Picky Eater

Hey everyone!

I officially started my healthy life changes around November/December, and I'll give you a little background about my habits before. I was eating sugary and salty snacks all the time, mostly because I have a very strong sweet tooth. Due to a busy college lifestyle and lacking any and all finesse in the kitchen (I've burnt Spaghetti O's charcoal black in the microwave...yes, that can happen), I replaced actual meals with snacking...and my choices were never the best ones. I've been a dancer my whole life, so my poor eating habits used to be balanced out by the 5+ hours I spent dancing a day. When I came to college and stopped dancing, my eating habits finally caught up with me and I packed on over 30 pounds. Fed up with the way I look, I decided I needed to make a change. I have tried making changes before, but I use to have an "all or nothing" mentality and always ended up feeling deprived so I'd return to bad habits. To make sure I made changes that would give permanent results, I decided to implement my new healthy lifestyle in stages.

As of November 1, 2010, I have stopped drinking pop and have been successful. Two weeks after sticking to that goal, I decided to implement my second goal: cut my pasta intake. I come from a family that believes some form of noodles are a staple to every meal, so it has been the hardest goal to stick to. I now allow myself pasta 1 to 3 times a week (believe me, this is a drastic cut), but sometimes I just really want a good noodle dish and cave. My third goal, started at the same time as Goal #2, was to switch all white flour and breads to whole wheat. This wasn't so hard because I hate the taste of white bread and eat only wheat anyway, but I switched to whole wheat pastas and I'm checking ingredient labels for "enriched" and "bleached" flour, trying to stay away from foods that contain them. Finally feeling comfortable with the success of these goals so far, I've decided it was time to start learning to cook for myself and add healthy dishes to my menu...but that's where the problems begin.

The only way I can describe my tastes is that I have the palette of a four year old. There are a lot more foods out there that I can't stomach than ones I'll gladly eat. It's more of a texture thing than a taste thing. For example: salad. I don't mind the taste of salad. At least I don't think I do. I can't be sure because I've never been able to swallow it, and believe me, I've tried. I've tried so hard to eat salad and like it, but the crunchy/veiny texture of the lettuce (or any greens, really) gets me every time and I always end up spitting it back out. I'm the same way with fruits. I just can't bite into an apple or enjoy a piece of melon. I'm even worse with vegetables...my mother has tried since my infancy to feed me raw vegetables, and it just isn't happening. Therefore my diet of "eatable" foods looks like this:

1. Protein: This is the one category where I will gladly eat anything.
2. Carbs: I'll eat anything that is a carb...like pasta...man, I really want some pasta...
3. Vegetables: They have to be steamed, never raw. I'll eat broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, corn, peas, and green beans.
4. Fruits: Bananas, blueberries, and grapes. Is apple sauce a fruit? I like apple sauce...
5. Dairy: Cheese and yogurt, yes please.

Among foods I can't eat because of the texture, there are of course foods I just don't like because of the taste. Number one being tomatoes. I really, really, really hate tomatoes. The only other taste aversion I have is milk. Again, milk is something my mom has tried to feed me since I was born, but I've never taken to it. You know those people on Fear Factor trying to eat bugs but they can't make it go down their throats, so they dance around squealing like little girls while shaking their head back and forth? That's how I am whenever I've tried to drink milk.

The final addition to my long list of foods I won't touch are my food allergies. I am deathly allergic to cherries (anyone seen the movie Hitch? Yeah, my reaction is pretty similar) and I don't respond well to butterscotch. Thankfully, neither of those allergies are too debilitating.

In the end, I really have a desire to eat better, but I feel like my palette strongly hinders this from happening. I'm always looking up healthy recipes, but rarely do I find one that is devoid of the dreaded lettuce and tomatoes, so I end up returning to my nightly dinners of Mac & Cheese and hotdogs. I also have to pack lunches for school, and I'm so tired of eating a turkey & swiss sandwich everyday. I've tried researching sandwich alternatives, but I feel the only one people can come up with is salad.

Is there anyone else out there like me? Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one. If I'm not, what do you eat?