Veggie Role Model?

Those of you that have been following my blog know that I have lost a lot of weight in the past few months. In January, I changed my eating habits considerably and it helped me to lose the rest of my baby weight, plus about 15 more pounds. The combination of intense exercise at UFIT bootcamp (http://www.ufit.ca/) and better food choices really made a difference for me. However, when I say "better food choices", it doesn't necessarily mean what you think it would mean. You see, I'm a horrible eater and always have been. I don't eat vegetables. I hate vegetables. The only vegetable I can handle is potato (which doesn't even seem like a vegetable to me). When I say that I started eating healthier, I mean that I cut back on the fast food, frozen pizzas, Kraft dinner and chips. I started to eat things like fruit, yogurt and high fibre cereal. Essentially, I lost weight because I went from being a horrible eater to an "okay" eater.

About a month ago, I reached my goal weight and started to eat more treats. I could slowly feel myself slipping back into old habits. I started going through drive-thrus again and I munched on empty calories during the day. My weight wasn't affected by these changes. I have been the exact same weight for almost a month now (my goal weight).

This past week I decided that I wanted to get back on track with the healthy eating. I'm doing it for a different reason this time. My whole life I have been a bit obsessed with my weight, watching the scale go up and down over the years. I would diet to lose weight, but then would end up putting it back on. Anytime I have decided to "eat better", it has been because I wanted to lose weight. Well, this time it's different. I don't care if I lose any more weight. I'm happy where I am. I just want to be healthier. I want to set a good example for Grace. How am I going to get her to eat vegetables if Mike and I don't touch them?!

I went grocery shopping on Thursday and stocked up on healthy food (lots of veggies, fruit, yogurt, chicken, turkey, etc). I was excited to try new things and to start eating veggies! Here's where it gets frustrating. I just can't do it. Tonight I made a pita pizza and decided to make a small salad to go with it. Spinach, feta cheese, strawberries, almonds...it looked delicious! I sat down to eat it, feeling proud of myself. Well, it was disgusting. I gagged more than once and just couldn't make myself eat it. I ended up throwing it out.

I was so mad at myself. I'm sure it's all in my head. Why can't I force myself to eat veggies??? I've tried them cooked, I've tried them raw, I've tried them drenched in butter and dressing. Nothing seems to work. I know that there are other ways to get my vegetable servings. When I was pregnant, I pureed veggies and put them in pasta sauces. I used to make smoothies with V8 juice. Here's the thing though...I don't want to hide the veggies, because that defeats the purpose of getting Grace to love them. She needs to see me eating them. I guess I'll have to try again and hope that I can learn to love them (although it doesn't look very promising). If you have any great ways of making veggies taste good, please share!

For now, I'll stick to the fruit and hope that Grace doesn't notice that I don't eat my veggies! :(