No matter how much weight you dream of losing whether it’s 10 pounds or 100, losing weight can feel like such a great feat, especially when you want to do things in a healthy way and lose weight by dieting and exercising. We all know that eating certain foods can help you lose weight, and when you throw in the fact that you’re a picky eater, it can limit your options a great deal. It can be a challenge to develop healthy eating habits when you have selective food preferences, but don’t worry. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

Today, I’m sharing effective strategies on how picky eaters can effectively lose weight – without having to make a huge, drastic lifestyle change overnight.

How To Lose Weight As A Picky Eater

Identifying your food preferences

If you consider yourself (or someone you know) to be a picky eater, and you want to lose weight, one of the first things you can do is identify your food preferences. Think about your last trip to the grocery store or make a new list. What are your go-to’s? Which of those foods fit under lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, or healthy fats? A big part of weight loss starts in the kitchen. When you switch your focus to eating more healthy food vs processed foods, and finding new ways of incorporating healthy eating into your lifestyle, you’ll be well on your way to losing weight as a picky eater.

Add a new twist to your old favorites

When desiring to lose weight, you don’t have to throw out all of your trusty favorites to start from scratch with a new healthy diet. Starting with foods that you like is a sure-fire way to not only take things slow and steady, but to also ensure you don’t just end up wasting food altogether. Before making your next trip to the grocery store, flip through some cookbooks or search up some recipes online that work well for a healthy diet. It might be as simple as adding another portion of fruits and vegetables to your go-to meals or switching out the meats you use in your classic dishes for lean proteins like chicken, fish, or lean beef.

Setting realistic goals

You don’t have to like it. When it comes to eating healthy or trying new foods, at the end of the day, there will be some foods you just probably won’t like… and that’s OK. Sometimes we just have to eat food that’s good for our body, even if our taste buds don’t agree. Set realistic goals about what you will eat when you’re in the meal planning part of the process. Pick your protein source, the amount of carbs you will allow yourself, and the healthy fat you will incorporate into your dish like olive oil or avocado. By being realistic about what you will eat when it comes to incorporating healthy foods, you will set yourself up for success rather than disappointment.

Take baby steps

Sometimes starting small is the most feasible way to get healthy eating done so you can take better care of your body and lose weight. Find ways of adding small amounts of the disliked ingredient into dishes. For example, if you don’t like spinach, can you disguise it in a salad or pasta? If you’re a big mac and cheese fan, can you try roasted broccoli with cheese or cut up tiny bits of roasted broccoli into your mac and cheese? If you’re a big french fry person, can you sub the potatoes for a sweet potato fry next time? How about adding greek yogurt as a topping to your favorite berries or other fruit?

Retraining your taste buds

Did you know our taste buds change as we age? So if you used to not be a fan of certain fruits and vegetables, now might be a good opportunity to circle back around and give it a second chance (or third or fourth). If you don’t want the food to touch your taste buds, a registered dietitian once offered this tip to have picky eaters “take a dramatic camel chew” or a “silly frog lick” or a “front teeth chipmunk nibble” when introducing something new. As silly as this sounds, introducing an element of play could help to take some of the pressure off and make it easier for picky eaters to retrain their taste buds and open up their pallets when wanting to introduce more foods.

Get inspired by social media

Sometimes when undergoing a lifestyle change, especially like weight loss, it’s easier to find success when you surround yourself with inspiration. Allow yourself to get inspired by healthy food pages and home cooks on social media that promote a healthy diet. You can also follow a registered dietitian or nutritionist with social media accounts specifically dedicated to offering support for picky eaters. Giving this option a go can help you find solidarity and helpful tips to broaden your picky eating to eat foods that are not only good for you, but also bring your taste buds joy.

Trying different types of food

The biggest point of healthy eating is giving your body what it needs when it comes to macronutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, and fats and micronutrients like vitamins and minerals that we get from fruits and vegetables. You don’t have to throw out all you know overnight. You can make it a plan to try different types of food on a weekly basis and find new ways to incorporate small changes so that overtime before you know it, you will eat foods that nourish your body and help you look and feel your best. For example, if you need snack ideas, you can use this list of low carb crunchy snacks for inspiration. A healthy diet doesn’t have to be complicated. When you find new ways of trying different types of food, it can be simple and even an adventure!

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