:: No vegetables/salad/fruit for over 10 years? ::

[autoboy]

undefinedundefinedundefinedI am 27 years old 64kg with about 7% body fat. I am putting about 700kms on the road and 2 gym sessions.

i compete in australia at an elite level in my own state and am just starting to look at national road races which also means i have to have a closer look at the finer points of my training routine etc.....

here is my problem - for over 10 years i have not eaten any type of vegetable except potato and i mean nothing, i pick the small pieces of onion out of pasta etc. I also do not eat salad except the occasional lettuce leaf and the only fruit is an apple very rairly. This makes it very difficult to eat at peoples houses and food in general very boring, i don't really get sick the occasional cold once a year and generally very fit.

Most people would have a heart attack if they knew just what my diet consisted of and i am not proud of it, but it has been the way i have eaten for so long and till now i have never had a reason to change.

My problem lies in the thought of eating the stuff, by the time the food gets into my mouth i am already trying to dry-reach, i do try every now and again with a small spoon of peas etc but it always ends the same with me wanting to throw up.

I am now at the point where something needs to happen and my coach and team say it's time to shape up. After a recent trip away my secret has come out. I have in the past week tried some salad, eggs etc successfully trying to concentrate on the flavour and not the texture.

I am open to suggestions for help at this stage and am hoping soon to look at putting togther some sort of eating plan.

 

[nigel_miguel]

I believe it's all mind over matter. You are correct not to concentrate on texture because, that will definitely effect the eating.
I can't believe you don't enjoy a good banana?
or a fruit salad? you've been spoiled!!!!

If you are going to race nationally, you have to overcome this ordeal!!! You really have to push yourself to do this if you want to succeed.

Good Luck

 

[mattjf]

I can understand. Most people think it's weird that I absolutely hate lettuce. Always have. I get "no lettuce" on hamburgers, tacos, sandwiches, you name it. Recently I have been trying to eat it though. It really is mind over matter. I am slowly doing it. I can now eat lettuce on a few things, but I still can't eat a salad.

It used to be funny when I was living in the dorms and would make a salad in the cafeteria. Everything but the lettuce. People think I'm weird.

-Matt

 

[autoboy]

yeah it all started for me when i went to bording school when i was 16, the food was less than average and i had a choice what to eat so i decided i would stay away from the veggies.

i have tried a few time this week with limited success, hopefully it will all work out.

 

[BimmsAndBices]

My God man, what DO you eat?

 

[autoboy]

My God man, what DO you eat?

really boring stuff, lots of pasta and rice dishes which means basic sauce, rice and meat. I eat potato with different meats etc so am very limited in my range of taste., i live by myself as well so i tend not to go to much trouble preparing food.

i love seafood too.

 

[WINGNUTT]

My diet was/is similar to yours, but I'm not quite as bad as you. I'll share a few tips to help you get a few servings of veggies in each week.

- Try eating foods that you normally eat, but throw on small flavorless veggies so there's no way you will notice. For example, get a hamburger with some lettuce and tomato - you can't taste the veggies, and if you do this long enough, those two veggies will no longer disgust you. After doing this for a couple of years, I can now almost eat a piece of tomato by itself without puking!! Pineapple on pizza is another good one.

- Try eating foods that have fried veggies to start with because the frying takes the flavor away. Later on you will be able to eat those same veggies non fried without puking. For example, I sometimes get chicken with mushrooms and some other weird green vegetable (squash or something) in a dish at the chinese restaurant (like Panda Express). It tastes really good because it's all fried. But, after doing this for a few years, I no longer puke even when I have these veggies in their non-fried form.

- Salads are a tough one, I know, but here's a little trick I found that actually works. Put BBQ sauce or Teriyaki sauce, or lots of any other strong flavored dressing on your salad because it totally kills the flavor of the veggies. This might help you get a couple bites down before you realize that it's too disgusting and you want to puke, but at least you'll get a few bites in. Also, you can compact the salad to one side of the bowl so that it appears to others you've eaten more than you really have.

- Bananas and orange juice count as fruits, and this is like a pure bonus because these actually taste good. Also, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, and other sweet fruits are easy to get down and are technically in the "fruits and vegetables" category. So try to eat these as much as possible (i.e. order a fruit salad at the restaurant).

- Now, here's one that will help you take down almost any veggie in a situation where it is rude not to eat the food (i.e. friend's house). Cut the veggie into small pieces. Use my first tip above for as long as you can, but eventually you will run out of non-veggies to mix in with the veggies. Then, place the small piece of veggie in your mouth and pretend like you are chewing but really it's just sitting on your tongue. Then, take a sip of your drink and swallow the veggie like it's a pill. Nobody's the wiser - works every time. Practice so it's not obvious what you are doing.

Hope this helps - I'll try to think up some other tricks I use.

 

[larryb]

i have a note from the woman who taught me to eat again.... it says, eat no vegetables. chemo and radiation for oral cancer made it impossible for me to eat or drink anything for about a year. 2400 cans of ensure passed thru my stomach tube. now i eat anything in sight... everything.

why eat food? our desire to eat has much to do with our social situation. food is a very big part of most societies.

i think you need to use social situations to increase your interest in food. get with some folks you really like and eat different foods. smile, laugh, get crazy. in time, you will associate good times with fun folks. you will want the food, even if you aren't hungary.

since treatment, i'm sometimes blunt. this is one of them.
get with a fun person, EAT and enjoy.

cu,
larryb

 

[AndROOb]

There is another way.....


I have been using 'supergreens' for 15 or so years, and even though I eat plenty of veg and fruit, I use supergreens like SPIRULINA and CHLORELLA as a way of taking in the nutrition I might be missing out on from certain products.
Supergreens can be bought from health food outlets in the form of tablets or powder. These things dont taste too nice but they are full of the nutritional goodness found in vegetables and some fruit. They are naturally occuring so they are heaps better than supplementing with your average vitamin pills.

Primarily the job of vitamins and minerals is to help metabolise the food we eat into into usable energy and amino acids(muscle tissue building), so if your not making them part of your diet, you're not reaching your full physical potential, because your not processing the food that you do eat, ie carbs(pasta, potato, cereals) and protein(meat, fish, eggs and cheese) fully.