October PMS Part 2

On the lighter side (this is meant to be an ironic pun --- if such a term exists) of things, after my dramatic day, my PMS just started rolling and gaining momentum.

Yes, there's my usual shorter-than-usual fuse which my DH has learned to tolerate with barely a frown. There's the almost manic cooking and housekeeping (my bathrooms are at their cleanest the week before my period). And alas, there's also the mind-numbing food binging and the inevitable bloating it brings. I swear, it almost sounds like I may be pregnant --- and at my last trimester at that!

I actually call my food binging just that, lihi, or (often irrational) food cravings that a pregnant woman usually has. I would gross out my friends from college when they see me inhale two, even three, large french fries from McDonald's freshly dipped on a hot fudge sundae. Yes, I can still see their faces now. A mix of fascination and disgust as I delicately take out one hot french fry at a time from its red cardboard box and unabashedly dunk it into my sundae. Then these little cold and hot babies would then land in my mouth. What a pig my PMS transforms me into!

I'm sure that I've got other equally appalling food combinations that I've tried during my PMS but this one really sticks to mind simply because my friend, ML, just cannot get over his disgust.

Now that I'm older, I don't think that I've become none the wiser. I'm not much of a junk food fan, but one telltale sign that I'm expecting my period is when I start shopping for chips. Crunchy Cheetos in particular. I usually open the bag the minute I get back home from the grocery store and pour in a bowlful. I then set this aside to "air out" so that it'll be makunat (chewy). At night, when the kids are asleep and DH and I are watching TV, I take out this bowl of makunat Cheetos and pair them up with another bowl of ice cream. Sometimes I top this off with iced tea, or if PMS falls on a weekend, a nice cold Margarita! Oh, I can be really weird!

This month though, I think that I had one of my rock bottom moments. Knowing that I was feeling super bad from my conversation with DM, my good friend ED brought back good 'ol Pinoy goodies from her weekend trip in New Jersey.

Red Ribbon, one of Manila's popular bakeries just opened shop in Jersey City three weeks ago. ED got me my favorite cake of all time (yes, I've tried a lot of cakes, but this one really tops my list!), Red Ribbon's Choco Mocha Crunch! I wish that I could post the picture of the actual cake that I got, unfortunately (in more ways than one), I managed to make the cake magically disappear (that's what I told AJ anyway) before I got the chance to take a picture. But here's a picture of the cake from Red Ribbon's website.

The picture doesn't do any justice for this cake. It has three very moist but light and delicious layers of chocolate chiffon cake with the most delectable mocha frosting in between the layers and all around it. Bits of caramel coated crunch are also placed between the layers and on top. Aaahhh, a slice of heaven. And I've got a whole cake to myself, bwahahaha!

Okay, I'm not that selfish. I think that I begrudgingly gave a slice to DH and maybe let AJ and AT take a few bites of my servings (the ones that they managed to catch me eat anyway).

If I haven't made myself disguting enough, I alternated eating my cake with gorging on Chippy and Cheetos! Bless and curse ED for encouraging my PMS to completely possess me! I have been transformed into a high-strung, bloated woman with a raging sugar high!

I got my period yesterday and I'm almost back to eating more sanely again. The cake's gone. So's my Chippy. I made DH get another bag of Cheetos tonight, but the appeal has passed. I pinch my love handles and shake my head in sorrow as to how I've allowed myself to loose control. Maybe I need an intervention? Is there such a thing as PMS binging/addiction?

Now I'm cramping and miserable. But I know that this has been the way it's always been. Hopefully soon all the water retention will be gone, the zits will fade out and I'll be normal again... until next month that is. I guess having literally eaten my cake, I'll have to haul my butt to the gym and sweat it out. And I've been sooo lazy lately, skipping spinning and opting for my fave yoga classes instead. But the holidays are coming up, if I'm this bad this month, how much worse will I be when Thanksgiving and Christmas rolls around?