Trying not to envy people who effortlessly prefer vegetables
I tell you, it's hard sometimes though! I live with one. I'm just puzzled and marveling at the tastebuds of a person like that. Usually it's how they grew up I suppose, exposed to lots of vegetables and without any sensory issues against them. (I have LOTS of sensory issues against them . . . )
And if that's not enough to evoke envy that they gravitate towards vegetables, usually these same people have a natural aversion to fattening foods - sweets, greasy stuff, starchy stuff.
You can build the habbit to eat vegetables even if you haven't been really fond of them so far. My suggestion is to try grill several tipes of vegetables or make smoothies out of them. That should be a good start.
Don't lose hope yet, skinnyminnie! I chose the fattening food over vegetables every single time for years and years. The only vegetables I was really eating were on my pizza or came with buffalo wings or were in the saucy Chinese food that I ordered.
Now....after being on a medically supervised diet for 10 months where my portions of everything were limited to keep my calories low (inc. limited amounts of fruits & veggies), I can't get enough of them now that my calories have been increased! I *snack* on fruits and veggies! In my 37 years of life, I never EVER would think of fruits and veggies as a snack. It had to be chips, French fries, candy, something NOT healthy.
My taste buds have changed drastically and my body craves the fresh, healthy foods. I haven't had any *junk* food in all this time (it was awful coming off it, like an addict IMO) and now I'm petrified to go back (I have no internal off-switch that tells me to stop eating the junk, I just eat until it's gone).
Find a few fruits and veggies you like and then find the way you like them made the best (I'd eat a raw green pepper but never a cooked one, I prefer my carrots cooked but not raw, etc.).
I have never felt healthier and more nourished than I have for almost the last year and it's totally contributable to my diet.
Try incorporating them in small pieces right into your foods that you're already eating. Shred zucchini/squash/cabbage/mushrooms, etc. into burgers, meatloaf, meatballs, etc. Puree them and add them to soups/sauces - anything that could be thickened. Chop them into small pieces and add them to chili, omelettes, pizzas, quesadillas/tacos/burritos, etc.
I just make sure that at least 50% of my meals are comprised of non-starchy vegetables.
I've always liked most vegetables, but can't say that I have an aversion to fattening foods. Rather, I like vegetables, because I like and will eat just about anything, and I'd rather have an unpleasant flavor experience than a boring one.
I have an almost compulsive drive to taste "new" foods. It may be genetic, because I'm adopted and no one in my adoptive family is so obsessed with food or novelty.
It's not just food either, I bore easily and always want to try new things. Hubby teases that I want to try everything.
I like veggies, but I'm too lazy/don't have enough time to make all sorts of fancy meals with them and/or prep them. I just make sure that every meal I eat (except breakfast) contains at least one serving of veggies.
You're not the only one!
I absolutely abhor most if not all vegetables.
Potatoes yes.
Corn great. Pork n beans good.
Anything else tastes just like grass to me.
It sucks, because sooner or later I want to become a vegetarian. Its just so hard though.
My point was it just is hard to imagine being that way with such ease and so consistently over time. I've had times too when my tastebuds have switched some - though my pattern is pretty resistant - but it has happened.
I've had better luck in retraining away from some fattening treat foods than in developing a genuine enjoyment and desire toward very many vegetables. My vegetable (and other) aversions started early and have been pretty entrenched over the years. I really have to coax myself. Once in awhile I'll find something that works.
Raw individual vegetables as snacks and so on sometimes work better for me. I'm not much for adding them to dishes unless it would be the "Sneaky Chef" way. I don't care for soups or stews with a jumble of all kinds of vegetables in them.
I ate veggies as small child because that was practically all my parents fed me. But then I went to daycare around 5 years old and they introduced to me cheeseburgers and other bad foods. After that, I hated veggies and it became a struggle to get me to eat anything green.
It's all in what you're conditioned to like. The bad stuff has the unfair advantage because its everything we crave: fat, sugar, salt.
In high school, I started trying to like veggies. I started with the least repulsive veggie to my tastebuds: green beans, and simply choked them down. I did it again and again for many meals. Finally, they started to taste "tolerable" instead of "awful". Now, I like how they taste. Do they taste as great as sugar cookies? Absolutely not. But they do taste 'good' instead of disgusting.
I've been able to repeat this process of "adaption" with most foods I encounter. There are a few I still dislike, such as celery. But I'm not that motivated to make myself like those veggies since I already like plenty of other kinds.
I became vegan in January. Never dreamed of that happening given how many years of childhood I spent hating veggies. My younger self would die of shock if it met my older self now.
I LOVED vegetables when I was a kid because I lived in a small farming community and people were forever depositing fresh bushels of this or that on our back porch (I'm only 41 and this doesn't really happen much anymore, does it?). Fresh, REAL vegetables that haven't been chosen for durability, shipability, and looks are amazing.
I can't get really fired up about frozen broccoli, canned peas, or those weird wet baby carrots from the grocery store.
Find a farmers market. Plant your own. I get giddy with all that fresh produce with the dirt still on it. It really does taste better.
I like vegetables because they are so pretty, and I have a garden in season and love that I can create my own food from almost nothing. Growing up, my mom overcooked and burnt vegetables (I don't blame her - she was feeding 4 kids and a husband) so I'm surprised I like vegetables as much as I do. But as I mentioned, they are a very interactive food for me because I grow, harvest, and prepare them from the freshest possible source.
I pass no judgment on people who don't feel that kind of love
I can look at the pretty colors of the vegetables yet often not feel a desire to have any. Now fruits, I'm a great fruit eater. I have even learned to like or love fruits I didn't when I was a kid.
Trying not to envy people who effortlessly prefer vegetables
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I'm not much for adding them to dishes unless it would be the "Sneaky Chef" way. I don't care for soups or stews with a jumble of all kinds of vegetables in them.
