Picky Eater!

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Hi everyone,

My single biggest difficulty when it comes to losing weight is that I'm just the absolute pickiest eater! This makes me resort to junk food- pizza, chips, etc.

Does anyone have advice for picky eaters? Yummy healthy foods, how to cover up the bad taste, or even how to make "junk" food better for you? Thank you SO much in advance!

Amanda :)

Replies

  • mb1883
    mb1883 Posts: 37
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    It really depend on what you like to eat. If you're into pizza, you can make a healtheir version using whole wheat pitas and loading with with veggies and low-fat mozzarella cheese. Instead of using tomato sauce, I like putting pesto on my pizza for a different flavour.
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    You can't really make junk food healthier, you just have to suck it up and eat naturally healthy foods. You need to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and low fat dairy, and you need to drink at least 8 glasses of water per day.
  • ProTFitness
    ProTFitness Posts: 1,379 Member
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    Hi everyone,

    My single biggest difficulty when it comes to losing weight is that I'm just the absolute pickiest eater! This makes me resort to junk food- pizza, chips, etc.

    Does anyone have advice for picky eaters? Yummy healthy foods, how to cover up the bad taste, or even how to make "junk" food better for you? Thank you SO much in advance!

    Amanda :)

    Junk food is POSION and that is how you have to look at it. It is also VERY ADDICTIING. Your body does not know what real nutritious foods tastes like that is why you say it tastes bad.

    Junk food taste the ways it does to make you become additcted to it jsut like a drug. YOu need to rethink how real food should taste and how healthy it is for your body and think of the bad just as it is POSION and no good for your body.
  • mapnerd2005
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    I was that way. I basically had to retrain my taste buds to like new foods. And, amazingly enough, I was pretty successful. I just would pick a food and say, ok, I'm going to eat this food every day for a week until I find some way to prepare it that I like. I started with broccoli, and now it's one of my absolutely favorite foods. Not all foods have made it past the trial week. though. I still hate brussel sprouts, cabbage, and potatos (white and sweet), but there are many many many more that I have added to my diet, such as greek yogurt (sweetened with a little honey and fresh fruit), all kinds of green veggies, some fish (still don't like salmon, but tilapia is good), and mushrooms.
    There are ways of making "junk" better, btw, you just have make it yourself. Try making a pizza using flat-out wraps as the crust, or making spaghetti with whole wheat noodles and adding veggies to the sauce (there are lots of ways to "hide" veggies in spaghetti sauce). There are cook books designed to make junk better. Shop around.
  • mandleighb
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    I was that way. I basically had to retrain my taste buds to like new foods. And, amazingly enough, I was pretty successful. I just would pick a food and say, ok, I'm going to eat this food every day for a week until I find some way to prepare it that I like. I started with broccoli, and now it's one of my absolutely favorite foods. Not all foods have made it past the trial week. though. I still hate brussel sprouts, cabbage, and potatos (white and sweet), but there are many many many more that I have added to my diet, such as greek yogurt (sweetened with a little honey and fresh fruit), all kinds of green veggies, some fish (still don't like salmon, but tilapia is good), and mushrooms.
    There are ways of making "junk" better, btw, you just have make it yourself. Try making a pizza using flat-out wraps as the crust, or making spaghetti with whole wheat noodles and adding veggies to the sauce (there are lots of ways to "hide" veggies in spaghetti sauce). There are cook books designed to make junk better. Shop around.

    Thank you! I Think I'm going to try your "retraining tastebuds" idea... it sounds like it might work! The hardest part about eating healthy and such is that I'm in college and living in a dorm, so it's really hard to find fresh food and stuff. I LOVE fruit, but everything else... not so much!
  • mielikkibz
    mielikkibz Posts: 552 Member
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    Junk food is POSION and that is how you have to look at it. It is also VERY ADDICTIING. Your body does not know what real nutritious foods tastes like that is why you say it tastes bad.

    Nope, mom wasn't big in junk food growing up, but I still can't stand the smell of cauliflower or broccoli, nor do I like the taste of spinach, and just not a big fish eater, loved the way my great aunt used to bake fresh fish we caught, but nobody knwos the recipe :( . . .it just very well may be her personal tastes

    I am a picky eater too. . and I detest wasting money trying something and not liking it(tho my dogs are great garbage disposals) Part of the reason it's taken me so long to 'eat' better is because most of the 'smart eating' frozen dinners are combos I have no desire to eat. . .I might like the meat entre, but the squash and cauliflower makes me want to gag. I prefer most of my veggies raw(tomatos, cucumbers, corn, radishes, peppers, grean beans and peas I can go either way on)

    My dinners basically are chicken cooked in various ways not including fried, burgers and the occaisonal steak and beans/rice/potatos, and a salad now and then.(hate that salad stuff goes so bad fast). I love fresh fruit, but hate dealing with the mess of cantelops & watermelons, and hate how fast they go bad

    Make simple changes. . .and make gradual changes. . if you go out to dinner with someone, ask if you can try their dinner in order to broaden your tastes. . I now know I don't mind sole cooked a certain way. . .then you can bring that home and learn to cook them.

    Cut down portions. . now that I'm watching portions, i realised how much I was really eating. Like last night, my roommate bought a 1.29 lb of burger and made 6 hamburgers. her and her hubby ate almost 7ozs of hamburger last night, I ate one 3.4 oz burger last night, and took the rest to lunch with me today.

    I love Pizza, I just make sure to eat less now. . .it used to be one medium pizza would last me 2 meals, when I broke down and bought one last month, it lasted me 5. I also went as low calorie as I could go and still call it a real pizza: nothing but cheese :) And even with eating two slices, i didn't go over my calories :) And I wasn't exercisign at the time

    There are people who think that you are bad if you at all break from the 'only the healthy' food mantra. . my opinoin? If you deny yourself something, you will fail. . .I have chocoalte every day, as I know that if I don't, I'll end up stuffing my face and really screwing up my diet :)

    There is no hurry, take your time, learn what you like, and dont' be afraid to experiment :) I know it's hard, BTDT!!!
  • mielikkibz
    mielikkibz Posts: 552 Member
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    and to add to my pickiness, I don't want/ like sauces on my chicken other than BBQ sauce :)