It definitely has been a weekend. Accepting the fact that I need to lose weight and for real focus on it. If you recall, last week, I was in sort of a slump of Autistic Shutdown and experienced a phase of ordering delivery to my house a lot or getting takeout. This for a person of my size is a recipe for disaster. I need to focus on bettering my food palate so that I can become a healthier person in the long run. For many years as for many of the autistics, we tend to stick to the same foods. This can pose a challenge when sitting down to the tables as a family or with others where everyone is given the same meal. Yes, there has been debate over how this is managed. Some of today’s moms are doing a 30-day challenge of new foods. It is awesome to see them incorporate new foods into their diet. Yes, it may seem juvenile but as many in the autistic community can relate, we love when our autistics climb milestones, especially when it is something that makes one easier for one that cares for the autistic person.
Incorporating new foods into one’s diet may not be the easiest for both the one caring for the autistic person and the autistic person nor the autistic person themselves. We as autistics carry great worry if we will like it or not and we are totally afraid of whether it will make us institute our gag reflexes if we don’t like it. Yes, I have tried several foods, and there are quite a few that I cannot handle, some have gotten better, and there’s some that I cannot tolerate at all. I realize that and know it is a testing game, but for my health to get under control I know this is one that I need to do.
Another thing that I often hear is that autistics besides sticking to their food palate is the fact that they cannot experience the skillset of cooking food. While some autistics may never achieve this obstacle, it never hurts to try. As a teenager, we often had pasta and sauce for dinner and I can remember the numerous times, that I disliked my father calling me to the kitchen to help him keep an eye the pasta to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. He made me aware that I needed to continually stir the pasta to prevent it from becoming stuck to the bottom of the pot. Another appliance that I have really become accustomed to is the toaster over. With only three dials, this can be a help for someone and requires minimal effort. By the way, I am talking about the toaster oven that is front-open and you can bake things in, not the ones that are just for bread,
Next, we come to the stove, this can be a challenge for many, but with enough life skills and safety awareness, one can use the stove with a breeze. When moving to my current residence, I learned that it was a gas stove. I have been cautions, but I take pride in having it. I cook several times a week. After cooking and then when doing the dishes for the evening, I take a moment and wipe down the surfaces in order to keep it clean. Cleaning is just as essential as cooking, because they are both needed tasks both in order to survive and to keep your home.
The microwave, while not the healthiest appliance, is by far the simplest to use. With the breeze of following directions and pushing buttons, the cooking of simple foods can be completed like snacks and other smaller foods. It is by far a nice appliance that hardly goes appreciated. The most disliked area of the kitchen is by far the sink, where the dishes are done for the most part (unless you have a dishwasher), then it’s a little bit easier. In this recent chapter, I have been doing dishes a lot more, partly because I want to make it a routine, and simply there isn’t enough room in my kitchen to let the dishes to pile up. But honestly, it is unsanitary if not caught up. Generally, one should not go to bed with dishes in the sink, and if I have to go to work or program for the day, I don’t leave dishes in the sink.
Yes, this week I have begun to cook some new foods to implement into a better diet of different foods. I have many foods that you could say I could feed the whole neighborhood. Instead, I am going to focus on creating healthy foods that I do research on to make sure that I will enjoy and maybe I can incorporate new like foods into my diet. I need to, I know it can’t be talk and thought any more, it just needs to be done once and for all. It isn’t easy, but after you do it, you feel such pride in doing it.
Dustin's Dynasty 