How do I start or learn to like eating healthy?

Why not mimic the shapes and sizes of foods that you did eat before ? Or just smaller sizes. What did you eat ? If you can’t physically swallow it I would recommend you speak to a doctor. Mostly any fitness or healthier diet it just habit forming. You won’t get it perfect first time. But consistent trying will help you progress over time.

And it’s all about discipline as you won’t always be motivated. Good luck.

I cannot overemphasize the need for "flavor" when it comes to fruits and vegetables. Dips, sauces, and sprinkles are essential for me to be able to eat produce (or anything, really). My go-to's are ranch, Caesar, and blue cheese for dips. Cheese sauce, salsa, guacamole (or is that a dip?), marinara, stir-fry sauce, hot sauce, and BBQ sauce are good options, within the limits of your calorie budget of course. Flavored vinegars are also nice and a very low/no calorie option. Basalmic is very nice with most fruit. I also use buffalo wing dry seasoning, blackening seasoning, chile flakes of all kinds, salt and vinegar powder, and seasoned salts. I have a great local spice shop that makes all kinds of tasty spice blends that I explore from time to time as well. Obviously some of these choices are more caloric than others and that has to be balanced into your plan. I lost a great deal of my taste when I had Covid and I seriously doubt I could stand any vegetables and most fruits if I couldn't make them actually taste like something.

I feel ya. I am a texture girl. I like many foods more for the texture than the actual taste. Looking at you, digestive biscuits.

I grew up with limited fruits and vegetables. Lots of radishes, because they were cheap, lol, but they were one of the few fresh vegetables we got.

I grew up loathing peas, lima beans and especially asparagus because we only got canned, and the texture was abominable. Velvety would be being kind. I didn’t like that disintegrating mushy texture.

Canned fruit always had a tinny taste, or was a few pieces of unidentifiable chunks floating in thick syrup. Or was (gag me!) 1970’s “fruit cocktail”.

Canned was what I was raised with, and the only thing I knew. Frozen vegetables were suspect, as a result of the bad experience with canned.

It wasn’t til I was in my late 50’s, determined to lose weight, that I started really investigating fresh vegetables and fruits. It was a revelation. I didn’t know they could look, smell, taste or have texture other than mushy. Realizing I could eat peas without a gag reflex was a happy day. Realizing that fresh or frozen peas with a dab of honey were delicious- oh, my!

Asparagus is a particular favorite. I never had an avocado in my life til I started weight loss. My kids are razzing me right now that the star fruits we tried when they were young, I was too dumb to.know they weren’t ripe.

Cutting out a lot (def not all, I’m not a masochist) sugar has changed my taste buds. They taste so much better now. I have favorites in my rotation but I’m actually excited to try new ones.

Right now I’m obsessed with Rancho Gordon beans, and am particularly overjoyed that cherry season is unreasonably long this year, and the fruits have been magnificent. I’m going through pounds of the things.

Give yourself permission to try something new once a week. Check out the book How to Peel a Peach. Google for easy low cal recipes. Allrecipes has great ideas, and half the time the comments provide more useful information than the recipes themselves.

If you hate it, don’t like the texture, toss it and move on.

Someone wise here once said, “my body is not a garbage disposal”. Don’t eat it if it’s gross.

My maternal grandmother was a terrible cook, and the family legend tells how my mum only realised that sprouts were actually separate little vegetables when she married my dad and started cooking them herself (her mum had boiled them to mush).

My mum and dad taught themselves to be fabulous cooks, so I learned from the best However, if you’re starting from scratch and nervous about tastes or textures, I can see how it might be difficult to get started.

There’s a section in this forum called “Recipes” and a thread called ‘Show me what your meals look like (in pictures)’ - you could look for some examples there?

Maybe you could also casually ask your friends about their favourite recipes - if you like the sound of something you can maybe ask them to set aside a very small portion for you next time they cook it, so you can try lots of different things and decide what you like?

Try try try try... but don't force
Like, choose 1 fruit or vegetable to add to something you already eat.
You can sneak a lot in pasta sauce for exemple. You can blend it so you don't feel it and if you choose something with only a mild flavour, you won't taste it much either.

