Day 15

Yesterday was about prepared meals and the power of control they give us. Today I want to look into aromatherapy. I don't like the idea of accepting hair-brained new-agey ideas out of a delusion of hope/hype, but I do think there is something to aromas helping to curb cravings.
One thing that drives me crazy is the amount of scented things out there that smell like food. Vanilla sugar body spray? Chocolate chip scented candles?  Why would I want to constantly smell like cookies? It is a giant tease for my appetite. What I discovered, though, is that things that aren't actually sweet smell the same as things that are. For example, if you sniff baker's chocolate with absolutely no sweet to it, it smells exactly the same as sugary chocolate. It's interesting that we don't actually smell the sugar, but we associate those aromas with cravings for sugar.
I also think that craving foods is craving an input of some kind - an input that could be substituted. Mostly we try to trick that impulse with another oral fix, like eating celery sticks, chewing gum, smoking, or biting fingernails. But my theory is that an input of aroma would quell the other side of that impulse. When I want an input of food, I am going to input an aroma, and see if that helps control the urge to eat. On my list currently are lavender, sandalwood, cedarwood, tea tree, and bergamot. These are all essential oils I happen to have around from a past project making scented bath salts. Speaking of bergamot (the scent added to make regular tea into Earl Grey) let's think through tea. Often I have tried to quell a craving for food with plain tea or coffee, and it always backfires. Adding anything to my stomach makes my appetite spike through the roof, and I always end up eating something to make my stomach feel normal again. I do think that sniffing tea would work well for the aroma therapy idea, unless you are used to taking a ton of sugar with your tea. I generally drink tea black, and so they don't give me sugar cravings to smell them, but sniffing coffee or walking into a Starbucks is another matter. It's just like walking into a bakery for me, complete with a train wreck of cravings. I also have quite a few perfumes that I rarely use (because everything in my bathroom is scented, at it all starts to clash at some point) and I am going to add them to the arsenal. I have always avoided scented things that smell like food, and so all my perfumes are safe.
In one last effort to make this experiment more effective, I am going to set up a scents bar in my kitchen. Kind of like a spice rack or a toppings bar, but calorie free. I am assuming that giving myself this replacement where I am most likely to go looking for a snack will make it easier to take advantage of the trade. Of course, this might create a reason for me to wander into the kitchen, but if so I will adjust accordingly. Happy sniffs!