Pre-Fall Carb Cravings

Can you feel the difference in the air? Are you noticing differences in animals' behavior? Are you aware of the subtle & not so subtle signs of the change of seasons that is happening?

Well, let me get right down to what might really be within your awareness & on your mind: Are you craving carbs? and, is that freaking you out?

Well, let me tell you what I have observed over time. In the summer I'm full of energy. I enjoy being out in the sunshine, exercising, gardening, etc. I'm attracted to eating "lite". Salads are very appealing and satisfying. Life is good.

And then, "all of a sudden," I'm sluggish, wanting to take naps, & finding myself digging out recipes for heavy stews, chili, breads, desserts that I have traditionally made in the Fall. I'm craving carbs over and over again. What is wrong with me? This change in behavior panics me. Oh, no, I'm going to become a fat slug. Can you relate to this?

Let me tell you what else I have come to notice. The sunlight has changed. Around Aug. 15 I noticed that in my home, the light coming through the large windows we have in 2 sliding glass doors seemed to be dimmer. It's like when I turn the kitchen light on & realize that 1 of the 4 light bulbs in the fixture has burned out. It "just doesn't look right". I experience this dimming, as if someone pushed a dimmer switch in every room in our home.

This awareness had a familiar ring to it, so I went back to last year's journal &, sure enough, on Aug. 16, 2009 I had written about the same phenomenon.

I am very aware of the action of the animals around me since I love nature & observe it at every chance. We live in a woods & I notice that "all of a sudden", the squirrels have become very active. They are racing all over the trees, causing branches to dip & bow unexpectedly under their weight. They are beginning their loading up with acorns & other nuts & nutty behavior as they bury & then lose their nuts.

In the past couple of weeks the hummingbirds that visit my 2 feeders, have become what seems frantic in loading up on my homemade sugar water nectar. The past day or 2 I only see an occasional hummer at the feeders. I sadly realize that they were "gassing up" for their long migration south.

These are signs that winter is on it's way in the natural world. Why do we forget that we are also a part of that natural world, try as we might to pretend that it isn't so?

So, just like bears & ground hogs, our bodies sense the subtle light changes that signal that the sun is lower in the sky & cause us to have the urge to stock up our fat reserves so that we can survive the long, cold winter ahead of us. What does that best? Carbs, lots & lots of them. So that's why we are instinctively drawn to them. The thought of carbs keeps coming up over and over again in our minds, tempting and tormenting us.

STAY TUNED: In my next post I will give you a strategy for dealing with this annual phenomenon.