Thankful

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the land of maple syrup! Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers! :) It has been quite awhile since my last post (insert school-related excuse here). As I'm typing this post up, it's raining and the sky is gloomy. It kind of brings my mood down but the sound of the rain is super calming. Since it's raining, that means it's the perfect time to pull out my boots! Wearing loose tops also means I can stuff myself with lots of food :D

For the turkey lovers out there, have you ever heard that turkey makes you sleepy because of a compound called tryptophan? Interesting fact, it isn't because of the turkey but it's because of the combination of the sides and stuffing you eat with it! Thank you organic chemistry lecture for clearing that up haha!

Here's a breakdown: tryptophan is an amino acid commonly found in turkey but surprise surprise, it is also found in similar concentrations to turkey in chicken, beef, and oats! You can't eat turkey without the endless side dishes. Those side dishes consist of a lot of carbohydrates which are broken down into glucose and then insulin is released. Insulin increases the uptake of most amino acids into the muscle EXCEPT tryptophan. Therefore, tryptophan crosses the blood-brain barrier instead. Tryptophan is then eventually converted into melatonin by several enzymatic reactions. Melatonin is what causes you to be drowsy. End result? You get sleepy "from turkey"!

Thanksgiving sometimes feels like just another holiday (no school!) but it's a great time to reflect. The things I have to be thankful this year are infinite. One thing that my pastor said during Sunday service today really stuck out to me: don't look at what you have lost but at what you have left. It's so easy to be dissatisfied with little things in life but if you look at your life from a different perspective, things can change instantly.