Room for kale and room for cake! Research about self-control and intuitive eating.

"Why force yourself to have kale if you don’t even like it?" Does anyone have experience trying to restrict what they eat (perhaps to achieve goals) and it just doesn't work? At different points in my life I had different ideas about how to eat, and in looking back it absolutely feels like the simplest approach has always been to eat a lot of veggies, and nosh on my fave sweets occasionally. I tend to not "waste" time on the sub-par sweets. :) What has worked for you? Does this research resonate with anyone else?