Rita Black: Do you wish that you loved eating vegetables more than you currently do? Do you wish you even liked eating vegetables, even just a little? Of course, everyone knows that vegetables are nutritional powerhouses that can help making managing your weight and health easier. But what happens when we're just meh about vegetables? Or do we even downright dislike them? Lah! What if all your good intentions about eating them, you go to the farmer's market, you buy them, but then you just sort of never get around to eating them, and they just will and fade away in your fridge. In this week's Thin Thinking episode, I am gonna walk you through some hacks to add more vegeta your veggie game. You can learn to love veggies, but we have to start not with what's happening with the vegetables on your plate, but at the root. Get it? Root? What's happening with vegetables in your mind.

Rita Black: And also, I will be ending the episode with lots of veggie loving mantras to help you shift your mind from veggie skeptic to veggie fan. So grab your cutting board, sharpen those knives, and get ready for a veggie extravaganza that will leave you craving those greens roots and everything in between. And come on in.

Rita Black: Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn't start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym? 80% of our weight struggle is mental. That's right. The key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there, I'm Rita Black. I'm a clinical hypnotherapist weight loss expert, bestselling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process. And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery, I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict and binge eater. And after two decades of failed diets and fat weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis. Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years. Enter the Thin Thinking Podcast where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling. I'll give you the thin thinking tools, skills, and insights to help you develop the mindset you need, not only to achieve your ideal weight, but to stay there long term and live your best life.

Rita Black: Hello, my friend. How are you today? I hope you're fantastic. I wanna say hello to our new listeners in Columbia, Jordan, Romania, and Cyprus. I am so glad that you have found us. I love seeing more and more people tuning into the Thin Thinking Podcast from all over the globe, joining our Thin Thinking community. So come on in and get cozy and just settle down. Now, just a quick announcement to everybody, everywhere, wherever you are. This is the last week of our Thin Thinking Review Drive contest. We've been asking listeners to write a review, take a photo of their review with screenshot, and send it to me, [email protected]. And in return, you will receive a coupon code for a free weight loss hypnosis download of your choice. And will also be entered into a drawing for my upcoming Shift Out of Emotional Eating Toolkit that is going to have hypnosis sessions, coaching sessions, and meditation to help you put an end to emotional eating. And you will be one of the very first to get this new item for free. So the drive ends in three days. So get that pen out or get those fingers typing. Write the review.

Rita Black: I was thinking of like writing the review out and putting it an envelope and sending it the horse and carriage days. No, no, no, no. Get on that whatever, your phone, get on your desktop, send me a review, take a picture of it, put a review on one of the podcasts. And just to help you out, we've put the links to some of the major podcast platforms in the show notes. The drawing is gonna be on Sunday, July 16th, 2023. So please hurry up, get entered into the contest.

Rita Black: Okay, so we're sitting almost at the middle of the summer, and I hope wherever you live in the world, your summer has been amazing for you. Our spring, I know I've talked about this, but our spring was dreadfully cold, which I actually loved, but it was great for gardening on one hand because I have flowers that I've never had before. It's made me feel like such a great gardener because my, you should see the Sweet Peas, the Wall of Sweet Peas. I had like, people come into my backyard and they just don't even, they're like, what? How can this even exist in Los Angeles? And I'm like, well, because we had a spring, like it was England. In fact, my sister lives in England and we were talking yesterday and it was a little cold yesterday in Los Angeles, and it was really hot in England. So I was like, what happened? Like, we have the British weather and you have the Southern California weather. I don't know, she had a way better sport and a much more of a bronzed glow on her face than me. There's something wrong going on in the universe.

Rita Black: So anyway, but now that it has started to warm up here in Los Angeles, you know, now that it's, we are getting those hot summer days, the tomatoes that were green, there were so many green tomatoes, they're all ripening now. So now we've gone from nothing like sitting there watching. I will sit in the garden and I'll watch that tomato and I'll say, are you, you know, like, it will be pink and I'll just go out two hours later. Are you a little more red? So I was like that, but now they're all turning red and I'm like, oh my gosh, we have so many tomatoes. So we're making salads and gazpacho and hot soup. And my son makes this amazing marinara sauce. And for the first time this year, we are considering, cause we're getting so many tomatoes, of making a lot of marinara sauce and putting them in jars. I guess you call that canning, right? So I'm excited to try that. That's gonna be something new.

