Don’t eat food you don’t like.
If the thought of oatmeal in the morning makes you want to go back to bed, avoid oatmeal. If steamed vegetables make you dread dinner, prepare your vegetables in another way. There is so much good healthy food in the world that we don’t need to force ourselves to eat what we don’t enjoy. Eating foods you don’t love will make you less happy and more likely to give up on newfound healthy habits.
How do you make healthy food (especially vegetables) more tasty?
- Add flavor. Salt, acid and fresh or dried herbs can make a boring dish delicious. Toss veggies with a vinaigrette, dip them in hummus or other salty dip, or cook them with olive oil, salt, and garlic. When food is flavorful, you won’t think about the fact that it’s healthy, you’ll just notice that it’s good.
- Try roasting. This method of cooking – which is just baking at a high temperature (400-450) – brings out the sweetness and adds a tasty caramelized crunch to any vegetable. If you don’t like a veggie steamed, try roasting it and you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more
- Add vegetables to dishes you already love. You don’t have to stop eating chili, pasta, stewed meat, or any other meal you love – just replace some of the meat/noodles/cheese in a recipe with vegetables, so the same meals have fewer calories and more nutritional value.
- Make soups. Almost all soups start with vegetables, and because all the ingredients meld together during cooking, soups offer a unique opportunity to load up on veggies without really knowing it. I like to think of soup as a “warm salad” that feels a lot more indulgent than it is.
- Eat a variety of foods. All of us get bored of the same old thing, day after day. To keep yourself interested in healthy foods, try a new food or recipe at least once a week.
Remember, healthy eating needs to be long term in order to promote weight loss, so learning how to enjoy healthy eating is a key to success!
No Comments