Since I was released from quarantine, I've had 3 weeks off. It has included lots of visiting family and friends and of course lots of climbing. I'll do the rest of this post in pictures because I don't have anything deep to say about that. Once back in North Carolina, my friend from home, Jess, visited for a weekend. We spent a day at basecamp, some time in Boone, and a day in Asheville... the full tour of the places that I spend my time. Pictured is Jess sending on real rock for her first time. This was at Holloway Mountain near Boone. Well, not much to report. I hope you have enjoyed this content, I sure did! Coming up next I work one short course with NCOBS then I have 3 more weeks off until my semester long course. Staying healthy and finding time to climb are my priorities these days. It's a simple existence and it's working great for me.
Reporting to you live from the Kurt Hahn Center porch at Table Rock Basecamp, deep in the Pisgah National Forest, NC. Today is day 5. An extremely interesting and deep inquiry has set itself upon me! Oh the great fortune of opportunity. Last week, I tested positive for Covid. Unsure what variant. While I am being isolated in quarantine from basecamp with one other field instructor, three meals per day are brought to us by angels in the flesh. Usually Kevin Rockey, shout out. In the early days, we each got huge bags of snack. I, of course, ate my entire bag of snack the evening it arrived. As I lay in bed munching on my favorite, animal crackers and cheez-its, I realized in plain clear obvious reality (to me) that I couldn’t taste anything. I used to point reasoning at late night snacking towards the taste of things. On top of that, I’m a picky eater, so I put taste at a very high priority... like as a basis for not liking a ton of normal foods. But suddenly I realized that this was all a guise, a mask, of a whole list of reasons why I enjoy sitting down with a bag of snack. It goes far deeper than taste. The oral fixation, the textures and temperatures of the food, the ritual, the habit. My realization with the loss of taste is that taste was learned through classical conditioning to be a positive feedback for certain foods especially for me sugar foods. If that was a brain pattern that could be learned it is certainly one that can be unlearned. So the hypothesis stands: if I can use this no taste-no smell period to build healthy thought pattern habits surrounding junk food, then it may transfer to my future full taste-full smell life. |
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