Bad diet after catching up on me

stop eating bad food, start eating good food.

You're a grown man for fucks sake.

What do you want us to do? Tell you to hid your veg under your spuds and trick you into eating healthy food?

You know what is healthy, you know what you need to do. Go get it done.

You're situation is not odd in the slightest, you have a shitty diet and it's fucking up your digestion. You are the only person who can change it.

Eat more fresh food, stop eating junk food.

Jerrica wrote: »

Christ on a bike, what is wrong with you? If someone admitted they had an irrational phobia of snakes would you tell them to nut up and sit in a reptile house and gtf over it?

Alright, fair enough, I wasn't looking at it in that context. Apologies OP

But having my own irrational fears and tested them with aversion therapy has made some progress.

although I never committed fully to it. So to an extent, yes sit in a reptile house. Familiarity, education and exposure to my irrational fear has lessened it, and i'm sure that if I really committed mentally it would pass or be made easily manageable.

And looking at food Neophobia treatment for children seems to be exposure and routine. Basically eat it until you are accustomed to it.

Having had a similar situation with meat in school, where I couldn't face to eat meat from the canteen, or food which may resemble flesh. Burgers, and processed meats were fine, chicken legs, steaks with fat on were not. I simply forced my self to get over it.

I was veggie for 5 years because of it, until I realised that one day that meat like this was edible, wasn't disgusting and wasnt going to kill me or make me sick.

I don't remember the epiphany moment, but I do remember one day being sick to the stomach at the though of meat off the bone and pretty much the next salivating at chicken wings.

Still some foods that repulse me and not just meat. For example I can't stand broccoli, but yesterday shopping I bought a floret.

Cooked it with noodles while having a conversation with my missus about deliberately trying to change my attitude. She suggested trying cauliflower next, something I doubt ill ever do.
But I ate the broccoli no bother yesterday, with sliced strip loin steak with the fat still on, something that even 10 years ago would have turned my stomach.

One of the reasons the post piqued my interest was to some extent I can relate to that kind of food relationship, even if it is just to tell them to man up and eat the dinner.

I can list a whole slew of foods I still won't eat and it will have very little to do with taste, usually because I think I won't like it, or something about it repulses me.

Most middle eastern foods turn my stomach to look at and i'd never eat it, hummous, Baba ghanoush, cous cous etc. But there is a voice in my head which tells me I wont know until I try it. One day the voice over powers the irrational and I give it a go.

OP, one way of getting over it is to break down what you do eat.
So you're happy to eat southern fried chicken etc.

Well, take it into pieces, Southern fried chicken is breaded chicken breast, so you can eat chicken breast.

Its breaded in flour and spices, those spices are usually, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, mace, nutmeg, paprika, black pepper, ginger, basil, bay leaves, dried oregano, dried sage, dried thyme, salt in some proportions.

So you can probably eat chicken breast in any combination of those spices.

If you can eat a non-southern fried breast cooked in 1 or 2 of these flavours then youre half way to a healthy meal.

If you like chicken breast like that then you probably like turkey.

If you like turkey, then you probably like pork.

Now work on veg, no doubt you like chips, chips are potato, so you like potato, if you like potato then youll probably like sweet potato, if youll eat sweet potato then you will probably eat yams. if youre happy eating yams then you can probably eat squash, from squash to pumpkin, pumpkin.

So if you just logically break down your irrational aversion to foods then you'll find that you have already eaten quite a lot of different food already. and if you haven't eaten it you've eaten something similar to it.

You don't have to try and eat every food offered to you.
Ill refuse all seafood point blank, quite a lot of veg and certain meats.
but what is left makes up a good varied diet.

Also, I don't think the OP and I are strangers. I think I know him through work.

Which means I know how your eating habits will be forced on you:
One meal a day, often a buffet. Where you have no choice in what is available.

either that or late night fast food, convenience food: spar and centra, kebab shops and chippers. If that's the case then you need to just take control of what you eat.

Long shifts means not much time to cook, night work means very little time to shop. You wont get more than a 20 minute break for food normally, and if you do you cant go far from work anyway.

I managed it by learning to stirfry, buying food in advance and prepping it on my days of that way I can finish work at 8am turn on the hob and in 5 minutes have a healthy dinner.

I never bothered to bring in lunches, but if you really struggle with food then prepare your own dinners.

As someone who rapidly transformed their diet for health purposes, I have a suggestion or two as to the approach you could take.

- First is the hardest, but rather than having notions of what something might taste like (i.e. interpreting the look of something and translating that into a perceived taste or texture before trying it), try and assume the position that everything is ok, unless proved otherwise by tasting. I realise that's the hardest thing to do and the complete opposite to now, but start early and you'll eventually get to that frame of mind. What I mean is don't sit around tentatively tasting foods waiting for your mind to automatically start thinking that - it will take active trying to do it.

As a single example (one of hundreds, trust me) until this year I had never eaten an avocado (& therefore any food with it in it, or any derivative of it such as guacamole) because it looked to me like it would be slimy and earthy. It turns out, it's refreshingly smooth and neutral to light sweet tasting!

- Aim for singular foods (even look into the paleo diet meals for inspiration). For example don't jump into tasting chicken paella. Worst case there's 1 ingredient in there that you don't like (or it's even just cooked badly) and by extension, you will probably be put off any other meals that have the active ingredients of paella in them!
Build up your base of staple foods slowly - for example plain pork chops (which you can add a dip to if there's one you know you like e.g. sweet chili), raw peeled carrots, and 1 big lettuce leaf (both rinsed under cold water). Eventually you will like enough individual ingredients to try a "mixed together" meal that has them all in it

- Test different combinations of herbs and spices for your meat and grill or stirfry them. I'd recommend using plain chicken breasts are your base meat. Look online for examples, but basic things like covering raw chicken in olive oil, lemon juice, and crushed garlic. Paprika and yogurt or sour cream is also a good example, and will maybe trick you into viewing it as a junk food smothered in whatever sauce it's coming in!

- Try blending fruit and veg. Some strawberrys, a banana, some cucumber, and a bit of water is a great way of condensing healthy food into a sweet drink. But note: blend until smooth! If there's small lumps that could put you off blending entirely.

Lastly, just think of your health both physically and mentally, is something potentially not having a nice texture better or worse than sitting on the bowl 5 hours a day!
Food has literally been re-born for me; it's hugely liberating really enjoying your food and finally being able to look over a restaurant menu and look forward to trying something, rather than skipping everything on it that has even 1 ingredient that you have never tried and being stuck if bbq ribs or pizza isn't offered! I guarantee with a bit of work you can reach the same point.

Good luck!

Regarding this post I was wondering have you managed to overcome your fear? I'm in the same boat and if you have I'd love to know how you did. Cheers!