Discussion Board

Hi folks,

I'm new to the boards, and so happy to be here. I have a long history of trying to move toward a plant-based diet without much success, but after an awful failed attempt at the Paleo diet (ugh), I'm going to try again. A big part of my problem is that I don't like many veggies (hence the subject line), but I do like to juice and make green smoothies, and I love beans and rice, so that's a start!

I wanted to pick a time to start McDougalling, and so I picked today, at noon. That's in ten minutes. I just had some milk and cookies as a final farewell. Now I have a headache and a sugar rush, but that isn't dampening my enthusiasm!

I don't have any McDougall books at the moment, but I have three that should be arriving on my doorstep by this evening, via UPS, and I can't wait. I've read a ton on the website, and I'm family with McDougall from trying it many years ago, but I didn't do well then because I was a far more picky an eater than I even am now.

Any tips for a total newbie who traditionally hasn't liked veggies that much?

Nice to meet you all!

Welcome! We'll try to help. How about providing us with a list of:

(a) veggies that you like?
(b) veggies that are so-so?
(c) veggies that you dislike?

This will give us a starting point. Some additional questions:

(d) how do you prefer to eat most of your veggies - raw or cooked?
(e) what ethnic foods do you like?

Finally...

(f) do you still have off-plan foods in your home (milk, cheese, oils, etc)? If you have it in your kitchen, it will be eaten. Get rid of it.

Seriously? I want to put my hands on my hips and exclaim "How can you NOT like vegetables!" But, truth to tell, I used to have a big problem wanting to eat very many raw greens, and I still get tired of salad sometimes. My solution to that is to make green smoothies, mostly for breakfast, with greens, berries, and bananas (and enough cold water to process in the blender). Try to stay away from juicing; if you toss the pulp, you are tossing most of the fiber and minerals--it isn't a "whole food" after you juice. Anyway, smoothies somehow make me want even MORE greens. Also, as you get your diet cleaned up, you will likely find that vegetables taste better than you ever thought they could. Your tastes change and, once you get the added salt and sugar out of your diet, veggies will taste sweeter and more complex than they used to.

So, start with whatever veggies you already like to eat, but don't be afraid to experiment with new ones. Broaden your horizons!

Unfortunately I can't get rid of off-plan foods. I don't live alone. I have a husband, a housemate, and two children, and I can't force them all to McDougall, nor would I feel that's a fair or right thing to do, even if I could. If one of them came home and said they were told Paleo was the way to go and I had to get rid of all the bread and potatoes in the house, that wouldn't be right, either.

I am working on cleaning out a cupboard so that I can stick many of my foods in one place, and that will help a lot. I also just bought a stainless steel steamer unit, and I can't wait to get more into that - I tried it once for sweet potatoes and it worked like a dream.

As for what I like....I enjoy all beans and rice, love quinoa, and for veggies I like corn, green beans, peas, peppers in very small amounts, and I can handle carrots and celery in small amounts cooked into things. I'm working on the rest of the vegetable world. I have some beets to try roasting. I like cucumbers when very fresh. I can do zucchini if it's mixed into things.

Things I really dislike: mushrooms, eggplant (tastes like soap, I don't know why), and broccoli.

I like to cook most things, or juice anything raw. Or smoothies - I love green smoothies.

I like juicing and will continue with it - although I don't mean the fruit juices high in simple sugars, but rather juices with maybe one apple and then a whole slew of green veggies. Juicing works well for me because it helps me get a lot of veggies into my system in a nearly pain-free way.

I realize that it loses fiber, but if I'm already getting a ton of fiber via other means, then the green juice is only a dietary bonus (otherwise I wouldn't be eating the greens). I also feel a lot better when I juice, and when I juice regularly I notice my taste buds really change to allow more "green" flavor, so I'm more willing to eat veggies overall. Juicing is a huge win-win in my life. Maybe someday I'll phase it out, but for now it's important.

We definitely can relate to your situation where there are other members in your home who are not 'on-plan'. Creating a space for your foods is a great idea.

The McDougall books will provide you with the why's and how's of attaining optimal health. Was one of the books 'John and Mary's Quick & Easy Cookbook'? It's fantastic.

Also, the two McDougall cooking DVD's 'McDougall Made Easy' and 'McDougall Made Irresistable' are currently on sale as a pair. They provide excellent step-by-step preparation and cooking techniques.
http://drmcdougall.com/books_tapes.html

Based upon your reply I would suggest a couple additional DVD's that would seem to fit your food preferences and appeal to the other members of your family:

Jeff Novick's 'Fast Food' DVD:
http://drmcdougall.com/store_fast_food.html

Rip Esselsyn's Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue DVD
http://store.engine2diet.com/2the-engin ... nt-strong/

While this may sound like a lot of information to process, it is far less expensive and certainly much more enjoyable than dealing with health issues.

Thanks! I just ordered Jeff's DVD on Amazon. Looking forward to it!

I've seen the Essylstyn one. It was good!

Oh! Sorry I didn't respond to the rest, I just got home picking up kiddos from school and skimmed. I haven't tried the McDougall DVDs, I'll get those too. DVDs are great, I learn a lot. Thanks!

