Do you eat stuff you hate, just because you feel like you should?
 

I think I have made a breakthrough. Previous diet attempts had me copying meal plans from books and trying to eat all this healthy stuff that I hate.. which left me so unsatisfied that I would eat something ELSE that I hated, and then something else, and finally something I enjoyed to the tune of quadruple the calories I should have eaten. The sad truth? I hate raw vegetables. I hate plain fruit. If that's what I have to eat, I'll eat something else until I feel satisfied. If I force myself to eat something I don't enjoy, I'm not going to lose weight.

This time around, I decided I'm not forcing a single carrot stick. I could eat a tractor-trailer of carrot sticks and not feel satisfied. Instead, I'm eating stuff I love. Greek yogurt, oatmeal, nuts, spinach salads with turkey and parm and I'm even eating full fat dressing, just smaller amounts. I figure 140 calories of full fat dressing if it's satisfying is far beter than 200 calories of fat free dressing that tastes nasty.

The result? It's working. I'm down 9 pounds, and I'm always satisfied. I eat a 130 calorie bag of mini oreos for a snack and I am happy, rather than eating the grapes or whatever and feeling miserable until I stuff my face with doughnuts.

So... I guess I want to hear if anyone else has just decided to eat what makes them happy... or if I'm being childish by not eating my veggies.

:)

I think this is an excellent plan. I don't really have the same problem, because the stuff I like is healthy, as I love pretty much most veggies. But I have tried to eat things that were "healthier" and encountered the same problem. So I think you've stumbled on the big secret, which isn't really a secret at all. Eat the way that is going to help you lose weight, and keep it off. Remember that it will become a problem to keep it off if you are not eating a diet that is sustainable. But don't forget about health. Those foods you hate should be considered because they are full of cancer fighting compounds, and diets rich in vegetables and fruit are good for heart disease and diabetes prevention, too.

I seem to be the same way. This time around I decided I would be open to trying new things, but not forcing myself to eat things I don't like just because it's healthy. I have never like salad, but I have been tweaking different things and found combinations I like. I recently found that I love cabbage. I certainly am not a raw vegetable fan.. Only to a certain extent. I do however love them cooked. I've been roasting them and they taste wonderful (even though I wouldn't eat them raw). I figure if I am in this for the rest of my life then I need to find foods (and figure out how to prepare them) the way I like.

Sounds good. I don't force myself either- it's not sustainable.

I love vegetables and plain fruit but I would never force myself to eat something I hate. I have a difficult time trying new foods. If it looks gross or weird I could never eat it.

I eat mostly things I love or like, but I'm willing to eat things I don't like very much to get the nutrition those things provide. I find ways to make them tasty.

I don't care for cooked carrots (unless they're cooked with a roast), and I only like them raw with dip. So I make dip.

I love novelty, so I'd rather have a terrible taste experience than a boring one, so I'm willing to try and retry foods I've hated in the past, to see if I've changed my tastebuds or if I've found a way I can make them taste good.

I see it as a personal challenge. For example, I've always hated peas (and thought I hated all peas) because I'd only ever had canned peas. I discovered that I love them fresh or frozen in a salad (and prefer them cold, though lightly cooked is ok). I don't ever eat canned peas, because the texture is gross (I can handle disgusting, putrid flavors but if the texture is mushy, I gag).

Even though I've always hated brussels sprouts, I've tried them periodically (and still hated them) until I saw a food network or similar cooking show that roasted the brussels sprouts and I figured it couldn't hurt to try. OMG, they were the most amazing veggie I'd ever tasted, so I was able to convert a life-long enemy into a friend, only by continuing to periodically give the little creep a second, third, and fifteenth chance.

I mostly eat what I love, but I occasionally throw in things I've disliked or even hated in the past, and new things I've never tried, in order to see if my tastebuds have changed, or if I can find a new way to turn the enemy into a friend.

Because I'm eating 90% of what I like and love, I'm not traumatized by the 10% I may not care for. I don't buy anything to "choke it down." I buy it with the intent of "trying something new" which is why even when it's an old enemy, I usually prepare it in a different way so it's like trying something new, not choking down something I hate.

If I don't like something, unless it's gag-provoking I do force myself to take two or three bites before deciding to pitch it, because there are some foods that I hated at first bite that "grew on me" after a bite or two. It wasn't so much that I hated the first bite, as the first bite was so unlike anything I'd ever tasted before that I assumed I hated it when I really just found it shockingly strange.

