Day: September 12, 2006

There’s something strange that happens to me once or twice a year.  It’s a perceptible switch of preferences.  The switch usually coincides with the onset and subsiding of summer, starting mid-spring and usually lasting until the Indian Summer hits. 

Sometimes, I’m surprised as I skip a cycle.  Instead of a six-month turnaround, the phases last a whole year. I don’t ever make a conscious choice about it, it just happens.  I sometimes wonder if it’s body intelligence, shifting me to something that inherently it knows I need.  That doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense, though, as the shifts seem to be preferential, and not necessary.  I’ve tried to wrest control of the shift, but I don’t seem to be able to affect it.  I think I’ve ruminated on this to a few of you before….

The shift looks something like this: I move from coffee (black) to tea (Earl Grey, white and sweet).  I move from Gin & Tonic to Scotch (neat).  I move from water to Coke (especially with Mexican food and pizza).  I start thinking of curling up in a blanket with a book and hot chocolate — instead of images of sun, outdoors and cool drinks.  At Starbucks, I’ll order a Hot Carmel Apple Cider instead of the usual Latté.

There are other shifts.  Salad to soup. Just a week ago, I was craving salads, fruits and vegetables.  Yesterday we had chili, and now I can’t stop craving the heartiness of meat and beans.  I can’t even think of the lightness of salad right now.  I think it has something to do with the weather.  It’s gotten a lot cooler and rainy in the last week than it has been since mid-June. Perhaps I’m more like a bear than I realize, and my body seeks out heavier, calorie-laden foods.

Maybe foods are the clothes my insides wear.

Do you have a shift this way? What cravings leave and arrive in your life this time of year?