Image is mine
Sometime last month, I woke up to an excruciating pain. It was like my intestines were tied together and used for jump ropes. I couldn't stand properly; I couldn't even cry. I was just groaning in bed, and my daughter couldn't sleep either, as she kept saying, "Sorry, Mommy."
At one point she had to start rubbing my tummy as she tells me sorry. I did get better, but after a while it happened again.
You know what doesn't seem to add up with my excruciating experience? I eat well, and there is nothing to cause me stomach upset or food poisoning.
Again, during the times I shared this encounter with my friend, she would usually ask, "What did you eat?" Well, it wasn't until my second experience that the whole thing made sense.
Basically, I pride myself on being a foodie, one that can wake up in the middle of the night to swallow 6 wraps of fufu. If you know how dense fufu is, you'll realize it's a miracle I'm not moving about with a potbelly. Plus, I'm also not out of shape.
Thus, whenever my friend and I discuss my bad timing regarding feeding, she'll just stress that I have a fast body metabolism, so as I feed, the food burns off and my body system doesn't leave room for any fat to store. I felt untouchable and didn't even realize my feeding habit was unhealthy until the excruciating pain surfaced.
So when I traced back to both incidents, the only recurring fact was timing and the nature of the food. On both occasions I had eba, which is still swallow, but not as dense as fufu. Although it is packed with more fiber.
Notably, the soup wasn't really a factor, as it was different soup on both occasions. Hence, having realized where my problem was coming from, I was bent on avoiding late-night meals until two days back.
We were scheduled to have pounded yam and egusi soup, otherwise known as melon soup, for dinner. I had anticipated the meal all day, so much so that even when the electricity went off and I couldn't use the electric yam pounder, I brought out the generator as a substitute.
I was so overly excited about the meal that I had forgotten my excruciating experience. It wasn't until I had some Greek yogurt pre-dinner (since dinner took longer than expected to prepare) that my tummy started giving me some achy signs.
Still, I had ignored it and was hell-bent on devouring the meal, especially due to the rigors I had gone through with carrying the generator to position. I thought my efforts should not be in vain, but then the pain got worse, and as much as I wanted to ignore it, I was scared for my life and didn't want to go through such trauma again.
Does this mean that I have repented and would stop eating late nights? Well, I used to feel once it's past 8:00pm, I won't eat again no matter what. Then I thought maybe light meals could suffice for late nights, especially one with no dinner due to a busy schedule, but then after my experience with the yogurt, I am scared but still looking for alternative late-night meals/snacks to avoid waking up hungry because yesterday I almost fainted on my way to work from having nothing to eat the previous night.