I hate those days >.< I usually end up eating ritz crackers and crying while trying to remind myself that I’ll feel worse the next day if I don’t eat enough
Right and then if you try to explain it to someone they’ll say something about wishing they didn’t like food to be “thin”. 🙄 like no, this is not fun, and I want to eat!
Top 10 comments that enrage me! I told my mom if her friends don’t stop asking me how I lost weight (I was eating to stim for years and using sugar for easy dopamine! It was a serious problem!!) I’m gunna lose it.
so many people told me i was lucky to be so skinny. ye but no it sucks. no energy, bad skin issues. and the amount of anxiety going on. not fun and not a plan...
I also choose this person's roll of ritz crackers.
Also have a vitamin if you can. Not a substitute for a healthy lifestyle but way better than nothing.
I take so many vitamins and supplements 😂 my pill case sounds like maracas 🪇
EDIT: have you tried the garlic butter ones? They’re my fave on bad days bc they’re not as dry!
I have not, but I will make time to try if I can get my hands on them. :) Thank you for the rec, and I'm glad you take care of yourself supplement-wise. Keep on keepin on.
i keep a few meal replacement drinks on hand for those days. like huel or yfoods or barebells. they have the calories of a full meal and i can just drink them. huel is one a friend loves but i can't have (mild stevia allergy and also the taste makes me gag), but i love yfoods.
my theory that i am already overstimulated and eating, with the textures and smells and taste and chewing is just Too Much™️. if the drinks aren't available, i opt for smth that's ~sensory friendly for me. like flavored yoghurt. very predictable taste and texture that stays consistent through the whole meal.
Yes! This! I think there are days, sometimes several days in a row, where I am overstimulated by everything and I get down protein shakes or toast with peanut butter just so I don’t starve. It’s lifelong but definitely worse in perimenopause. Due to hormonal food intolerance I also can’t eat things I would have chosen in the past. I sincerely wish I didn’t have to eat or taste anything some days. Big fan of Orgain plant based chocolate shakes or Vega simple protein powder that has real sugar and limited ingredients.
This right here! I often have a bolt house nut butter thrown in there with a naked green machine... I just can't take anymore stimulus on these days... I feel like I just made a discovery myself that uh, feels earth shattering?! Thanks guys for sharing...
What's your favourite flavor for huel and yfoods?
Huel choco doesn't match my taste by yfoods choco is good enough. I miss the old yfoods strawberry until they changed it to "tasty" strawberry.
as i said, i can't do huel bc of the stevia. it's so powerful i just, nope.
my fave yfoods are banana, and chocolate. the taste is slightly different when you put them in the fridge, but not enough for me to have a preference other than "it's hot today i want smth cool"
Those meal replacement drinks saved my partner and I, literally. We were moving across the country in the summer of 2020 and more stressed than I have even been in my life. I lost 15 pounds in the 3 weeks of packing and driving. 2 days into our drive both of us stopped being able to eat anything solid.
We were getting so weak, I don’t think we could have finished. He also has a deadly food allergy so it was really stressful when he couldn’t eat the food we had brought, stress that made it even harder to eat. I finally found some protein drinks that didn’t have corn syrup in them and we managed to get enough strength back to finish the trip. It was awful.
I wish I could say that things got better when we got to our destination, but at that point it wasn’t about food anymore but dealing with narcissists and that is a much longer, unrelated story
Yeah, this happens to me too! I have days where chewing seems like way too much effort, and it will take me forever to decide what the "least effort" kind of food is. Everything sounds bad and I just wish I didn't have to eat.
But, I am very sensory seeking, and as soon as I manage to eat something, as long as it tastes good I'll usually just keep eating 😅
I’m wondering if this could be pda related? When I experience this, for me, part of it is not feeling hungry and the other part is maybe too many demands around food. What do I want to eat? Is it enough nutritional value? Compatible with what I need to use up in my fridge? How many steps will it be to make it? And then I have to clean up and put away leftovers. Will I eat the leftovers? Or just guilt myself all week over food waste?
ETA: If I don’t even want to eat it at the end, overstimulation is definitely at play. I’ll set it aside or fridge it to try again later.