Rita Black: So speaking of vegetables, even though tomatoes are technically a fruit they are still a vegetable in my mind. I figured it was about time that you and I had the talk, you know what I mean? The talk. That's right. The talk about eating more vegetables. Yes. Now, both my kids hated tomatoes, when they were growing up. Yes, they liked the marinara sauce on pizza, but pretty much everything else, they just didn't like it at all. They spit 'em out. If anything even looked like it had a tomato in it, they refused to eat it. But now, recently, they have both acquired a taste for them. So it's very nice. So it's possible watching my children shift their mindsets around certain vegetables, because it was tomatoes, it was mushrooms, it was all those, you know, interesting textures and tastes they shied away from, or a little more violently like vehemently. Is that the right pronunciation?

Rita Black: They were really, really against these things. But then they opened their mind and now they are fans. So if you are currently a veggie lover, high five! I hope you love this episode, and I hope it helps you feel awesome about your passions for the greens. But you may know that special someone who is not quite there, so maybe you can pass along this podcast to them who doesn't quite like vegetables. Because there's usually one in every crowd, whether they struggle with weight or they don't. Now, since we were all little tykes, we have been told how amazing vegetables are. Right? and here are some inspiring facts to underline. Why do we care? Like why do we care about eating more vegetables and fruits? But vegetables are what I'm focusing on today and increasing our veggie vernacular.

Rita Black: According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, individuals who consume seven or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day have a 42% lower risk of early death compared to those who eat less than one serving. Hmm. That's pretty compelling and very inspiring. Also, the National Health and Nutritional examination survey conducted in the United States revealed that adults who regularly consume vegetables have a lower body mass index, BMI scores and are less likely to be overweight or obese, reducing their risk of obesity related diseases like diabetes and heart disease. So for me, I do love vegetables, but I didn't always love vegetables, but I had, I was pretty lucky as a kid because my mom had a degree in nutrition from the University of California Berkeley. And she went there, can you believe it? In the late forties. And I remember every time that I would cook with her, or even when I was too young to cook with her, and I would just watch her cook, she would just talk to me about vegetables and tell me about the nutrients in them and how good they were.

Rita Black: That didn't always make me like them per se. But since I had a mother who was very in vegetables, even though she was overweight, but she was very into nutrition, it was really great to have that eyeopening experience. And I think I hear from a lot of clients how they really wanna get into vegetables to also model great behavior for their kids and their grandkids. And she, you know, really did emphasize how amazing these things called vegetables were for your body. But here is the thing, even though vegetables, as we know are so great for you, and they can extend your life and make weight management so much easier because they keep you healthy and they fill you up on fewer calories, which I find is very true and definitely a bonus and a plus in the area of vegetables.

Rita Black: But there are some of us, and maybe you are one of them that have a distinct dislike for them. Or maybe you just never developed a taste for them, and you are currently eating a few a day to none a day. So first of all, if that is you, I want to remove any shame around not loving vegetables. Let's just get clear right now that you are not a less than person because you are not, you know, right now, consuming vegetables on a daily basis. There are many, many reasons why you may have developed the current relationship that you have with vegetables. And most of them, all of them are pretty much not your fault. So we just wanna remove any shame. What we wanna do is start to get really curious about this and open doors rather than shut them.

Rita Black: Because I feel like feeling like I should like vegetables and I should need to eat more vegetables just makes the other part of us that doesn't like vegetables louder. So we wanna kind of let that go. Just say wherever you are with vegetables today is perfect, and let's start from there. Let's just start from love and curiosity and open-mindedness and you know, start to shift the ground, so to speak. So here are some reasons why people develop aversions to vegetables. So one could be past negative experiences and negative experiences with vegetables, such as being forced to eat certain vegetables as a child or having a bad taste or texture encounter can create aversions that persist into adulthood. So either you came across something or had something that just really, like shocked your central nervous system, or you had an authority figure making you eat the vegetables, which created an aversion.

