Help - for weight loss/healthier diet

muselover

I know it's an age-old cliché - we all want to lose weight, go to the gym, be healthy. But I feel I need some advice.

I was always a fussy eater, ever since the age of four. Apparently before that I ate everything, and then from about four onwards I got really picky. My parents blame it on my developing a sweet tooth. Since then, I won't eat any fruit, vegetables, salads, or fish.

I was lucky as a child and teenager I was very slim, remaining a size UK 8 until I was about 19. Then once I hit college and entered my 20s, the metabolism slowed down, I put on the fresher's stone, then another, then another...

About two years ago, I got really motivated to go to the gym, I went three times a week, snacked only on nuts, lost about a stone. I felt great.
Then I finished college, got a desk job, stopped going, and piled it all on again.

I'm now 25, almost 15st and my confidence in how I look is at an all time low.

I joined Slimming World a couple of months ago but I haven't stuck to the plan really. I still go and get weighed every week but I'm usually fluctuating between being up or down a pound, nothing to write home about.
I think Slimming World is really good and most people I know who have gone have done well from it, but the biggest problem for me is my diet -- I am literally repulsed by anything healthy, and Slimming World places emphasis on all the things you CAN eat..problem is I don't like any of them!

I mainly live on carbs and meat, the thoughts of eating vegetables or salad makes my stomach turn. I did go to a hypnotherapist about it but at €100 a session I couldn't afford to keep going, and by the sounds of it, hypnotherapy for weight loss usually works on people who do eat healthy food, just need the motivation to. My problem is I have such a fear of it I feel I will vomit if I eat it.

What can I do as I'm at the end of my tether... I don't want to waste the rest of my twenties hating myself?!

Any advice from nutritionists, fitness gurus, hypnotherapists etc welcome!

Windorah

Hi Op,

I think you need to see either a counsellor or a hypnotist for your issues with fruit and veg. It's just not possible to have a healthy diet without either! That's probably not what you wanted to hear but It will be worth it!

Otherwise you could slowly start introducing maybe one fruit and one veg a week. Maybe carrot sticks for lunch and an apple after work and work your way up.

foxy06

I could have written that op myself. I've always struggled with weight though. I've been able to pinpoint the time as a kid when I stopped eating veggies. My brother was eating a salad when he realised it wasnt washed and was covered in spiders...haven't eaten any salad since. I can eat some veg but only blended in a soup. It's nothing to do with taste it's just a complete revulsion of anything that came out of the ground. Especially anything crunchy. I can eat fruit no problem though which is a help. The hardest part is that it's embarrassing and people just don't understand it. I was thinking of trying hypnosis but like you I couldn't afford 100€ a pop for something that may not even work.

I'm of no help to you really but just to let you know you are not alone.

Latatian

Can you tolerate any fruit or veg? What about vegetables WITH carbs or meat- carrots in stews, vegetables in a strong thai green curry, sliced veg in a chinese takeaway, peas in stir fried rice, cabbage or kale in colcannon, lettuce in wraps, that kind of thing? Foxy06's suggestion of soup is an excellent one.

I would try first expanding your palate- trying different textures, tastes, styles of food, even if it's new carbs and meats it doesn't matter. Different recipes, spices, strong or different flavours. Try curried goat or something, get yourself in a pattern of trying new things and getting excited to try new things. Go try Polish foods, Chinese foods (both of these cultures have excellent meat-and-carb dumplings), Indian foods- doesn't matter if it's all carbs and meats, learn more about the tastes and textures you like.

Once you've done that, try tasting small amounts of vegetables. If you try to go straight to eating a huge bowl of plain salad you're going to reinforce your aversion and make yourself feel unwell. Use small portions, literally cook/make a small taste and put it on your plate. A single chocolate strawberry, a small spoonful of peas with ginger and soya sauce/curry sauce/tabasco, a small amount of tomato soup, a carrot stick with some peanut butter/hummus/salsa/garlic mayo, whatever. Use very small amounts and just taste it- stop there if you don't want any more. Then try again another time. It takes more than one tasting of a food to build up a tolerance, takes a bit of patience too. Even if you don't like it the first time, you might the fifth- sounds crazy I know. But again, make each a small neutral taste, not forcing yourself to work through a big serving of it. Don't put pressure on yourself or think about how you 'should be doing better' or whatever. This isn't about 'doing better' it's about eating tasty stuff.