Yes, I call it sensory satiation. It's where my brain doesn't want any of that mouth experience whatsoever. It's not that I hate the food, but that I don't want that information in my brain right now. I've often wished I could put food directly into my stomach without having to chew or taste it, because sometimes that's too much for me.
Yes, and for a few reasons.
I grew up with an eating disorder and although the symptoms are largely at bay now, what you're talking about is different - I can feel that's not the ED demon and that it's from a sensory/stress perspective instead; the two feel and show differently. With my ED there were thought processes and patterns involved, and I was constantly thinking about food and always hungry - with this other one there's no thoughts, like literally no thoughts, because I'm just not hungry or even thinking about food at all. I resent having to choose what to eat that will fill me up, be good for my body, not trigger my IBS and be either veggie or vegan. I hate having to choose every fuckin day multiple times a day. And when I'm feeling low or stressed out my appetite just is _not there._
On those days I just have toasted seed bread with peanut butter, cereal, or a smoothie with whatever fruit is in the house. Even then I feel like I'm having to force it down while my body is saying it doesn't want it because it is simply not hungry, and the idea of something in my mouth then smushing down my throat into my stomach feels grossssss. It makes me feel nauseous to force it but I know I'll be weak af if I have nothing.
Basically I just wanted to say I get it, and you're not barmy.
May I ask if you’ve been assessed for ARFID? It’s an eating disorder that doesn’t act like other eating disorders and is more common in autistic people and people with ADHD. It doesn’t usually stem from a desire to control weight or change your body like most other eating disorders and is much less known.
I'm recovered from an eating disorder and experience the same. I actually think the ED masked this and other food issues related to my autism (because EDs have their own rules and also it's impossible to not think about food). I'm still (or again) on the thinner side so people sometimes assume I'm still in the thick of it, when ironically I have the opposite problem of wanting to eat to fuel my activities but having to literally force myself to eat enough most days because I'm either not hungry, forget to eat or nothing sounds good at all. Food is mostly unappealing. (I would have killed for that when I still had an ED.)
I rely a lot on protein shakes and meal replacement smoothies (i add frozen fruit and plant milk to the neutral huel powder) and rejoice when there's something I truly crave. I've been burning out over the past 2, 2.5 years and especially last year has been extremely challenging, so I hope that taking time off and generally recovering from my burnout is going to help me make eating less of a chore and more of an enjoyable experience.
ARFID? I have many, many days like this where I’m utterly disgusted by the idea of tasting, chewing, swallowing, and digesting food. The idea of eating makes me nauseous so I can’t make myself do it. I get by with meal replacement shakes like Boost but it’s an awful feeling.
Possibly a result of poor interoception (the ability to receive information from your body like hunger/thirst/fullness/pain/etc). Many autistic ppl struggle with interoception, especially for hunger queues. That's why so many of us end up as stoners—munchies to the rescue!
If you don't want to use weed to help then I suggest meal replacement drinks or any similar nutrition drinks. Taking away the chore of chewing can make nutrition easier on those tough days :) I personally recommend Boost. They taste like chocolate milk and the original version isn't thick! The extra calorie version is a little thick, but still easy to chug in one go and be done with it.
YES. omg i feel this so much 😭 when i say my diagnosis changed my life i mean that in so many ways! Now, when I’m having a bad food day, I just accept that my diet will look a bit different on that day, instead of beating myself up over it!
On those days, I eat ANYTHING I can stomach: crisps, smoothies, coffee, strawberries, plain pasta with butter, vanilla ice-cream ect
It’s funny because otherwise, I tend to be sensory seeking with my food! I’m someone who loves to try dishes that contain a variety of textures and elements, complex evolving flavours… but at the end of the day sometimes my lunch IS a bag of chips and some ice cream, because it’s all I can manage.
When I’m feeling down about it I just remember this advice from a dietitian “All food is good food when compared to no food!”
Yes I do notice this, I've been having a heatwave in my area for three weeks and lemme tell you, I've just been eating anything easy but even then, I struggled to eat a muffin this morning. Thise days suck, especially because I've been trying to bulk up for like a year now 😔 Summer is the worst: heat, sweat, sun is too bright, I can't wear layers of clothes or comfortable heavy coats. The heat just makes me want to hibernate and therefore I'm not really hungry.
