Interesting development, which I’ve decided to write about based on Seth’s post about the flavor/smell relation. He discussed a study done with (what else?) rats about the relation of a stimulus associated with eating and feeding/weight gain, which was positive. We knew this before the rats, though, because Disney did it first by wafting the smell of fresh baked cookies down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom in order to get people to buy food. Anything we associate with eating is a trigger and so be it a smell or (if you are a rat) 30 minutes of light you will eat. Thus begins the cycle – eat, hunger, eat, hunger – and thus fulfills the prophecy of weight gain.
This was a particularly interesting post for me because recently I screwed up a morning’s dosage of flavorless calories by, 15 minutes later, getting in my car, opening my purse, and applying my favorite mint-flavored lip balm. Flavored being the key word here. When I realized what I had done, I paid attention, and yes, I did get hungrier more quickly than I normally do on SLD.
I began to suspect I doing this more often than I realized. How much do I use flavored/scented girly stuff? Well, let me tell you: a lot. In the shower; after a shower; as soon as I get to work; after I wash my hands (i.e. bathroom breaks); on the way home from work; when I get home from work; before bed. This includes body washes, lotions, hand crèmes, body oil and lip balm. And if you have not paid attention lately at the Body Shop or Bath Works or Victoria’s Secret: food glorious food! Everything from body scrubs to lipsticks have wondrous, delicious ingredients: vanilla, strawberry, caramel, mango, peach, melon, mint, sugar-spice, and even chocolate!
I wondered if I was just being paranoid about it – “right, spiced fig body spray will make me gain weight! Id’jut.” – but Seth’s post makes me realize my concerns are legitimate. I’m going to have to watch what I slather on in the 2-hour window from now on.
If you are a manly man, this will mean nothing to you. But if you are a lady, a gal, a lipstick lesbian, a metrosexual, or a flaming drag queen, then this is important: associating a food smell (“vanilla-peach spiced rum brulee” hand lotion, for instance) with flavorless calories is the same thing as eating!
As a quick wrap up of yesterday: I hardly ate a thing. “Dinner” was two peanut butter spoons and three crackers. Of course I also had a full body massage after work (ooooohhhhhh!!! aaaahhhhhh!!!!!) so I was catatonic for the rest of the evening anyway! I did realize that I need to be more structured in my flavorless calorie dosages (as I noted at my SLD page on the SLD Forum), though. So today that’s what I’m doing: stick with what I know, and do it at a time that I can keep consistent for a week. I took my old standby, SW, at around 10am and will try three oil capsules in the late afternoon (two fish oil and one multi vit. in an olive oil base). I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that I will report regularly on my results! Lunch was out with a co-worker, usually a “day pass” for me to eat a lot of junk, but no. The AS was in full swing so I ordered a “veggie cobb” salad (which was the only thing that really looked good: fresh broccoli! Cauliflower! Tomatoes and lettuce! Yum!) at Crispers, ate half of it, and got a to-go box for the rest.
Who is this person and what have you done with KimBoo???
