Lulu2's food iss-ewes

I am trying to write my goal for the weight loss challenge. Its just as much as a lifestyle makeover for me as I need to get off my butt more and exercise to get the energy I need each day.

I have a big problem and that is FOOD.

I don't like vegetables and I can't eat alot of fruit. I was the fussiest eater as a child and remain that way, although I have forced myself to try and get used to new things in the last 10 years...but didn't really get too far. I can now mix some food together where before it bothered me if different food touched each other on the plate :rolleyes:

The issues are not necessarily the taste, but the texture. Even though I grow tomatoes, carrots, broccoli etc, I can't eat them. Tomatoes are nuts - the skin freaks me and the squishy inside is grossology. Even strawberries! I love them but they have to be whizzed up in a milkshake or something. I can eat them whole but the hairs on the back of my neck stand up :o

I don't like vegie soups either, I don't like lumps. I don't bloody like it whizzed up together either (works for the kids though!) cos its all too much of the unknown - again :rolleyes:.

I can eat vegies, hidden in mashed potato. I can eat Caeser salad. I also eat homemade enchiladas. I love chillies and mexican food. I have trouble ordering meat at a restaurant unless I can see the kitchen. I have no idea how I manage to cook for my family when I can't eat most of what I prepare.

What do I do? DD happily tucks into a massive bowl of salad or vegies and even though it looks lovely and colourful and TASTY, I can't go there :redface:

Its really stupid actually but I can't help it. Is there anything I can do? Hypnotherapy? I dunno - how am I supposed to get all the vitamins and minerals I need without handfuls of tablets???

I vaguely recall you talking about this at last years BB Chrissy dinner... but I didn't realise how limiting it really was. Hmm.... I think this could be a case for counselling of some kind. I think the root cause needs to be identified and overcome before you can more forward. Sounds like you might need to be prepared to have a lot of non-food related "issues" (LOL at your thread title BTW) dredged up. Are you ok with that?

I have memories of a child of being surprised and upset at an unexpected flavour or texture. I still remember biting into a gristly piece of meat and nearly throwing up.
Mum loves to remind me that I ate every single thing on my plate until I was either 2 or 4, then refused to eat anything other than vegiemite sandwiches and pumpkin soup. Actually she still says it with a little wail in her voice :lol:.

I also remember it being such a freakin topic of discussion that I ended up getting really self conscious about it. "oh give her to me, I'll have her eating everything" or all eyes being on me when a plate was presented.... You know its not like I wasn't hungry, or the food didn't smell delicious..but the scrutiny was all too much.

Now my husband learnt about how I was and made a great effort to help me. He is a BBQ maestro and would prepare meat (never got anywhere with vegies though!) and I could relax because he would explain what it was, how he prepared it and how it should taste. I really miss that. In fact we were at a wedding recently and I found myself looking to him to check the food was ok :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Thats all I've got so far....

It could be a form of anxiety hun. I think trying counselling is a good suggestion. I dare say this is more common than you think too.

Note to all parents - DON"T HASSLE THEM ABOUT FOOD.......

There was a TV show on about this recently Lulu shot in the UK. There was a woman who would only eat chips and a few other things. They figured out it was because she was ill as a toddler, went off her food and one of her earliest memories was of being force fed. So not surprisingly she became kind of food phobic. I think as with most phobias, they recommended that she confronted her fears but in small doses. So they asked her to commit to trying tiny, tiny bites of three new foods a day.

So I think if you look at it as a kind of phobia, maybe it would be good to seek out some counselling along those lines.

You sound exactly like a firend of mine, especially the 'things touching' part.
She is the same, can make anything for her family even if she cant eat it herself.
I dont have any answers for you as shes quite happy to not do anything about it, but I do agree with the talking to someone about it part - you bviously dont htink its trivial so noone else would either.

Oh, Lulu, this sounds almost debilitating :hug:
I never force food with DS, but DP does and it gives me the willies when he puts him on a chair far away from the table and says "you can come back if you finish your dinner"... food iss-ewes is exactly what I'm envisaging when he does that!
I would definitely recommend a counsellor who does hypnotherapy. I know a good one up the mountain ;) You can google her and she's in the complementary therapies directory - her name is Amanda Pippos. She can do Time Line Therapy and she's a great chick, to boot. Have I led you astray with a recommendation before??
By the way, did you knock everyone dead at the wedding, so that they didn't notice you not eating? Tell me so I can tell Lisa!

