I suffer (well, suffer isn't really the right word..."in a constant state of experience" is better, hah) from an eating disorder which I find wholly unique to me. I am not just "picky" in the sense that I won't eat a few things...I'm picky in the sense that I will only eat a few things. I don't mean to be this way, but I can't help it. This takes a lot of explaining to people who don't know me so well (though even my own parents don't yet get it), so for the benefit of those people, I will attempt to explain my eating habits here with as many of the little rules as I can think of that are constituent to my particular case (keeping in mind these rules just seem to be, and aren't self-imposed). I don't like the way I eat, as I am 5'7" and 132 pounds when I should be 5'10" and 155 pounds, and it often interferes with my social life (Pizza tastes and smells like wet towels to me). I am, however, powerless to change my habits.
On Foods Themselves
The following is a list of the characteristics of food I can't seem to bring myself to like. There are exceptions, but for the most part these hold universally true.
- Anything alcoholic with milk in it tastes inexplicably bad, as I like milk on its own rather a lot.
- The food must be consistent in texture, smell, sight, everything. I don't like biting into something soft, only to encounter something hard and crumbly, or confront a food that is a medley of different colors and smells all at once. It's just gross.
- Even if the food is consistent, it can't be too consistent, and under no circumstances can it change consistency as I'm eating it.
- The food can't have too strong an odor. This is also gross.
- The food can't have too weak an odor, either.
- Bland food (bread by itself, rice - though I might mention that rice is never good) is no good, but neither is food that has too much taste.
- Too much of a food is bad.
- If it tastes like fruit, but is in fact not fruit, then it can't have any fruit in it. This is a consistency issue. You heard me, ya damned real fruit popsicles.
- Almost anything that has a nationality stamped on it (Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Bulgarian...and so on) is right out. Except German sausages.
- Anything that has any kind of sauce on it - barbecue sauce, soy sauce, ketchup, mustard, to name a few - is also right out, even if without the sauce I would eat it without a second thought.
- Anything that has any kind of nut in it. I'm not allergic to them, I just don't like 'em one bit.
- Just because I might like, say, bacon, does not necessarily mean I like anything else made from the same animal, like pork (this applies to plants as well).
- Fish is usually a bad idea.
- So are internal organs of any sort. Especially liver.
On The Actual Eating of Food
I can't eat very much at one time. For me, one bowl of cereal at 8 in the morning is enough to last me until midnight of the same day. I also frequently simply forget to eat, sometimes for as long as 24 hours.
Foods I Like
The following is a list of many of the foods I will eat without, well, gagging or something. These are specific! Look at the 9th rule above - just because I like french fries doesn't mean I like baked potatos (eeeew). I have omitted such things as sodas and candy from the list as I don't really feel they count as food, though they still fall under the above rules. As I am an absent minded buffoon, I may have also omitted a number of foods that deserve to be here, so feel free to ask me about things you don't see.
boneless chicken•bacon•ham•pork rinds•plain hot dogs•corn dogs•knackwurst•beef sausage•plain hamburger•steak...sometimes•turkey•balogna, by itself•american cheese....in small doses•celery•apples•oranges•seedless grapes•just about any fruit juice, so long as it has no pulp•vanilla yogurt•vanilla and chocolate ice cream•potato chips•popcorn•french fries•tater tots•fish sticks•dinner rolls•poppy seed muffins•chocolate and glazed doughnuts•doughnut holes•cinnamon buns•croissants•toast•wheat bread•saltine crackers•ritz crackers•wheat thins•cheerios, apple jacks, corn flakes, and cinnamon toast crunch•waffles•pancakes•french toast•peanut butter•peanut butter sandwich•2% Milk•Chocolate and Vanilla Carnation Instant Breakfast