[beginme]

This is weird for me to type, but I'm having trouble eating enough. For a while, I had been focused on just staying under a certain number of calories. Well, I was still eating a lot of high fat foods and not losing. So, I've changed to eating only good foods.

I don't like enough good foods to fill up a day's worth of calories.

I have allowed myself one "bad" item which is a cup of organic chocolate milk (170 cals) per day. But, even with that, I'm barely making 1,200 calories.

That's not going to cut it when I start exercising.

I eat fish, but no other flesh (haven't for a decade), and don't like very many veggies.

Any advice?

[eriningp]

I've had the same problem, except it's chicken instead of fish, for me. I recommend fruit instead of veggies. Whole grain and high fibre products are also really great for long-lasting energy.

[luckymommy]

Do you like sushi? What about salads? I like to eat BOCA burgers (flame grilled flavor) with a low carb tortilla from La Tortilla Factory. I love baked sweert potatoes too. What about a sandwich w/ avocado, sprouts and red onions? Do you like soups? You could make a protein shake using protein powder, frozen bananas and some strawberries. I really like Fage 0% fat yogurt with fresh strawberries. You might consider seeing a nutritionist if you can't figure out some yummy ideas. Also, it will take some time for your taste buds to forget about the junk and to look forward to the good stuff. I hope you find something that works.

[mandalinn82]

Instead of saying "I don't like many veggies", you might consider reframing in your head to "I haven't found preparations I like for most vegetables".

Keep trying different and new things. Your taste buds will change as you eat cleaner foods, and you may discover new ways of preparing. Steamed asparagus just seems limp and weird to me...but roasted is amazing! I don't like raw cabbage, my partner doesn't like cooked...but we both like the other. So try, try again. And also make sure your experimentation includes produce that is locally grown and in season. Even foods I HATE from a conventional store tend to be DELICIOUS when bought locally from someone who grew them with some love. Check out a farmer's market, maybe.

One other idea on this line...have you looked at any CSAs in your area? These are farms that send you a box of whatever is in season to try. Now, I know this seems like it'd be HORRIBLE for someone who was picky with vegetables, but I used to be very picky (my grocery cart included the 3 veggies I ate, every week, and nothing else). The first week with a new ingredient...yeah, it usually wasn't all that great. But since most things have a multi-week season, I got them for the weeks after that. Slowly, I worked out methods for cooking most things that I really enjoy. But I needed that box of produce, going bad in my fridge, to force me to try things.

You might want to check out our "Veggie Challenged" forum, also. Lots of great ideas.

[WarMaiden]

I agree that often it's just the preparation of the veggies that's not right. Example: for years my husband swore up and down that he hated sweet potatoes in any and every form and nothing would change that. So a couple weeks ago I experimentally tried out something I'd seen in a recipe here--sweet potatoes cut into fry-shape, tossed in a bit of olive oil and chili powder, and baked in the oven. Well, my husband went crazy for sweet potato baked "fries." (In fact, everyone in the family likes them, other than the 5-year-old who currently likes nothing.) He even made them himself one night.

[princesspuffypants]

so what do you normally eat?

[yoyonomoreinvegas]

I can certainly relate. When I first decided to get rolling on a better eating plan I had a terrible time trying to get enough calories in because the only veggies and fruit (I thought) I liked - or should I say, thought I could choke down - were grapefruit and broccoli. Broccoli is really filling but doesn't have many calories so I would be absolutely stuffed and still way short on the calories. But, as Mandalinn said, your taste buds actually do change (or maybe they just emerged out from under that coating of trans fats and chemically processed food I'd been burying them in ) and I discover new things I actually do like almost every trip to the store. Case in point: blueberries. Never liked 'em unless they were baked into a muffin. I decided I was going to "make" myself eat some because they have good stuff in them. Lo and behold, all of a sudden I can't get enough of them. I even like to pop frozen ones in my mouth after dinner as a dessert. Whoda thunk? I will usually buy just one of something that looks interesting so I can taste it then decide if I want more - you'd be surprised how often I stop back by the store the very next day . So hang in there, give your tongue a chance to adjust to clean foods then go sampling. You may not like everything you try but I betcha you'll find more stuff you do like.

[UrsusMaritimus]

I'm not a big veggie fan either, but I have grown to like salads since I discovered two things:

1) Green salads with fruit and nuts in them are delicious!
2) There are some really tasty low-cal salad dressings out there. My current favorite is a blueberry-pomegranate (sp?) dressing from Maple Grove Farms. 50 cals per serving.

I also agree that you're more likely to enjoy in-season, locally grown produce. That's how I learned to love asparagus.

Also, if you can dip your veggies in something (like hummus), that helps.

