Feeding Yourself While Autistic Can Be A Herculean Task.
It sounds like a daily minor set of tasks: open fridge, grab food, make food, get food into belly, rinse repeat. But it’s not that simple for autistic brains because every one of those tasks requires a thought and many actions in between to get it done. We know that autistic people tend to struggle with transitions and every though and every action is a transition in itself. So, cooking and getting food into your body can be thought of as a 100 transitions between the ‘ohh I’m hungry’ to the old ‘good, now I’m full’.
When you take the shame out of knowing that feeding yourself is a struggle for most autistic people then we can start looking at solutions on how to get nutrients into your body in the most efficient and effective ways. *Disclaimer this is not to be used in place of medical advice. Always consult your doctor on biological needs versus some random well intentioned but woefully not medically degreed lady on the Internet.*
Get Nutrients Into Your Body
Nutrition By Kylie
One of my favorite nutritionists is called Nutrition by Kylie On YouTube and her take on food is that it only helps you if it actually gets into your body. An idealized notion of “healthy foods” and what they are is useless if we don’t actually eat the things we want to like but we can’t bring ourselves to ingest. She is is neurodivergent and a chronic pain individual so the meals that she makes are normally quick, less transitions, and accessible for a wide range of abilities. She has a genius idea to use the box that the vegetables are chopped in a device like this to reduce steps from having to place the salad in a different container and then eating it. She really gets the whole less transitions = more success with us.
Cook Once Eat All Week
A favorite resource of mine is the book Cook once Eat all Week which gives you simple recipes to use for meal prepping while turning the idea of meal prepping on its head. Instead of prepping multiples of one meal this author pre-preps ingredients so that meals can be thrown together quickly but also remixed with the different proteins and carbohydrates throughout the week. It means that you may be eating salmon for three days but one day it’s salmon teriyaki bites, the next day it’s the sushi salmon bake, and the 3rd day is a salmon burger patty. This helps with the novelty we need sometimes when it comes to eating, where eating the same thing over and over is no fun. This also gives us a chance to explore different ways of eating our safe food to give us more options when the hyper focus is over.
Crock Pot Or Rice Cooker
Crock pot or rice cooker meals are a great way to reduce the transactional steps to make food. The one and done nature of the crockpot makes it fantastic for dumping everything in one place leaving. It cooks beautifully while you don’t have to continually monitor the food which is one of the main reasons why cooking can be tedious. You have better things to do than babysit the stove. Rice cooker meals are a fantastic way to use your rice cooker as a multifunctional appliance for more than just rice. There are plenty of recipes where everything gets thrown in the rice cooker and you end up with a nutritious meal with minimal effort and energy.
Snackle Packs And A Salad Bar
If I am focused on getting my fruits and veggies in this week, you better believe I’m making Snackle packs and a salad bar in the fridge. Think about how easy it is to use a salad bar at a restaurant to grab different ingredients, throw some seasoned liquid AKA dressing on top, and calling it a meal. Creating a salad bar in your refrigerator could look like pre-chopping up fruits and vegetables so that when meal time comes it takes less brain power to grab ingredients and make magic. Snackle packs are also fun in this way where you can pre-portion snacks like pretzels, chocolate chips, granola, nuts, dried fruits, dried cereal, chips, cookies, candies, edamame, wasabi peas, and mix and match them for a quick snack. Whatever you can think of can go into a little snackle pack so you can grab the pack and not think about fueling your body while fueling your body.
My Dip Era
My Dip era has been one of the most playful and fun ways of food consumption I’ve ever tried in my life. Gather varying different dips like cheese dips, hummus, creamy dips, protein dips, home made dips, hot dips, cold dips, store bought dips, sweet/savory and any dips you can imagine. Then have different dippers like carrots, pretzels, wheat thins, baguette slices, tortilla chips, pitas, naan, bell pepper strips, celery or whatever you fancy. It is an inventive way to get nutrients into your body sans effort. Most of the dippers go with most of the dips so thought is low while deliciousness is high. Consider that food doesn’t have to have a certain look in order to be considered a meal. A dip and dippers is more than fine. Some refer to this as Girl dinner. I refer to it as smart eating.
There are so many other adults like us walking around with executive functioning issues regarding eating that they even have groups for it on places like Facebook. This Executive functions meals fb group is fantastic as the members are people with executive functioning issues who are just trying to figure it out on a daily basis together. The ideas and support floating around in that space is phenomenal. You are never alone we are all in this together eating at the same table peering at ingredients and wishing that consumption was automatic. No, none of this advice is going to make you a five-star Michelin chef, but it will help you reframe your eating struggles as an Autistic adult and understand and normalize them more.