Rita Black: That certainly has happened to a lot of my clients. Another reason could be you have sensory sensitivities. Some individuals have heightened sensory sensitivities, such as being more sensitive to bitter tastes, which are commonly found in certain vegetables. And this can make them perceive vegetables as unappetizing or plain gross and unpleasant. Another reason would be familiarity and exposure. So lack of exposure to a wide variety of vegetables during childhood, or limited exposure to different cooking methods and combinations can result in a limited palette and resistance to trying new vegetables. I know a lot of us who were raised in the seventies by the mom, the moms in the generation where they either were, my mom was a fantastic cook, but I had many friends whose mothers were kind of, you know, getting their master's degree or they were just really busy or they, you know, it was like tv, dinner, vegetables, or like vegetables from a can, like canned green beans or canned peas or, you know, like it just, it was like the canned vegetables or just like disgusting frozen vegetables because they hadn't had the freezing capabilities that they do today.

Rita Black: So we just got conditioned early that these things were just these gross overprocessed things that tasted nasty. Another could be the cultural and social influences. Cultural and social factors play a role in shaping our food preferences. If vegetables are not emphasized or celebrated within a person's cultural environment, they may not have developed a positive attitude towards them. Texture and consistency preferences. Some individuals have specific preferences for certain textures and consistencies in food and vegetables can really widely vary in texture. So if somebody has an aversion to a certain texture, it may translate into an aversion to the vegetables that possess it. Does that make sense? So if you do not like smooth like a smooth surface, like a zucchini or a cucumber or you know, smooth surface in any food, like slimy, like pasta can be slimy. You know, the sliminess of like a cucumber, sliced cucumber might make you go blah.

Rita Black: Another thing is conditioning and association. Associations between negative emotions or experiences and vegetables can form aversions. For example, if somebody always had to eat a vegetable as a form of punishment or during unpleasant situations like their parents were bickering or fighting at the dinner table, they may have developed an aversion for them. So another one is learned behavior. Food preferences and aversions can be learned from family members or peers. So like, if your parents or your brother or your friends were like, those things are gross or salads are for, or you, you know, if somebody grew in this environment where they were disdained or not valued, they may have adopted similar attitudes and developed aversions.

Rita Black: How do we shift our mind around this relationship with vegetables so that we can make them a bigger part of our life and our health strategies? So we are gonna start with I've got a little who, why, what, when, where, and how methodology to shift into liking vegetables and getting more in your life. So I want you to first see this vegetable thing as not like something that you are being forced to do, but there is an opportunity for you with vegetables not only to lengthen your life, but to just open a door in your mind to something that is loving for your body and loving for you. Because my guess is that like I said, we kind of live in a little world of shame around our, if we don't have a good relationship with vegetables, it makes us feel somewhat bad about ourselves. So I do ask you, put the shame to the side and get really curious and get really loving with yourself. Like, I love myself and I wanna create a project out of opening my mind and opening a new relationship with fruits and vegetables so that it's fun and not a chore.

Rita Black: So let's start with the who and the who is you. You are the hero embarking upon this vegetable project and this vegetable adventure. I'd like to frame it to you so as you know, if you've been listening to my Thin Thinking podcast for any amount of episodes, you probably know I'm huge into identity shifting. That means like at the heart of any transformation, we start with identity first. And why the heck not start with identity with our relationship with vegetables? Cause as you can see, if you've labeled yourself as like somebody who doesn't like vegetables, or if you were labeled by other people in your family, like your parents were like, oh, you're so picky. You are a picky eater. Now, is that picky label really serving you now? Right? You know, it may have been fun to be a picky eater at one point, but there's a certain point where those labels don't serve you.

Rita Black: Or, oh, I'm a veggie hater, or I just don't like vegetables. All of these labels keep you. They take your power away from you rather than giving you power. So I'd like us to shift, and I'm gonna just kind of play with you here and to just play with you and to start to open up your mind to creating a new sexy and glamorous vegetable identity that, you know, can get your mind excited. That can be a seduction for this part of your mind. One would be, I'm a veggie adapter. Veggie adapter, meaning like technology. You know how people are like, I'm an early adapter. Those are the first people to run out and buy the new version of iPhone. I'm certainly not one of them. I'm like a late bloomer technology person.