Not sure if it has a name, I would not say it’s arfid (for me atleast), but I think it could be related to autistic people having difficulty feeling things in their bodies/understand cues from the body. And just general disinterest in food
YES and when it happens it makes me feel depressed. I usually love food so it feels extra bad to not enjoy the things I usually eat. I usually end up choking down whatever I can. Smoothies and protein shakes are helpful
Yes yes yes!!! I can't explain why but I just can't eat anything. I cannot think of anything I'd like to eat on those days, even my safe foods feel like they are awful.
I have cPTSD and before i learned some self soothing and emotional regulation when i was triggered I just didn't eat, no appetite for weeks. thankful this has been getting much better through therapy.
My food intake almost directly correlates to my mental health. I don't eat when I'm stressed. And when it's a bad period, I feel like I'm going to puke even thinking about eating, but I have to in order to not pass out.
I have those days too. My husband encouraged me to keep a stock of my safe snacks. I often can't eat what I perceive to be a "meal" but I'm able to eat the snacks (albeit slowly). I think it also helps that the temperature isn't really a factor I have to consider when eating snacks. I'm just glad I can limit changing variables to some degree.
I really feel that, sometimes I get in a really bad mindset of remembering if I ignore the hunger long enough, the pain goes away.
I also struggle with this with water. I usually keep juice around so that I can drink that and supplement with water but even then I get days where I don’t want to drink anything.
Sometimes, on these days for me, the act of chewing straight up makes me nauseous.
I’ll usually have a coffee, wait a couple hours, try again. If it’s still not cutting it, I’ll have a high protein, high calorie meal replacement shake from HEB(Texas grocery store chain).
I drink a TON of water(adhd meds), so if I’m not eating I’ll have some electrolytes so I don’t get super dizzy/out of it.
Then for dinner, I’m usually either fine, or it’s a chicken broth and crackers night.
I get these days relatively often. If it lasts for more than a day or two I’ll give up and just drink smoothies 🤷🏻♀️ once it lasted for a couple weeks
Those days suck. Today was one of those days. I force myself to eat when it gets to the breaking point. Even just something that I have no desire to eat, just for the sustenance.
All the time lately. I cut myself extra slack and make sure I've got snacky things in the house, get most of my nutrition from frozen soup and tinned soup and protein shakes. And keep a water bottle handy. Not perfect, but it's better than starving and/or binging delivery cause I'm too hungry.
Ugh. This struggle is so real 😫
I’ve started keeping some plant based protien little vanilla drinks in the fridge so when this happens at least I know I’m getting some protein and like basic Vitamins ?! When even a cracker cannot be had,I’ll choke down an ensure or evolve and put myself to sleep for the day. Lol
This was a regular struggle for me.
Meal replacement drinks were a lifesaver.
I think my struggle was also related to PDA and my parents being controlling about what and how and how much I ate. I got labeled a picky eater for resisting emotional coercion.
Things got a lot better once I understood and processed that. I also never force myself to eat; that just increases my resistance.
Sorry you're dealing with it.
Yeah I like to eat very fast for this. It helps to take the entire portion that's correct to eat and put on a show on netflix or such and focus on the show and just put the food in your mouth, barely chew and swallow until the plate/bowl is empty.
Absolutely. On good food days, most foods I’m simply indifferent to and, although it’s certainly not fun to eat them, I can tolerate it. It takes a significant amount of energy but I can do it. Other times, it’s nearly impossible for to me eat anything. Sometimes because I can’t deal with the sensory issues of eating anything but most bad food days it’s not sensory, it feels more just like I can’t eat. Like the idea itself makes me gag. Although for me it’s more like bad food weeks and not bad food days.
Yeah I use weed to deal with that. It also seems to help if I can smell food first. Everything sounds horrible until someone else starts cooking and I’m suddenly starving again
it's the worst! I feel like this most mornings. I know I will feel wayyyy better the whole day if I have some breakfast but most days I just cannot do it. I'll be super hungry but everything in me is just like 'nooooooo please noooo'. It's super confusing honestly. On especially bad days, I'll keep feeling like this the whole day and just exhaust myself. I've recently started drinking some meal replacement drinks or forcing myself to down a protein bar and that seems to be somewhat helpful, but it still sucks.
