Artery clogging bacon and eggs sizzled in the fry-pan and the tea-pot was full and steaming, ready for it’s rehydrating task. It was the morning after the night before! “Why am I always starving after a big night?” our friend asked. He looked remarkably perky considering how much alcohol and how little sleep he’d had.

It’s a good question. What makes us so hungry after a drinking binge? It’s hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. So why doesn’t all the sugar in alcohol keep your blood sugar up? It’s because the body doesn’t think of alcohol as food but as a toxin that needs to be got rid of. Alcohol causes havoc with our blood sugar levels. With the first drink or two the alcohol and sugar rush into the blood rocketing the blood sugar sky high. This sends an urgent message to the pancreas: “Blood sugar too high, deploy insulin“. The insulin marches into the blood and escorts the sugar out. As the drinking continues the liver goes into ‘poison elimination’ mode. Its number one mission: to remove all toxins from the body. All other duties are scaled down or put on hold – including sending sugar into the blood to balance the zealous efficiency of the insulin troops. By this time you may be flaked out in bed trying to sleep it off but your body is far from resting.

You wake up with blood shot eyes. That’s from the alcohol increased blood pressure bursting tiny blood vessels in the eye. You wonder how you got home. That’s from the alcohol starving the brain of oxygen and killing off a few ten thousand or so brain cells. Your muscles ache. That’s from the alcohol starving them of oxygen – or perhaps it’s from when you tripped down the stairs! You’re tired and have a splitting headache. That’s your dehydrated body begging for water. And you are HUNGRY.

Come and have breakfast. A nice cup of tea and some eggs on toast. Skip the bacon – you’ve already got enough extra fat floating around in your blood from last night. Bon appétit!

I’m finally relaxing after 24 hours of baking pita bread pizzas, chicken nibbles, iced cup-cakes, choc-chip cookies, citrus slice and of course, birthday cake. This was no ordinary cake, it was a Pinata cake and totally not healthy. Oh well, it was my son’s 8th birthday and I don’t think he and his 12 friends would have appreciated carrot sticks and egg sandwiches!

Back to the Pinata cake: it’s a basic round cake with a hollow cut in the centre. You ice the whole thing with decadent chocolate butter icing and pile up rainbow choc-chips and gold chocolate coins in the centre. Then you melt a pack of chocolate melts and swirl the chocolate around a metal basin until it sets. I left it in the freezer overnight then this morning placed it over the cake, loosening the chocolate shell from the basin with my hair blow-dryer. Then I melted even more chocolate to stick M&M’s all over the shell. If you want the full recipe, it’s in the Australian Women’s Weekly ‘kids’ birthday cakes’ recipe book.

What more could a bunch of hyped 8-year-old boys want than a cake filled with chocolate and lollies that you get to smash open!

Oh, I did have one token to healthy eating: a basket of mandarins. They looked great on the table and I think someone even ate one!

Hey guys! How’s the state of your machinery? You know – your car, your lawn mower, your computer – your body? Which one do you service the most? It’s illegal to drive a car in New Zealand without an annual warrant of fitness. But there’s no law requiring a body warrant of fitness – perhaps there should be. Whether it’s your car or your body, if it crashes, you’ll likely hurt more than just yourself.

We all know machines seize up when they’re not used for ages. Your body is no different. In fact your body is worse – nuts and bolts don’t shrink from lack of use but muscles do – and fast! Same for our brain! Our body is designed with the largest muscles in the legs, not the butt. Does that give you a clue as to what we are meant to be doing most of the day?

Yeah, yeah. I know this applies to girls as well. But you blokes are notorious for ignoring your body until something serious happens – like sudden death (which is one of the first symptoms of heart disease)! And us girls don’t want faulty machines in our lives (I was thinking this as I vaccuumed today). We want our men to be mean machines – or at least healthy and happy.

Yesterday I finished teaching a 10-week nutrition course. At the graduation one of the guys spoke about his life. As a kid he was poor but active and healthy. Then he got a job – and money. Where did it go? Burgers, pies, chips. Then he bought a car. No more walking to get takeaways – he could drive. One day he was playing basketball and found he could hardly jump to reach the goal. He was shocked. He went home, looked in the mirror and … where did THAT GUT come from? He finished by saying, “You choose the food you eat, you choose your lifestyle – good or bad.”

It reminds me of some other words of wisdom: “I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live…”

So take that body for a service, move those muscles, swallow the right fuel and remember – you’ve only got one body – no trade-ins possible! Us girls love you – and we want you around for a long time.