Rita Black: Oh my gosh, I had an iPhone really, really super old model until a couple of years ago when my husband was like, okay, I'm taking that away from you. I was like, no, I don't wanna update my phone. I've got it just like, I like it. He's like, no, you must, you know, you must have these new features. Who are you? You have a business, stop it. I was like, okay. But then once I had my new iPhone, I love it. So I want you to think of you or yourself as a possibly this is one identity to try on, is that you're a veggie adapter that you're starting to adapt to this journey or of being a vegetable lover. I mean, and not, we don't have to say lover, liker, like I am adapting in, I'm adapting into I'm an early veggie adapter.

Rita Black: You know, like, I like to eat veggies. I'm a vegetable adventurist. I think even better than adapter is this idea. Like I am on an adventure with vegetables. I'm an, you know, I'm a person on an adventure filled journey with vegetables. Now you can have all kinds of experiences with vegetables under that identity, but you think of yourself as a pirate or a you know, an explorer in the world of vegetables, or I am a vegetable scientist. You know how scientists get really curious and meticulous and they collect data. Hmm. What's that texture like? And hmm, what's that taste profile like? You know, just getting down into the weeds with things are. I am someone who is open to free love with vegetables, maybe more of a hippie concept, like I'm a free loving veggie mama. You know, kind of a open-minded you know, wearing the flower child outfit and rolling in a field of lettuce, or I'm a member of the green party green vegetables.

Rita Black: That is so, so just play around with that identity of, you know, that you're stepping into an identity rather than that identity of veggie hater or picky eater owning you and taking your power away from you. You could just even say, I am a person who's open to the idea of exploring vegetables. Okay? So that's some new ideas as soon new identities to triumph. So now let's continue with why. Why vegetables, why do it? And now let's create a roadmap for your veggie adventure. And as you know, if you've worked with me, that is always beginning with a vision, and this new you is going on the journey of veggie loving. So let's create a strong commitment. Why do you love vegetables, right? Like, why love vegetables? Who cares? Why should you eat them? Why should you love them? Because they're good for you, because you're supposed to like them, because you know you can, can you see that?

Rita Black: Because you're supposed to like them isn't really a great starting point. Many, many people who struggle with vegetables, people call me all the time, oh, can you help me? You know, like vegetables more. The main thing is they have this guilt and this like, I should be eating so many vegetables a day and I should be doing this, and I should be, and all the shoulds kind of hold them down. But they also, it's an intellectual idea. You know? Even all the studies, the ones that I just reported, those studies hit your brain in a certain area, your conscious mind, it's like, oh, okay, yes, vegetables extend my life. Vegetables are healthy. The subconscious mind is like, yeah, who cares? You know, I don't like them. I don't want 'em, right? And, you know, we have 12% is our conscious mind.

Rita Black: 88% is the subconscious mind. So we really need to engage our subconscious mind in the why, why go on this veggie journey. So I wanna engage you by just thinking for a moment, you can even close your eyes while you're doing this. Think of what it would feel like for you to feel healthier. Just take a moment and just imagine, because by imagining how it will feel, we're gonna get our feeling brain involved, our Olympic brain. And we're gonna get that feeling of health. How health, like how are vegetables, like imagine that you're eating vegetables, servings of vegetables every day and a year from now, two years from now, how healthy you're gonna feel. And just imagine how that's going to feel in your body. That feeling of health, that feeling of vibrancy, that feeling of connectedness with this healthy body that eats vegetables, that's full of micronutrients and phytochemicals and all that good jazz is just coursing through your veins, right?

Rita Black: So get that sense of vibrancy, that sense of health, and now connect that with that feeling of how that feeling of feeling healthier is now because of vegetables, right? So just start to connect that gratitude that you feel for this healthy feeling to the vegetables. Just start to open up your mind and your heart to that, oh, this feeling of health is because of my new relationship with vegetables. So just think about that moment, that, but connect that feeling like, mm, health, health, health, ah, consuming more vegetables. Oh yes. And now, you know, open up. Just imagine that heart of yours opening up and pulling in some vegetables. Okay, so now let's add to this chain. So how about feeling healthier, but now feeling slimmer as well. So I'd like you to get that sense of healthiness, hold onto that, but also get a sense of feeling slimmer.

