Three weeks in and chicken smells like wet cardboard now

The chicken thing hit me in the dorm dining hall. They do a “grilled chicken thigh” that now tastes like a sponge that once heard about seasoning. My cheap-protein pivot: canned chickpeas + curry powder + plain Greek yogurt over microwave rice. Weirdly safe, and I can eat it while pretending I’m a person with a functioning appetite. Is it just hot chicken for you, or does cold deli turkey also go cardboard? I’m trying to decide if buying a rotisserie chicken is worth it or if I should just surrender to cottage cheese and salsa.

I’ve been keeping a little note on my phone of “safe” vs “nope” foods, and temperature seems to matter moe than I expected. Warm poultry = instant garage run, but cold diced chicken breast tossed with cucumber, lemon, and a little salt has been okay on days when nothing else sounds good. Weirdly, ground turkey is still a hard no.

For what it's worth, Ugh, the smell-before-taste thing is so real. For me it wasn’t chicken exactly—it was ground turkey browning. I’d feel queasy just hearing the package open. What helped was not forcing it: I’d prep cold stuff (cucumber, cheese, apples) first, then my partner cooked meat while I was in another room. By the time it cooled, I could sometimes do a few bites. Does the aversion hit you mostly during cooking, or does it follow you to leftovers the next day?

I run a cafe, so I’m around the exact smells that used to make me hungry. Now the bacon pan and the onion grill are instant nope, but weirdly a plain croissant or a few grapes still go down fine. Portion control is still a fight, so I pre-box a tiny lunch before service and hide it in the office. Has anyone else noticed their safe list rotates every couple weeks, or is that just me?

For me the trigger is the cooking method more than the chicken itself. Poached and shredded into ginger broth? Fine. The second it gets browned or roasted, that wet-cardboard smell fills the house and I can’t eat it for days. I’ve started noting “method” next to foods in my phone, not just safe/nope. Does it ruin it for you if someone else cooks it and you eat later, or is the smell enough to put you off even after it’s gone? I also keep a candle by the stove now—not a cure, just helps me not gag while making the kids dinner.

Onions are my version of your chicken. I can handle them raw if they’re diced tiny, but the second someone sautés one, the whole house smells like sweet garbage to me and I’m out. Weirdly, acid helps: lemon on fish, vinegar-heavy slaw, pickled stuff—those still read as food. Anything sweet-savory together (teriyaki, BBQ) is completely dead to me now. I’ve also noticed my tolerance changes by time of day; what works at 8 a.m. is a hard no by dinner. I’m only tracking patterns out of curiosity, not rules. Did your chicken aversion fade, or did it just migrate to eggs/other meats? I’m at week four and eggs just joined the nope list.

hi, I’m brand new (day 4) and already intimidated by my own kitchen. Not chicken for me yet, but the smell of anything browning sends me straight to the porch. The one thing that’s worked: cold roasted sweet potato cubes with a little salt, eaten with a fok straight from the fridge. Weirdly satisfying and zero smell. Is that the “cold ap...” you meant—apples? If so, do you peel them? I’m trying to build a tiny list of things that don’t feel like a chore, and I’m only at three items.

Small-town pharmacy counter gossip here: our techs swear by keeping a little tin of lemon hard candies in their purse, and I’ve started doing the same before I walk into the grocery store. The frozen meat case is what gets me now—not even cooking, just that cold-metal smell. So I do a sniff test in the aisle: if my stomach flips, I don’t bring it home. Saved me from a whole pork loin last week. Have you noticed it’s worse when you’re already hungry, or after you’ve eaten? Trying to figure out if I should shop before or after lunch.