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Conditioning your body to enjoy the taste of certain foods

uamaverick

New member
This is a topic I don't hear many people talk about, but I think it's important to anybody's overall fitness goals. I remember when I first got serious about bodybuilding four years ago, I knew I was going to have to make some big changes in my diet. I loved the taste of hamburgers and various other slop, but I wasn't addicted to it and I didn't crave it.

I DID have a huge issue with eating certain foods. I had a big problem with canned tuna. The slightest smell of canned tuna anywhere in the house would catch my nose and make me nauseated. For my entire life I refused to eat the stuff. I remember the first time I ate an entire can of tuna. I had to hold my nose shut and take it like a man. It felt like it took 20 minutes to eat that can of tuna.

Another problem I always had was eating veggies with nothing on them. I always ate broccoli with lots of butter or holandaise sauce on it. Corn and potatoes always with lots of butter and salt. Basically, when I ate vegetables, I put so much stuff on it that it was more like eating ice cream. I had to condition myself to not only tolerate eating vegetables with nothing on them, but truly enjoy eating them like that.

I laugh at that now, because today I could probably throw down 6-8 cans of tuna in one sitting. I actually prefer the taste of plain green beans and broccoli over all this garbage you usually see on buffet lines, soaked in butter, salt, and what have you. My friends think I'm crazy, but I literally conditioned my brain and my taste preferences to love the smell and taste of these "plain" foods. I thought of the process like lifting weights for your mind.

I think another aspect that is important is when you really dial into your diet, and understand what purpose a certain food has for your body, whether it's to provide nutrients for more effecient enzyme production, protein synthesis, or just raw macronutrients for muscle mass, you really have an appreciation for what you're eating. I think a lot of us here know what that feels like. It's almost as if you can actually feel the food going straight to your muscles, or your bloodstream, or anywhere else. That kind of feeling makes the food taste better in your brain, because you're no longer eating for taste, but you're eating to gain sustenance for your body, to reward every part of your body from bones to organs to muscles what it needs to become a more efficient machine.

If there's a certain food that you know would help your body function better but you absolutely hate it, just try conditioning your mind into loving it. Eventually, it will happen.
 
I have to hold my nose to eat sardines, and I still gag a little

Pretty much anything else is ok though.
i never liked the taste of a lot of unhealthy foods because I was brought up eating strictly "health food", like lentil soup with no salt, a salad every day with dinner (never any premade dressing) oatmeal every day for breakfast and never any sugar at any time. Except birthday cake, which i could never eat a lot of because the butter icing makes me feel sick to my stomach. I never liked the taste of butter on anything, so that isn't a problem.
What is a problem for me is that i have to watch how much salt I use, i have a mild addiction to it.

Great post!
 
Great post... Mind over matter & I definitely believe that for bodybuilding to be a LONG TERM goal... you have to look at your food choices as 'life choices' that you enjoy.. not a diet plan. After all, if you don't enjoy the food you eat, you most likely will stop eating it .. or binge eat in 1 sitting.

This is really what separates the elites from the average buff Joe.. and I love eating broccoli with nothing on it.. just boil it a tiny bit so it's soft, BUT thing I can't stand is also Sardines, or canned salmon. All have amazing macro's but truly are last resorts for me if I'm in a rush
 
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