Stephanie

[Stephanieann1976]

Hello, I am just learning about this program today. I am nervous to give up all of these foods because I am a picky eater.  For me it is a smell and texture problem with many foods. Any suggestions?

[ShannonM816]

What kinds of smells and textures do you like, and which don't you care for? Does it only affect eating the food, or does the smell of something as you prep it bother you as well (since some things smell different raw than cooked)? Have you ever tried to work past this -- can you successfully add new foods when you want to, or if you cannot overcome this on your own, have you considered talking to a therapist about this? If you google food aversion therapy, you should find articles about ways to help people overcome these aversions, some of which may be helpful for you.

For now, figure out what things you do like that are Whole30 compliant. Surely there is some kind of meat and vegetable you can eat -- think about what you like and don't like and see if there are other foods that are close to what you like that you might be able to add. For instance, do you prefer ground meat or steaks/whole pieces of chicken? What kinds of fish, if any, do you know you can tolerate (tuna tends to have a very strong smell/flavor, even if you don't like it, you might still like tilapia or catfish. Salmon is much oilier than any of those, which will affect the texture/mouth feel -- do you like that, or prefer the somewhat drier white fish?)

Veggie wise, do you like crisp, raw veggies? Or soft, mashed potatoes? If you like them crisper, in addition to obviously eating them raw, you might also like roasted vegetables cooked until they're crisp on the edges, or you could look for ways to bake veggie chips, or you might prefer just a quick toss in a little oil in a skillet or just a few minutes on a grill, just enough to warm them up without changing the texture much. If you prefer mashed, you might prefer blended soups, or you can branch out and do mashed root vegetables to add some new veggies with a similar texture to what you're used to (like this: https://www.primalpalate.com/paleo-recipe/garlic-mashed-root-vegetables/).