Rita Black: How slimmer is gonna make your life even better so you're healthier. And then slimmer. And imagine that feeling of not only health, but feeling lighter and leaner out there in your future. Feeling really great. Just really get a sense of that, how you feel in your clothes, walking down into the vegetable section of the market. And just feel so grateful for this healthy body, the slim body and really looking all around and just being grateful to the vegetables and fruits that are just fueling this healthy, lean, lighter body. Okay?

Rita Black: And now let's connect this. So we're building a chain here. We're building health. We're building health to slim. Now we're building slim to being a leader. Maybe you also wanna be a leader in your family or amongst your friends. Like I said earlier, so many people wanna set a healthy example for the people in their life. Often if we're not eating vegetables, chances are people around us aren't eating a ton of vegetables either. So wanting to set a good, so imagine being healthier, being slimmer, but also having the people around you, looking to you as a model of health, looking to you and really grateful to you that you've opened up a door to their healthier, connected relationship with eating vegetables and fruits. And just imagine that feeling of health, feeling of slimness, feeling of being a leader and a role model for those people in your life. And now just take a deep breath and bring that feeling all inside you, opening your heart and mind to vegetables, allowing that new connection to be formed. And imagine now seeing ahead of you, your path on your journey of exploring and starting to enjoy and consume more vegetables right there in front of you.

Rita Black: Just imagine that beautiful path. And just imagine you're just taking that first step out, taking that step out bravely, proudly you've done it. And that that healthy slim leader you is pull you forth. The pain pushes till the vision pulls and you're being pulled along now on your path towards loving or creating a powerful relationship with vegetables and fruits. Alright.

Rita Black: Now we're gonna do, we've done the who, you, we've done the why. We've got our reasons, health, slim, leadership. Now what, what, what, what? Well, we need to get a little more specific. We need a game plan. And here's the thing that a lot of times when we think if we're, if we don't like vegetables, often we think of vegetables, we lump them all together in one big group and we think of all the vegetables at the grocery store and we think, I don't, you know, like there's, it just becomes overwhelming for our brain.

Rita Black: And our brain literally shuts down. It's like, no, I don't want any of those things. Now if we start where we're at today, my guess is you don't hate every single vegetable on the face of the planet. There's probably one or two vegetables that you are okay with. Or you might even like, I remember I had a client who came to me and she said, and she was a weight management client, but she also said, one thing I really, really want you to help me with because I have a small child, is I want to enjoy more vegetables and fruits. I am a very picky eater. I hardly eat any fruits and vegetables. And I was like, okay, okay, well let's start with what you like. And so it turns out that she liked a few things. She liked spinach that was raw not too cook.

Rita Black: She was very clear on that she liked green apples. No other apples other than green. She liked green beans. So, you know, we see a green theme here. And she liked romaine lettuce. Okay? And so, so that was her vernacular right? Now here's the thing about that is that we just started focusing on those and her consuming those. I mean, sometimes we just shut down and we're like, well, I don't like it. And we don't even try to focus on the things that we do eat. I mean, here are four vegetables and fruits that she actually liked. Okay? Tolerated. Could eat them. And she started to work them into our diet. And frankly, that was enough for her to feel full, to start feeling healthy and to release weight. She didn't have to enjoy any more than that, really. I mean, yes, it would help to foil out and she did.

Rita Black: But she started with what she liked and that started to actually build her confidence in herself. Cause she started to see, oh, I actually do like vegetables. I actually like these vegetables. These are fine for me. And these are enough. Because I think we have that critical voice in our head saying, that's not enough. You need to eat, you need to eat, love 20 fruits and vegetables. And that's not necessarily true. I mean, if you think about it, I'm a really healthy person. I eat a pretty good array of fruits and vegetables, but I don't eat that many. You know? There's ones that I eat all the time. I eat broccoli, I eat cabbage, I eat a lot of cabbage, shredded cabbage cause I like putting things on it. But, and I have smoothies with oranges and limes and lemons, but I don't eat a ton of fruit.

