weird food

[Hop]

The bitter, metallic taste in my mouth is still a challenge
when it comes to what I can eat or taste. Most foods taste as if I'm swishing around a bitter chemical mouthwash -- or chewing on chrome bumpers.

It's so strange when familiar foods taste so dramatically different,
and salt is the strongest spice I can handle.
That's not including any of the oddball aversions I have developed as I have also become increasingly hypersensitive to smells. For example I cannot bear any kind or color of bell pepper, and I just can't figure what that's all about. Oil smells, or cooked lipids of any kind (butter my good friend, I miss you so!), send me screaming (or shuffling as fast as I can) toward the nearest doorway for fresh air.

Other than bland 'nursery foods' like rice pudding, wheat toast and brown rice, I seem to have developed weird, transient single-food cravings.

Last week I was in a phase where all I want to eat was ice cream. But specifically and only Hagen Das Rocky Road (which has swirls, rather than chunks of marshmallow), would normally sound hideous to me as I have never cared for chocolate. Sigh.

So far I've had a mint tea phase; the infamous oyster cracker phase (Olde Cape Cod brand only); the Vietnamese Pho broth-only phase; the "quit bugging me about food phase"; the Trader Joes's frozen pancake phase (don't ask...);
the lemon and honey phase; followed by a second round of the aforementioned rocky road phase. This week, I just want to lick the salt off of potato chips.

Not surprisingly after the week or so phase is finished,
I never want to even look at that particular food item again. While deep in the throes of the oyster cracker phase, there was a 2 for $5.00 sale at the local market. Because of too many thoughtful friends (!!), I now have more boxes of oyster crackers than any sane person would care to think about.

Ironically, as someone whose professional life has revolved primarily around the SF Bay Area food trends, celeb chefs and slow food industry for much of the past 20 years, these weird food hankerings have been an alarming development.

Anyone care to share his or her own interesting or weird food foibles?
I'd dearly love to hear that I'm not alone in this...

-Hop
(re-posted, but still applicable, from the previous board)

[rjs]

Hop,

I just went through a week of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream....

Funny thing is I still lost weight 

rjs

[banarep]

peanut butter sandwiches is all I wanted to eat.

[sweet sue]

I'm 18 months post tx and about 3 months post tx got into craving salt. I still can't seem to get enough and buy bags of chips constantly. Frito's and onion dip have always been a favorite of mine, but it would last me over a week. Now I'm buying several different chips and have to have them everyday.

Prior to tx, the only thing I salted was any type of fried potatoes.

The other thing I thing I believe happens to some of us is when we finally finish tx we have established habits. I'm not doing as much house or yard work and I believe it is because I was so used to being a slug. The other thing is, I got so used to not eating that it took me 8 months to gain a pound. Unfortunately now I have to watch what I eat so I don't put on more weight.

sweet sue

[banarep]

Sue,

I agree.  Or that is the reason I have given my wife as to why I need a yard guy.  It is the treatment.....

[sweet sue]

I have always loved to garden and I really miss it. In fact I just walked out back and realize I can't remember the last time I watered. The roses are looking pretty bad. The grass I'm trying to kill off so I don't have to mow as much. The front yard has no lawn, cactus and succulents with rocks except for the top half which is hedges and bushes a few small trees and pebbles. I had all these big plans. Maybe next weekend.

ss

[Hepper Joe]

Yes, they said I was going to lose weight on tx, I ate everything in site.  I actually gained weight.

Joe

[Postcard]

So did I Joe!  The one thing I was looking forward to about treatment was weight loss.  No such luck.  Hop, I got into this weird iced oatmeal cookie phase.  I was a raving maniac about them.  Normally, I wouldn't touch them!  Then it was grapes, then frozen waffles, then broccoli omelettes, then ice cream, then Payday candy bars!  Sheesh!!!!

postcard  8)

[DjTurtle]

Viper had cravings in the middle of the night. One night it would be oranges, the next cottage cheese. Now oranges spoil in the fridge.
I had problems with such a sensitivity to smell while on tx. (Not just food) Normally, I can't smell a thing, sinus problems all the time. But on treatment, the worst was walking through a crowd of people,  and I could suddenly smell B.O. so bad!!
DjTurtle

[kab]

They told me to eat any time I felt nauseous.... so I ate cinnamon rolls and cupcakes!  Gained a ton of weight! 

kab

[lynn]

All I wanted on treatment was fruit..especially strawberries!

[Hop]

Oh DJ, don't even get me started on the smells.

My backyard neighbors BBQ each and every day -- sometimes twice a day.
(I swear that these folks must BBQ their cornflakes in the morning!!)
Worse than the smells from the variety of heavy cooked meats and sauces, the truly horrible part is that they must douse on at least a cup of stanky lighter fluid to crank up their coals.

A couple of years back some other neighbors and I got together and bought them a 'chimney' to help them fire things up with newspaper, but they say they can't seem to get the hang of it and the lighter fluid is easier. Sigh.

Since only a thin fence separates my back door from their yard,
I am compelled to close all of my doors and windows when the BBQ smell
comes wafting into my house around 7:00 pm each night.

In my neck of the woods, air conditioning is very rare, as the SF Bay provides most of what we need. But in the recent hot weather, because of the smell, I was compelled to close the doors and windows, all while grumbling away about the heat and the smokey smell, which seems to permeate everything.

-Hop