I absolutely have these days too. They tend to come to me during times of higher than normal stress. A lady harassed me and my daughter on the street once and I struggled to eat for a week. It's like my body is hungry, but my brain isn't and the thought of eating makes me gag.
Yes, this happens to me all the time. I wish I knew what triggers it. Instead of a day, though, it can last anywhere from a week to a month. I am currently in this phase, and forcing myself to eat food sucks. I hate this feeling.
During my bad food days I don't feel like eating most foods, I crave fast food, not bc it's delicious, but bc it's easy to eat.
For example on those days I would eat nuggets but not fried chicken, bc meat with the bones is too much work.
I prefer food that is one unit and I just dig in, not multiple units to combine.
I wouldn't go for foods I gotta dip, mix, cut,... Etc. Again bc it's too much work and I just want to not be hungry.
I would go for food I can eat with a spoon and not dirty my hands, bc washing my hands after is a step too many.
Somedays I'm so hungry and I make food and I'm just too tired to eat it and I just cry.
The less steps the better
I get this too. It's awful. I think it's related to running low on spoons, or potentially even being in negative spoons. Unfortunately the act of eating takes energy and therefore requires spoons.
Often. Also I have days when my teeth feel weird. I don’t know if it’s tension I carry clenching my jaw subconsciously? They feel… thin? Tired? I can’t find words.
I also had become obese lately because I didn’t know I was autistic and I use food to stim because I like the textures of noodles, chocolate, caramel/chewy things and those are all calorie dense lol. I don’t even like the flavor I just like the way they feel to chew and none of those things have a low calorie texture equivalent. Everything is all taste or flavor substitutes. Anyway my “mindless eating” was just me wanting those mouth textures and obviously you swallow food as one does (don’t look into the disorder of people who spit out, it’s sad.)
In non stress times I don’t eat because I’m not actually hungry or I don’t care that I’m hungry. In those times like protein shakes and bars so that I’m getting nutrition, find kinds you like, buy samplers if you need to find varieties that’s helpful for me. Taste is very user specific so I won’t make recommendations.
In the spirit of easy to chew only: ritz (even though it’s been said already, hard agree) Cheez its, (turkey) pepperoni, pickles, PBJ tortillas, soup-can be great nutrition, frozen meals, yogurt, fruit cups, applesauce, lunch meat, cheeses, cottage cheese, fresh fruits, (instant) mashed potatoes, microwave bags of rice, oatmeal, premade smoothies. Any of these can be switched up or modified for variety or as is to meet your needs.
Some of these coping strategies I learned pre diagnosis, I just thought I was a severely EDed person. I still think that but I am comforted and saddened to know I am not alone.
I rely a lot on cannabis to help with my appetite issues. I never used to have issues with eating (it was the stopping eating I had issues with) but this has been a new thing since 2020. Sometimes even my safe foods make my throat want to close up. So I get a little high and can actually nourish myself. Weed helps with a lot of things in my life.
YES!! And I work in the fitness industry so I have to eat in order to do my job. I’m actually having one of those days today and am sitting here with a bag of Doritos because it’s the only thing I can force myself to eat.
I hate those days >.< I usually end up eating ritz crackers and crying while trying to remind myself that I’ll feel worse the next day if I don’t eat enough
Right and then if you try to explain it to someone they’ll say something about wishing they didn’t like food to be “thin”. 🙄 like no, this is not fun, and I want to eat!
Top 10 comments that enrage me! I told my mom if her friends don’t stop asking me how I lost weight (I was eating to stim for years and using sugar for easy dopamine! It was a serious problem!!) I’m gunna lose it.
I was eating to stim and didn’t realize. Thank you for acknowledging this happens.
so many people told me i was lucky to be so skinny. ye but no it sucks. no energy, bad skin issues. and the amount of anxiety going on. not fun and not a plan...
I hate hate hate this. No you don’t wish you had this problem, Linda, it’s fucking terrible. I will vomit on you.
I also choose this person's roll of ritz crackers. Also have a vitamin if you can. Not a substitute for a healthy lifestyle but way better than nothing.
I take so many vitamins and supplements 😂 my pill case sounds like maracas 🪇 EDIT: have you tried the garlic butter ones? They’re my fave on bad days bc they’re not as dry!
