Don't Eat Chocolate Before Bed
I was having a very good, if on the lower calorie end, day yesterday. I had eggwhites for brunch along with about 30 calories of grape tomatoes, for a total of 170. Then I wasn't really hungry again until just before dinner, when I went over to my mom's house for New Year's Day good luck food dinner: black eyed peas and collard greens. Mom made this amazing black eyed pea soup with tomato, spicy mustard, barbeque sauce, and some ginger. Then she cooked the collards with mustard greens and put some vidalia onion relish on top. We also ate red pepper sliced topped with vidalia onion relish. We drank some of the wine that had been left in the freezer during my New Year's Eve party... the cork had popped off, but it was still quite drinkable. I was very proud that I had emerged from the High Carb Castle having eaten no crackers nor any ju ju bees. Not sure how many calories, but I had very little, probably about 1/3 cup of beans in some broth, and a few tablespoons of greens, so I'm fairly sure I was well under 1000 at that point for the day.
Earlier in the day, a friend had called and asked if I wanted to go to a 7:15 movie, but I said no since I was working on a big project and already had plans to eat dinner at my mom's. I told him he could stop by for a glass of wine after the movie, though, so I went home at about 8:30 and thought I'd just read for awhile. Sure enough, I fell asleep while reading, and didn't wake up until my friend arrived at my door. He poured himself a glass of wine, I got out a bottle of water, and I proceeded to set out some leftover chocolates from the party so that I could be a relatively good hostess, in spite of the fact that I was actually asleep when the guest arrived.
Then I realized I was hungry, and as often/always happens when I fall asleep during the day, or for just a short nap, I was absolutely craving carbs. So I got out some veggies leftover from the vegetable tray and ate a few baby carrots with hummus. I also had a few spoonfulls of leftover tabouleh (never know how to spell that for sure) and then... I actually ate one of the pieces of chocolate from the party.
Now I am not a chocolate person. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I don't like it all that much. I'd always go for a bagel with cream cheese before a piece of chocolate.
I suspect that I was so low calorie for the whole day that even with the chocolate, I didn't go over target, or at least not by much. But here's the thing about me and junkie carbs: when I eat lots of sugar before bed, I invariably have horrible nightmares.
Does this happen to anyone else? It's like the old saying, "Don't eat cookies before bed." In my case, it's very true.
So I had a series of horrible nightmares. One was the classic "it's the end of senior year in college, I don't have a job, and I have no idea how I'll pay off my crushing student loans." The second was a particularly wretched dream about living in a group house with a bunch of friends in West Philly (I've never lived there, but I've visited the group houses a lot and have many friends there) and discovering that they were organizing against me behind my back to get me kicked out of the house.
Then I had what is probably a classic nightmare for some, the "Reply All" when you meant to "Reply to Sender" email nightmare. I would really like to know if other people have this dream, because I'd never had it before, but I can see how it would become a recurring nightmare. It wasn't even particularly sensitive email: in the dream, I just accidentally cc'd a bunch of university professors on an email to Kevin (of the M Prize) about some difficulties I was having setting up my M Prize email accounts (Kevin, if you're out there, I'm working on figuring it out myself before I bother you with more silly questions!). So it wasn't exactly a disaster, I'm sure we've all had much worse, but it made me wonder if other people who use email for many important things might have the same kind of dream.
The moral of the story is: Don't eat chocolate before bed! Don't eat junkie carbs at all! It's not worth it. Even after the biotech rapture, when we no longer need CR, I am still not allowed to eat chocolate before bed! Though I suppose if we could cure aging, we could cure chocolate induced nightmares. But I can't really imagine convincing researchers to work on that. "The problem is, people really *need* to eat chocolate before bed..." No, not a good pitch. Forget it, no chocolate for me.
The other interesting thing about the story is that it made me aware that I've started to dream in email. It's actually been happening for about a month, but I never quite noticed before this morning. I see the words on the page, formatted just like they would be in my yahoo mail. Most of my email dreams have been rather boring, like most of my dreams are, mundane work type stuff. Like, "Got the press release. Looks good." But isn't it interesting that I'm dreaming in email now? It's like how I used to dream in phone conversations when so much of my work was tied up in talking with nurses on the phone. I guess our brains adapt to our circumstances. Do those of you who spend tons of time emailing also dream in email? Do you actually see the words on the page in the dream?
