Me & Food

At this point I feel I should mention that I am a terribly picky eater.  No lie.  I've ALWAYS been that way.  When I was a child my Dad would try to bribe me with money, presents, anything to get me to try new foods.  No way.  I have 5 or 6 foods that I like, and that's all I'll eat.  And they aren't healthy foods either.  Pizza, sandwiches, Pop-Tarts...junk like that. Not only am I picky, but I'm obsessive. I will eat ONE type of food everyday as often as 3 meals a day, and only that.  I will eat that one food until I get sick of it then I rotate to a different food, and the cycle repeats.  Add to this the fact that I have no sense of smell and you have a mess.  Yes, I have NO sense of smell.  Never have.  Yes, I CAN taste food.  Hold your nose and eat something and you will find that you can taste the food, only the taste is muted.  That is how I taste food.  I find I rely a lot on texture and taste to decide if I like a food or not.  So that might help explain some of my pickiness.

Anyway...I've always been drawn to a diet that is less processed.  I like the idea of 90% of the food I eat being not processed.  But many veggies and fruits have textures that are un-appetizing to me.  I've really been thinking about how I can force myself to try new foods.  

I've decided to force myself to try different vegetables and fruits.  I think that is the only way for me.  I'm not giving up my favorite processed foods though, but I am significantly limiting them. I plan to cut back on serving sizes.  Instead of two pieces of pizza I will just eat one, instead of two sandwiches I will have one. (Yes, I am also obsessive about numbers. I like even numbers...) Hopefully after cutting back like that I will be able to cut back even more. 

Well so far I'm doing great! Sunday I helped my Dad make homemade soup with peas, tomatoes, okra, corn, lima beans and hamburger meat.  I had never tried this soup before.  Heck, I had never tried tomatoes, okra or lima beans before! But I did! I ate a bowl Sunday and we had leftovers on Monday night! I found if I closed my eyes and didn't see the okra or tomatoes go into my mouth I liked it. (Whatever works!)

I'm excited about this adventure!