NaNo dilemma: to chocolate or not to chocolate?

[Bubastes]

Half-price Halloween candy = great for my soul, bad for my tushie. So, do I give in and stock my freezer (I freeze my candy so I won't eat it all at once), or do I stick with my tea stash?

Yes, these are weighty matters every writer must consider.

 

[Sage]

Half-price Halloween candy = great for my soul, bad for my tushie. So, do I give in and stock my freezer (I freeze my candy so I won't eat it all at once), or do I stick with my tea stash?

Yes, these are weighty matters every writer must consider.

Do it for me!

I don't know how I'm going to survive NaNo on a diet.

 

[mscelina]

chocolate. definitely. You'll sweat it off the first time you hit a plot snag.

 

[Bubastes]

I think I may need to start running again to keep my weight under control.

 

[mscelina]

I only run if I'm mad enough to chase someone

 

[TheIT]

Tea, or healthier snacks. If I put munchies near my computer while writing, I'm going to eat them no matter how much I tell myself not to so I need to make sure they're something which won't hurt me.

One way to approach candy is as a reward. Only have a piece as reward for <xxx> amount of writing done (and <xxx> better be more than two sentences ), and make sure the candy stash is somewhere else so you need to get up and fetch it.

 

[Sassee]

If it was me I'd stick with tea... but then, I already have a lot of tush going on over here and don't need to add to it.

I've also asked my husband to get me up and to the gym with him in the mornings.

Yes, I am masochistic.

 

[Sage]

In 2005 I had a See's chocolate sucker every day when I sat down to write. For a few days I was able to convince myself that that was all I needed

Yeah, major snackage happened later.

 

[Bubastes]

One way to approach candy is as a reward. Only have a piece as reward for <xxx> amount of writing done (and <xxx> better be more than two sentences ), and make sure the candy stash is somewhere else so you need to get up and fetch it.

I like this idea!

Oh wait, I don't think one M&M per word is going to work. onders:

 

[AnnieColleen]

Tea.

We bought a mini-trampoline recently, so that's my frustration-vent. Impossible to be in a bad mood while bouncing.

 

[Sage]

Last year I got the dance dance revolution game and totally intended to do it each day as a break in writing.

Then Halloween came and my guy friend borrowed my one and only sports bra. He didn't give it back to me until almost Christmas. Needless to say, there was no NaNo exercise at all.

This year I'll be better, hopefully.

 

[PastMidnight]

One way to approach candy is as a reward. Only have a piece as reward for <xxx> amount of writing done (and <xxx> better be more than two sentences ), and make sure the candy stash is somewhere else so you need to get up and fetch it.

This is what I'm planning. I'm trying to decide on some reward to hold out for 2k days.

 

[benbradley]

Half-price Halloween candy = great for my soul, bad for my tushie. So, do I give in and stock my freezer (I freeze my candy so I won't eat it all at once), or do I stick with my tea stash?

Yes, these are weighty matters every writer must consider.

I LOVE frozen Reese's cups.

 

[Adam Israel]

Chocolate is so tempting. All those miniature snicker bars sitting on the shelf unloved. *sigh*

I'll do my best to avoid more than a token taste of chocolate, though. Tea and coffee, for certain, though.

 

[glassquill]

Chocolate and coffee.

 

[L M Ashton]

I don't do tea or coffee, so my choice is already made. Chocolate.

 

[Enzo]

Chocolate, fresh fruit, yoghurt.
But then I don't need NaNo as an excuse to be eating those.

 

[Saanen]

I'm back on my diet, so I'm only planning to dole out the chocolate and other bad stuff as rewards. I figure at 5k I get a candy bar, at 10k I get a pizza (small, with spinach and feta cheese on it...mmmmmmm), at 15k I get a candy bar and a Coke, at 20k I get a pizza and a coke, etc. With those rewards I think I'll probably finish my NaNo novel in about a week.

I like how Chris Baty suggests in the NP?NP! book to keep healthy munchies by the computer, like carrot sticks. I totally need to get some carrot sticks--I love them anyway but never get them because I figure I'll cut up my own from actual carrots. Which I never do.

 

[DamaNegra]

Hmmm, since it's already cold here, I think my NaNo best friend will be a nice cup of hot chocolate. Mmmm... chocolate abuelita.... *drools*

 

[moth]

I actually do the healthy snack near the computer thing. I ... er ... I eat baby spinach leaves as if they're potato chips. It's kind of stealth veggie-ing myself -- I eat mindlessly while I'm writing, to the point where I don't actually taste what I eat, as long as I'm eating something. Chips, chocolate, whatever...so I tried the spinach leaves one day, and even though I don't like spinach by itself that much, it wasn't that bad. I get something in my stomach, I get to keep my mindless-eating addiction, and I don't feel so bad when I do grab the M&Ms.

Oh, and I vote tea. Green tea with lemon.

 

[L M Ashton]

Huh. Moth, that's interesting. I guess I sorta do the same thing in a way - I eat bran crackers. They're not as bad as they sound. I think they're basically just whole wheat crackers, but since whole wheat as a concept is lost on Sri Lankans, this was probably the best way for the marketing department to get the idea across. They're hideously healthy, and at first they tasted like cardboard, but I'm used to them now.

 

[benbradley]

Celery is The Perfect Food in that it takes more energy to eat and digest it than it provides as food. But I'd hate to read the novel I would write while only eating celery...

 

[Bubastes]

Hey moth, that's a great idea! If you're up for a change from the spinach, here's a recipe for kale crunch (my favorite healthy munchie):

Kale Crunch:

1 large bunch of kale
a few tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a jelly roll pan with Pam spray.

Wash kale, remove stems, and tear the leaves into big pieces. Pile onto the baking sheet and put into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes. They'll wilt, then slowly get chewy-crispy as the kale dries out.

Sprinkle on the cheese and salt. Continue baking for another 10 minutes or until the leaves are as crisp as you'd like. Make sure you stir every few minutes so that the leaves bake evenly. I sometimes turn off the oven and leave the pan in there to let the kale dry out even further.

Hmmm, maybe I'll munch on this instead of the chocolate.

 

[Soccer Mom]

Spinach? Kale? Bran crackers?


They've all gone mad. MAD I say!

 

[L M Ashton]

What's this about "gone"?