Yep - fussy eater here too.. but much improved in the last 10 years or so!

No veg except potato, absolutely no salad, only fruit. Mine is about texture too.. I have to cut up onion really really small so that it cooks up into practically nothing so I don't have to pick around it in a dish. But I would never leave it out, as I love the flavour. Same with mushroom.. if I make beef strog or something, I dodge the mushroom when it comes time to eat. But now I eat basic veggies and a basic salad, and I'm much much more adventurous with new things.

I too remember people saying saying to my mum that you can get a child to eat anything.. and they absolutely FORCED pumpkin down my throat. They wouldn't let me wash it down with water or anything. I was gagging and crying and they just MADE me eat it. My bro laughed the whole time too. Needless to say, I can't touch pumpkin now, and I agree it's probably more an anxiety thing with pumpkin coz of that one time. Think I was about 4 or 5 when they did that. My mum was probably laughing inside at these people that thought they could force me to eat it too.. guess they had a lesson to learn that you can't force food on people!!

hmm.. not really sure where I'm going with my post. Just that I understand to a degree how you feel, and COMPLETELY agree not to hassle kids about food. That's one battleground I'm determined not to fight. DH was raised to eat whatever was on his plate, and he had issues as a teenager too.. but now he eats anything and everything, so it was probably anxiety related there too, then he moved out of home and was his own person and decided he liked food after all! hehe.

*hugs* I'll be interested to know if you can overcome it at all.

:hug: I'd try to talk to someone too. I've only recently started eating sausages again, because we had them so much when I was a kid! Our childhood eating certainly does have a big impact on us!

Do you think the tiny bites, not aiming to eat a whole anything, but just aiming for some tiny bites every day...would that work for you?

OMG i am soooooooooooooooooooo glad to hear I am not alone!!

Dh always hounds me about not eating vegies, i eat peas, corn, potaoe, caspsium (if chopped small) and onion.
Fruit i will eat green apples, oranges, green grapes.

I also dont like the texture and feeling. I will pick things out of dishes.

I will eat vegi soup if i liquidise it, will eat grated carrot in noodle box. I hate salad

I am sick of people saying well you will have to eat it so your kids do (i have a cousin who eats potatoe and salad and thats all and her youngest daughter now 20 is a vegetarian!!)

Jerry Seinfield's wife came out with a book in last year or so, was on Oprah prmoting it, DECEPTIVELY DELICIOUS, the concept was, vitamise or puree vegies/fruit, adn put them in "normal" food recipes, kids will never know there are vegies/fruit in there.

maybe if you did that idea, you wouldn't have to deal with the food textures?

what do you normally eat?
after reading what it is hard for you to eat, i'm surprised you're not anorexic or something. THis must be really hard for you. Food is such a basic part of life, and often very enjoyable. My MIL has reflux and cannot get many foods down her, is now dangerously thin due to that, inability to eat is really serious.

i agree with getting help/hypnotherapy about the anxiety.


good luck Lulu2, this is a tough one, i hope you can beat it :kissing:

My brother as a kid couldn't eat any meats cause he couldn't stand the texture, dad used to be there force feeding him and david would be choking and gagging it was awful. He still won't eat red meat and heaps of vegies, he says he's not a vegetarian just really fussy! cause for him its not about the meat its the texture etc- he won't eat tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and many other vegies either. I don't know how his wife copes!

Lulu,

Sweet girl, I agree with the idea of seeing someone about it. I see a phychologist in relation to my food "issues" and OMG it helped me no end! Some weird old crappola came up, & my phychologist uses EMDR (Google it!), which was a spin out initially, but it was really effective on me. It has really liberated me.

Worth getting a referral from your GP on the Mental health Plan, then you can get 12 visits to a phychologist for free.....I don't envisage you would need this many visits, but for me personally I think it is a worthwhile investment of time and energy........

