So, you may have wondered in the course of the past week, you may have noticed that I have written a lot about wellness? You may be wondering, what does that have to do with being autistic. My answer to you is, it has a lot to do with being around longer and living the best life you can.
Being autistic comes with challenges that is for sure. I have been taking psychotropic medications for 23 years, two of them cause weight gain. My disregard for paying attention to better manage my weight has been an issue for 20 years, when I realized that I had a weight issue. Even exercising at various intervals in the past twenty years has only mostly been rewarded for those efforts in food and drink that may haven’t been ideal for weight maintenance.
Finding and having access to sugary drinks and unhealthy foods over the years and not knowing when to say stop hasn’t helped the situation either. It only made it worse because I often dismissed, ignored or even hid the issue of doing such activity. I always recognized that I had a weight issue, regardless I refused to make the change.
I have been a member of a local chapter of an international weight loss support group for over 15 years and in the course of that time until March 2021 have gained almost 90 pounds, I have since lost weight but it fluctuates greatly at times, I do take advantage of what opportunities I can at times. My mother has been a leader and I volunteer when I can. Yet, I struggled.
I have realized that just as mental health recovery, I have to be the one behind the lifestyle change that has to be madel. I cannot do it for anyone or anything and likewise no one or no thing can be the catalyst for making it happen. I have to be the one behind choosing the healthy lifestyle I so need.
I am not looking to be a perfect body. With the psychotropic medications that I am prescribed that is simply not possible. While I have a goal set, I don’t even know if it will be the final destination. All I know is that I must improve my health for the better because if I do not, it will only decline and things that I do not want to happen in my life such as being insulin dependent or no longer being able to walk far or as independent as I do now may occur as a result of not making the necessary changes.
As with many things I am working on in my life, I am not in a race to get to the ultimate destination. I must however be continual in changing my efforts and working for the better. While not striving for perfection, I must not continue in a negative direction and be quicker to bounce back from negative choices and focus on improving. Things happen, but we must not continue in the same pattern even if we know it is wrong.
What has happened in the past has indeed happened in the past and we must not forget where we came from and how we got there. I did not gain all this weight overnight and it will not come off in that fashion either. It must be addressed and the behaviors that cause it to happen must be attempted to be replaced with better ones so I do not get back to increasingly damaging behaviors and not be able to maintain my independence, I want to live as long as I can.
Dustin's Dynasty 