I’ve been very overweight for a long time. Lately I’ve been trying to eat healthier and lose weight. (among dealing with other nutritional deficiencies.)
One of the big problems I have though is that I have a lot of trouble eating foods with weird textures, smells, tastes, etc. This of course includes a lot of vegetables and some kinds of healthier proteins like fish.
A doctor I was working with recommended talking to a nutritionist who is familiar with these kind of problems. However, I didn’t find them to be that helpful. They didn’t really have a good understanding of what kind of things bothered me and didn’t really seem to want to learn or incorporate that into a plan. I got a lot of “Well can’t you just try to put up with some of these things that bother you?” So eventually I gave up with them. So I’m back to eating either miserably small portions of unhealthy foods (which doesn’t really solve the nutrition problem and makes me hungry) or a handful of rather bland healthier foods that are fine to eat but just make me sad.
Does anyone have experience navigating these kinds of problems? What did you do? Do you have any suggestions? Types of foods, recipes, resources that deal with this, etc?
I can relate. It’s a constant struggle. I was able to lose 35lbs over about 10 months, but not until I realized I needed to want to lose the weight more than I wanted to enjoy the comforts of what my palate dictated. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but as you get older, your window to figure out a solution shrinks before that cascade of health issues propagates. Above all else, know that you’re a beautiful and significant person, period. Think about what you really want out of life, and how you can flip that switch.
Additional thoughts: When accommodating autism negatively affects your health, I think the answer is in seeking balance. You can establish a reward system for making healthy decisions throughout the week. Also, there are some psychological issues that creeped in for me - as I lost weight and mobility improved, I somehow felt like less of myself. My clothes started draping a little more, and it felt like I was wasting into a lesser form. Anyway, it was a difficult head-space to navigate, but I feel like I made it through, for the most part.
I agree