Since I stopped smoking (it's about "tastes great")

[DainBramaged]

It's been 5 months. Not long in a lifetime. But things changed. Coffee doesn't taste as good anymore. I miss that terribly. I loved my coffee. I would buy some of the richest darkest grinds available and mix them in a big can which I kept in the freezer and haul it out in the morning to make coffee in my Melita. Big mug, two huge scoops in my single cup filter. Ahhhhh, best part of the day. No more. I may have coffee once a week. I drink tea now. Hated that all my life. Now I tolerate tea. Go figure.

A few days into my escape from addiction, I tried my beloved Oreo cookies. I didn't recognize them at all. Too sweet, all sugar, no real flavor. I was devastated. Same with Chips Ahoy. Childhood favorites gone in 60 seconds. Nothing replaced them yet.

Tonight I opened my first can of beer in 9 months. I'm not a drinker at all, but the occasional can of Miller or Heineken made me smile. Tastes like mold. Frosty Miller genuine draft in a can.

Tastes like mold.

I am crushed. I know. I feel so much better. I know it was right. But quitting smoking also meant quitting enjoying small pleasures in my life.

Did it happen to anyone else?

[PassingFair]

1. I found out that the whole world....

smelled like cat pee.

Very distressing!

[RumpusCat]

12. Frank Zappa restarted smoking because he could smell everything again

And he thought it was disgusting.

[Ellen Forradalom]

14. He had a point there

Perfumes and colognes are top offenders, as are SBD farts and dirty dogs.

[anarch]

16. I'll put it this way...I have always failed to quit smoking

because I take the bus to work. Gawd, what a stench.

[KitchenWitch]

2. I found that things tasted better after I quit

go figure.

[Nicole]

6. Same here

Everything tastes better to me. In fact it tastes so much better I have to watch how much I eat now.

[mwooldri]

3. Since I stopped drinking "regular soda" things changed too.

I have never smoked so I can't empaphyse much (but you have done the right thing - keep it up don't ever go back or i'll have to come and kick you butt) but I switched some time ago from regular soda to diet.

The other day I had a sip of "regular coke". And I thought that Dr. Pepper tasted like carbonated cough syrup. Regular Classic Coke ended up tasting to me like some awfully sticky sweet Dr. Pepper. Go figure.

However most other tastes are still there. I can have regular non-cola sodas such as Sprite, Sierra Mist, even Mountain Dew (and strangely I can't stand Diet Mountain Dew - even now).

Mark.

[LynzM]

5. I agree with you...

I've been diabetic since I was 9, and grew up only having diet soda, when I had any. Coke is disgusting. But most fruit-flavored sodas seem ok. Regular Mt. Dew I can tolerate if necessary, but I don't much like it.

Weird things, tastes are!

[amitten]

4. I'm not a smoker, and uh, beer has always tasted like mold.

Just stick with the vodka. Yeast is not meant to be a drink!

[NMMNG]

10. I second that

I've never taken a single drag and to me beer tastes like mold. I've tried a dozen varieties and never found a platable one.

[amitten]

11. Only men seem to truly desire the moldy yeast flavor.

Most women I know truly just tolerate beer, but prefer just about any other drink.

[Ellen Forradalom]

13. Really? I loves me a good beer

Operative word: good. However, I quit drinking when I started to take a medication that's a bit hard on the liver, so it's all moot now.

[radwriter0555]

7. So now you have to find REAL food to appreciate and enjoy.. real flavors,

not the manufactured, plastic, artificial trash....

The sweet smell of garlic with olive oil... lemons, warmed in the sun. Basil fresh on the stem, rosemary squeezed gently in your hand.

REAL chocolate chip cookies, fresh from the oven, fresh, homemade chocolate cake, not a mix.

Fresh tomatoes sliced, laid clean with slices of fresh mozzerella, drizzled with olive oil, tapped with salt, pepper, balsamic vinaigrette, and some basil leaves.

I LOVE food. Food is art, a visual and emotional and tactile and tasteful feast. There is nothing that makes me MORE giddy that entering a real cheese and wine shop. I swoon with sheer delight.

Dairy is an amazing thing.

[tjwmason]

9. You're making my mouth water.....

I definitely have to agree with the paean to real food.

[ghostsofgiants]

8. Coffee is nasty. Oreos and Chips Ahoy are awesome.

[RumpusCat]

15. I've been not smoking about as long as you have

I've found that I can't tolerate fast food as much anymore. I think it's just too much salt! I've never noticed a change with coffee or anything else tho', but I'm an unrepentant coffee addict. Try drinking a darker beer than Heineken or Miller Lite, you might like a more malty flavor now.

[DainBramaged]

17. Salt, something I stopped adding to food 25 years ago

And I hated fast food before I stopped smoking. Some odors just remain now sometimes for days, like my neighbor's fireplace (I'll walk outside when he's using it and I can't get the smell out of my nostrils for days) diesel fuel, I can't go to the stores that sell perfume anymore at the mall.

I hate sounding like such a whinny baby but everything I ever read or was told was how much better I'll feel. I feel better, but now when I smell someone's BO and it's the middle of winter, I think maybe Vick's around my nostrils will solve that problem.