[beginme]

Thanks for all of the replies. I do eat salad greens and spinach (either cooked or raw), but that's about it for veggies. I actually do not like any salad dressing, so I eat it plain. I do like lots of different fruit, though.

I typically eat veggie burgers (the soy ones), salmon or tuna, spinach, apples, yogurt, cheese, nuts, and stuff like that.

It just seems like I don't eat enough of it to fill up the day's calories. My veggie dogs have 80 calories and are really filling. The veggie burgers are only like 170 cals, so that just isn't a lot. The nuts are a little more, but eaten at only one serving are about 206 cals. And I don't like them enough to eat more than one serving at a time.

So, I'm not really hungry, I just total up the calories at the end of the day and see that they're 1,200 or below. I really need to be in the 1,500 range.

Great idea about the smoothies. I'd forgotten about it, but I used to make one w/ milk, oj, yogurt, strawberries, and blueberries. That would load up the fruit and the calories!

I just don't want to revert to eating all the cr@p I was eating before. I can EASILY eat 2x the daily allotted calories on the pizza, etc. that I love.

[WebRover]

You could try dishes based on beans: black beans with raw onions on top, kidney beans with canned tomatoes (perhaps crumble up a boca burger in it) and chili seasonings, lentils, caldo gallego (white beans, turnip greens, onions, garlic - recipe call for potatoes & either chorizo sausage or ham, but you can leave them out).

[Heather]

If you love pizza, why not make a pizza you love that has fewer calories? I really think that in order to succeed you have to make this sustainable for you... certainly there are ways to prepare pizza that's both healthy and tasty for you!!

Look around for recipes and experiment!

[Sassy_Chick]

I am the exact same way. I am not a big veggie or fruit eater either. My DH LOVES fruit, almost all fruit out there. His mom and dad are also huge fruit eaters. I just am not and yes I have "re-tried" them all, my DH makes me at least taste everything! Except for Watermelon, for some reason the smell of it makes me nausious and I used to love that as a kid!! I guess its true, your tastes do change. I have found out that I do like Mangos, and I have never eaten those before.

One of my grandfathers had a farm and the other had a HUGE garden, so I grew up around a lot of fresh produce. I have "retried" veggies again too and found out that I do like Cucumbers and I never used to even be able to look at the things let alone eat them! So yeah I say just try a bunch of new things. If your afraid of "wasting" food, maybe invite some friends/family over to "experiment" with you. Have a Veg/Fruit party! lol. Even better: have your friends/family bring over their favorite fruits and veggies the way they like to eat them, may give you some ideas!!

Also a good little thing to do is "hide" veggies in other dishes such as whole grain rice and pastas, stuff like that. Also cut up some veggies/fruits so they are ready-to-eat and that way you always have a healthy snack available. I need to take my own advice!!! lol. I need to go to and get some fresh produce to eat. I've been actually craving it!

Good Luck!!

[ginny]

I was there a while back. On the non-plant eating side, which I think was a major contributer to getting to the weight I was at. I picked two things I didn't hate, bananas and grapes, and made them kinda staples for a while. I'm a bit more boot camp than is sane, but when you are really hungry that banana looks like a miracle.

Then came asparagus, which I'd never eaten before but I can't imagine life without now. I have a "fear no whole food fat" mentality so I would pan fry it with butter and a bit of balsamic vinigar at the end. Sooooo freaking good can't believe it's healthy.

[beginme]

Thanks for the ideas!!! Keep 'em coming.