Healthy Food Still Has to Taste Good

Healthy Food Still Has to Taste Good

There seems to be an unwritten rule about healthy eating:

You’re not supposed to enjoy it too much.

If you’re trying to lose weight, lower your blood sugar, improve your cholesterol, or just take better care of yourself, apparently you are expected to report immediately to the nearest grocery store and purchase plain chicken breasts, lettuce, broccoli, and something involving chia seeds.

Then you go home, steam everything until it loses the will to live, eat it without complaint, and become Healthy. At least that’s how it sometimes feels.

I’ve started diets before. Maybe you have too. You buy special foods. You clean out the pantry. You swear that this time you’re going to do it right. And for a while, you do.

Then life happens.

Maybe the special food is expensive.

Maybe nobody else in your house wants to eat it.

Maybe it takes too much time to prepare.

Maybe you’re hungry all the time.

Or maybe—and I don’t think we talk about this enough—

you just don’t like the damn food.

How Long Can You Eat Food You Don’t Like?

Probably longer than you think, but not forever. You can force yourself through a lot when you’re motivated.

You can eat the dry chicken breast. You can choke down the breakfast somebody on the internet promised would “keep you satisfied all morning.” You can order the salad when what you really want is something warm and substantial. You can buy the expensive low-carb substitute even though it tastes vaguely like the cardboard box it came in.

But eventually motivation wears off.

Then what?

That’s one reason I don’t want to build another temporary diet.

I want to figure out how I actually like to eat.

Because if the grand plan requires me to spend the rest of my life eating food I don’t enjoy, that’s a pretty shitty grand plan.

Healthy Doesn’t Have One Flavor

This has been one of the biggest surprises for me. Healthy food doesn’t have to mean bland food. And it doesn’t have to mean diet food.

Maybe you like ranch dressing on your vegetables.

Use some ranch.

Maybe Parmesan makes the broccoli worth eating.

Put Parmesan on the broccoli.

Maybe you like spices, garlic, lemon, a little cheese, a sauce, or something crunchy.

Maybe you hate salad.

Then stop trying to build your entire healthy life around salad.

There are a lot of vegetables in this world. Roast them. Air fry them. Put them in a skillet. Try them raw. Add them to something you already like.

And if you hate one?

Congratulations. You have learned something. You don’t have to eat it again.

I have discovered foods I really like because I stopped approaching healthy eating as a list of things I was supposed to tolerate. I’ve also discovered some things that can go directly back from whence they came.

That’s useful information too.

And Then There’s the Cost

We also need to talk about money.

Because some versions of “healthy eating” are ridiculously expensive.

You don’t need a refrigerator full of specialty products with words like keto, superfood, or protein splashed across the front to make a healthier meal.

Frozen vegetables count.

Canned vegetables count.

Canned beans count.

Eggs count.

Chicken from the grocery store counts.

Store brands count.

Yesterday’s leftovers absolutely count.

And sometimes the perfectly ordinary food you’ve been buying for years can stay. Maybe you change the amount. Maybe you pair it with something different. Maybe you prepare it differently.

Healthy eating shouldn’t require a second mortgage. If you spend $200 buying specialty food every Sunday and half of it ends up in the garbage by Friday, that isn’t sustainable either.

Your Healthy Doesn’t Have to Look Like Mine

This may be the most important part. I’m learning what works for me. I like food with texture. I like to chew. I like vegetables with some structure left in them instead of cooked until they surrender.

Someone else might love soup.

Someone else might adore giant salads.

Someone somewhere apparently enjoys plain Greek yogurt.

I wish that person well. 😂

The point isn’t to eat exactly like somebody else. The point is to keep experimenting until you find foods that help you work toward your health goals and that you actually enjoy eating. Because those are the foods you’re much more likely to eat again next Tuesday. And the Tuesday after that.

Maybe We Need to Stop “Going on a Diet”

I’m starting to think the better question isn’t:

What diet can I stick to?

Maybe it’s:

What changes could I actually live with?

There’s a difference. One sounds like something you endure until you’ve reached a finish line. The other sounds like building a life.

There will still be fried chicken.

There will still be birthday cake.

There will still be restaurants, holidays, vacations, stressful days, and nights when cooking sounds about as appealing as performing your own root canal.

That’s life.

One meal doesn’t have to prove anything.

Neither does one day.

The goal isn’t to eat perfectly.

It’s to find enough foods you enjoy, enough meals you can afford, and enough habits you can realistically repeat that taking care of yourself starts feeling less like a temporary punishment.

And maybe—eventually—you stop thinking:

I have to eat this because it’s healthy.

And start thinking:

I’m eating this because I actually like it.

That’s a plan I might be willing to stick around for.

And yes.

I’m still putting ranch on the cauliflower.