Can a fat girl slim? part two for the love of veg

In my teens I couldn't eat meat, it was partly principle, the discovery and comprehension of the correlation between sweet little lambs, piggies and calves and cutlets, sausages and veal, and partly that I just went off the taste.  The down side is that my stomach became a bottomless pit which could accommodate mountains of carbs and in turn I became a mountain of a girl.
In my twenties and thirties I tried meat and sea food rich diets, but they just left my exhausted all the time (and constipated) all the time.
By my late thirties and forties I rediscovered vegetables, salads and fruits of all varieties, and, along with a little meat, they seem to have been the source of my weight loss.  The sad thing is that it has been so easy, with not a hunger pang in sight, I try not to think of all the year's that I wasted trudging around after my skinny friends, too embarrassed to try on clothes when we were out shopping, knowing that if I was lucky I might squeeze into a sixteen, and those were the humiliating days when changing rooms were communal.
It's difficult to get excited about vegetables, the way that they are presented in a supermarket.  My inner conspiracy theorist is convinced it's because if we were all passionate about vegetables, there would be no need for any ready meals or junk food.  I buy mine from this fabulous market, where you can touch and smell everything and there is a long discussion as to the relative merits of the Spanish or Canary Island lettuces, the local cabbages and the eternal orange vs blood orange debate.

I have never been much of a cook, but just smelling the coriander and the ginger, or the thyme and the mushrooms and it is obvious how well they complement each other, and the meat suits the vegetables, it needs to be delicate for the coriander and ginger, but can be stronger for the thyme and mushrooms, but is only a supporting role to all of the other flavours. I am learning as I go, but wouldn't be if I bought everything prepacked from the supermarket.

From a child I have been fascinated by these 16th Century paintings by Arcimboldo, these are Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter and the gardener is the last one.

He didn't have much success while he lived, and his work was considered a bit of a joke, but I could look at these for hours, with hindsight, it was like he knew what we all need, after all, we are what we eat!