Yes, of course this is true. If I saw a really overweight person with a cartload of fruits and veggies, I would assume that the weight had come on some other way-- as you say, eating fast foods and restaurant food. Or perhaps had just started a diet, and had not really gotten to a "normal" weight yet. I'm overweight and also have a grocery cart filled with "the good stuff" -- just like you. I also don't buy sodas or cerial.

-- speaking of restraunt food-- I never went to restraunts until I moved to this new place-- the landlord constantly invited me out to eat and I gained a lot of weight. I also did not like the way most of the food tasted-- he thought it was delicious though. He's the kind of person who goes out to eat every meal.

I blame restaurants for our national problem of portion control. I really do. I think we try to emulate what the restaurants give us when we're cooking at home. I know I did.

I have a friend that swears she hates all fruit and most vegetables. So when she looks for snack suggestions it is very hard for me to provide those for her because there are so many healthy options she won't even consider.

That's what I think many people have to change. You have to learn to consider those options. If you don't like peaches for example, you don't have to eat them...there are apples and grapes and melon and so on. I don't like cauliflower very much but I can still eat broccoli, green beens, sugar snap peas...you get this picture.

I never used to eat vegetables because I said I didn't like them. What I really meant was: I would rather eat fried chicken and cheesy potatoes than have the taste/texture of vegetables. Since then I have evolved my thinking. I love veggies now, I do reach for healthy snacks, and I used to be that person that would never ever reach for fruit.

This.

I am skeptical of people who make assertions like "I don't like vegetables." It's like saying "I don't like soup." There are so many kinds of vegetables available and so many ways to prepare them that a statement like "I don't like vegetables" is ridiculously overbroad.(*) In the vast majority of cases, when someone says "I don't like vegetables," one or more of the following is likely to be true:

* The person does not know how to cook vegetables other than boiling them into submission, and/or does not have experience with vegetables other than frozen or canned

* The person does not want to be bothered with cooking at all and only wants to eat things raw (in which case vegetables = traditional diet "rabbit food" like iceberg lettuce, raw carrot sticks, or raw celery), or only wants to eat things pre-prepared and ready-to-eat

* The person genuinely does not like some vegetables and has never really been challenged to try other, different vegetables.

* The person actually likes vegetables just fine, but likes macaroni and cheese better, and isn't mentally prepared to do the work of making the choices and sacrifices one has to make to stop being fat.

I agree with the posters who said the woman I mentioned at the start of this thread, the woman who said she isn't the kind of person who reaches for a piece of fruit, wasn't fully on board with the fact that losing weight would require a fundamental change in the kind of person she is when it comes to food.

I also really appreciated ubergirl's comments to the effect that food has to cease to be a recreational activity. I am not willing to cut out recreational food entirely - we'll see how long I can get away with this - but I have adopted the mindset that only certain meals will be of the recreational variety, and even those are more circumscribed than they used to be.

To give some specific examples, I accept that everyday lunch need not be delectable; palatable is good enough. Or, when looking for snacks, I choose something that will make my hunger go away or give me a little work-out energy, rather than something that will taste great and be fun to eat. And while I still enjoy fine dining, I am more mindful of what I order and how much of it I eat than I would have been when I was gaining. I'll order halibut instead of steak frites, that kind of thing.



(*) Note: I understand that people often know what they don't like, and don't take well to being told "oh you just haven't had it the right way." I get this. I happen to dislike eggplant, no matter how it is prepared, and nothing is likely to change that for me.

But a narrow statement like "I don't care for eggplant" is much different in character from "I don't like vegetables." Because an eggplant is nothing like a carrot, which is nothing like an artichoke, with is nothing like broccoli rabe, which is nothing like snap peas, which are nothing like fennel bulb, etc.