Our taste buds allow us to experience wondrous pleasure while eating some of our favorite foods. Personally, I’m a really big fan of pizza, french fries, ice cream, cookies, candy, potato chips, butter and all kinds of cheese.

If we just eat the foods that taste good to us (like my personal favs), we inevitably gain more and more weight each year and put ourselves at risk for all sorts of health problems.

As a personal trainer, I’ve learned to change my taste buds over the years because:

• I want to be a healthy role-model for my clients, and

• I just feel better physically when I eat more healthy foods.

It can be challenging to get your taste buds to compromise, and they will inevitably act out as like a tantruming toddler as you make the shift, but it will also be an incredibly gratifying process if you choose to do so.

So how do you change your taste buds over time and improve your health? I have found the following three things to be essential:

1. Make changes slowly so that you can maintain them

2. Be open-minded about eating some foods that you “don’t like but know they’re good for you” - It takes time to change your taste buds

3. Be patient and consistent with the process because it does work - your taste buds will change!

Years ago a client told me about green smoothies and I tried a variety of them, yet found them all to be pretty disgusting from a taste standpoint.

Despite the lack of flavor, I felt amazing when I ingested the variety of greens each morning to start my day so I stuck with it until it became a daily habit.

This is not to say that I don’t still indulge in various unhealthy items as described above, but before doing so, I try to ensure that there have been plenty of healthy foods as well (e.g. lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, whole grains).

As we start to eat more of the healthy foods (even when we’re not excited about them, but want better health) our taste buds slowly start to shift.

Part of this is a result of how you feel when you eat the healthier foods.

—You’ll start to feel more energetic,

—You may have improved cognitive functioning, and

—You’ll just feel good overall.

If you really want to shift, it’s essential to start paying attention to how you feel physically after eating both healthy and unhealthy foods.

When our taste buds don’t compromise, most of our food choices are based on what will taste best (despite the health consequences) and we forget that there are foods that can taste almost as good that are way better for us.

Action Steps:

• Accept that there will always be foods that you love and you’re not going to give them up. That’s fine.

• Learn how to eat your unhealthy treats sparingly and think about what you might be willing to give up.

  Maybe you keep the treats out of the house and/or go out to eat a little less frequently.

• Decide on a healthy new habit that you’re willing to commit to each week. This could include eating a wider variety of leafy greens or adding some new vegetable to your menu, maybe adding a protein shake to your morning, or just picking one healthy food that you want to learn to like and eating it no less than 10 times over the next few months.

Staying open-minded and noticing how you feel while completing these action steps makes them much more manageable, satisfying and interesting.