Where do I start?

mtdb8

Hi I'm new here. I've been tracking what I eat for about a week and have come to 2 conclusions.

1, I eat about 500 calories daily more than I should.

2, I hardly get any nutrients.

The 1st one is easier to fix that the 2nd one. I have no idea where to start fixing that 2nd one.

Any thoughts?

JeromeBarry1

Nutrients come from a variety of vegetables. Green leafy things are better than white starchy things.

What do you like to eat?

By the way, you've already started well by tracking what you eat for a week. If you set your diary to be publicly viewable we will be able to see for ourselves what you've been eating.

Have you also gotten a kitchen scale to use in weighing your food?

mtdb8

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

What do you like to eat?

The truth is I dont like to eat that much when it comes to plants. Vegitables are increadably bitter and I can't eat berries melons or citrus because of allergies.

But the app did help me realize I eat too much carbs fat and sugar. I kind of knew that already. But theres a difference between thinking you know and actually knowing.

JeromeBarry1

One of the bitter green leafy vegetables is kale. Kale, though, is incredibly dense with nutrients, so my daughter and I have ways to get kale. I include kale in a green smoothie once or twice each week. She layers kale and cheese in a baking dish and bakes it until the cheese melts and sticks to the kale. That sort of experimentation and personalization is going to be handy for you as you learn how to get nutrition and avoid items to which you are allergic. Use the Search function to find things, such as "nutrition allergies" or some such search string as that.

nutmegoreo

mtdb8 wrote: »

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

What do you like to eat?

The truth is I dont like to eat that much when it comes to plants. Vegitables are increadably bitter and I can't eat berries melons or citrus because of allergies.

But the app did help me realize I eat too much carbs fat and sugar. I kind of knew that already. But theres a difference between thinking you know and actually knowing.

I find it easier to focus on what I do want, rather than what I don't want. If you want to get more fats and proteins, look for foods you enjoy that have those things, and work on incorporating them into your diet. You might find that as you do that, the things you want less of will naturally reduce.

For vegetables, I like to experiment with trying them different ways. For example, I find that roasting beats and carrots in olive oil and balsamic vinegar to really make them flavourful and sweet tasting. I have a couple cookbooks that I love, and I play with those recipes often. For me, I increase the amount of veggies called for in those recipes (allows for a bigger serving since most veggies will add bulk without too many calories), but since you are trying to get used to them, you could reduce the veggies a bit, or start with the stated amounts.

AustinRuadhain

Hi there. Maybe start with some of the "easier" vegetables: carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, bell pepper, romaine lettuce, green cabbage, spinach (including baby spinach), little sweet peppers, zucchini squash. I am married to someone very sensitive to bitter tastes, and all of those work for him. If you can find a mix of fresh veggies that work for you, you can eat a large (12-16 ounce) salad for 100 calories and lots and lots of micro-nutrients.

lowcarbmale

The easiest way to have a semi-delicious shake it to make it as cool as possible. Frozen spinach or kale + cold water + some oil (Walnut, MCT, sunflower or whatever you think tastes best). The oil also helps to get more nutrients from the vegetables.

cmriverside

Just start learning!

When I first started my food was awful. I was living on starchy carbs and dairy, mostly.

I started really studying my FOOD diary at the end of the day and making decisions on how to improve my nutrition.

Now I have lots of vegetables in my fridge/freezer. It didn't happen over night, but I started finding ways to change and I did.

Keep learning.

Deviette

My mum told me she used to do something like the 6 tastes of a food.

That being, she'd try to feed us something 6 times, making sure that we actually tried it. If after 6 time we still didn't like the food, chances are we actually didn't like that food/ the way it was cooked. However, so often our pallets developed and we actually started enjoying the new food flavours. Sometimes it just takes a while to get used to a flavour. So, sure some veggies are bitter, but given each a fair chance before dismissing them. And remember that some are fairly sweet and much less bitter: Carrots, peas, sweetcorn, bell peppers are good places to start.

And also make sure you've cooked something properly. Some veggies become bitter when undercooked or overcooked. And check their ripeness, under or over ripened vegetables rarely taste good.