Once you can handle a vegetable- you don't need to like it even, just a 'meh'- you could try incorporating it into something you do like. So a few peas stirred through a chilli. Mashed sweet potato or celeriac or carrot with/alongside your potato mash. Lentils (Indian dahl) with your curry.

Part of the problem could be thinking about things as 'healthy'- there's a lot of baggage associated with that like 'not tasty' etc. I disliked lentils until I stopped thinking about them that way. Maybe if you think of it as 'this new thing I am trying because I like food and hey, any food I like was new to me once', then it might help?

You can develop little workarounds for these ways of thinking for yourself. Even if you like broccoli deep fried, battered, and with a nice sauce, then you can truthfully say to yourself 'I ate broccoli and enjoyed it'. Don't let other people's tastes influence this- this is about finding what you like. Once you know you like broccoli it will be easier to eat it another, more 'usual' way- hell, at least you found a way to enjoy it. Start where you are and gradually move to where you want to be, it's more sustainable to make smaller changes at a time, and then get into the habit of it. I hated fish for ages. I still can't stand salmon, I'm nowhere near done yet. But I started on cheap fish fingers (they just taste like batter) and ended up preparing a whole chard (a whole fish stuffed with spices and steamed) and enjoying it. I used small portions, gradually moved from 'less healthy' to 'healthy', and slapped on the flavours. Before that I stayed with people who ate fish all the time, threw myself into it, ate species I couldn't even name, and ended up (weirdly) detesting it much more afterwards.

'Healthy' doesn't need to mean eating like in the foody magazines. Find foods you enjoy that are low in calories or rich in vitamins and try incorporating them into your diet more. Check on your portion sizes and whether they are too high (or calculate calories for a 'typical' meal) and use smaller plates and cook less. Work out how just much you need to eat to be satisfied. Often it's less than you think, particularly if you eat slowly and give yourself time to realise when you are no longer hungry. If you use smaller plates, serving dishes, and pots to cook in, you are less likely to eat too much and cook too much. If most of the 'unhealthy' foods you have need preparation, then you'll eat them when you actually want them rather than on impulse.

If you can build up good habits you'll be better off so make it easy for yourself to do that. Keep the foods you want to eat more of at eye level in your cupboards, at the front, make unhealthier foods a little harder to prepare or access or see, and keep fruit somewhere you can see it and it looks appetizing.

Latatian

Can you tolerate any fruit or veg? What about vegetables WITH carbs or meat- carrots in stews, vegetables in a strong thai green curry, sliced veg in a chinese takeaway, peas in stir fried rice, cabbage or kale in colcannon, lettuce in wraps, that kind of thing? Foxy06's suggestion of soup is an excellent one.

I would try first expanding your palate- trying different textures, tastes, styles of food, even if it's new carbs and meats it doesn't matter. Different recipes, spices, strong or different flavours. Try curried goat or something, get yourself in a pattern of trying new things and getting excited to try new things. Go try Polish foods, Chinese foods (both of these cultures have excellent meat-and-carb dumplings), Indian foods- doesn't matter if it's all carbs and meats, learn more about the tastes and textures you like.

Once you've done that, try tasting small amounts of vegetables. If you try to go straight to eating a huge bowl of plain salad you're going to reinforce your aversion and make yourself feel unwell. Use small portions, literally cook/make a small taste and put it on your plate. A single chocolate strawberry, a small spoonful of peas with ginger and soya sauce/curry sauce/tabasco, a small amount of tomato soup, a carrot stick with some peanut butter/hummus/salsa/garlic mayo, whatever. Use very small amounts and just taste it- stop there if you don't want any more. Then try again another time. It takes more than one tasting of a food to build up a tolerance, takes a bit of patience too. Even if you don't like it the first time, you might the fifth- sounds crazy I know. But again, make each a small neutral taste, not forcing yourself to work through a big serving of it. Don't put pressure on yourself or think about how you 'should be doing better' or whatever. This isn't about 'doing better' it's about eating tasty stuff.

