This morning, I wanted cinnamon toast. Four pieces, for starters.
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I wanted to toast four pieces of bread, slather them with butter, sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon and set them under the broiler.
Can’t even recall the last time I made cinnamon toast, or even wanted it, but there I was, craving it like mad. And ice cream. Always, always, ice cream.
I resisted, but it seemed especially hard, the cravings especially strong. (No, pregnancy for me is not possible. I’ll leave the whys to your imagination.)
I made some tea and got through it. That’s when the urge for fried shrimp began. Did I fail to mention this was 10 a.m.?
Just yesterday I’d stocked the kitchen with fail-safes: yogurt, nuts, even some Kashi Go Lean Crunch, which I’d long ago tagged as the Cereal From Hell because it tasted like baked drywall, until my sister-in-law shared some of her “honey almond flax” flavored cereal last weekend. I liked it so much I bought a box.
Since Sunday I’ve been battling the wildest cravings – London broil, anyone? – and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. So I turned to Google, and here’s a sampling of what I found:
· Stress, depression and a lack of sleep can cause junk food cravings. We sometimes may turn to comfort foods that we associate with pleasant feelings and overeat these foods when we are stressed, depressed or tired.
· Food cravings for quick sugar energy, alcohol or foods or drinks containing caffeine or carbohydrates are common when we are tired and want to feel energized.
· Fluctuation in blood sugar levels may cause food cravings.
For me, I’m sure it’s pretty much all of the above. I’m still trying to catch on sleep from last weekend, and have been taking in a lot of caffeine to avoid naps. I do suspect the main reason is that I’ve been out of vitamins for just over a week. Every day for about a month, I’ve been taking multivitamins and vitamin D supplements daily. My body likely had gotten used to being in balance, and is now sending “tilt” messages to my brain.
As mentioned yesterday, am dealing with a lot of stress right now. Mostly the stealth kind, which sneaks up on me when I’m not paying attention just to remind me that I am, in fact, frazzled, and wouldn’t a big bowl of ice cream be perfect right now?
I imagine it would be nice to just let go and give in to all my cravings for one day, just break all the “you can’t have that” rules and go for broke. That would probably feel good, but only for a short period of time. A day-long binge would likely end with physical as well as mental anguish.
I didn’t have the cinnamon toast, but I didn’t have breakfast either. I made tea, then starting munching on mixed nuts. The sugar in the tea killed the toast craving, the nuts killed my appetite. Still, I had a banana just to balance things out a bit.
Right now, I’m seriously craving a wine cooler. There’s some wine in the ’fridge, and I’m thinking I could put some in the blender with some frozen juice concentrate and crushed ice.
OK. Time to go get some vitamins. And maybe some London broil …
Health is the first muse, and sleep is the condition to produce it. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Leslie J. Ansley is an award-winning journalist and entrepreneur who blogs daily for TheRoot. She lives in Raleigh, NC.
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