A typical Saturday morning for me usually consists of blissful sleeping until noon followed by the extreme excitement of finally waking up. The weekend is always my favorite part of the week because I don’t have school, I don’t have work, and I don’t have to go the gym. I basically get to be lazy and grotesque all weekend, and I love it. One of the best and most necessary parts of this, though, is pigging out on delicious foods while lying on the couch doing nothing.
However, this last Saturday morning was an entirely different scenario. I didn’t wake up in peace; I didn’t wake up ready to stuff my face; I didn’t wake up in any bit okay. My bones ached, my nose was congested, I was full of nausea, and sharp pains plagued my throat. I definitely was sick. But I was not going to allow this dreaded cold get the best of my food desires.
Breakfast
I started my morning with a bowl of oatmeal strawberries, one of my favorite breakfasts, because of how light and refreshing it is. However, with each bite, the rough exterior of the oats intensified the sharp pains in my throat. And the brown sugar just didn’t sit well in my throat, as the syrup stuck to the mucus build-up. I was definitely not going to eat oatmeal again while sick, as it was much too gross of a culinary experience.
Lunch
Lunch was coming, and I still had leftover groceries, so I decided to make my favorite salad: mixed greens and arugula topped with strawberries, mozzarella, tomatoes, apples, and balsamic vinaigrette. Usually when I have salad, I can even taste the color in each bite.
This time, though, the bites were entirely different. My taste buds seemed defective because I honestly couldn’t taste the flavors as intensely as I usually did. If anything, the flavors were null and the textures intensified. So, over time, it just tasted like mushy, bland leaves. I was beginning to see that food was just not the same when I was sick.
Dinner
One food that I never thought could be bad was Chick-Fil-A, so I decided to test my sickness one more time with my favorite meal at the world’s best chicken establishment. I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich with a medium fry and went to flavor town.
I gasped after just one taste — I couldn’t even recognize my favorite meal. It just tasted like breaded chicken with no flavor. This was by far the saddest moment of my weekend. My cold had won. It defeated one of my favorite meals ever — a meal that had never done me wrong before. How could my own body betray me like that? I accepted the fact that this cold had beaten me in every way imaginable.
Post-Acceptance
In sorrow, I went home to lie down and let this sickness run its course. I popped open a Diet Dr. Pepper and turned on the newest episode of Hell’s Kitchen. But even then, I was not safe from the taste disaster my body was going through. My soda left an incredibly sticky and disgusting mess in my throat that not only added the existing mucus build-up, but also amplified the existing pains. Another delicious matter that I just had to get rid of.
So, the next time you’re sick, don’t waste your time or money on your favorite foods because guess what? Your cold will win, none of these foods will taste any bit good, and there will no longer be any meaning in life. Well, maybe only until the cold ends. Just do yourself a favor and stock up on soup, Emergen-C, and sleep.
