intermittent fasting, motherhood, Uncategorized, weight loss

Fudge Stripe Cookies Now Taste Like Plastic

November 14, 2018 was a surprising day for me. It was my friend/coworker’s birthday and I had decorated her office all things Chris Evans, AKA Captain America, and given her a package of her favorite fudge stripe cookies.

After gushing over shirtless pictures of Mr. Evans plastered all over her office, she tore open the package of fudge stripe cookies and generously offered me some. I eagerly took three, and started munching on one. It was only 2pm, which was a few hours before I normally broke my fast, but well worth it to celebrate a friend’s birthday and indulge in some of my favorite cookies!

As we gabbed about her plans for that weekend, I bit into my first cookie and immediately regretted it. For some reason, I did not experience the rich buttery, chocolatey flavor explosion that I was expecting. Instead, I tasted…plastic.

As much as I wanted to spit the darn thing out, I couldn’t do that in front of the person I’d bought these cookies for, so I kept chewing and swallowed it half-heartedly. Maybe I’d just gotten a bad cookie out of the pack?

When I got back to my office, I took a bite out of one of the other cookies in my hand, figuring it would be better after warming up a bit first. Unfortunately, I was wrong. This fudge stripe cookie had the same “fake” plastic flavor that the first one had. I was so sad, but tossed the rest of the cookies in the trash and quickly guzzled down some cold water to wash away the weird aftertaste.

As I sat at my desk and continued to work, I couldn’t help wondering if there was something wrong with the pack of cookies I’d bought for my friend, or if my taste buds had changed. At this point I had been intermittent fasting consistently for almost a year. Did that have something to do with it? What IF fasting was changing the way food tasted to me? What IF it had some how recalibrated my taste buds for the better?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that many other foods weren’t tasting as good to me either, such as candy bars, snack cakes, movie popcorn, etc., but never in a million years did I think these indulgent cookies would taste any different. I used to devour half a box in one sitting, letting each one melt and dissolve on my tongue oh so sweetly. Now, I literally had to force myself to chew and swallow it, rather than spitting it out.

So November 14, 2018 will always be an important marker in my What IF Diet journey. Yes, it was indeed my dear friend’s birthday, but it’s also the day that a certain brand of fudge stripe cookies were no longer desirable to my palette…and that was a pretty big deal to me.