I feel fruit might be easier as they are sweeter, but if it's a texture thing I understand it's trickier.

When you find something you like, try to use it often ! And then, pair it with a new one, etc...

Slowly you'll find more and more healthy food to enjoy !

ninerbuff wrote: »

Lol, don't have anything in your house but those foods. A hungry person LEARNS how to like what they can ONLY EAT. Don't take my word for it. Ask guys who are in prison. Which BTW, obesity doesn't exist in high numbers there.
]

That would be prison for me. Worse, even.

Life is too short to play that particular mind game.

I don’t keep things in the house I know I’ll binge on, or, if I do, small quantities, like 9oz bags of tortilla chips instead of party sized for chilaquiles so none leftover to nosh on, small individually wrapped chocolate bars, in the freezer, because they have to thaw to taste good, which causes me to pause.

But not having anything I like? Hard NO. Outside of vitamins, I only eat things I enjoy eating.

That’s the only thing that will keep me sane and able to maintain a calorie balance.

Why not start with one fruit or veg, and try different ways of preparing them? Like others have said: hide in pasta or curry sauces. Steaming veg is often boring (but apparently quite common in the US), thus try tossing things into an oven dish with potatoes cut in fries like sticks, some protein and oil, bit of salt on top. Eat with.. dunno.. tsatsiki, hummus, ketchup even. Boil, stir-fry, microwave, or eat raw. So many options.

Roasting vegetables can be deliciously eye opening. My husband grew up hating-hating-hating Brussels Sprouts because the only way they were served in his childhood home was boiled to mush. I told him, "I bet I can change your mind on Brussels Sprouts," and to say he was skeptical is putting it lightly. But I tossed some fresh Sprouts (cut in half/fourths) in a little olive oil, sprinkled lightly with salt & pepper, and roasted them until the outer leaves were crunchy and the veg itself was cooked, but firm and bursting with flavor.

He couldn't believe it, but he loved them.

So many people here have talked about roasted vegetables that these are what I came on here to recommend for the OP.

SafariGalNYC wrote: »

Looking forward to OP’s findings..

Off to the unpopular opinions thread to talk about my beloved steamed veggies now 😂

I happen to like steamed vegetables. I keep trying to roast broccoli, but always go back to steamed. However, I start with RAW vegetables, and steam them VERY LIGHTLY so that they are still crunchy. I can't abide canned veggies or those that were cooked to death. Not a fan of frozen veggies, other than peas and corn. The peas I barely defrost.

SafariGalNYC wrote: »

Looking forward to OP’s findings..

Off to the unpopular opinions thread to talk about my beloved steamed veggies now 😂

It's weird: Seems like there have been multiple cases here recently where people talk about how awful steamed veggies are, or claim that people in the US eat lots of (or mostly) steamed veggies.

I don't perceive either of those to be solidly true.

Properly steamed veggies are good, but it's necessary to choose the right veggies, and not cook them to death, or undercook. They can be light, flavorful, crisp, colorful . . . delicious.

I'm not sure where the "everyone eats lots of them in the US" comes in. Maybe the "steam in bag" (in microwave) kind? Sometimes I buy those, but never steam them in the bag. People eat veggies a lot of ways here, IME . . . but a lot of people eat very few of them at all, if survey data is accurate.

Cook european cuisines.

Thanks for posting this to the forum. Is there anybody in your life who has a healthy food that they really enjoy? You guys could have a meal together and they can share why they enjoy it.

springlering62 wrote: »

People, weight loss does not automatically mean suffering and withdrawal from favorite foods. What it means is not scarfing half a pizza, a whole order of breadsticks, and half a liter of sugar soda.

Life. Way too short to eat unpleasant, nasty, “force yourself to lose weight” foods.

Preach it, sister! I lost 40+ lbs while still eating pizza and burgers and ice cream every week, just by having 2 slices instead of 4, 1 burger instead of 2, 2 scoops instead of 3.