Healthy Life Confessions

Confession time! (By the way, I have no idea what the above picture is from. It’s bizarre, was it a magazine? Don’t know but I liked it.)

My healthy living lifestyle hasn’t always been an easy road.  I used to prefer processed foods that didn’t require anything other than a microwave in order to eat. I didn’t cook, I didn’t want to spend much time in the kitchen and I liked junk food. Making the transition to healthier living was a hard one.

The first big change I made was switching my regular soda to diet soda. It was disgusting. I hated it. It tasted weird, it tasted like chemicals, I had to choke it down. But after a few weeks, I got used to that and didn’t mind it so much. After I got used to drinking diet, regular soda tasted strange! Eventually I made the switch to sparkling water because I didn’t like how the diet soda made me feel.

I had to retrain my taste buds, too. There were a lot of healthy foods I didn’t really like because I never ate them. I learned to like some things and eventually learned to love and prefer the healthier options.

Healthy Foods I Learned to Like

Cottage Cheese – I hated this for years! It was so gross. I hated the flavor, or lack of, and the texture. Eventually I started liking it because I mixed it into salads and dinners. Now I can eat it plain. Cottage cheese is a great low calorie snack option because the high protein fills you up.

Cooked Spinach – As a kid I refused to eat spinach. My mom would try to make me and I’d gag and spit it out. That followed me into my adulthood and I avoided all spinach. What made me change my mind was meeting Michael. He made me a spinach salad and I really liked it. Then he made me a scrambled egg dish with feta and spinach and I shockingly enjoyed that too!

Plain Greek Yogurt – Yogurt for me was that super sugary crap like Yoplait. Sugar, sweet, fruit, it was more like a dessert than a healthy snack! I slowly made the change to Greek yogurt and liked the texture a lot. Chobani was my favorite and I stuck to the fruit flavors I liked. Eventually I switched to plain and added my own fresh fruit. My palate definitely changed and I prefer that now.

Brussels Sprouts – One word: BACON. That’s how I grew to love Brussels sprouts. 🙂

Onions – How I learned to like onions was French Onion soup. Who doesn’t like caramelized onions?!? Now I can eat onions in salads raw, cooked, anything.

Squash – I hated all kinds of squash as a kid. It was both the flavor and the texture. I learned to like it when my friend Star baked some acorn squash with brown sugar. It was like a dessert! Yum! Then I tried spaghetti squash as a substitute for pasta noodles. Loved it! And it’s so low in calories.

Healthy Foods I Dislike

Mushrooms – Yuck, yuck, yuck. Hate mushrooms and always will. The flavor, the texture, the smell, everything. I can’t even eat food that has mushrooms in it.

Green Tea – I still don’t like the flavor. It’s bitter, I just can’t take it. I know it’s good for me, so I take green tea supplements instead.

Oysters – I know these are healthy and popular but I just can’t do it. The texture and size of oysters just gross me out. I’d rather eat clams or mussels!

Mango – I love all fruit but for some reason mangoes are not one of them. Papayas are kind of up there too.

Other Confessions

I don’t understand the whole “oats in a jar” phenomenon in the blog world. Seriously, someone explain it to me. What’s wrong with a bowl?

I miss running races, I miss the camaraderie. That’s all.

Sometimes I get burned out with working out 5 days a week and wish I had the strength to take an entire week off and not worry the whole time that I will gain weight or fall off the exercise wagon.

I think what I miss most from my “previous life” was not having the awareness of calorie counts. Sometimes I just want to drink a 600 calorie strawberry daiquiri with whipped cream and eat half a pizza but knowing how many calories that would be turns me off from the idea.

One of my fantasy vacations is a week long stay at a resort/retreat like this. A week of fitness classes, yoga, hiking in the wilderness, meditation and spa treatments? Sign me up! (First thing I’m doing when I win the lottery.)

QUESTION: Do you have any healthy living confessions you want to share? Any healthy foods you just can’t make yourself like?