Guest Post from Shona Kane: Today I ate cake

Yes. I confess. It happened. Cake-gate. Not even gluten free or dairy free. Just a big slab of good old fashioned carrot cake. This doesn’t happen often, and I’m usually comfortable enough to let this once-in-a-while event happen without too much guilt. After all, tomorrow is another day.

I was reflecting on the cake-gate incident though and the surrounding emotions and situation. I had been out the night before and probably had one or two too many wines – always good for initiating cravings. I was in an incredibly good mood, out shopping by myself, enjoying life and had a spring in my step. The cake and cuppa felt like the perfect end to a lovely morning in my own company. I associated it with relaxing, reading my magazine, a morning of treating myself, and, I was actually very hungry by this point. My morning smoothie was not going to take me through to a late lunch.

So, I indulged, and I bloody enjoyed it! Not all of it though, because I began to feel a bit sick. I didn’t feel terribly regretful. I made sure I was kind to myself. I was pondering when I got home though, as I noticed a few things happen…

My mood changed. As I drove home, about a half hour after cake-gate, my cheery disposition began to fade. I felt tired, which may have just been due to a late night the evening before and a nap was all that was needed – only I couldn’t nap. I snuggled on the sofa when I got home, a regular weekend occurrence for me, but I couldn’t sleep. This is unusual! Normally I can lay my head down for a half hour snooze and feel bright as a button afterwards. Not today. My body felt tired but my brain did not. My throat started to hurt – that scratchy feeling. I’ve known for a while that my reflux issue was bothered by sugar and fat. Today it was telling me again it didn’t like what I had consumed. And I was incredibly thirsty, not something I’ve noticed before after indulging in something like a slice of cake.

All these small things are very subtle. But it’s amazing the sorts of things you start to notice about yourself when you try to remove some things from your diet and notice what happens when you eat them again. The body is such a fascinating tool. With every ache, pain, awareness, feeling – it’s trying to tell us something, and more often than not it’s related either to the food we eat or the daily stresses we experience (getting to work on time, missing the bus, having dinner ready on time, rushing to your doctor appointment, falling out with a loved one). We just have to stop and listen to it now and then.

What I need next time is a little sign that pops up in my head saying ‘Hey, remember the last time you ate this? You really didn’t feel so good for a while. Is it worth it?’ Sometimes it might be, and sometimes it won’t. I just hope the little dude with the sign isn’t asleep because my memory is rubbish 🙂

I don’t feel any guilt about cake-gate, after all, I learnt something valuable about myself. And I had this for dinner which made me feel a bit more nutritionally cared for at the end of the day:)

Shona Kane is the author of the blog Eat for Yourself – www.eatforyourself.com and lives in with her partner in Auchterhouse, a village on the outskirts of Dundee.