My first bites of laab and papaya salad (the first a thai ground beef salad and the second a sort of garlicky, fishy coleslaw -as the papaya isn't sweet papaya it's green papaya- more like a cross between cabbage and cucumber).

The papaya salad especially threw me because the flavors were so strong, it was like being smacked upside the head. I kept telling my husband, "I'm not sure I like this," but when I'd cleaned half the plate, he said, "I think you must like it, you keep eating it."

Not only did it "grow on me," it because one of my absolute favorite foods, but there's still a component that it sort of "wrong" about it. I don't know how to explain it. It's like blue cheese and other foods with a strong or bitter note, even grapefruit and orange. The bitter note itself is unpleasant, but when it's combined with the rest of the flavor, it becomes "bitter in a good way."

Maybe it's almost a "food masochism" because I still find the bitter note of blue cheese unpleasant, if it's not paired with something a bit sweeter. I don't eat blue cheese "straight" (usually) but I love it with fruit or with a french-style dressing (though now I use low-cal sweetener not sugar).

If you don't like ANY veggies, I think there's something to be said for choking them down, or grinding them into smoothies, or somehow finding ways to make them enjoyable. However, I think a better strategy is to find ones you like (or can tolerate) or find ways to disguise the flavors you don't like and bring out the flavors you do like.

With veggies for me, the secret is roasting with a little bit of fat and seasoning. I haven't found a veggie I haven't liked roasted. The brussels sprout experiment was mostly done to "break the system." I wanted to see if roasting could make even brussels sprouts taste good - and what do you know, it did.

I'd still rather have roasted eggplant than roasted brussels sprouts, but I want variety, so I'm going to occasionally eat the roasted brussels sprouts.


While I'm willing to eat 10% less-than-tasty foods, I'm not willing to switch the percentiles to eat 90% foods I dislike and only 10% foods I love, but as long as the "not-so-great" foods remain in the less than 10% category, I don't mind giving foods endless second chances to surprise me in a good way.

The texture thing though is something I'm not willing to compromise on. I love apples, but I will never be able to swallow so much as a teaspoon of applesauce. Simply the thought of applesauce texture makes me queasy.

I've used apple sauce as an ingredient, but I just can't stomach it by itself.

I eat some things I don't like, because I'm an adult and recognize that I must fuel my body well, even if it isn't as delicious as xyz junk food. But the bulk of my diet consists of foods I like or really enjoy, with an eye for adventurous applications of fare I haven't previously liked.

And I reassess foods I hate often, because several of the foods I now love were in my hate category for years, due to a preparation of them I didn't like, different tastes then, etc.

So yeah, I choke down kale on occasion, even though I don't like it, because it is good for my body and excellent fuel. There's a time and place for that. But most of what I eat I genuinely enjoy, and that makes it easier to do this year after year.

Well I'm glad to see I'm not alone... I shouldn't have said I don't like any veggies... I do like some. I love green beans and fresh peas, and I eat spinach every single day because I enjoy it... I also really like cooked broccoli. I just have to draw the line at celery and carrots and peppers and cauliflower... gross. I have texture issues too. Anything with a bit of a slime factor is no good, so I won't eat bananas or mango. I think the idea of trying them in a new preparation is a good idea though. I like vegetables in soup, so maybe I can add some new ones into a soup.

Thanks for the ideas.

I like just about everything that most people consider typical food except for canned tomato soup. I love all veggies and fruit. Junk food tastes great. Candy is wonderful. So, in my case, it's a good and bad thing, and part of the reason I was heavy to begin with.

I admit to liking some things more than others, but try to balance it out. I agree that we all need to try things in different ways and we need to try things we didn't like in the past every once in a while. And I agree with Kaplods about canned peas. Yuck. But fresh and frozen are fantastic.

Lin

I like fresh veggies so I don't have this problem, but you might try ROASTING carrots and cauliflower. Much the way kaplods did with brussel sprouts (which I, mind, like any which way they are prepared) - roasted vegetables have an entirely different flavor. I adore roasted cauliflower. Spritz with some Pam and roast in a hot oven, maybe with some herbs and certainly with salt and pepper. Delicious. Ditto carrots. Asparagus (I love the grassy flavor of it steamed) turns into something divine this way.