Rita Black: I don't eat a huge variety of vegetables, but I eat, I do eat over seven servings of fruits and vegetables a day. But that doesn't mean a huge variety. It just means I do eat a lot of the same thing over and over again. And a lot of my clients who, you know, kind of find their veggies that they like and they stick with them, and it's okay, you don't need to eat a huge, I mean, think of the crap food that we eat. We don't eat a huge variety of crap food. I always, I always laugh so hard when I think about kid food because, you know, what do kids eat nowadays in the United States? They eat, you know, chicken fingers, they eat pizza and they eat macaroni and cheese, right? But they can live on that stuff forever. They don't need a huge variety of food.

Rita Black: In fact, they want as smaller variety as possible. So I have no problem with your eating a couple of things that you really, you know, like, but you know, figuring out different ways to cook them and, you know, eventually adventuring out. You know? Maybe you could adventure out. Like if you like an apple at the taste of an apple, maybe try its cousin the pear, right? Like, so you know, the same texture profile but a bit different flavor. Or if you like beans, like green beans, maybe you would like zucchini, cut up in strips and cooked the same way. Or maybe if you like something like a flavor, like a radish that like the heat and pepperiness of a radish, you might also find that turnips, which are similar in their pepperiness you like.

Rita Black: So, so think of like, okay, I like this particular thing. What's in its sort of either fit flavor or texture palette that I could, you know, adventure and just biting into it and being okay, like just sitting with the feeling of being, I'm going to allow my mouth to experience this feeling. You can always spit it out if you want to. But I'm just going to train my brain like, oh, here is a new experience. And even before you put it in your mouth, say, okay, I'm gonna have this in my mouth. I'm gonna chew it. I'm gonna experience the flavor of it. I'm open to what happens to me, I'm not gonna die. It's actually gonna be, I'm on an adventure. So always pose it to yourself as an adventure. If you like broccoli, hey, you might like cauliflower.

Rita Black: They're both cruciferous vegetables. If you like butternut squash, maybe you would like acorn, they're almost identical or pumpkin or a different type of winter squash. So start with a familiar flavor and texture group and then move out from there. And if you aren't ready, don't worry. Just take it slow and eat more of what you already do eat. And maybe just move your serving size up from a half a cup to a cup. A serving size is small. So when I say seven servings of fruits and vegetables, that doesn't mean like this big old truckload of vegetables. It's literally two slices of tomato is a serving of vegetable, okay? You can try them different ways. You can saute them in garlic, you can mash them, you can put them in broth and cook them and then puree them as a soup.

Rita Black: You could add them to things you'd like, like marinara sauce, or you could roast them in the oven, which is delicious, or eat them raw with a dip like hummus. So challenge yourself to a few servings a day and then move it up. It's like exercise your vegetable muscle is just gonna get stronger. So, and, you know, do it with a friend. Get a friend involved. So now we've looked at how we have looked at, or I'm sorry, we have looked at who, we have looked at why, we have looked at what, now let's look at when. When are you going to eat them? So I think the more specific, so we've got specific about what you're going to eat, and now we wanna get specific about when you wanna start your project on a particular day and just really say, I'm committing to expanding my vegetable experiment for a month or for two months or for two weeks.

Rita Black: You really set that timeframe because what you're doing is over practicing. You're gonna over practice focusing on this. And what that does is it stretches your mind. And then when you maybe go back to real life, you'll have expanded your vegetable palette and you'll be a little better off. And then you can focus on it again some other time. Don't overwhelm yourself. Pick a timeframe that makes sense for you. It's the summer. Maybe you'll say, I'm gonna do it this summer, or I'm gonna do it for the month of August. So every day just get clear on when you are going to eat your veggies too. So don't be like, well, I'm gonna eat more veggies today. Well, when are you gonna eat one with lunch? One is a snack, one with dinner. Get really clear with yourself. The more specific you are, the more your brain wraps around it and think it through in your mind.

