Yesterday, I ate entirely too many homemade chocolate chip cookies.
Today, I am having a carob chip Perfect Bar for lunch (if you've never had a Perfect Bar, you don't know what you're missing) and digging into my WIP instead of the cookie tin.
I blame the hanging-on-too-long winter weather, but for the past few weeks, I've slowly allowed myself to be less careful about food consumption. And after losing 2 inches in my waist and about 8 pounds last year, I should know better! (Ballet leotards are unforgiving things.)
Anyway. I'm sure I'm not alone on the comfort food thing. Bad weather aside, I think there's a quintessential writer-food relationship that we all deal with on one level or another. Got a rejection from your dream agent? Slice of chocolate cake. Can't stand the month of dead silence after going on submission for the first time? Kettle chips and a bottle of stout--nightly. Slogging through a difficult revision on a deadline? Trail of crumbs and unidentifiable sauces from the kitchen to your overstuffed chair. And a sticky keyboard.
There's the coffee shop, thing, too. Sure, I go there for a change of atmosphere, zero interruptions, and a creative buzz (there's nothing quite like an entire room filled with glowing apples). But it wouldn't be the same without the mocha latte. Or the spring greens salad with blood orange vinaigrette. Or the towering slice of pie.
Anyway. All that to say--what's your food response? We're such a diverse group, but I'm convinced that food is a part of each of our writing lives. Are you a nibbler, always needing a bowl of something nearby? Are you a binger, ignoring your stomach for hours and then gorging on half the contents of your fridge? Do you graze? Or do you put your writing away when you're hungry and pull out all the stops, creating a gourmet meal from scratch in order to cultivate the culinary branch of your creativity?
I haven't asked a fun question in a while, so let's have at it. Talk FOOD at me today! Fill my comment box with yum (or not-so-yum).
And have a fabulous weekend!
Miss Snark's First Victim
Oh, man, I'm on the other end of the spectrum--when I'm stressed or discouraged, I usually lose my appetite! But since I have a sweet tooth, I guess this is a good thing? :)
ReplyDeleteI'd say yes, Krista! Because my sweet tooth is my nemesis. I have Ben and Jerry's Phish Food in the freezer right now -- not good! :)
DeleteAs you requested, my recipe for Toaster S'mores: graham cracker, miniature marshmallows, chocolate chips. Build a fence around the perimeter of the graham cracker(s). Pour in as many chocolate chips as it will hold. Toast. Takes care of the mid-afternoon slump. :-)
ReplyDeleteSheesh. I swing in both directions. If I'm on a writing stay-cation and spewing out 30-40k in a week's time, I tend to forget to eat during the day. After all, stay-cations don't last forever and I get sort of "woman on a mission" tunnel vision. ;)
ReplyDeleteBUT!
When those rejections come in... Or not so friendly feedback... Well, let's say I have a very close bond with those chocolate/peanut butter/oatmeal no-bake cookies. We are *tight* like that.
Good and Plenty. And plenty of it.
ReplyDeleteEach year my writers group heads to the mountains for a week long retreat. We spend hours writing, laughing, and you guessed it - eating. We take turns cooking meals, and end up with so much delicious food that we all roll home. But it is a wonderful, creative, connected time. My mouth is watering just thinking about it...
ReplyDeleteBetween Winter, too many hours at the day job, edits for book two, and writing book three I've given into the temptation of fast food, chocolate chip cookies, and pop.
ReplyDeleteI am desperate for Spring to arrive.
Violet Ingram
Death by High Heels
I have to stay away from chocolate and preservatives (and many other delicious choices) so I keep a bag of Frito corn chips handy. They don't drip onto my keyboard so I can just shove them in mindlessly and crunch away.
ReplyDeleteChocolate! Though I recently started trying to trick my sweet tooth with no sugar added fruit leathers. Vitamin C, at least.
ReplyDeleteEat three well balanced meals per day they say. Sounds easy enough until you start pushing away the NOT HEALTHY stuff. Since I can't have chocolate for breakfast and a bag of chips for lunch, I just skip the meals. Come supper, I'm hungry. A glass of wine while I chop some fresh veggies, another glass of wine while I prepare a nice salad, another glass of wine while the steak is cooking. There you have it. Protein, vegetables, and fruit. (Yes, there's lots of grapes in wine.)
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely a snacker, though I've had the outlook of focusing on eating things that are good for me first vs. shaming the bad. Look, every so often, I'm going to eat some Ben & Jerrys or some chips or stuff a handful of chocolate chips in my mouth because there's nothing else sweet in the house. Diets don't work for me, but learning to cook and learning about food in general has really helped. I think I eat better now that I work primarily from home; no workplace donuts and lunches out for fast food.
ReplyDeleteEvery so often I spend some time researching food, healthy diets, whatever, usually motivated by scare-tactic health nuts. I am all for knowing about where you r food comes from, and for holding companies responsible for informing the public what is in their products, but some advice I come across online is fear-mongering and shaming and doesn't hold up scientifically. I know I tend to get down on mysel f sometimes for not being some sort of Pinterest-obsessed "clean eating" superstar, but let's be real here. We're all just trying to do our thing and hopefully take care of ourselves.
I've also been inspired by several women in my life who've taken their health into their own hands. One lost 40 lbs and is still going. Another is becoming a personal fitness trainer, and is very vocal about how she'll never be a "skinny girl" but that's OK (she's tall and has always been muscular). She focuses on finding fitness that is fun or at the least, is challenging and not boring, and to work on making good food choices 90% of the time.
I don't tend to munch while I write *ponders*
ReplyDeleteI love food and I love baking and cooking, but since I live by myself, I usually don't do a whole lot of baking/cooking unless I'm having people over or taking something to an event like a shower or party. Fortunately my church has a lot of events so I get lots of opportunities to play without having large quantities of food hanging around my apartment afterward!
Boy, I can certainly relate to eating when stressed or disappointed! I also use treats as a reward for getting something accomplished, but lately I haven't been doing so well with that. I'll get something special -- like York mints or a slice of key lime pie -- and tell myself I can only eat it while working on a particular writing project. And then something stresses me out and I end up eating whatever it was without getting any writing-related work done at all . . .
ReplyDeleteAnd writing can definitely give me the munchies, although to a certain extent it depends on what stage I'm in -- drafting tends to be worse than editing -- so I can also relate to the 'sticky keyboard' issue! (And when you shake the keyboard upside down a bunch of little crumbs fall out . . .) :D
Oh goodness! What a loaded question. Since I mostly at night after the kiddos go to bed, I usually enjoy an uninterrupted bowl of ice cream.... Or the occasional mudslide.
ReplyDeleteI'm a grazer, for sure. It helps that I don't want to get food on my keyboard, so I refrain from snacking while typing. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't sometimes take a break and slink away to the kitchen when I'm in a rut.
ReplyDelete