Need help with the whole eating healthy thing!

Hi

Well done on the exercise. For me, that was the last thing to to fall in to place so good job!

As for food, don't worry too much about what you're eating as long as you are sticking to that number! Your body pays attention to the calorie deficit first and foremost. I absolutely HATE fruit - apart from apples and bananas, otherwise I won't touch it. The only vegetables I like are broccoli and asparagus! I try and make sure I'm eating them but again, if I don't eat a single vegetable all day - I'm not going to beat myself up over it! Do what works for you, stick with the exercise, stick with the deficit and you'll be fine!

You can chop vegetables up into small pieces and add them to pasta sauce, soups or stir fry. Also, vegetables are so much better on the grill, so if you haven't tried that, I'd highly recommend it. Oven roasted is good, too, but to me....grill is best.

My favorite way to pre-make vegies is to roast them in the oven. If you at least semi-like potatoes and carrots, try roasting the following FRESH VEGETABLES (start with fresh not frozen or canned! -- though i like some frozen veggies, honestly) in the oven. First cube them into ~.75-1" chunks, toss them with some olive oil, lay them out in one layer on a baking sheet, sprinkle salt pepper and garlic powder on top, then roast for 15 minutes at 350 degrees, take them out and turn them around a bit and sprinkle them again with some salt pepper and garlic powder, then roast in 10-15-min increments (turning them each time) until they're done. Might take some of these about 30-45 min, but it depends on the size you cut them. They're done when a fork can easily slide into them, but they're not yet mushy (many will have a little bit of black edges from their sugar content caramelizing) and they should smell like a shishkabob. Once they're cooked, you can eat them then, or store them in the fridge and just eat them cold, or reheat if you like. Toss with some italian/vineagrette dressing, if you like.

sweet potato, potato, carrot, rutabaga, turnips, sweet red peppers, pumpkin, parsnips, beet, radish, onion, leeks, brussels sprouts, daikon, yam, yuca, jicama, breadroot

Until you have tried at least 80% of the above, you are not allowed to say you don't like vegetables. After the above exercise you can move into roasting/steaming/sauteeing the following vegetables (preferably in butter and add some salt pepper and garlic powder at the end), or just try them raw and see if you like them:

kale, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, carrots, onions, sweet red pepper, fresh sweet corn (raw won't work), asparagus, bok choy, cabbage, collards, swiss chard

Again, until you have tried at least 80% of these raw and sauteed in butter, you simply aren't allowed to claim you don't like vegetables. Try any of these (but the corn) raw with some cesar or ranch dressing.

I don't know how good this cookbook is but if your library has a copy it may be worth checking out:

Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld

The recipes "hide" veggies in them, from what I've heard.

Smoothies with spinach and kale can be a great veggie kick for the day, but make sure your liquid is low in calorie as well as any protein powder. If you blend that up, you won't even taste it. Put some banana or other strong fruit with a low cal almond milk or something, and you've got most of your day's veggies (just pack in that spinach). Besides. spinach is a superfood.

My sister is the pickiest ever! Squash and zucchini are a few that I love. I also love kale! Pinterest has some great cooking ideas as well. Good luck! Keep up the good work!