Advice On Achieving My Dietary and Exercise Goals?

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My ultimate dietary goal is to roughly follow the daily recommended serving intakes for each food group for a man my age. Originally, I'll probably start at a bit of a caloric deficit so I lose weight a bit faster, but ultimately, I'd like to get to where I'm having about 6 serves of vegetables, 2 serves of fruit, 6 serves of grains, 3 serves of meat/poultry/fish/eggs and 2.5 serves of dairy per day on an average day.

I know what to consume to get my fruit and grains servings, and I'll have to cut back on dairy to satisfy that requirement. The main difficulty I'm having is figuring out how to get the 6 serves of vegetables. One of my autism symptoms is that I'm quite a fussy eater, and I also don't have much in the way of cooking skills, so figuring out where to start is difficult. I'm willing to consume vegetables I don't particularly like to meet my goals, but I won't eat things I really don't like.

Does anybody know of any resources I can take advantage of to find vegetable (and perhaps other) recipes, preferably that are palatable for a picky eater? Or any recipes packed full of vegetables that will make it easy to get my 6 serves per day?

I also want to start working out. My main goal is to improve my posture, and I have the exercises I want to do. The difficulty I'm having is establishing the routine. I'll try doing the exercises, and maybe I'll even get them done a few days in a row, but I have real trouble sticking to it. Does anybody have any advice on sticking to an exercise routine (5 days a week, 1 hour per day) when you dislike exercise? Is there anything that's worked for you as it relates to sticking to an exercise routine despite not enjoying it?

Thanks.

Servings are a fuzzy measurement. Track calories.

Regarding the macronutrients: You'll need enough protein to maintain muscle. But whether the rest of your calories comes from carbs or fat is totally preference. As long as you have a caloric deficit, you'll lose weight regardless.

There are cookbooks that were developed by parents to sneak vegetables into foods that kids are more likely to want to eat. I'd suggest googling that. You're likely to find not only the books, but also free online recipes and resources. Not saying to like what kids like, but rather to explore the idea of novel, pleasing and creative ways to prepare vegetables so that they won't look like rabbit food. Find a way to want to eat them.

Exercise... It would be hard to stay motivated to do a single hour block, but it is something that I've been looking into as well. My conclusions, for myself, are to increase walking to AT LEAST half an hour x 5 days per week. Sit less.

Look at your daily schedule. Find blocks of time where you can exercise without being interrupted. At the moment, for me that's 7am - 9am for exercise and martial arts practice, 4 days per week.

Also, fitness isn't best achieved with one hour of activity and 23 hours of inactivity. The body will adapt to the 23 hours. Maybe break the one hour up during the day. Do pushups during a lunch break and ad breaks on TV. Walk up stairs rather than take the elevator. Do squats...whenever...

Use the veggies as snacks, raw is better, IIRC.

Focus on the endorphins that exercise gives you, enjoy the good feelings. If you miss a day, don’t beat yourself up or try to double it the next day. Journal by listing five things that made you feel good that day.