Good luck babe..............xxxx

Thanks for your input everyone!

Gigi - gawd I'm far from anorexic! The foods I do can eat are s l o w l y expanding, but I can certainly put it away when I can eat something. I made sure never to miss out on the other food groups - chip, chocolate and lollies....so I actually need to lose a little bit of weight, its all bad fats that cause it and because I'm starting to excercise my appetite will go through the roof.
I was studying Nautropathy and thought I'd become a Nutritionist instead. I'm very aware of whats good and bad (our class lost 25 kilos in about 2 weeks after we started!) and up until a few years ago the things I did eat were as 'good' as I could manage. I didn't even have chips or soft drink in the house, let alone lollies (choccy I can't give up), no processed foods or white bread but stupid Dp has no respect for that and now my house is filled with his crap and easily available...it all goes TODAY.
It seemed absurd at the time that I could be a Nutritionist that couldn't eat the foods I would recommend...:wall: So I didn't follow through.

Lucy - I will certainly do that ASAP, its a pity that I can only do things that cost nada right now, I didn't think there would be anything available!

Maya - thanks I'd love to get Hypnotherapy but I is toooo broke :o. Tell Lisa indeed I knocked them dead! Pity the photos disappeared off the PC :wall:, but Beth was given a tiny little girl version of the same dress so we are going to frock up again and take some more pictures!

Thanks again ladies - Feeb, glad theres another retard like me out there :lol:

Lulu we can be retards together Lol

*lulu hands Feeb a slice of pizza with all the green bits picked off......

:ROFL:

hehe yep YUM thanks

i think i'm the complete opposite - i can only eat veg combos if they're mixed into something else (spag bol, casserole etc) - i'm not keen on individual vegies on the plate - but as one of those kids forced to eat everything on my plate as a kid, and now force myself to do it too. i won't force any kids here to eat anything they don't like - but i DO encourage them to at least try something - if they refuse to try cos it looks differnt doesn't sit well with me (esp when i know that six months ago, they scoffed it when they tried it!)

i am another that is seriously put off by the texture of some food - meat in most forms just doesn't agree with me, mushrooms, some other vegies - yet i put them in with everything else in a casserole and i can eat them! i also can't do plain mashed spud - i need to add extra stuff to it - way too much mash as a kid and i can't do the texture - i have to make it myself and add heaps of flavour (salt and pepper, onion salt, cheese etc, mixed with sweet spud) - it's weird. i also can't do tossed salads either - i have to have fresh cut salad on my plate - don't know why, but i just can't eat tossed salad... go figure

i agree with getting some help if you can hun - and hopefully you'll be able to move forward a little and be able to expland your food intake to more healthier food - you don't have to have a hugely diverse diet - but it's better for you if you do! makes eating more enjoyable...

:

---

Lucy - I will certainly do that ASAP, its a pity that I can only do things that cost nada right now, I didn't think there would be anything available!

---

Totally free. I had my 12 sessions and it cost me ZERO and I have since been assigned a further 12 free sessions. I go once a month. I am "cured" now it seems (ie my "how mad are you" test has moved from "totally & dangerously bonkers" to "mildly stressed" which is not suprising given my 3 littlies.....

Is your Gp responsive to "issues"? Mine was, luckily. So my suggestion would be to go armed with facts, tell the GP what you would like, describe about how your food issues are food phobias, and are making you depressed and how much it impacts your life. Food phobias as a stand alone issue are apparently not considered a mental health issue, but if they lead to depression, then of course they ARE considered a mental health issue. A good phychologist that is also qualified in hypnotherapy would be ideal. Maybe source a name first, and then get your referral from your gp to someone specific?

Good luck sweets, and let us know how you go?

Gee reading all this has opened my eyes. I have always been made to feel like a freak just for having foods I just don't like the taste of, such as onions, olives and fetta (so if you ever have me around, don't serve a greek salad :lol:) I know how hard it is coping flak and heaps of questions for not eating those, let alone everything else that you ladies don't eat. Maybe I am not the fussy eater that mum claimed I was after all.

Huge :hug: ladies for being honest about what is going on with your eating. Hope you all get the help that you need.