Healthy eating tricks

When I make soup or chili that require beans. I'll mash them so no one knows there in there but still get the health benefit. It thickens it too.

It's sounds like you are on the right track. I think to some extent you can train your tastes. I was totally anti-brown rice up until this year. I almost started a brown rice hate group on FB, that's how much I despised it. I've been trying to train myself to like it and something kind of clicked the last time I made it. It was actually pretty darn good! I don't know if I wasn't cooking it long enough or what, but I really liked it. I've found white rice takes about 20-25 minutes to cook but brown takes 30-35, or even a little longer if you take it off the heat and let it sit for a bit afterwards. I also bought the most expensive brand in the grocery store to make sure I was getting quality stuff since it already didn't have much of a chance.

Great tips though, thank you!

We use Dreamfields spaghetti/pastas to have less carbs/sugars in our diet. The whole family likes it! Including kids! http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com/

Do you like salsa? Great way to add veggies! If so try to find an all natural brand like Garden Fresh Salsa (they are in the deli area) and try adding that into your rice. Even I the biggest veggie hater will eat that!! (Actually, it is the only veggies I get in at all)

2) Veg- I'm absolutely awful with veg. I really really hate it, and eating it on it's own, as a side etc, turns my stomach. I've been like this since I was a kid( despite being forced to eat it) and haven't yet grown out of it! But, I know how vital it is to a healthy diet, so I'm trying to increase my intake, although slowly for now.

My trick for this is to cut/grate the veg into small pieces, so that I don't actually bite into it. I enjoy the taste of some veg in other foods, but not when eaten on it's own. So I'll add small bits of veg to my meals and trick myself into eating them. I also enjoy the taste of veg soup, so blending veg to make a soup helps me a lot.

You could try roasting the vegetables instead of eating them raw and see if you like them better that way.

v8 juice in your soups, pasta sauces, meatloafs, wherever you would put a tomato sauce....

So, how do you trick yourself into eating healthier?

Foods aren't necessarily healthier but the composition of your entire diet. Moderation is the key to success, a happy life, and a healthy one at that. The USDA has something called the discretionary calorie allowance. Consuming 10-20% of your calories from "non-healthy sources" (they are talking specifically in terms of exogenous sugar) has the same health effects as eating 100% of your diet from "healthy sources." Very few people realize this thus the results you see in most studies comparing flexible dieting and strict dieting. The flexible dieters maintain their fat loss over long periods of time whereas strict dieters almost always fail.

1) I know whole grains are better, and that complex carbs are much better for me, but I really dislike brown rice. I don't know why, but I just can't seem to eat it. So, I've started mixing it in with white rice. 3parts white-1 part brown, and working from there to half and half and so on. The white rice seems to hide the brown rice to an extent and I'm hoping I'm teaching myself how to eat brown rice while getting slightly healthier meals. Eventually, I might be able to eat tbrown on it's own!

This is a misconception. Whole grains aren't necessarily better. If you start consuming plenty of whole grain sources on a daily basis then it can inhibit the uptake of some nutrients. Balance is the key. Even then, whole grains are quite overrated. There are many studies that have shown that one's diet being composed 50% of processed grains and 50% from whole grains had similar results to someone on 100% whole grains. Want to know the funny thing? The researchers, to save their bias tails, mention in the study that they still recommend people not to eat that many processed grains. World is littered with agendas, my friends.

2) Veg- I'm absolutely awful with veg. I really really hate it, and eating it on it's own, as a side etc, turns my stomach. I've been like this since I was a kid( despite being forced to eat it) and haven't yet grown out of it! But, I know how vital it is to a healthy diet, so I'm trying to increase my intake, although slowly for now.

Eat what you want! If you don't like it on its own or on the side then eat it how you ENJOY it. There are hundreds of vegetables and so many to try and taste. Even then, try different cooking methods. Raw broccoli is gross but once you steam it and cover it in cheese sauce it's the bomb. Or what about beef and broccoli, the classic chinese-american dish? I eat almost 500g of broccoli a day that way.

Even then, raw vegetables, as many other things you've said, are overrated.Cook them. They taste better that way and deliver them in a fashion that you enjoy.

(Please no ''Just eat clean", "Just eat the veg" comments. I know the benefits, I know what's healthiest, but it doesn't work for me.

Lose the word "clean." It's a horrific word that's produced more failed weight loss than anything on this planet. There's no such thing as clean eating. It's a figment of the dieting community's imagination. You don't know what the healthiest is so I think you should come to terms with that as well.