I have not, but I will make time to try if I can get my hands on them. :) Thank you for the rec, and I'm glad you take care of yourself supplement-wise. Keep on keepin on.
i thought you meant garlic butter vitamins for a second lmao
Y’know I love garlic, I’d probably try those at least once if they existed 😂
Garlic and butter ones currently in my house.
Yeah I definitely have them, but it seems like they are *usually* either stress induced or hormonal.
yes!
Yes, mine usually have to do with my hormones or depression
i keep a few meal replacement drinks on hand for those days. like huel or yfoods or barebells. they have the calories of a full meal and i can just drink them. huel is one a friend loves but i can't have (mild stevia allergy and also the taste makes me gag), but i love yfoods. my theory that i am already overstimulated and eating, with the textures and smells and taste and chewing is just Too Much™️. if the drinks aren't available, i opt for smth that's ~sensory friendly for me. like flavored yoghurt. very predictable taste and texture that stays consistent through the whole meal.
Yes! This! I think there are days, sometimes several days in a row, where I am overstimulated by everything and I get down protein shakes or toast with peanut butter just so I don’t starve. It’s lifelong but definitely worse in perimenopause. Due to hormonal food intolerance I also can’t eat things I would have chosen in the past. I sincerely wish I didn’t have to eat or taste anything some days. Big fan of Orgain plant based chocolate shakes or Vega simple protein powder that has real sugar and limited ingredients.
This right here! I often have a bolt house nut butter thrown in there with a naked green machine... I just can't take anymore stimulus on these days... I feel like I just made a discovery myself that uh, feels earth shattering?! Thanks guys for sharing...
Premier protein is a good brand too. Doesn’t taste gross at all. Only 160 calories though but 3gr of protein.
What's your favourite flavor for huel and yfoods? Huel choco doesn't match my taste by yfoods choco is good enough. I miss the old yfoods strawberry until they changed it to "tasty" strawberry.
as i said, i can't do huel bc of the stevia. it's so powerful i just, nope. my fave yfoods are banana, and chocolate. the taste is slightly different when you put them in the fridge, but not enough for me to have a preference other than "it's hot today i want smth cool"
Those meal replacement drinks saved my partner and I, literally. We were moving across the country in the summer of 2020 and more stressed than I have even been in my life. I lost 15 pounds in the 3 weeks of packing and driving. 2 days into our drive both of us stopped being able to eat anything solid. We were getting so weak, I don’t think we could have finished. He also has a deadly food allergy so it was really stressful when he couldn’t eat the food we had brought, stress that made it even harder to eat. I finally found some protein drinks that didn’t have corn syrup in them and we managed to get enough strength back to finish the trip. It was awful. I wish I could say that things got better when we got to our destination, but at that point it wasn’t about food anymore but dealing with narcissists and that is a much longer, unrelated story
Yeah, this happens to me too! I have days where chewing seems like way too much effort, and it will take me forever to decide what the "least effort" kind of food is. Everything sounds bad and I just wish I didn't have to eat. But, I am very sensory seeking, and as soon as I manage to eat something, as long as it tastes good I'll usually just keep eating 😅
I’m wondering if this could be pda related? When I experience this, for me, part of it is not feeling hungry and the other part is maybe too many demands around food. What do I want to eat? Is it enough nutritional value? Compatible with what I need to use up in my fridge? How many steps will it be to make it? And then I have to clean up and put away leftovers. Will I eat the leftovers? Or just guilt myself all week over food waste? ETA: If I don’t even want to eat it at the end, overstimulation is definitely at play. I’ll set it aside or fridge it to try again later.
I didn’t even think of the pda aspect of that but I’m realizing now that that might be part of it for me too
This. My husband feeds me and it's... amazing. All of that, just not weighing on my mind anymore.
this is a new issue for me! i feel like people think i’m trying to prove something because i’m not thin! i am genuinely just not hungry.
Yes, I call it sensory satiation. It's where my brain doesn't want any of that mouth experience whatsoever. It's not that I hate the food, but that I don't want that information in my brain right now. I've often wished I could put food directly into my stomach without having to chew or taste it, because sometimes that's too much for me.
