Smelling - torture or pleasure?

[Michelle Lowry]

So I bought my son a Reese's Sticks candy bar last Thursday.  Eight days later the experience has stayed with me.  I helped him open the package and smelled the candy bar.  It smelled like pure heaven.  I sure hope there's candy bars in heaven!  It smelled so good, I smelled it a second time.

Now the smell was GOOD!  But many say smelling something then not eating it is a form of torture.  I got pleasure from smelling it, as I do with lots of other naughty foods which I don't eat (ok sometimes I eat them). 

So the question is, can we separate out the pleasure from smelling yummy unhealthy food and separate that pleasure from the displeasure of turning down eating it?  If so, I could carry around a candy bar all day and just smell it all day, continually getting pleasure from the smell and never actually partaking?

Wait, this is starting to sound like an allegory and I totally didn't mean it that way.

[Paul Petersen]

Interesting thought. Don't know the answer though.

Michelle, have you explored the wonderful word of dark chocolate? I love the stuff and treat it like a delicacy.  I'll pay $3 and buy one of the organic dark bars every weekend at the grocery store, and then eat one square every day with dinner (I give my wife two squares, because she's twice as awesome as me). The single bar will last us an entire week. It's a wonderful, healthy, guilt-free dessert...all the anti-oxidants and spirit-refreshing goodness of dark chocolate, but very few calories. It's good, pure ingredients too, and one square goes a long way (the taste sticks with you for a while). Give it try!

[Carolyn Herlin]

I keep a bag of Dove dark chocolates at home and another in my desk at work. I let myself have one after a meal sometimes and that keeps me from going for more indulgent deserts. I figure it's a way to indulge myself a little without going overboard, and then there's all the good stuff about dark chocolate as previously mentioned. I really prefer milk chocolate, so it's easier for me to stop after one dark chocolate than it would be if I had milk chocolate. Also, the dark chocolate is better for you.

As for the smell thing, I often run place IHOP, the donut shop, or Chick-Fil-A on my morning runs. I try to just enjoy the smell but don't go back for the food.

[Paul Petersen]

I really prefer milk chocolate, so it's easier for me to stop after one dark chocolate than it would be if I had milk chocolate.

That's a good point: it's almost impossible to stop eating milk chocolate, as if I'm never satisfied. Dark chocolate, on the other hand, is satisfying, and it doesn't take much.

[Michelle Lowry]

I really prefer milk chocolate, so it's easier for me to stop after one dark chocolate than it would be if I had milk chocolate.

That's a good point: it's almost impossible to stop eating milk chocolate, as if I'm never satisfied. Dark chocolate, on the other hand, is satisfying, and it doesn't take much.

Is it really satisfying, or just plain unappetizing?

I will eat dark chocolate if there's no milk chocolate available, but I prefer milk chocolate for sure.  Since I don't eat milk chocolate after dinner, I am not sure what good starting eating dark chocolate do for me.  I buy regular candy bars for movies, but I wouldn't really want a candy bar of dark chocolate instead.  Perhaps I could try moving to dove dark chocolate squares for the movies.  I do need to improve my diet to the next level, but am reluctant to do a whole sale change.  Little changes, like the tightening of a screw, are about all I can handle.

[Paul Petersen]

Really satisfying. I actually much prefer dark now, but maybe it's an acquired taste. It's a more complex taste than milk chocolate. But I also like strong, dark coffee, and bitter beers like pale ales too, so maybe it's just me.

[Sasha Pachev]

Speaking of smells, Dita smelled something during the Olympic marathon, and then sped up. We still do not know what it was. But that suggests that you could experiment with different smells in a fatigued state to see if anything can reboot your neural drive. I would go for horseradish.

And as I said earlier, the mind can be reprogrammed to like healthy food and dislike unhealthy. Smells, tastes, and all. It takes time, and a shift of focus. Unfortunately most people are facing a problem similar to learning a foreign language. If you did not learn a language as a child it is so much harder to learn it as an adult. But it can be done. If you learned to eat unhealthy as a child, you will be trapped by the cravings for a while. But just like the language, you can overcome that as well.

[Josse]

I was lucky to grow up eating heathly so it is not hard to do so now.  I don't like milk chocolate at all, way to sweet for me.  But dark chocolate on the other hand is heaven,  I love it.  I only eat it every once in a while but it is something I can eat and it doesn't make me sick like other candy does.  I agree with Sasha about the reporgramming thing, I have no desire to eat fast, greasy food or processed, white or energy zapping foods.
I love the sence of smell even know I am alergic to many flowery smells and perfumes.  The sence of smell is a big memory prevoker for me.  Certian smells can bring me right back to my childhood or reminds me of something from the past.
I don't like running past any kind of fast food places, it makes me want to hurl.

[Cameron Clarke]

I eat mostly healthy, and eliminated carbonated drinks and candy bars from my diet during cross country season. I had one a glass of minute maid light lemonade the other day, and it was too sweet for me.  I tried a candy bar too, thinking it would be a nice treat for my body after running my first marathon, but yuck. It was absolutely disgusting.  I think that I have reprogrammed my body and mind to avoid unhealthy, sugary foods.

[Marion McClellan]

AS I have been shifting my eating to a more healthy and balanced plan, over the past 3 years, smells have gone from triggering binges to just plain enjoyable and satisfying in and of themselves.  Change does take time, especially when you're trying to reprogram an entire life of bad eating habits.  Like you Michelle, I really LOVE milk chocolate, but as time has passed, I am finding that a little bit of dark chocolate goes a long way and I can get a great chocolate fix, with just a bit of dark.  I am still working on this one.  I think I will get a bag of the dove dark and have David hide it from me  .  That way I can have one piece after dinner, but not down the whole bag under a moment of duress during the day 
Speaking of smells- I don't drink coffee, but I LOVE to walk down the coffee isle of the grocery store.  It SMELLS so GOOOOOD!!!!  I need to get some more Pero, I am out!