I eat junk food when I get stressed out. It's my bad habit/coping mechanism. For a minute or two, I feel better. But, then I try to write. It doesn't work so good. The whole whitebreadsugarprocessedcornsyrup food diet of modern america does not help my art. I bet it doesn't help yours, either.
You can get a hangover from sugary, fatty foods. You can feel terrible followed by the rush of joy on a sugar hit. Maybe you can ride it out.
Yesterday I was baking a lot and nibbling on sugary treats while doing so, and I woke up feeling like I had a hangover. I certainly didn't get as much writing done as I'd have liked.
This morning, though, after my sugar hangover and after my hearty, wholesome breakfast I already feel more focused and alert. My breakfast was oatmeal mixed up millet, quinoa, barley and cooked with dried fruit and greek yogurt. I've already written more this morning than I did yesterday when it was not easy and my head ached and I couldn't seem to focus on anything and everything was insurmountable. Today, it's not so bad. It started bad, but then I ate my breakfast of wholesome, nutritious grains. In a minute, I'm going to pull out the juicer and make something with carrots and cucumbers in it. I'm going to go for a long walk. Lunch will be salad. Dinner will be brown rice and vegetables. Healthy things, all.
The head is connected to the body. What is bad for the body is bad for the head.
Writing much? Making art? Eat right, and exercise. Don't give in to the sugar traps, the grease traps. And if you do, (because we all do), don't let yourself linger in them. Recognize the signs in how you feel and pull out before it's too late.
The one thing you don't want to lose, when writing, is momentum. Sugarcrash, and telling yourself that you're writing and need that little extra something, a little extra comfort, is actually not comforting. It's horrible, and it will do terrible things to your art. Like drug use, junk food only works a little bit, for the period of the rushing high, but immediately changes into darkness.
If you get stuck? Don't go to the kitchen. Go for a walk.
The mind is connected to the body. The soul is, too.
(It wouldn't surprise me to learn that some intrepid sf writer has set up his laptop at a treadmill to keep his feet moving while he writes...)
(This is excellent advice, and I know that I will be ignoring it again, sometime soon. I will give in to my dark cravings...)
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