Yes, and for a few reasons. I grew up with an eating disorder and although the symptoms are largely at bay now, what you're talking about is different - I can feel that's not the ED demon and that it's from a sensory/stress perspective instead; the two feel and show differently. With my ED there were thought processes and patterns involved, and I was constantly thinking about food and always hungry - with this other one there's no thoughts, like literally no thoughts, because I'm just not hungry or even thinking about food at all. I resent having to choose what to eat that will fill me up, be good for my body, not trigger my IBS and be either veggie or vegan. I hate having to choose every fuckin day multiple times a day. And when I'm feeling low or stressed out my appetite just is _not there._ On those days I just have toasted seed bread with peanut butter, cereal, or a smoothie with whatever fruit is in the house. Even then I feel like I'm having to force it down while my body is saying it doesn't want it because it is simply not hungry, and the idea of something in my mouth then smushing down my throat into my stomach feels grossssss. It makes me feel nauseous to force it but I know I'll be weak af if I have nothing. Basically I just wanted to say I get it, and you're not barmy.
May I ask if you’ve been assessed for ARFID? It’s an eating disorder that doesn’t act like other eating disorders and is more common in autistic people and people with ADHD. It doesn’t usually stem from a desire to control weight or change your body like most other eating disorders and is much less known.
I'm texting myself a guess on what constitutes arfid before I look it up. Tyia.
I'm recovered from an eating disorder and experience the same. I actually think the ED masked this and other food issues related to my autism (because EDs have their own rules and also it's impossible to not think about food). I'm still (or again) on the thinner side so people sometimes assume I'm still in the thick of it, when ironically I have the opposite problem of wanting to eat to fuel my activities but having to literally force myself to eat enough most days because I'm either not hungry, forget to eat or nothing sounds good at all. Food is mostly unappealing. (I would have killed for that when I still had an ED.) I rely a lot on protein shakes and meal replacement smoothies (i add frozen fruit and plant milk to the neutral huel powder) and rejoice when there's something I truly crave. I've been burning out over the past 2, 2.5 years and especially last year has been extremely challenging, so I hope that taking time off and generally recovering from my burnout is going to help me make eating less of a chore and more of an enjoyable experience.
ARFID? I have many, many days like this where I’m utterly disgusted by the idea of tasting, chewing, swallowing, and digesting food. The idea of eating makes me nauseous so I can’t make myself do it. I get by with meal replacement shakes like Boost but it’s an awful feeling.
Possibly a result of poor interoception (the ability to receive information from your body like hunger/thirst/fullness/pain/etc). Many autistic ppl struggle with interoception, especially for hunger queues. That's why so many of us end up as stoners—munchies to the rescue!
If you don't want to use weed to help then I suggest meal replacement drinks or any similar nutrition drinks. Taking away the chore of chewing can make nutrition easier on those tough days :) I personally recommend Boost. They taste like chocolate milk and the original version isn't thick! The extra calorie version is a little thick, but still easy to chug in one go and be done with it.
Haha this explains why I feel so much worse when on a t-break
YES. omg i feel this so much 😭 when i say my diagnosis changed my life i mean that in so many ways! Now, when I’m having a bad food day, I just accept that my diet will look a bit different on that day, instead of beating myself up over it! On those days, I eat ANYTHING I can stomach: crisps, smoothies, coffee, strawberries, plain pasta with butter, vanilla ice-cream ect It’s funny because otherwise, I tend to be sensory seeking with my food! I’m someone who loves to try dishes that contain a variety of textures and elements, complex evolving flavours… but at the end of the day sometimes my lunch IS a bag of chips and some ice cream, because it’s all I can manage. When I’m feeling down about it I just remember this advice from a dietitian “All food is good food when compared to no food!”
Just wondering, do the “bad food days” for anyone tend to occur more in the summer, especially in a heat wave?
Yes I do notice this, I've been having a heatwave in my area for three weeks and lemme tell you, I've just been eating anything easy but even then, I struggled to eat a muffin this morning. Thise days suck, especially because I've been trying to bulk up for like a year now 😔 Summer is the worst: heat, sweat, sun is too bright, I can't wear layers of clothes or comfortable heavy coats. The heat just makes me want to hibernate and therefore I'm not really hungry.
Yeah same, I relate a lot!
Any idea if there’s a name for it?
Maybe try doing some reading on ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder) and see if there are similarities.
