was a bit taken aback because I have never likened over eating to over imbibing. I've given birth to many a food baby and gone to bed with a severely swollen overindulged stomach, but (thankfully) I have never woken up with a food hangover (to the best of my knowledge). I don't know if I could handle another kind of hangover other than the one received from numerous forms of alcohol. Julia describes her food hangover as starting with a fitful sleep and being "bedeviled by violent dreams. When she woke, her mouth was parched and her head was pounding. Without the aid of any alcohol whatsoever, she had a full-fledged hangover" (76).

This made me ponder the idea of a food hangover a little more closely. I do have vivid dreams if I eat late at night. I usually wake up with them right on the periphery of my memory, just like an after thought. However, this cannot compare to a fitful night of sleeping after a few too many cocktails or wine. This kind of hangover, for me, is actually quite the opposite of Julia's food hangover. For example, I either fall into a black hole or wake up not remembering when I went to bed or what happened shortly before I fell asleep. On the flip side it is not uncommon for me to wake up with a seemingly empty stomach and wanting to eat breakfast right away with both a food or alcohol hangover. Anyhow, I got a bit of a chuckle thinking that there were multiple kinds of hangovers, especially at a time when I am on a mama juice hiatus.

Yesterday was a pretty good day considering it was Friday! Right now TGIF translates as: Tearful Girl In Food (hell). You see, Friday evenings are sacred. I not only celebrate the end of the week, but when it is just dusk out (or before dusk during the summer) I celebrate SABAJUBU. SABA being short for the Sabbath and Jubu short for Jewish and Buddhist. It is a way to celebrate the end of the week and beginning of the weekend. My L.A. girls and I do our best to end the week on a high note, with a glass of something to relax and say goodbye to the daily grind. I suppose it is ironic, simply because I work from home and I can often be found working on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights as online can sometimes translate into open all the time. It is my opinion though that Friday is just a great night to decompress, relax, enjoy the company of friends, food and a cocktail (or two.....). Sigh, I found myself eating a salad, in front of my computer while grading papers, instead of laughing with my friends over the antics of the week. My naughty girl was screaming, "Oh for crying out loud, one glass of wine isn't going to kill you, seeing that you ate a pound of cheese and chicken wings the other day!" And my nice girl stated in a very soothing voice, "Once you start, you won't stop, so put a plug in your pie hole." Then my referee voice sagely stated, "If you have one glass of wine, you simply won't stop and then you will have to tell everyone that you didn't have the constitution to even make it a week. On top of this, you are supposed to be a fitness role model, so not only will you have to blog it, you will join the cast of others who gave in during the week (yes, you know who you are ;-))." So, I stuck to my guns, grabbed an oh so tiny tub of my new favorite low calorie Jello Mousse dessert-- and dug into this instead.

Today was a baseball and movie day! Double trouble, but a great day nonetheless. Two wins, one pizza stick and no popcorn or sweets. For dinner, my family and I went to House of Tokyo. This is Greenwood's version of Benihana. I decided that I was going to splurge and have the Okonomiyaki, a Japanese pizza. I would control my portion and if I didn't I could test out the validity of the food hangover. I will have to let you know in the morning!