Once you can handle a vegetable- you don't need to like it even, just a 'meh'- you could try incorporating it into something you do like. So a few peas stirred through a chilli. Mashed sweet potato or celeriac or carrot with/alongside your potato mash. Lentils (Indian dahl) with your curry.

Part of the problem could be thinking about things as 'healthy'- there's a lot of baggage associated with that like 'not tasty' etc. I disliked lentils until I stopped thinking about them that way. Maybe if you think of it as 'this new thing I am trying because I like food and hey, any food I like was new to me once', then it might help?

You can develop little workarounds for these ways of thinking for yourself. Even if you like broccoli deep fried, battered, and with a nice sauce, then you can truthfully say to yourself 'I ate broccoli and enjoyed it'. Don't let other people's tastes influence this- this is about finding what you like. Once you know you like broccoli it will be easier to eat it another, more 'usual' way- hell, at least you found a way to enjoy it. Start where you are and gradually move to where you want to be, it's more sustainable to make smaller changes at a time, and then get into the habit of it. I hated fish for ages. I still can't stand salmon, I'm nowhere near done yet. But I started on cheap fish fingers (they just taste like batter) and ended up preparing a whole chard (a whole fish stuffed with spices and steamed) and enjoying it. I used small portions, gradually moved from 'less healthy' to 'healthy', and slapped on the flavours. Before that I stayed with people who ate fish all the time, threw myself into it, ate species I couldn't even name, and ended up (weirdly) detesting it much more afterwards.

'Healthy' doesn't need to mean eating like in the foody magazines. Find foods you enjoy that are low in calories or rich in vitamins and try incorporating them into your diet more. Check on your portion sizes and whether they are too high (or calculate calories for a 'typical' meal) and use smaller plates and cook less. Work out how just much you need to eat to be satisfied. Often it's less than you think, particularly if you eat slowly and give yourself time to realise when you are no longer hungry. If you use smaller plates, serving dishes, and pots to cook in, you are less likely to eat too much and cook too much. If most of the 'unhealthy' foods you have need preparation, then you'll eat them when you actually want them rather than on impulse.

If you can build up good habits you'll be better off so make it easy for yourself to do that. Keep the foods you want to eat more of at eye level in your cupboards, at the front, make unhealthier foods a little harder to prepare or access or see, and keep fruit somewhere you can see it and it looks appetizing.

Mellor

muselover wrote: »

Since then, I won't eat any fruit, vegetables, salads, or fish.

but the biggest problem for me is my diet -- I am literally repulsed by anything healthy,

That's a very childish attitude tbh.

What fruit and veg have you tried. How was it cooked.
They all taste bad when boiled into slop.


Do you eat mashed potato? What about chips?
what's a typical day eating, for example what did you have last Saturday and Sunday.

Irishcrx

I'm going to bring you some good news , it is not essential to eat fruit and veg in order to lose weight and or gain muscle. In an ideal world , we would all eat them because yes they are good to you but the fact is some people just cannot/will not yet very many of them. I'm included in this, I do eat some but I mainly get my fruit intake through smoothie and veg through juicing, have you thought about them options?

Anyway , the fruit and veg is not your main issue , your main issue is setting a goal for yourself and having the motivation to stick with it and see it through to lose the weight on a consistant basis.

You need to eat less , be in a caloric deficet and be looking to lose between 1-2 pounds a week. Take your body weight in pounds and multiply that number by 15 , this is around your daily maintenance level (Amount you need to eat to maintain current weight) not subtract 500 - 700 calories a day from this number , this is what you need to eat to lose 1-2 pounds a week.

