TV & Eating

When lecturing about classical conditioning, I often mention how people who generally snack while they watch TV end up feeling like they're hungry whenever they watch TV.  Even if they just ate.

I'm not immune.  When I'm working at home, I usually take a break for lunch or dinner and watch something on Netflix while eating.  So whenever I want a break, I want to be hungry.  And when I do watch TV without eating, I feel like something's missing. 

But I've also noticed something else about TV and eating.  When watching certain shows, I end up craving certain foods.  For example, I want coffee and cherry pie whenever I think about Twin Peaks.  If you ever watched even a couple of episodes of that show, you know that the main character had coffee and pie almost every episode. 

I'm re-watching Roswell now.  Many of the scenes are at the main character's work, the Crashdown Cafe.  It's a diner.  People order french fries a lot.  And milk shakes.  So now I'm craving shakes and fries.

The only other food-related viewing incident that I've had was when I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the theater.  I guess I didn't eat enough before watching that movie, because I had a hypoglycemic reaction to watching all of that candy and sweets.  I started getting a headache, then got nauseous.  Classic response when my blood sugar level drops too quickly.  I guess just seeing the candy increased my blood sugar level, which then crashed since I didn't have any real (protein-filled) food. So I threw up.  I almost made it to the bathroom.  :/

I wonder what foods others crave based on what their TV show characters are eating?

Sleep & Sick Squared

I've had a head and chest cold for the past week.  Since it's been around so long, I think I'm going to call it Phoebe.
What's worse, is that I had a cold a few weeks ago!  I've never gotten sick so often. 

Yesterday was a full day of sickness.

I did get to sleep in, to about 10:30am.  I got out of bed about 11:30am and cleaned my apartment a bit.  I then called my mother, but she wasn't home.  Then I fell asleep in my Lazy Boy.  I some point, I moved to the couch.  I woke up around 3pm, and got up around 3:30pm. 

I called my mom again, and she was home, so we talked for awhile.  Our weekly chat.  I started to get a sinus headache while on the phone. 

After that, I had some stew and watched Netflix.  I felt like sleeping again, but thought that that would be ridiculous.  So I baked no-fat cupcakes.  Turns out, I had baked them before and they were gross both times.  When they were baking, I went into my office to work on a lecture, but really just checked stuff out online.  Then an old friend called, so I got to talk with her.  Happy times!

I had to get off of the phone to get ready to go to another friend's house.  Since I felt awful (still had that headache, plus the cough and congestion), I took some cold medication.  With one of those gross cupcakes.  During my shower, I felt worse and worse.  When I was all ready, I laid down.  Eventually, I texted my friend to say that I couldn't make it.  Within 5 minutes I threw up.  Ug. 

I went back to bed, but kept coughing.  I figured that the meds that I'd taken earlier were ejected, I took some Nyquil and watched another episode of Roswell on Netflix.  After that, I was able to get to sleep.

I'm feeling better today, but still coughing.  At least I'm not nauseous!  I think it was the cupcake.