Today I have a lot to do to get ready for the week, but I'll be around home so I should be able to eat well. I may also go for a walk... I went for a long walk yesterday, as it was over 60 degrees here and beautifully sunny. Doesn't that make you Canadians jealous? Sure, you have health care, but we have warm days in January!
Earlier in the day, a friend had called and asked if I wanted to go to a 7:15 movie, but I said no since I was working on a big project and already had plans to eat dinner at my mom's. I told him he could stop by for a glass of wine after the movie, though, so I went home at about 8:30 and thought I'd just read for awhile. Sure enough, I fell asleep while reading, and didn't wake up until my friend arrived at my door. He poured himself a glass of wine, I got out a bottle of water, and I proceeded to set out some leftover chocolates from the party so that I could be a relatively good hostess, in spite of the fact that I was actually asleep when the guest arrived.
Then I realized I was hungry, and as often/always happens when I fall asleep during the day, or for just a short nap, I was absolutely craving carbs. So I got out some veggies leftover from the vegetable tray and ate a few baby carrots with hummus. I also had a few spoonfulls of leftover tabouleh (never know how to spell that for sure) and then... I actually ate one of the pieces of chocolate from the party.
Now I am not a chocolate person. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I don't like it all that much. I'd always go for a bagel with cream cheese before a piece of chocolate.
I suspect that I was so low calorie for the whole day that even with the chocolate, I didn't go over target, or at least not by much. But here's the thing about me and junkie carbs: when I eat lots of sugar before bed, I invariably have horrible nightmares.
Does this happen to anyone else? It's like the old saying, "Don't eat cookies before bed." In my case, it's very true.
So I had a series of horrible nightmares. One was the classic "it's the end of senior year in college, I don't have a job, and I have no idea how I'll pay off my crushing student loans." The second was a particularly wretched dream about living in a group house with a bunch of friends in West Philly (I've never lived there, but I've visited the group houses a lot and have many friends there) and discovering that they were organizing against me behind my back to get me kicked out of the house.
Then I had what is probably a classic nightmare for some, the "Reply All" when you meant to "Reply to Sender" email nightmare. I would really like to know if other people have this dream, because I'd never had it before, but I can see how it would become a recurring nightmare. It wasn't even particularly sensitive email: in the dream, I just accidentally cc'd a bunch of university professors on an email to Kevin (of the M Prize) about some difficulties I was having setting up my M Prize email accounts (Kevin, if you're out there, I'm working on figuring it out myself before I bother you with more silly questions!). So it wasn't exactly a disaster, I'm sure we've all had much worse, but it made me wonder if other people who use email for many important things might have the same kind of dream.
The moral of the story is: Don't eat chocolate before bed! Don't eat junkie carbs at all! It's not worth it. Even after the biotech rapture, when we no longer need CR, I am still not allowed to eat chocolate before bed! Though I suppose if we could cure aging, we could cure chocolate induced nightmares. But I can't really imagine convincing researchers to work on that. "The problem is, people really *need* to eat chocolate before bed..." No, not a good pitch. Forget it, no chocolate for me.
The other interesting thing about the story is that it made me aware that I've started to dream in email. It's actually been happening for about a month, but I never quite noticed before this morning. I see the words on the page, formatted just like they would be in my yahoo mail. Most of my email dreams have been rather boring, like most of my dreams are, mundane work type stuff. Like, "Got the press release. Looks good." But isn't it interesting that I'm dreaming in email now? It's like how I used to dream in phone conversations when so much of my work was tied up in talking with nurses on the phone. I guess our brains adapt to our circumstances. Do those of you who spend tons of time emailing also dream in email? Do you actually see the words on the page in the dream?
Today I have a lot to do to get ready for the week, but I'll be around home so I should be able to eat well. I may also go for a walk... I went for a long walk yesterday, as it was over 60 degrees here and beautifully sunny. Doesn't that make you Canadians jealous? Sure, you have health care, but we have warm days in January!
posted by April @ 5:22 AM
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