Howdy!
I'm 29 years old, and have been a picky eater my entire life. My mom has made three separate meals the entire time she's been with my father. He is also a picky eater. I've never talked to him about it, but he's basically a meat and potatoes guy. My mom eats, well everything, you could consider her the "normal" person. My brother when he was young didn't eat meat or veggies. When he was in his late teens he started eating meat. He basically lived off of what regular people would consider junk food (chips, tacos [meat and cheese and hard shell only], pizza [sausage only], etc) for most of his life.

My father has a very high metabolism and until very recently (he's 63 now) has always been very healthy. My mother and her siblings on the other hand, have every health issue in the book (not really but they do have a lot, including being overweight). Due to this combination, I have granted luckily to have more of my father gene's (in a manner of speaking), however as I've gotten older my mothers have starting to sink in (knee issues, back issues, high cholesterol). I also have carpitunel in my hands and tendinitis in my wrists, probably my own fault there but it is in the genes, as well. Now one thing I never tell anyone that I'm going to tell you, is I also have brain seizures. It's caused from stress, migraines, eating certain things, and lack of sleep. I've worked my ass off to keep my mother's gene's at bay. Including changing my career. I've officially been off of seizure medications for over two years now, because of it. Only time I have them know is something major happens for the most part (ex: my grandmother passing away) I know the problems my mom has had to go through (she was epileptic when she was younger because of things that occurred) because of her families genes and her life decisions, I've always known I don't want to have to go through that.

When I came across pickyeatingadults.com a couple years ago, I felt relived. I'm not alone. Than I realized there are individuals out there who are "pickier" than I am. BTW, I hate calling it "Picky" eating. People automatically assume if you don't like something or unwilling to try it, that your just being stubborn or "picky." It's not the case.

I was hoping I'd find a place to go to talk to others like me, I'm glad I found the twitter feed. (I'm not a social media person.) Got the link off of their.

Do "regular" people have any idea the stress they cause someone when they say: You have to change your eating habits; You have to eat something more healthy; try this; no really it's good; your being stubborn; etc etc
Screw you! Do you have any idea how hard it is to be a "picky eater?" Ugh, people!

The main reason I'm writing this today is because I recently became engaged. My fiance has known about my eating habits since day-one. I know he doesn't truly understand, but over the years he's tried very hard. He even looks at menus for me ahead of time, and ensures there is something alike, and backs me up when we're out with his friends or family. He just doesn't back me up with my own family because there all way to close and love to pick on me. Thankfully since my father and brother are also picky in their own ways it doesn't bother me as much, anyone else though, it makes me stress level raise every second.
Well anyways..I've been working really really hard ever since I found out I have high cholestrol to fix it. Except take meds because they caused me to gain weight, and i won't have any of that. I refuse to fall into issues my mom has. I reduced my intake of food, I stopped (95% of the time) eating any processed foods, I exercise (10-20 minutes cardio, 2-3 walks a day with my dog, 5-10 minutes of stretches, 15-20 minutes of meditation..in the summer I do even more like hiking, trails, dog park, etc..I used to just do things with my dog no extra exercising.). The last check-up I had, said my cholestrol went up even higher than it was before. It was so depressing. My doctor is allowing me 6 more months before he basically says I HAVE to go on it. He's very happy with what I'm doing however my doc also says if I stop eating any less I'm going to become malnutrietion. As of last month, I lost 9 lbs (which makes me 105 lbs at 5 ft tall); I also got to the point where my body was saying I really needed to eat more. I wasn't feeling right. So I started to eat a bit more (what else do I have to go back to though but processed foods because of my eating habits), and I've already gained back 3 lbs, which makes me incredibly sad. I don't want to lose weight, my goal has always been flatten tummy (damn visceral fat), and lower my high cholesterol.
I asked my fiance this morning, what do i do? He said - you're not going to like it. I said - what else can I do? I'm doing more than even what the doc wants and still nothing. I'm gaining weight back and I'm probably still have high cholestrol. He says - eat differently.
I spent the next 20 minuets in the shower crying my eyes out, and not my entire day has turn into stress. Normal people just don't understand. I cant' just "eat differently", I can just start throwing fish and eggs and green things into my diet. The stress would overwhelm me and cause seizures, and I"M NOT willing to do that. I need my driver's license, and I need my career. I won't put any of that at risk.
So how does a 29 year old girl with my health issues stay healthy (maintain a good weight, lower high cholesterol), without eating differently?
I keep telling myself SCREW YOU NORMAL PEOPLE, I'll show you! and just exercise more, but in reality it's weighing me down. (the exercise and not eating a lot) My body and brain is telling me to eat more, sleep more, but my high cholesterol and weight control keeps me held back. I worry I'll end up like my mom and her mom. I want to be happy and healthy, and to me in my everyday life I feel happy and healthy, but my blood results show something different and it scares the hell out of me.
In another week I'll have figure out a new routine with the weather change. My body and brain needs to feel healthy, too! I'll have to go back to getting up at 6 am instead of 5 am, and only do either stretching, meditation, or exercise. Than come home and find a way to through whatever I didn't do in the morning into my afternoon, which i don't know how I'm so busy with regular life throwing those things in my afternoon were hard before, that's why I changed it to morning, UGH!
And than I'll have to go back to just eating what I used to, even though I've tried it before, eat what I want just smaller portions...didn't change anything.
I also became lactose intolerant as I turned into my 20's so I have to eat very little milk/cheese products now, so it limits me even more on food choices.
Picky eating is a hard life! I wish more people understood.

What I eat:
Meat (red meat, pork, chicken, turkey - depends on how it's cooked, no fat! EWWW)
-Potatoes (certain french fries [some consider me a french fry snob because there really are good french fries vs. not], mashed, baked, Boiled, some oven garlic ones)
-Veggies (Green beans french cut out of the can, corn on the cob)
-Fruit (Granny Apples, red delicious apples, watermelon)
- Chocolate (M&M's, 3 Muskeeteers, Hershey kisses w/ almonds)
- Candy (reese's pieces, some suckers, slim jims original)

A select few other things. (Spaghetti and meatballs [specific kind], ...)


My go to's:
Chicken Strips, French Fries (waffle, straight, steak, curly, no tatter tots gross!), steak (love me some steak), chicken (grilled, baked, broiled) baked potato, mashed potatoe, fresh cut green beans (only out of the can with country crook butter), chips (plain chips, doritos [ranch, cheese], Macaroni and Cheese (Kraft or velvetta), pepperoni pizza.

Most of the time I feel like my issue is texture. If I liked everything I smelled I'd probably be a "regular" person. When I cook and bake I do everything by smell, because I don't like 3/4 of it. (My fiance is pretty spoiled [he's a normal person], I make 2 separate meals a lot!)

Thank you for listening, and thank you for making me feel that I'm not the only one out there.