I wouldn't roast celery, though. :)

But otherwise: no. I don't eat foods I hate because they are healthy. I'm lucky that I like healthy foods, so I think I am eating better now and enjoying food more on a diet than when I am not dieting, because then I TEND to rely more on convenience foods and take-out in a way that does not reward body or mind or mouth.

If it is texture that turns you off veggies, this might not help, but have you considered sprinkling raw veggies with fresh-ground pepper or an herbed salt grinder? That might help!

One thing I've found is that fat improves the flavor of most veggies. Sure fat adds a lot of calories, but if you prepare a veggie with lots of fat until it tastes good to you, then each time you make it, cut the fat... pretty soon you're liking the veggie plain.

Fat is like "training wheels" for veggies. Covering in cheese, sauteeing in butter or with a bit of bacon, serving with a dip, using a full fat salad dressing...

I use an exchange plan and I use my fats where they'll be of the most help. I like the taste of plain grains, potatoes, breads, pasta, and proteins - so I don't "waste" my fats there. I'm not so keen on the taste of some veggies plain. And while I've been able to cut back the fat to smidge in most veggies, some veggies just need a bit more "help" in that regard.

There are a lot of veggies that I used to only like drowned in fat that I now love plain - but I used the fat as training wheels, gradually cutting back the fat until I liked the taste of the veggie plain. Some veggies I may never love without some fat added, so I budget accordingly. If I want to spend my fat budget on dessert, I choose meal veggies that I enjoy fat-free. If I want to eat veggies I don't like without fat, I budget in my fat alottment for that veggie.

I've been able to "convert" my hubby and my nephews to veggies simply by making or serving them in an unhealthy way and then gradually reducing the unhealthy component.

Taste buds are surprisingly easy to "train," but it sometimes takes a bit of deviosness to do it.

me either if it doesn't taste good it gets spit out in the napkin. If it's not calorie worthy it doesn't go down :)


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I don't eat tings I don't like. I DO find ways to like the things that are good for me!

I used to pretty much hate vegetables except for spinach, lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, carrots, and celery. I got sick to death of eating salads. Pluse we started getting a co-op produce basket. I wanted to eat as much food as possible for the best (lowest) price possible, with the most nutrition possible. Not an easy task if all ya like is beef and loaded baked potatoes and desserts!

It has taken a while, and sometimes I have to try the same icky food several different ways, but so far I've managed to acquire a taste for a lot of veggies, whole grains instead of Minute Rice, gr9und vonelss/skinless chicken breast burgers, fat free cheese, low-cal versions of dessert or fruit or no dessert at all. I won't eat anything unless I can prepare it in a way I will enjoy it.

I made a low cal eggplant parm last night and it's palatable I'm still not a big fan of eggplant, and I had tried it cubed in marinara before and just couldn't eat it. I'm gonna look for some more recipes so I can try those for eggpplant too. I still despise beets and turnips...they taste like DIRT!!!

It has helped me a lot to use the "aromatic" spices; think Moroccan, Thai and Indian flavors. They smell so good and can improve nearly anything.

I'm glad to be trying new foods so I don't get bored and it's pretty exciting when I find something I now really like and it's healthy too.

Barb

Same here -- I have learned the same thing. I was just telling someone the other day, that just sets me up to binge. I don't eat anything I don't like; it doesn't even come into the house. Many people love cottage cheese; but I hate it, so I don't buy it or eat it (interesting that I like it in sauces, just not plain).

There are so many foods that I do like/love, so it isn't necessary to eat things I hate; and I do like most veggies and fruit, but I eat and prepare them in a way that I love too. There are a few veggies that I dislike: kale, eggplant, and beets (mostly texture issues), so I don't eat them; but there are many more that I do like, so it's not a problem to get in my nutrients.

There are foods that others ban, but I don't. I love pizza, so it's on my plan. I just eat less or make my own lower calorie versions. We eat all our favorite family dishes; I just lowered the fat & calories, and portion sizes. One helpful strategy is "NO SECONDS" ... that's EZ-PZ for me. This is why I have been able to stick to my plan for so long now; and I am still losing. I can see myself eating this way for the rest of my life.

I really think this is why so many people here can't stick to their plans; and they end up binging and regaining all or part of the weight they lose. They try to force themselves to stick to a plan they hate, foods they hate, and exercise they hate, when they should make the plan fit them. My plan must suit me, my family, and my life ... :D