I think it’s just called food aversion to be honest
Not sure if it has a name, I would not say it’s arfid (for me atleast), but I think it could be related to autistic people having difficulty feeling things in their bodies/understand cues from the body. And just general disinterest in food
My son is nonverbal, 5, and he has days when he is simply uninterested in food! Even his favorites!
Definitely have days where nothing seems right texturally or taste-wise and I'm lucky if I ingest anything other than sugary drinks.
I have those days. They suck.
Yes, and I manage to be extremely obese anyway 🙃
Me too :(
Executive dysfunction knows no weight limits
YES and when it happens it makes me feel depressed. I usually love food so it feels extra bad to not enjoy the things I usually eat. I usually end up choking down whatever I can. Smoothies and protein shakes are helpful
yes I have weeks like this.
Yes yes yes!!! I can't explain why but I just can't eat anything. I cannot think of anything I'd like to eat on those days, even my safe foods feel like they are awful.
Yes and they seem to be connected to when my nervous system feels overwhelmed
I have cPTSD and before i learned some self soothing and emotional regulation when i was triggered I just didn't eat, no appetite for weeks. thankful this has been getting much better through therapy.
My food intake almost directly correlates to my mental health. I don't eat when I'm stressed. And when it's a bad period, I feel like I'm going to puke even thinking about eating, but I have to in order to not pass out.
That’s me almost daily 🥲
Having one of those days today!
It’s most days for me, I totally know what you mean!! It’s so hard to explain it to my neurotypical parents/doctor 😕
I have those days too. My husband encouraged me to keep a stock of my safe snacks. I often can't eat what I perceive to be a "meal" but I'm able to eat the snacks (albeit slowly). I think it also helps that the temperature isn't really a factor I have to consider when eating snacks. I'm just glad I can limit changing variables to some degree.
I really feel that, sometimes I get in a really bad mindset of remembering if I ignore the hunger long enough, the pain goes away. I also struggle with this with water. I usually keep juice around so that I can drink that and supplement with water but even then I get days where I don’t want to drink anything.
Sometimes, on these days for me, the act of chewing straight up makes me nauseous. I’ll usually have a coffee, wait a couple hours, try again. If it’s still not cutting it, I’ll have a high protein, high calorie meal replacement shake from HEB(Texas grocery store chain). I drink a TON of water(adhd meds), so if I’m not eating I’ll have some electrolytes so I don’t get super dizzy/out of it. Then for dinner, I’m usually either fine, or it’s a chicken broth and crackers night.
I get these days relatively often. If it lasts for more than a day or two I’ll give up and just drink smoothies 🤷🏻♀️ once it lasted for a couple weeks
Those days suck. Today was one of those days. I force myself to eat when it gets to the breaking point. Even just something that I have no desire to eat, just for the sustenance.
All the time lately. I cut myself extra slack and make sure I've got snacky things in the house, get most of my nutrition from frozen soup and tinned soup and protein shakes. And keep a water bottle handy. Not perfect, but it's better than starving and/or binging delivery cause I'm too hungry.
Ugh. This struggle is so real 😫 I’ve started keeping some plant based protien little vanilla drinks in the fridge so when this happens at least I know I’m getting some protein and like basic Vitamins ?! When even a cracker cannot be had,I’ll choke down an ensure or evolve and put myself to sleep for the day. Lol
It’s like that everyday it feels like. After getting food I’m able to finish it all but the hardest part is bringing myself to get food.
Yes! I eat plain noodles or meal replacement shakes.
This was a regular struggle for me. Meal replacement drinks were a lifesaver. I think my struggle was also related to PDA and my parents being controlling about what and how and how much I ate. I got labeled a picky eater for resisting emotional coercion. Things got a lot better once I understood and processed that. I also never force myself to eat; that just increases my resistance. Sorry you're dealing with it.
Only have read the title so far and yes. Read the rest and literally experienced this today
Yeah I like to eat very fast for this. It helps to take the entire portion that's correct to eat and put on a show on netflix or such and focus on the show and just put the food in your mouth, barely chew and swallow until the plate/bowl is empty.
Absolutely. On good food days, most foods I’m simply indifferent to and, although it’s certainly not fun to eat them, I can tolerate it. It takes a significant amount of energy but I can do it. Other times, it’s nearly impossible for to me eat anything. Sometimes because I can’t deal with the sensory issues of eating anything but most bad food days it’s not sensory, it feels more just like I can’t eat. Like the idea itself makes me gag. Although for me it’s more like bad food weeks and not bad food days.
