Retraining our palettes

I have a problem not having a bread for breakfast. It's how I was raised, how my palette thinks it received adequate nutrition (so that I'm not grazing an hour later for something to chew), and what my boys really like. We do go the Lender's bagel route, and for years, just purchased the onion flavored ones. Then, when trying to begin to make the switch to healthier alternatives of what we loved, we made the switch to 100% whole wheat Lender's bagels. We loved them immediately, and didn't miss the onion flavored ones (which is really a mask to cover what is coming).

I ran out of my freezer stock of them, and our local store has been out the last two times I've gone in to pick some up. So, I finally broke down and got the white bagels...as they were out of any other option we'd actually eat (raisins do not belong in baked food items, ever.). This morning, we had them, and ICK! I'd forgotten how awful white bread can be, especially in big lumps. I was happy to see that our palette for white bread has changed, and that in this case, we actually do prefer the heartier whole wheat alternative. The boys have stopped complaining about not having white bread for sandwiches any more - even Russ now chooses healthier alternatives when he's picking up a loaf for me.

I know when we'd made attempts in life before to lose weight, one of Russ' biggest drawbacks to eating healthier foods was that they just didn't taste as 'good' as the fast food he was so used to eating. The salt, fat, and MSG added just didn't compare to veggies and things I prepared at home. This time round, it's been really different. His palette has changed...he's been able to move away from most fast food and thinks it tastes awful. It reminds me of the Biggest Loser last night when a couple sat down to watch Jillian Michaels eat a typical meal for them. She just couldn't even gag the stuff down, yet they thought it tasted good.

Retraining is a big key! Now, if I could just retrain my body not to crave soda!