You are what you eat

It sucks getting old.

Not too long ago, I used to be bullet proof (or so I thought). I could eat anything, drink anything, smoke cigars, dip snuff, without any consequences. Back in college, I could eat two pizzas, down a liter of coke, a pitcher of beer and still go out for some dancing at the Sparky's. I could easily drink two six packs of Lone Star (The State Beer of Texas) at night and still get up 0700 and stagger off to class. Now if I drink a lite beer past 8 o'clock at night, I have to get up at 0200 to go pee. My standard breakfast used to be 2-3 sausage biscuits drenched with picante sauce. Now I have to take Prilosec in advance if I even think I am going to eat something spicy. In Germany, the frou and I used to be regular wine connoisseurs. We did a number of trips to the wine region along the Rhine and Mosel river to local wineries. Did numerous wine tastings and brought home cases of wine. Now, if I have even one glass of Merlot or Cabernet, I am up all night with heartburn. Jalapenos used to be my favorite topping at Whataburger, now I cannot even look at one of those little green suckers without getting indigestion.

Last week we had a chili cook off at work as part of our fundraiser effort. I did ok as long as I prepped for it and did not eat too much chili (shied away from the Chili Sheen team - Duh!). They even had a jalapeno eating and root beer chugging contest (winners get an extra day off). The winner of the jalapeno contest downed 8 (eight/ocho/ocht) medium jalapenos (medium in size, but uber hot). Made me cringe to think of the poor guy the next day. Jalapenos is one of those "payback" foods - you wind up paying for it later.

You learn to adapt as you get older. I no longer eat pepperoni on pizza. Will shy away from jalapenos & habaneros and tend to skip the cilantro. Greasy foods are kryptonite to me. Even alcohol needs to be regulated. Even at night, I tend to watch what I eat or how late I eat so it does not affect me later. Thought I was doing ok last night. I only had a chicken pot pie (old childhood favorite) last night for dinner. Not sure if it was that or the vodka tonic that I had (been a long week), but I was up 1/2 the night with some serious butt-kicking heartburn. Doubled up on the Prilosec, popped some tums, drank milk - nothing I took seemed to help. The only relief I got was to sleep sitting up, but even that was minor. Finally dropped off around 0230 only to get up at 0400 to get ready for work. Even now, I am still urping. You'd think, after all these years, I would know better.