Smelling Food During a Fasting Period

(Cathy Schroder) #1

I’m currently about halfway through an eighty hour fast. It will be the longest I have fasted so far. I’m fine with not eating and I’m fine with seeing food, but I’m finding it difficult to smell food. My husband decided to cook bacon before I left for work (he do won’t be doing that tomorrow!!) and now my work colleagues are eating lunch next to my workspace and I swear I have a bionic nose - I can almost sniff the individual ingredients.

Does anyone else experience this and if so does it get better?

#2

Ha! Two days ago I went to a pizzeria with a bunch of friends while I was going into day 3 of a 7-day fast. I discussed what my survival strategy was in this post:

7-day fast

(Cathy Schroder) #3

I’m fine with not eating, and I haven’t told anyone at work that I am fasting. It’s only that the smell of certain foods (bacon and melting cheese seem to be the favourites) seems to trigger stronger hunger.

#4

That is one of the things that slays me when I fast, I won’t cook dinner for my husband, but he reheats meals from the freezer that smell so good Im ready to grab the meal from him and wolf it down. So I planned long walks at dinner time, timing my return to a time beyond what should have been past dinner. But every day for a week he didnT heat up his dinner until I was back…and I walked for over an hour and up til darkness. I haven’t done extended fasting since. When I asked him why he hadn’t eaten, he said he wanted to get things done while it was still light. Really??

#5

Drink, drink, drink…when you are in the presence of food smells. Water, mineral water, coffee, tea.

And a lot! At the pizzeria, I demolished a 1-litre bottle of mineral water. I do the same in other venues…usually coffee or tea. I love the taste of earl grey tea…so it helps immensely.

(Cathy Schroder) #6

To be fair my husband was really good when I explained that he was making it a little harder than it needed to be. He has promised to eat breakfast a little later if he wants bacon!

#7

That’s wonderful!!!. I don’t get that level of support.:slight_smile:

(Cathy Schroder) #8

That certainly makes things harder than they should be. He’s pretty good to be honest, just doesn’t always think of these things unless I point it out. Plus I threatened to do the same next time he has a fasting blood test!

(Richard Morris) #9

Oh yes that’s definitely “a thing”. We get a smelling super power when we fast. I sometimes walk through food courts identifying the spices used to make the foods on show.

(Cathy Schroder) #10

I have solved my hunger by putting a drop of Jasmine Essential Oil just under my nose! No more melted cheese for me.

(tim_debbie) #11

oh yes…I’ve had to stop putting the bone broth on in the slow cooker overnight , if I’m fasting.

#12

Very interesting!

(Jessica K) #13

They say when you lose a sense, it heightens others (like people who are blind tend to have better hearing) soooo I can see why this would be true!

#14

Interesting perspective. Never thought of it that way.