Download my fitness pal and track what you are eating for a week with no changes (And don't lie) now you will have a clearer picture of where you are going wrong and be able to adjust your diet accordingly. Go to the gym if you want to add that but weight loss is done through your diet , gym is a bonus for burning extra calories or if your looking to build muscle.

It isn't fruit and veg , carbs vs fats or anything for you at this stage , it's about eating less and in smaller portions. If you took everything your eating now and just eat half of that at every meal you'd still lose weight.

Irishcrx

I'm going to bring you some good news , it is not essential to eat fruit and veg in order to lose weight and or gain muscle. In an ideal world , we would all eat them because yes they are good to you but the fact is some people just cannot/will not yet very many of them. I'm included in this, I do eat some but I mainly get my fruit intake through smoothie and veg through juicing, have you thought about them options?

Anyway , the fruit and veg is not your main issue , your main issue is setting a goal for yourself and having the motivation to stick with it and see it through to lose the weight on a consistant basis.

You need to eat less , be in a caloric deficet and be looking to lose between 1-2 pounds a week. Take your body weight in pounds and multiply that number by 15 , this is around your daily maintenance level (Amount you need to eat to maintain current weight) not subtract 500 - 700 calories a day from this number , this is what you need to eat to lose 1-2 pounds a week.

Download my fitness pal and track what you are eating for a week with no changes (And don't lie) now you will have a clearer picture of where you are going wrong and be able to adjust your diet accordingly. Go to the gym if you want to add that but weight loss is done through your diet , gym is a bonus for burning extra calories or if your looking to build muscle.

It isn't fruit and veg , carbs vs fats or anything for you at this stage , it's about eating less and in smaller portions. If you took everything your eating now and just eat half of that at every meal you'd still lose weight.

Macy0161

I wouldn't get hung up or use the excuse of the fruit and veg thing. You not sticking to the plan is the main issue I see. You have to get your head in the right place before worrying about what you will or won't eat.

I'm not sure about how slimming world works, but my experience is that incremental changes to diet are more sustainable than a big bang from "unhealthy" to "healthy" - I'd aim for "healthier" first, and start with portion control.

Personally, I've had to work on my development of my taste for fruit and veg. It was actually stupid things like doing that Sacred Heart Soup Diet years ago that put me off a lot of veg (particularly sweet peppers), but I've gradually come around. I didn't have my first salad through choice until the last year or so - it was actually the dressings that I discovered I didn't like (and the obsession restaurants/ pubs have for coldslaw/ mayo additions).

Zillah

You should probably consider seeing a therapist to deal with your mental hang ups around food to be honest. It's one thing to say you don't enjoy them, it's another entirely to say the very idea repulses you. Might also help you address your tendency to overeat generally.

Penny Tration

Have you not tried things like making veg into soup? You won't taste it if you throw some stock in, blends with no lumps, simple.

Really though, given the mere idea of veg repulses you, you seem to have food issues that we here aren't qualified to help with.

muselover

foxy06 wrote: »

It's nothing to do with taste it's just a complete revulsion of anything that came out of the ground. Especially anything crunchy.

Yes! The fact that it's grown in the ground freaks me out too!

Penny Tration

muselover wrote: »

Yes! The fact that it's grown in the ground freaks me out too!

But the carbs you eat are either grown in the ground or made from things grown in the ground? The meat you eat, is made from animals fed in things that grow in the ground.

Literally everything you eat has some connection to being grown in the ground.

Honestly you sound like you have some pretty big issues with food that you need to address with a professional.

endacl

Hi OP. You don't need to see a hypnotherapist. You're a grownup. You know you should be eating fruit and veg. Just eat fruit and veg.

It's no big deal. You're just not used to it. Seeking professional help is only making a big problem out of not a problem.

endacl

muselover wrote: »

Yes! The fact that it's grown in the ground freaks me out too!

