I live in France since five years now, but I was born in Brussels, Belgium, and lived there for about half a century.

As Mark mentioned in the last MKMMA webcast, Brussels sprouts are a very special vegetable that not many people like, mainly because of its strong bitter taste, and also because of some unpleasant secondary effects if the body is not perfectly fit to digest it…

That vegetable grows at the end of the season and resists the strongest colds during winter, which means it surely has special qualities we could benefit from.

I Hate Brussels sprouts!

When I was a child, I was like any other normal child, I just hated it ! In front of a plate with Brussels sprouts, I would make a nasty face and even cry to show my disapproval to my inflexible parents. It was the same for my younger brother, and it was always war at home when Brussels sprouts were on the table.

Apparently, my parents won at last, since today, I love Brussels sprouts (providing they are prepared with a specific recipe, but that’s another story)

So what happened ? When and how did the switch between hating and loving occur ? I don’t have the slightest memory of this, and I certainly don’t want to go to and ask

an hypnotherapist « Could you help me remember when I started loving Brussels sprouts ? »

However, one thing I know is that there are some kind of food whose taste could be acquired by anyone.

In other words, anyone who doesn’t like the taste of a food product, could decide to train their palate to appreciate that product, and eventually end up loving it.

Brussels sprouts

Brussels sprout is one of these products, and other wellknown examples in France are olives, oysters or Burgundy snails.

To « acquire » the taste of a food product we don’t like, it is just necessary to repeatedly eat a little quantity of it with the conscious intention to like it. It is the repetition of the tasting experience combined with the intention which produces the result.

I clearly remember how I started liking olives. When I was a child, I could not chew and keep an olive in my mouth for more than 2 or 3 seconds, it was just too bitter for me.

But as olives were always on the table during the family gatherings, and because the adults were always encouraging me to « try again » and taste, I ended up accepting the taste of olives, and today I eat olives with great pleasure nearly every day.

Do you see some similarities between what works so well and so easily for the taste, and the process Og Mandino is inviting us to follow with the scrolls to create new habits ?

For me, it’s a no brainer, and it doubles my impatience to discover what are the new habits contained in scrolls 2 to 8.

Acquiring these habits will be a piece of cake or…of Brussels sprouts.

So if, while waiting the next scrolls, you want to train yourself by « acquiring » the taste of Brussels sprouts, just let me know, and I will be glad to give you my special recipe.

But I don’t recommand you invite some guests at home when you will have Brussels sprouts on the table.