And YES, I'm getting the Quick and Easy cookbook today! It's great to know folks find it so helpful.

You're off to a great start. No doubt you will have some questions along the way. Let us know how we can help.

Hollie,

What do you like?

I cook veggies in lots of soups and sauces. I never have sides of just veggies. I find it amazing how many veggies disappear into a soup.

My salads tend not to be green salads, but tomato salads, tomato cucumber salads, cucumber onion salads or cole slaw, with an occasional potato or pasta salad.

And of course a main starch, and I enjoy brown rice, potatoes and occasionally wheat. So many uses for potatoes!

Welcome!

Hi Hollie, welcome!

I didn't much like veggies when I started either, but now I eat loads of them and enjoy them. I think what got me started eating more was just the ease of prep of using bags of frozen veggies. At first I was making spicy stews with them as shown in Jeff's Fast Food DVD, then I got a bit tired of the spicy tomato base and just started eating them plain. At some point something clicked and my taste buds suddenly realized the veggies really do provide the flavor and variety of a meal!

I like adding a small amount of frozen chopped greens to veggies to make them a little more interesting. Sometimes I add capers, but watch out as they're high sodium. These are my current favorites, but I keep trying new ones and sometimes get tired of old ones

- sweet white corn
- chopped collard greens
- mix with corn, peas, carrots, green beans, lima beans
- chopped broccoli (mostly stems, I like it better than the florets)
- mix with corn, black beans, red peppers, chiles, onion

I saw a clip from Jeff's Fast Food DVD last night on YouTube, and I really liked it. His DVD should be at our house hopefully today or tomorrow (yay for free 2-day shipping!). I think the quick soups and stews will be great!

I'm not a big fan of green salads, except for caesar, and it looks like I won't be having that anymore. So the idea of learning how to make cucumber salads sounds nice. I also don't normally like raw tomatoes, but I say that only as a "for now", since I expect that in 6 months my tastes might have changed considerably.

I'm a little nervous about blood sugar issues - I've tried morning oatmeal with fruit juice and dried fruit (although admittedly I think this was an Essylstyn recipe?) and I felt awful and shaky afterward. It was way too much sugar for me. I have panic disorder, and I've learned that high-glycemic carbs will trigger panic attacks pretty quick. I'm a bit concerned about that in this diet, but I'm not giving up or anything. I'll just have to get creative. More veggies, I assume.

We make oatmeal from steel cut oats, use unsweetened organic soy milk on it and serve it with some blueberries or blackberries. Instead of fruit juice, we have a half (peeled) grapefruit or whole organge. This provides a lot of fiber with the fruit sugars and is metabolized more slowly over a longer period of time.

Sounds like their are plenty of vegies in your "like" list....my husband couldn't stand Kale until we put a little in cooked beans and then more here and there...sure enough before I knew it he loves it now just by it's lonesome...an acquired taste will come just give yourself some time....a crock pot full of your favorites amongst the things you are trying to avoid in the Paleo world you live in might be a thought...

Oh I don't live in a paleo world! Maybe I wasn't clear - I was using the paleo reference above as an example in my comment about it being unfair to force everyone in the household to toss out non-McDougall food.

I did try to go paleo for awhile, under my doctor's orders, actually. She told me to read about the diet and then do it; cut out all grains and beans, and eat only fruits, veggies, meat, and nuts.

It didn't take at all! I don't like nuts, and I really dislike the taste of meat and eating more of those things didn't make that get better, it just worsened. All the high-fat meals wreaked havoc on my digestive system. I also had heart palpitations after high-fat meals.

I'd actually been striving for a plant-based diet for years, although I was vegetarian and did eat cheese and sometimes eggs. She apparently told me to go Paleo based on the fact that I have celiac disease and was anemic. I guess she thought I should just toss out the grains altogether and mainline the iron? Not sure what she was thinking.

Worth noting: she is no longer my doctor. But I am grateful to her for figuring out the celiac disease part - that had been going on for over a decade, and causing huge problems, and no one had even offered that as a possibility - and after understanding my symptoms, we had my six-year-old daughter tested, and she has it too. So hopefully her life will be spared much of the awfulness mine was.

My family is omnivorous and they do eat meat, but we aren't a paleo household. We have a better-than-SAD diet at home, although everyone here loves their cheese. They think I'm crazy for giving that up!

Hollie,

My Czech grandmother used to make cucumber salad. She soaked the cucumber slices in white vinegar, while I prefer lemon/lime and rice vinegar, and she used sugar, which of course I don't.

1 cucumber, sliced paper thin.
1/4 onion, sliced thin
sprig fresh dill (optional)
1 tbsp lemon/lime juice
1 tbsp rice vinegar

Prep: Peel the cucumber and slice paper thin. My grandmother would score the outside with a fork to make a pattern before cutting. Some recipes remove the center seeds, which I think wasteful.
Chill: Mix and let the vinegars and any seasonings soak with the cucumber and onion, best 1+ hours refrigerated. Serve chilled.

There are also Indian spiced versions of the cucumber salad.

There are various versions of the cucumber-tomato-onion salad around the world, with differences in size of cut and optional ingredients.
- Tabbouleh (with bulgar)
- Israeli Salad

Only problem is cucumbers spoil quickly.