Rita Black: Really imagine eating it, feeling good, feeling light, feeling, you know, add that health, that add that slimness, add that leadership. Like really practice in your brain before you even eat them. And then imagine how good you're gonna feel tonight going to bed having eaten them. Now the next one is where, well, maybe you can eat them in your dining room on a fancy plate or in front of the TV. And I don't ever advise eating in front of the TV, but if you need to eat vegetables in front of the TV to kind of just, you know, not be so present to them at first. Okay? I'm gonna give you a free pass here, but nothing else. Don't eat anything else in front of the TV, but you can eat some veggies. Or maybe you eat them with friends at lunch. Maybe you bring vegetables and you all take a turn trying them and sampling them, you know, support each other.

Rita Black: And then last but not least, how. How am I going to go you know, how am I going to, how am I gonna do this? So I'm gonna just go through my list of 10 hacks to get more veggies in your life. Some of them I've already mentioned as I've gone through these other things. But here's the list. And we're gonna start with number one, the power of perception. So I invite you to change your perception of vegetables from something you have to eat, to something you get to enjoy. Again, frame it to yourself as an adventure that you are choosing to go on. Your mother isn't making you go on it, your doctor isn't making you go on it. You lovely, you powerful, you hero. You are taking a powerful journey of and making a powerful project of you connecting more powerfully with vegetables, creating a more powerful relationship.

Rita Black: So instead of thinking of it as a chore, it's an exciting culinary adventure and the opportunities to discover new flavors and textures. And you know, I had a friend who works with kids and he works with a lot of kids who went through the pandemic and got a lot of social anxiety because they were just not seeing people as we all, like a lot of us have social anxiety that got worse during the pandemic. And I love the way he talks about framing adventure to the kids. You know? Like that every social interaction isn't this like thing, this horrible thing that the person's going to eat them alive, but that it's an adventure that you're going on a social adventure. So I just think go on a veggie adventure. You know, it's not, the veggie isn't going to eat you alive, it ain't gonna kill you.

Rita Black: Look at it as an adventure and it that opens up your mind to no end. And to that technique. Number two, the explorer's mindset. So you are the explorer and you have, like I said, you're the pirate. You are the you know, you're the Lewis and Clark of vegetables, and you're embarking upon a gastronomic treasure hunt. My son at one point hated mushrooms. So he, and he hated them, but he tried them, you know, without knowing, folded into pasta at a restaurant. My husband had ordered it and he was like, I wanna bite of your pasta. And he gave it to him and he's like, Hmm, what's this? And then he realized that he liked the flavor of mushrooms even though he, you know, in the pan when we cooked them at home, they didn't look but folded into pasta.

Rita Black: He loved it. And then he started just liking the flavor by itself without having to eat tons of pasta in order to enjoy it as well. Now the other one technique, three small steps. Big wins start with a small portion of vegetables and gradually increase them over time. So like we have been talking about like giving your taste buds a chance to adjust to new flavors without overwhelming them and celebrate each small victory along the way. Like my client who had those four vegetables and fruits that she liked, she started by having a spinach salad every day. And then she added a little chop chopped celery to her spinach salad. And then she ventured with shredded carrots. And once she got used to that, she added a little shredded beets and she started, you know, b before she knew it, she had a whole big salad of things that she was actually willing to eat.

Rita Black: And it made her feel awesome about herself, but she did it bit by bit by bit. Technique four is, or hack four is flavor fusion experiment with different seasoning herbs and spices to enhance the flavors. I can't tell you how this changes things. Try curry flavor, try garlic saute, try spice spicy Asian spice or a soy sauce. Don't be afraid to get creative. And then technique five, the art of pairing. Pair vegetables with foods you already love. Cana connecting a bridge between the familiar and the new. For example, like I mentioned earlier, if you'll enjoy pasta, add some sauteed vegetables, or if you like soup, add some, you know, chicken noodle soup, add some vegetables into that, add some vegetables into things that, even things like what was I thinking about? Like making a crepe. And, but instead of having or making vegetable tacos, you know, you, you can saute some onions and veggies with a little whatever, chicken or beef, but you're putting them in a taco shell and you're adding your new vegetable to that.

