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Cashews, Chicken, and the Long Shadow of One Snack

 

Cashews, Chicken, and the Long Shadow of One Snack...



The night before last I ate way too many cashews. Not a polite handful, but somewhere in the territory of half a bag. They were good — salty, rich, crunchy — but heavy enough that the next morning I wasn’t remotely hungry, and perhaps I had a cashew hangover in a flipside sorta way. 

So yesterday I grazed on almost nothing until dinner. And when hunger finally did hit, I made rice noodles and decided to conduct a honey-walnut chicken experiment. I cut up chicken tenderloin, bathed them in kefir, then gave them a kefir-egg wash. I showered the pieces with cornstarch and flour, and fried them up with walnuts, honey, soy, garlic, and ginger.

It just sounded good. I wasn’t doing any kind of bean or veggie side — I just felt like having a belly-sinker type meal. I was also hoping my teens would eat it. They did not.

This morning I eased into food with what I’d call a nibble breakfast: about five cashews, a handful of plain kale, six moon drop grapes, and a thin slice of gouda. Side note: one of my teens will eat kale leaves straight, like chips, and actually enjoys it. I thought I’d see what it’s like to eat like a giraffe. It was an impromptu tasting plate — not much of a meal.

For lunch, I graduated to a whole avocado, a few more cashews, and nine grapes (the same ones I’d offered to my oldest teen, which made their way back onto the counter). I rounded it out with a sip of kefir and a Yakult.

That cashew binge took some kind of hold on me. Not just in calories, but in how it dulled my hunger cues for a full day. My body was still running on it, and when real hunger finally returned, it came back gradually — first in nibbles, then in a heavier anchor like avocado.

I’m hoping that my system is beginning to operate normally again. Hunger cues should normalize, and maybe that’s the bigger point: one off-balance night doesn’t require punishment. It just takes a little patience while the rhythm resets.

What I Ate:

  • Night before last (snack): ~½ bag cashews

  • Yesterday: skipped breakfast & lunch; dinner of rice noodles with honey-walnut chicken

  • This morning (breakfast): 5 cashews, handful of plain kale, 6 moon drop grapes, 1 slice gouda

  • Today (lunch): 1 avocado, 4–5 cashews, 9 moon drop grapes, sip of kefir, 1 Yakult

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