As an adult, I started discovering foods that were startlingly delicious. For example, a fully ripened pear, when all the pears I'd eaten were harder than apples. U-pick cherries in season. Strawberries that you didn't need to dip in powdered sugar. Darker and darker chocolates to the point I can't eat milk chocolate any more. The way my wife prepares salmon, simply broiled with a little salt, pepper and soy sauce is fantastic. Fast food is Chipotle, which for fast food is as fresh and healthy as you're going to get.
Make a point of exploring quality flavorful foods. It's enriching in many ways.
Yes, this is exactly what I was getting at, that it is something "difficult."
Imagine trying to convince a person from the stone age (or even the early 1900s) that an amazing plate of sauteed vegetables, rice/beans, sliced fruits, and steak/fish/chicken were something you had to force yourself to eat.
They'd probably punch you in the face.
> I'm skinny and somehow have good cholesterol and blood pressure, but I know this will come back to bite me at some point.
Yes, our bodies can tolerate almost anything in while young. But if we want to make it thru our fifties and not be miserable or dead, I urge a different tack.
I'm about 30 years old now and my diet is pretty much shit. It's actually kind of funny/embarrassing when my shopping cart has bags of pizza rolls and hot pockets. I take full responsibility, but I must say I'd have a much easier time if I had grown up eating healthy foods from the beginning.
Luckily, I don't overeat, so I'm skinny and somehow have good cholesterol and blood pressure, but I know this will come back to bite me at some point.