Rita Black: It's, there are so many great cookbooks out there now that offer you, you know, there's so many people are becoming vegans and vegetables. There's so many just vegetable dishes and flavors and recipes out there, right? And even at the grocery store, in the deli section, you can find vegetables that are precooked, that have been cooked in, in beautiful ways to get and take home and try. Technique six, mindful eating, savor, slow down and pay attention to the textures and flavors. This really allows you to appreciate the food. Seven explore recipes. Like I said, there's a great cookbook, skinny Taste, there's also Hungry Girl. Those are great starting places to you know, look at recipes. Just go online and put the vegetable that you are interested in. Go into chat sheet B tea, or you can go into Google and just put the vegetable and say yummy vegetable for celery.

Rita Black: Yummy sorry, yummy recipe for butternut squash. And then technique eight, as I mentioned, community connect with others who are on a similar journey or started challenge with your friends. This is a great way, you know, how many of you know, how many servings of vegetables can you eat a day? Well challenge with your friends? You know, today we're going to eat three servings. Tomorrow's four you know, those, the person who can eat eight servings of vegetables a day. You know, when's the prize? Try visual inspiration. Like, try really making the vegetables look beautiful on the plate. I remember, you know, your mom would have that like canned peas on a plate just sitting there looking horrible and awful. But what if you really created a beautiful design with the vegetables? The vi visual cues can spark excitement and motivation. And then celebrate number 10, celebrate your progress.

Rita Black: You know, promise yourself something nice non-food oriented that you will give yourself for, for, you know, taking yourself on this powerful journey. And remember, Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a veggie loving palette. Be patient with yourself. Embrace the journey, and before you know, you'll be savoring the players flavors of vegetables like a true veggie connoisseur.

Rita Black: Now, if you like to stay with me, I'm gonna go through a number of veggie mantras and all this is a cognitive technique. And it's, and what we're gonna do is I'm going to just give you the mantra. I'll just give you the phrase, repeat the phrase back powerfully inside your own mind. You don't need to say it out loud, just mentally repeat it. The more forcefully you mentally repeat it, the more effective it will be. Okay, let's begin. Vegetables nourish my body and fuel me with vitality. Good. Each vegetable I eat brings me closer to optimal health. I am grateful for the abundance of colorful and nutritious vegetables available to me. Vegetables are my allies in achieving my wellness goals. With every bite of vegetables, I am choosing a vibrant and healthy life.

Rita Black: I savor the flavors and textures of vegetables with delight. Eating vegetables is a loving act of self-care and self-respect. I am open to discovering new vegetable varieties and expanding my palate. My body craves the freshness and goodness of vegetables. Each vegetable I consume adds beauty and vitality to my body. I enjoy experimenting with different vegetable recipes and creating delicious meals. My taste buds are evolving and I find joy in discovering the flavors of vegetables. I am a vegetable enthusiast and I find joy in exploring their variety. I am becoming more connected to nature through my love for vegetables. Vegetables are my secret weapon for weight management and longevity. I am a vegetable adventurer. I am creating a positive relationship with vegetables, and it brings me joy by enjoying vegetables. I am setting a positive example for others and inspiring them to do the same. Good. That's right. And then just take a nice deep breath in and you have locked in those mantras. You can go back to them anytime you choose.

Rita Black: And that's it, folks. I'm just gonna remind you one last time. We only have a few days left of the Thin Thinking Review Drive contest. So go write a review, post it on your favorite platform, send me a screenshot of your review, and I will put you not only in the drawing for the emotional eating toolkit, but you will absolutely 100% get a coupon code to go and get yourself a free weight management hypnosis session download from the Shift store. And just remember that the drawing is on the 16th, Sunday the 16th. So definitely try to have those reviews in by Saturday if you can. All right, so have a great week and remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door of the weight struggle is in inside you. So keep listening and find it.

Rita Black: You wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release, head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com. That's www.shiftweightmastery.com, where you'll find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release tips, strategies, and more. And be sure to check the show notes to learn more about my book From Fat to Thin Thinking. Unlock Your Mind For Permanent Weight Loss.