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! 

Why I'm Striving To Learn

Why am I trying to learn to be healthier?  I've grown tired of being tired, fat, feeling gross ALL the time.  
When I was in my early teens I was pretty fit.  I wasn't thin, but I wasn't fat. I could do physical activity without getting winded very quickly, I could walk for miles, I was the sit-up QUEEN!  I had AMAZING willpower. I could take or leave food.  I never had a very healthy relationship with food though.  I would often go a day barely eating anything.  And it scared me that I enjoyed the feeling of being very hungry.  My Mom was good about keeping an eye on my eating habits so it was never able to spiral into anything serious, fortunately.  After I turned 16 or 17 my relationship with food didn't change, but I began struggling with depression and the depression made me eat and sleep a lot. My weight quickly ballooned.  But every so often I would have good weeks or a good month and I would watch what I ate so I stayed in a 10-15 pound range.  In college I was able to stay in that same pattern with my weight.
After college my weight got worse.  I had my first "real" job, which I hated.  I was miserable and the yummy, fattening food made me feel better. (At least at the time I was eating it!) My weight blew up to 220 pounds.  And I was miserable.  But fighting the depression gave me no energy or initiative to exercise.  Things got a little better after I left that job. I was able to diet my way back down to around 200 pounds, which is where I am now.
The past couple of months I have spent quite a considerable amount of time researching diet and exercise.  I've tried to get myself inspired. I kept telling myself that I would start tomorrow, but I kept putting tomorrow off for another day.
Well the day came last weekend when I decided that I could always find a reason to stay fat and not exercise or diet.  No more excuses.  I found a website I like that had diet and exercise tips and trackers and signed up.  Three days a week of strength training, three days a week of cardio.  And I'm working on my diet as well.  I'm trying to learn to like veggies, that I don't have to eat everything I prepare and that I can have what I enjoy in moderation.
So that's the beginning...