Diet Experiment Update

I wrote back in October about the Shangri-La Diet, (several more articles on the subject if you want to read them) and also about the idea of using various scents to depress appetite. I started drinking flavorless vegetable oil per the Shangri-La Diet. I also made some scent vials from old prescription bottles, each with a cotton ball with a different extract on it -- one vanilla, one orange, one chocolate, one peppermint -- and started sniffing them.

I have to say, the scent vials seemed to do exactly nothing to suppress my appetite. Indeed, they often seemed to sharpen hunger. I gave up on them pretty quickly, though if anyone has had success with this approach I'd be interested to hear about it.

On the other hand, drinking oil does suppress my appetite. I have not lost bunches of weight, but I'm holding steady while in recipe development, which is success in my book.

I stopped drinking oil in the middle of the night (when I got up to go to the bathroom) because I felt that having at least an 11-12 hour fast was a good idea. So now I just drink about 2 tablespoons worth as soon as I wake up. By the time I get through with walking the dogs, feeding the chickens, weighing, getting dressed, all that stuff, it's been an hour, and I can have my tea.

I find that on days when I drink the oil first thing in the day, I don't want breakfast till 11 am or even later. I'm also not generally hungry for lunch, and am happy with two meals a day, with maybe a handful of nuts or a piece of chocolate between. (Keep in mind that I eat heroic breakfasts.) I'll have supper somewhere between 6 and 8, and be done eating for the evening. I experience very little hunger.

I've skipped the oil now and then, and I'm definitely hungrier, and want lunch as well as breakfast and supper.

I also do some "twisting" of my food, following the SLD idea that food that tastes exactly the same every time you eat it is more likely to raise set point. I don't "crazy spice" -- sprinkle four or five different, random seasoning blends over my food -- but I do often sprinkle a little barbecue rub, or Creole seasoning, or seasoned salt, or whatever comes to hand, over a dish that would otherwise be pretty much the same as always, especially my morning eggs. I also vary what fat I use to cook in, on the same principle.