So that's hunger....

I made two strange food related discoveries this week. The first is that the string of chemicals in vegan sour cream, cream cheese, and cheese cheese mean that these substances are not health foods. Other tip offs were the weird headache and general fog-head that came on after eating any of them (it took me two times to make the connection and a third to confirm it).

The second is that something about eating a mostly plant-based diet has killed my desire for most of the foods that used to sing sweet siren songs to my belly and tongue and convince me a taste and another and one more couldn't possibly hurt anybody.

This afternoon I thought I was coming down with a flu. I felt logy and tired, I had a low-grade headache, and I could hardly focus on the work task at hand (though to be fair, said task is the kind of deadly dull stupidness that inspires lesser mortals to pluck themselves bald). I was ready to admit defeat and go lie down a while, when my stomach grumbled loudly enough for me to stop typing and look down at the peanut gallery below, and peanuts, I thought. Peanuts would be really good right now. Why is my mouth watering? And there goes the beast in my belly again, which is when it dawned on me: I had forgotten to eat lunch.

I forgot (!) to eat lunch.

I never forget to eat lunch. Certainly not when I'm working on a yawner of a project that would inspire lesser mortals to pluck themselves bald.

So I put some hummus and tomato on a pita and, well, do you have houseplants you neglect like I neglect my houseplants? And by neglect I mean forget you have them for weeks and then praise Jeebus when you see them acting all droopy that you were self aware enough to only take on succulents that don't need you very often anyway? When you water a plant that's been neglected like I neglect them, two things happen. First, the dirt slurps the wet right up and second the plant perks up. Immediately. Kind of like I did after I ate my hummus-and-tomato pita.

I don't advocate skipping meals to the point that you feel sick, I really don't. But forgetting to eat when you've had food issues as long as your memory of the taste of chocolate? That's something special, that is.

Perhaps I'll show my plantly gratitude by buying my much neglected succulents a drink.