Crunch Time!!!

It's a boy version of me as an M&M!!!

Finals are here and that means one thing: Crunch Time.

Figurative meaning: My first exam is tomorrow so I am in the final hours of cramming and prepping for whatever essay hypotheticals my professor can create surrounding Sports Law and Regulations. I'm a good sport, so I'm game.  Hardy har har.

Literal Meaning: You've heard me say it before ... I get the munchies when I get stressed. Well, today is my day of vindication. Turns out, it's completely normal and necessary!!! Oh yes, finally(!), a food-related "issue" I don't have to solve.

"See, the urge to eat when situations get hairy is an evolutionary instinct triggered by certain chemicals," according to my daily Eat This, Not That email (delivering info from both Men's Health and Womens" Health). How do they know exactly what I need to hear when I need to hear it?

Thanks to the peeps over at Women's Health, I now have a list of things to eat (and drink) to handle various forms of stress. As suspected, fruit is a good one. But surprisingly so are M&Ms!!! Yeah, I bought a bag of the recommended peanut variety with lunch. Haha.

I also have a big bowl full of apples and oranges. Plus, a bunch of bananas. There might be some grapes left too ... those usually go pretty fast thanks to the same oral fixation that takes over whenever someone opens a bag of chips. 


Anyway, as part of the literal crunch time, that's all I have time to write. But check out the link for the lovely tips for boosting serotonin, etc!

D-coding cravings

I love it when one of my magazines speaks to me and offers a solution to a problem I couldn't articulate.

It happened just five minutes ago. I was thumbing through my "Women's Health" from December and a reader's question caught my eye.

"Why do I crave more carbs in the winter?"

And it hit me - that's exactly what's been happening to me the past couple of months! I've been physically craving breads, cookies, CEREAL, crackers, and pasta. I've given in more times than I should, but now I'm thrilled to know why.

According to Keri Glassman, R.D., of NutritiousLife.com, it is totally natural to crave more carbs in the winter because there are fewer daylight hours. What does that have to do with the price of spaghetti? Well, apparently, with less sunlight, our bodies make less vitamin D and therefore can't pump as much serotonin.

I am quite familiar with serotonin, the brain's mood-regulating chemical, and have battled my body's inability to regulate it for years. But I never knew my body's vitamin D production was also a factor.

Glassman says that when there is less sunlight, our bodies urge us to look for another way to make serotonin. Carbs boost the production of serotonin and so we crave carbs more. Simple as that.

So what do we do to fight this? Glassman says we should increase our intake in D-rich foods such as nonfat milk, orange juice, tuna and mushrooms.

Oh, and we should spend a few minutes in the sun every day - even if the ground is covered in 8 inches of snow.

I'm on it! Portabello Mushroom Fajitas is going straight on this week's meal list and I'm getting the dogs ready for a lovely hike through the (snow-covered) neighborhood. Hot chocolate made with milk should make a great snack when we get back.

See? Serotonin boost is already happening at the mere thought of it all!