Does the fact that all the meat you eat is sliced off a faeces filled tube not freak you out more?

gubbie

I used to be so fussy when I was younger. I hated vegetables. I never ate a cucumber until I was about 18. Tastes change though, and now, although I still don't like plenty of vegetables, there are loads more that I do like. Everyone's right when they say just try it. You will find something you like.

Irishcrx

Guys,

Just to point out that some people do have genuine issues with eating fruit and veg as much as a veggie is repulsed by meat , or someone afraid of heights isn't going to be comfortable rock climbing.

It is a real issue and it's not as simple as 'ah sure your a big boy just eat it'.

I know this because I suffered from it , If I put a banana in my mouth and tried to scoff it down with water...I threw it back up , Apple? Threw it back up...Califlower mixed into potatoe? Threw it back, also nearly choked trying this method..

In the end I juiced them and got used to that, but people who are repulsed by fruit and veg have these issues and it isn't that easy to overcome them whatever may have caused them to begin with , they are that way now.

Even I know how important to the diet they are, I think their very natural and have tried very hard to eat them whole but for whatever reason , taste/texture...my brain/body rejects them immediatly.

Macy0161

I wouldn't say issues aren't real. Maybe there's two different questions though.

For weight loss, the OP needs to work out their deficit and stick to it, whether that includes fruit and veg or not.

For healthier eating, they need to work on their aversion to fruit, but perhaps more especially veg. Texture, and therefore how it's cooked can effect that.

I'm not completely convinced though, and this isn't aimed at the OP - I know people who "hate" veg, won't eat it, list the reasons stated above (coming out of the ground etc). They still eat potatoes though, which also come out of the ground - so won't eat a carrot, will eat a bag of chips...

Mellor

Irishcrx wrote: »

Guys,

Just to point out that some people do have genuine issues with eating fruit and veg as much as a veggie is repulsed by meat , or someone afraid of heights isn't going to be comfortable rock climbing

I don't think anyone was suggesting the issues don't exist. People, like yourself, do have an adversion to fruit/veg. But it's a psychological condition, it's not based on the tast of fruit and veg. As across the whole spectrum, different fruits and veg taste nothing alike.

Also, it's worth pointing out that while it absolutely is a real issue. Not everyone who says they can't eat veg genuinely has that issue. A lot of the time, it's just a case they only know typical Irish overlooked veg.

Zillah

Irishcrx wrote: »

Just to point out that some people do have genuine issues with eating fruit and veg as much as a veggie is repulsed by meat , or someone afraid of heights isn't going to be comfortable rock climbing.

I'm a vegetarian and I don't think meat will ever stop being appealing. If someone has a psychological aversion to a specific food that is a sign of an unhealthy mental relationship with food, and it is something that should be treated rather than enabled.

A lot of overweight people have anxiety issues around food. I've noticed a lot of overweight people in my life tend to be fussy eaters, with strong and arbitrary feelings around liking or disliking different things - without even trying them.

It's not the same as "No I do not like the taste of that", and shouldn't be treated as though it was something that simple. It's an issue for their therapist/psychologist.

Irishcrx

I take everyone's points above as being perfectly valid.

What I am saying is , maybe the OP does have an unhealthy relationship with food and yes it's definately a mental issue that has me the way I am with fruit and veg , but the mind is powerful , as with the body it can be manipulated by you into telling it what it has to do...lose weight , build muscle and eat right.

What I am saying is , it doesn't have to be a huge deal it can be gotten around without having to see a doctor or therapist, juicing worked for me , obviously my issue is with the texture of fruit and veg...I don't know why that is and I don't care anymore, I'm getting it into me in one way or another and the rest of my diet is fine.

The OP can do the same and lose the weight he wants , it doesn't have to be the be all and end all of it.

endacl

But juicing alone will overload you with sugars, while not getting any of the pulp/fibre from the fruit and veg. Not saying it's bad. Far from it. But it's not good enough in many ways.

Blending would be a much better option. Hands up here. I love my Nutribullet. Two mahoosive smoothies a day. I'd say I have more fruit and veg in a month than I would have had in a year previously. I'm probably about 25% spinach by mass at this point!