[auntie g]

I'll second the sweet potato fries idea (also butternut squash fries)! Same story here, my husband swore up and down he would not eat them, but lo and behold, we now have new tasty, healthy fries quite often!

[Lori Bell]

Princesspuffypants said what I was thinking. What do you like? What do you dislike? What is it about the veggies you don't like that turns you off? Is it the taste, texture, smell, all of the above?

My old college roommate didn't like many vegetables but she did like cooked tomatoes. (she was a pasta lover) I made her stuff with a tomato/basil/garlic base and she really came to love many veggies. We were always broke so fresh stuff was not always available but I remember one of her favorites was when I stir fried thinly sliced carrots & garlic in a little olive oil until almost tender and added a large can of diced tomatoes, basil and sliced zucchini squash and salt and pepper to taste. Simmered until soft but not mushy. Topped with a few teaspoons of parmesean cheese. A big serving was right around 100 calories. As time went on, (and I was doing the cooking and she didn't have to) she started eating what ever I made. I used to kid her and tell her what my mom told me...eat it, or starve.

[aphil]

There are a lot of people who think that they don't like fruits or veggies...but it is usually that they have not found a preparation/recipe that they like for them...or they simply have not tried them all.

Take apples, for instance? How many varieties of apples have you tried? Golden delicious, red delicious, granny smith, cameo, gala, braeburn, McIntosh, fuji, pink lady...they all taste different! They are all apples, but some are crisper, some are sweeter, some are more sour, and all have a slightly different flavor.

There are so many people, that only eat very common fruits-such as bananas and red delicious apples. They never branch out and try new things. I LOVE LOVE LOVE pomegranates around holiday time. Love them. Currently, I am really into fresh bing cherries (my kids love spitting out the pits), strawberries, watermelon, and corn on the cob, because they are plentiful and in season in the store.

There is about a 99% possibility that you have not tried everything that the produce section has to offer. A fun game for me, for a while, was to try a new fruit or veggie each week. Fruits I usually eat raw, but the veggies I would either add to a salad or find a recipe for. My kids love kiwi fruit, fresh pineapple (NOT canned...), blackberries and blueberries, and even starfruit!

You mentioned the chocolate soymilk. I just made a smoothie the other day with it: chocolate soymilk, 1 banana, and a serving of frozen (in the bag) rasberries, with a couple ice cubes in the blender. I had it for breakfast, and it tasted like I was having an exotic milkshake.

Try different recipes for veggies, and try some new fruit varieties!

[srmb60]

I agree with the preparation aspect. My Dh grew up on a farm. His mother put any old thing she grew in the garden in a pan of salted water, boiled the living daylights out of it and served it with gravy. I shudder thinking about it.

He likes a lot more vegetables now.

Also, I'm going to recommend having a look at the Whole Foods Threads. There are simply sooooo so so many vegetables to choose from.

[aphil]

Susan is right-it is easy to form an opinion on something, when you only have had things one way.

I grew up eating pretty much only CANNED vegetables...and other than canned green beans, I hate them.

If I have to get packaged vegetables, I prefer frozen ones (they taste more like fresh) and I steam them. Peas were not meant to be olive colored and baby food mushy...blech. If you steam frozen ones, they are bright green, and still have a texture to them-and taste better. Corn is the same way...frozen corn tasted like fresh...canned, well, it tastes like it has been on the shelf for 3 years.

[suecd]

When I was growing up, my mom, who was otherwise a good cook, made awful salads. Boring lettuce, little disks of carrot and cucumber, some green pepper. (I don't like raw tomatoes, so I'd pick those out.) And that was it. There was never any variation in texture or taste or size. No wonder I didn't love salad, even after I stopped eating meat at age 13.

As an adult, I've really made an effort to make delicious, interesting, salads, with combinations of food I like in them, and so, of course, I eat them more.

My other suggestion for eating more vegetables, esp. if you don't eat meat, is soup. In the winter, I eat soup all the time for dinner, and I still make it fairly often in the summer, if we're not having a heat wave. I use my immersion blender to make pureed soups, with or without dairy. In the winter, I make lots of bean and vegetable soups, and it's a way to get lots of veggies in all at once. Deborah Madison (who wrote Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) has a wonderful soup cookbook that's become one of my favorite and most used cookbooks.

[Tomato]

Originally Posted by aphil

You mentioned the chocolate soymilk. I just made a smoothie the other day with it: chocolate soymilk, 1 banana, and a serving of frozen (in the bag) rasberries, with a couple ice cubes in the blender. I had it for breakfast, and it tasted like I was having an exotic milkshake.

Also, you can take aphil's suggestion for a smoothie and add a few pieces of celery stalks. You won't be able to taste it, but voila, you have added a serving of veggies to your diet.