How to learn to love (healthy) food

sarah44254

So I might be an exception to the norm here, but the only reason I gain weight, in the various times in my life where I have been on the top side of my normal range, is because I eat candy.

The reason I lose weight, is because I eat nothing. It is so sad and not healthy, but I do not enjoy, like, yearn for, or any other positive adjective healthy food. Add sugar to anything I'll eat it, it seems.

How can I teach myself to enjoy healthy foods? I want to learn to love them, to crave them! Give me any ideas. I should be willing to try anything but I'm not sure what I can force myself to do. I'll listen to them all and keep them written here for me.

Go! Help me please.

sarah44254

Sometimes I even cook a healthy meal and put it in the fridge never to see the light of day again.

Until I throw it out because it is bad, that is. :frown:

Phaedra2014

Get acquainted with food. Look up some recipes, become familiar with the different fresh herbs and spices. Pick a couple of things to cook. Buy a pretty cookbook with lots of pictures. Experiment.

Phaedra2014

Sometimes I even cook a healthy meal and put it in the fridge never to see the light of day again.

Until I throw it out because it is bad, that is. :frown:

What exactly do you eat on a daily basis?

mehaffeymk

you gotta find recipes and things to eat that you LIKE already. for instance, i really love fast food, so to curb that craving i eat boca burgers on sandwich thins with baked sweet potato fries and it totally gives me the fast food fix i need for a fraction of the calories and fat. and i've been referencing alot of "skinny" blogs that post recipes too. they come up with some hella creative ways to get delicious meals and make them healthy. three i can think of are 100daysofrealfood.com, skinnytaste.com and skinnykitchen.com. and i know i love zucchini, so i eat zucchini almost every day. i'm pretty sure eating too much zucchini and not alot of other vegetables isn't gonna kill me. and my tastes have been changing too now that i'm not indulging myself everyday in fast food and high fat, high sugar foods. now i can eat an orange and feel so satisfied on the sugar in it that i don't really need candy or a chocolate bar.

tishajo

Cut the unhealthy food portions down and wean in the healthy foods. I noticed by eating healthy foods I don't feel as groggy the next day. So that keeps me motivated to eat healthier. Also it seems after eating healthier foods for awhile, my taste buds almost reject certain unhealthy foods. Good luck!:flowerforyou:

caraiselite

quit sugar cold turkey. eat proteins and veggies instead.

HelloSweetie4

Try out healthy versions of your favorite meals and slowly cut the extra sugar out. I have always been a sugar fiend, my worst habit before MFP was that every time I went to the grocery store I felt I had to buy myself a 20oz soda and a candy bar as a treat for just going to the store. lol I cannot tell you the last time I did that. I knew that was my worst habit so it was the first to go and it wasn't easy!
I have also managed to cut out ALL the sugar from my daily coffee. I did it little by little.
I am now comfortable enough that I am currently doing a 21 day no junk food challenge (there's a group!)!
Cutting out the sugar is a long and slow process, so don't get discouraged that you can't go "cold turkey." getting away from it is just like quitting smoking or anyother addiction. Take it one day at a time!

Feel free to add me for support if you like!

danamarier

I agree- experiment with foods.

I've found the same with salty foods- if it's salty/greasy, I'm all over it. But when I started cutting it out in a serious way, I found I no longer enjoyed them when I did eat them.

I would get a queasy stomach, I would feel low and just overall, gross. It helps to turn me off from eating that junk.

Occasionally I will eat some greasy food, but I also know that after it's done tasting great, I will be awful in the next 20 minutes so I just stay away the majority of the time.

Also, people who see what is actually in their food and how this affects your body are often turned off from eating them. (Like seeing what affect aspartame has on the body's ability to process sugar and produce insulin)

All the best!

sarah44254

Thank you for all the responses!

Last year I lost weight in a not-so-good way. I worked out VERY hard and ate junk food.

This time I can't work out as hard (because of some new medical issues) so I would really like to balance this junk food addiction and get it out of my life.

To eat an orange and not want candy afterwards sounds amazing. I really want that to happen to me.

MichelleL2016

I am in the same boat as you!! I just don't like the taste..

So lately I have started making smoothies. I like bananas and a lot of the time if smoothies have bananas in them, it covers the taste of everything else. So I have grapes, spinnach and strawberries on top of a banana. And I also use orange juice and ice..
While it's not something I crave every day, it's something that I can tolerate. And the colors can be gross so I try not to focus too much on that..

And from what I've read, vegetables, like many other foods, are an aquired taste. So hopefully I'll be able to choke enough down to become ok with the taste lol

toniRAD

Try having a banana with dark chocolate peanut butter (or regular!) spread on it. That helps the candy craving & is healthy.

sarah44254

It isn't so much as I crave the candy. It is just the only thing I eat. I eat donut/pastry things or ice creams. I make entire days food diaries from only sugary products.

So I'll try those websites. I was just looking around the internet for a farmer's market, too. I want some fresh foods but I don't have much money.

AlabasterVerve

You're an adult now, not a toddler who needs to be tricked into trying food. Just suck it up, eat real food and find things you like--learning how to cook helps if you don't already know how. Maybe trying to make pizza or some of the other junk food you like at home would be a good place to start. Good luck.

Robinsond61

How I stopped eating all that unhealthy, processed, and prepared food is I learned to love cooking. The time that you put into a meal is actually really rewarding (in my opinion) and when I sit down to a good looking meal that has foods that I enjoy (and of course is healthy) I feel great about it. You just have to keep trying new 'health foods' and seeing what you like and don't like. If you like spicy foods, try spicing or masking the tastes of other things with hot sauce or red pepper...I used to have a sweet tooth as well, but now thinking of candy makes me a bit queasy & then I want spicy food. Strange I know but that's my experience. Learn to love to cook.

toniRAD

Well in that case, you just gotta try hard to make yourself stay away from the junk. Once you start eating healthy for a while your body will crave the healthy food & it won't be as hard for you to love it.

sarah44254

Thanks for the good luck, but the suck it up comment was pretty hurtful.

I do really love cooking! I can make some nice stuff but I only eat a bite or two then I don't want it anymore.

I'm hoping once school kicks back in it will make it easier because I can only eat what I bring with me, I won't be at home or in a convenience store (where I work) surrounded with junk.

AlabasterVerve

I'm sorry, that wasn't my intention to hurt your feelings.

sarah44254

It's tough to read intentions over the internet, I really appreciate the clarification. Sorry if I jumped to conclusions there.

I'll keep trying new foods. I'm afraid of "wasting money" though. :frown: What to do with a plate of food you can't stand? I guess I can offer it to the neighbors? That seems kind of weird though.

missattitude57

There are a lot of cookbooks out there written explicitly for the purpose of tricking kids into eating veggies. Perhaps start with one of those? Apparently you can make delicious brownies with spinach or prune puree in them...I haven't tried it yet but if it works I am all for it.

ChapinaGrande

Someone above mentioned replacing fast food with healthier versions. For me, it was the opposite. I loved fast food so much that exchanges just made me sad. I love boca burgers, for example, but only when I accepted them for boca burgers instead of trying to make them into fast food. Same with soy milk. Expect regular milk, you're not going to be happy about soy milk because it's a different thing. Accept things for what they are.