If you’ve read my “Who Am I?” post, you know that the only vegetables I ate growing up outside of boxed mashed potatoes were canned green beans and canned corn. Let’s just say I was probably deficient in a number of vitamins and minerals despite the chalky Flintstones vitamins I occasionally partook in.
I loved going out to eat…at McDonald’s. Anywhere else underwent extreme scrutiny, especially if they didn’t have hamburgers and fries. I’m embarrassed to say it, but I remember throwing a giant fit in middle school when my mom wanted to go to an Asian restaurant for a special event. Pretty sure I ruined it for her, but think of all those “weird” Asian vegetables at Lee Ann Chin’s!
One of my friend’s parents loved Q. Cumbers, a fancy-ish salad buffet restaurant. Occasionally, I’d get invited to go along. Of course I said yes because I was going to a restaurant and I got to hang out longer with my best friend that I only saw for about 12 hours a day. Every time I got there, I instantly regretted it. What in the world would I eat?! I’d scan the tables of food and all I could see were vegetables everywhere! Ugh. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I would spy it… the self serve soft ice cream cones! I would get my ice cream cone and scorn all the vegetables with my nose in the air as I walked by for my second, third, and maybe forth cone. I was way too good for the stinky vegetables. Give me my ice cream cone please.
In college, I remember a conversation I had with a friend about the lack of vegetables in my diet. She came back with a loving, but snarky, “Oh, that seems healthy.” I hated vegetables, and I wasn’t about to start eating them while in college. That’s not what college kids ate. I mean…think of the expense! When I wasn’t eating dorm food, Ramen was $0.15 a packet and filled me up. Yeah, yeah, I knew the USDA food pyramid said adults should eat 3-5 servings of vegetables every day. But NO ONE, let alone ANYONE, did that. Seemed like a fallacy.
A number of years after graduating college, I started to think more about the conversation with my friend and the lack of vegetables in my diet. I decided I should eat more vegetables. I had a slight problem…my vegetable vocabulary was quite limited, and my knowledge in how to prepare or eat any of them was nonexistent!
I made a decision to eat fresh vegetables because I was done with canned corn and canned green beans, and I had heard fresh was better for you. At this point, my vegetable vocabulary consisted of fried onions (which my husband prepared), broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. I didn’t really like broccoli or cauliflower, but they did not make me gag like carrots did.
After I slowly worked into the habit of consistently eating broccoli and/or cauliflower every day, I decide it was time to tackle the final vegetable in my vocabulary…carrots. I mentioned above that carrots would make me gag. I’m not kidding. There is no joking, no exaggeration, only complete and utter truth here. The carrot would get close to my lips, and I would uncontrollably gag. This has been a lifelong battle with carrots. Maybe it was a bad baby food experience. I don’t know. But I could not get a carrot near my mouth, much less in it, chewed, and swallowed without gagging.
I don’t know if it’s because I was tired of broccoli and cauliflower or if it was because I have terrible eye sight and blamed my hatred of carrots for it, but I decided I was going to eat carrots and find a way to like them. Or at least swallow a tiny piece without gagging.
I literally started small with cutting off a piece of carrot the size of a pinhead. I gagged. I thought maybe I should soften them up, so I cooked them. I gagged. I doused them in dressing to hide the flavor. I gagged. I added brown sugar to cooked carrots to sweeten them up. I gagged.
I continued this process for days, weeks, and what seemed like months. I think consistency was key because I don’t remember the exact moment it happened or fully remember the timeline progression. I just know that slowly I got to the point of being able to put the carrot in my mouth, but not swallow it, without gagging. Then I was able to chew it a little bit before the gag reflex kicked in. Then I could swallow a little bit. Slowly the carrots became tolerable. And guess what? Now, I love carrots and even find them sweet and enjoy the crunch they offer in place of the potato chips I used to eat almost every day!
Hooray for CARROTS!! They have opened my eyes to the many abundant vegetable options available to me. I’m proud to say that my vegetable vocabulary has expanded exponentially and I’m not afraid to try new ones.
Carrots have also taught me that we are not static human beings, and we are in control of many things in our lives. At one point, I would have said that I’ll never like carrots and believed that 100%. I’ve been proved wrong by carrots and many other things in my life.
What are the carrots in your life? I would like to help you in your health journey. I have so much experience and knowledge in making long term, life sustaining changes. I want to see you happy, confident, and successful! Changes are hard. Let me help you get to a place you never thought possible.
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