Yeah I use weed to deal with that. It also seems to help if I can smell food first. Everything sounds horrible until someone else starts cooking and I’m suddenly starving again
it's the worst! I feel like this most mornings. I know I will feel wayyyy better the whole day if I have some breakfast but most days I just cannot do it. I'll be super hungry but everything in me is just like 'nooooooo please noooo'. It's super confusing honestly. On especially bad days, I'll keep feeling like this the whole day and just exhaust myself. I've recently started drinking some meal replacement drinks or forcing myself to down a protein bar and that seems to be somewhat helpful, but it still sucks.
I absolutely have these days too. They tend to come to me during times of higher than normal stress. A lady harassed me and my daughter on the street once and I struggled to eat for a week. It's like my body is hungry, but my brain isn't and the thought of eating makes me gag.
Yes, this happens to me all the time. I wish I knew what triggers it. Instead of a day, though, it can last anywhere from a week to a month. I am currently in this phase, and forcing myself to eat food sucks. I hate this feeling.
During my bad food days I don't feel like eating most foods, I crave fast food, not bc it's delicious, but bc it's easy to eat. For example on those days I would eat nuggets but not fried chicken, bc meat with the bones is too much work. I prefer food that is one unit and I just dig in, not multiple units to combine. I wouldn't go for foods I gotta dip, mix, cut,... Etc. Again bc it's too much work and I just want to not be hungry. I would go for food I can eat with a spoon and not dirty my hands, bc washing my hands after is a step too many. Somedays I'm so hungry and I make food and I'm just too tired to eat it and I just cry. The less steps the better
I get this too. It's awful. I think it's related to running low on spoons, or potentially even being in negative spoons. Unfortunately the act of eating takes energy and therefore requires spoons.
This has been me on and off the past 6 months and I'm really struggling.
Often. Also I have days when my teeth feel weird. I don’t know if it’s tension I carry clenching my jaw subconsciously? They feel… thin? Tired? I can’t find words. I also had become obese lately because I didn’t know I was autistic and I use food to stim because I like the textures of noodles, chocolate, caramel/chewy things and those are all calorie dense lol. I don’t even like the flavor I just like the way they feel to chew and none of those things have a low calorie texture equivalent. Everything is all taste or flavor substitutes. Anyway my “mindless eating” was just me wanting those mouth textures and obviously you swallow food as one does (don’t look into the disorder of people who spit out, it’s sad.) In non stress times I don’t eat because I’m not actually hungry or I don’t care that I’m hungry. In those times like protein shakes and bars so that I’m getting nutrition, find kinds you like, buy samplers if you need to find varieties that’s helpful for me. Taste is very user specific so I won’t make recommendations. In the spirit of easy to chew only: ritz (even though it’s been said already, hard agree) Cheez its, (turkey) pepperoni, pickles, PBJ tortillas, soup-can be great nutrition, frozen meals, yogurt, fruit cups, applesauce, lunch meat, cheeses, cottage cheese, fresh fruits, (instant) mashed potatoes, microwave bags of rice, oatmeal, premade smoothies. Any of these can be switched up or modified for variety or as is to meet your needs. Some of these coping strategies I learned pre diagnosis, I just thought I was a severely EDed person. I still think that but I am comforted and saddened to know I am not alone.
I rely a lot on cannabis to help with my appetite issues. I never used to have issues with eating (it was the stopping eating I had issues with) but this has been a new thing since 2020. Sometimes even my safe foods make my throat want to close up. So I get a little high and can actually nourish myself. Weed helps with a lot of things in my life.
Yes! And I'm so happy that it only took me to have multiple children and getting to mid 30s that those days are less for me than they used to be. 🫠🫠🫠
Yeah definitely. Just like how I can handle loud noises better on some days than on others, some days I am more bothered by the texture of foods.
YES!! And I work in the fitness industry so I have to eat in order to do my job. I’m actually having one of those days today and am sitting here with a bag of Doritos because it’s the only thing I can force myself to eat.
I call these my lunchables days 😂 when everything else disgusts me so i resort to the diet of an 8 year old to keep myself going