Picky Eater That Needs Advice/Help

[Innerpatterns22]

My name is Kyle and I'm new here. I'm 23 years old and for my whole life I've been a picky eater. I had a bad experience with beef about 2-3 years ago and since then my only source of 'meat' has been shrimp and fish. I'm desperately trying to incorporate as much raw food as possible because I've seen many testimonies on people's health via youtube. I should mention that I've had trouble gaining weight all my life. I'm at around 120 lbs right now. My worry by going mostly raw is that I'll have a hard time gaining weight or maintaining it. The only raw sources I know of for weight gain is from Nuts and Seeds and Avacado's. I don't like Avacado at all. It's one's of those fruits that I wish I could love but my taste buds won't have it. A few other foods I have trouble eating are Carrots and Lettuce. I love Carrots if they're cooked with teriyaki sauce or liquid amino acids. I've even steamed them and liked carrots BUT I have to steam them for at least 15 minutes. The same goes for Brocoli. They make me gag eating them raw.
I've tried many types of Lettuce like Romaine,Iceberg,Boston,Kale etc and I wish I could like them but once again my taste buds won't go for it. I've liked Iceberg if it's very finely shredded. If it's in big pieces like for a salad I gag. I can't eat salad's in general.
I've never juiced before but I'm apprehensive because I don't like them raw in the first place. I have no problem with fruit. I love Banana's,Blackberries,Apple's,Watermelon,Grapes, Pineapple etc.

I wish there was something I could take that would change my taste buds so that I could enjoy healthy food without cooking it but I'm having a hard time doing it. Any feedback or advice would be appreciated. I know this whole thing probably comes of as scatterbrained so I apologize in advance. I'm just frustrated with my picky nature.

[speltrong]

you can do incredible things with nuts in raw food recipes... and believe me, you can get tons of calories in by utilizing both nuts and oils.. and coconuts are also a high calorie food. You could do smoothies with cashews, coconut, bananas and other fruit, and leafy greens (since you don't like to eat your leafy greens raw). There's also tons of gourmet food you can make that incorporates plenty of calories and fat. You'll do just fine.

[snoops]

You can hide the taste of greens in fruit smoothies. They will be green but really you mostly just taste the fruit. Add more greens to fruit ratio over time as you get used to the taste. I can eat 5 cups of spinach in a smoothie with apple and oranges and would not want to eat that much in a salad.

[Innerpatterns22]

Thanks both of you for the help! I'll definitely try incorporating leafy greens into smoothie's.
I've made raw taco meat out of walnuts a few times and the first time I made it it turned out great. The other times I've made it, it didn't turn out so good. With nuts I have somewhat of an issue. The only water filter I have is on my refrigerator and I don't have the $$ to get a high end water filter at the moment so I've been eating them raw as is instead of soaking them.

One thing I've noticed on youtube with some raw food chef's is that they don't like to use exact recipes and measurements. That kind of irritates me a little bit. I guess that's fine for some people but I have to have a guidebook or recipe book. I can't just improvise in the kitchen. I'm not a chef!

[MysticTree]

One thing I've noticed on youtube with some raw food chef's is that they don't like to use exact recipes and measurements. That kind of irritates me a little bit. I guess that's fine for some people but I have to have a guidebook or recipe book. I can't just improvise in the kitchen. I'm not a chef!

Often this is because fresh produce is very variable and even when we do exactly the same thing with the same ingredients mostly it comes out differently than the last time we made it.

[Revvell]

Get a Brita water filter. Better than nothing or, get something you can just put on the tap itself. They're not that expensive.

You can make lovely lemon and chocolate mousses with avos. Can't even taste them. I know what you mean as when, I first came to Ca., everyone was talking about avocados. I hated the texture and taste. Bury it in something. I can eat it now and bananas. I wouldn't eat bananas because of the texture. All other fruit? No problem! Bananas? Ick!

Your tastes will change. As folk said, bury your greens among the fruit in a smoozie.

Recipes are only guidelines. As you eat more and more raw, you'll find what YOU like in a recipe and make it to your taste, not to someone else's. Yeah, there's experimentation ahead.

[Innerpatterns22]

All great advice. Thanks for the comments!

I wish I could experiment but I'm simply not good at it. Does anyone know of free raw food recipes online that have exact measurements? I feel like a kid in kindergarden who doesn't have a teacher.

I also wanted to ask you guys if there was an alternative to Nori? I'd like to make spring rolls but I HATE seaweed.

[MysticTree]

Just google raw recipes and lots will show up. Check out the recipe section on here; lots of recipes.

Try lettuce leaves instead of nori or try both together with the nori inside the lettuce so you can't see it - if you can't see it you might like it better!

PS ... I am not sure about Snoops but everyone else is female on this thread ... so not sure where "guys" comes into it.

[sport]

PS ... I am not sure about Snoops but everyone else is female on this thread ... so not sure where "guys" comes into it.

I will have to put my hands up and admit that I call everyone guys as well. I must be doing that for more than 30 years because my nieces would joke about my greeting when they were kids. Hi Guys was my usual salutation.

[Innerpatterns22]

Just google raw recipes and lots will show up. Check out the recipe section on here; lots of recipes.

Try lettuce leaves instead of nori or try both together with the nori inside the lettuce so you can't see it - if you can't see it you might like it better!

PS ... I am not sure about Snoops but everyone else is female on this thread ... so not sure where "guys" comes into it.

I will have to put my hands up and admit that I call everyone guys as well. I must be doing that for more than 30 years because my nieces would joke about my greeting when they were kids. Hi Guys was my usual salutation.

Thanks. I'll do that!

I apologize for calling everyone "guys". I'm like Sport... It's just a habit for me to call everyone "Guys". I meant no offense or discrimination/sexism. Sorry about that!

[MysticTree]

s'ok ... I used to do it too lol

Hope you can find some rockin' recipes :)