Is eating the same things over and over an Aspie thing?

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3 meals a day, between nuts and fruit. I eat chicken, vegetables, rice 3 times , every day.

Ive always had it like that. I crave structure, order and predictability.

I eat the same things over and over for weeks or months, until I get tired of it and switch to something else.

Currently it's either pasta with beef and fresh tomatoes, or chicken with rice and gravy, or pork chops with rice and gravy. Pizza occasionally, or bacon with biscuits.

And chocolate ice cream about 3 times a day.

Hmmmm, how about fish sticks wrapped in bacon with cheese and olives on top, and banana pudding for dessert ??

This. So much this. Down to the favorite fork (and spoon and paring knife as well) and crying when my favorite coffee mug broke.

I work in records in a Pediatrics clinic and it's pretty well documented that Aspies tend to be picky eaters and have favorite foods. There are lots of NT's that understand, though, and NT's have favorite foods and comfort foods as well.

Aspies, though--we often need CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) to get us to add foods to our personal daily/weekly menus! It's absolutely fascinating to hear reports of Occupational Therapists working with autistic toddlers, trying to get them to eat something besides chicken nuggets, apple wedges and Chee-tos. Especially when they insist on a certain brand of Chicken nuggets, apples cut just so, and have meltdowns if the Chee-tos are puffy instead of crunchy.

Just curious - does anyone suspect they have an eating disorder? While it never occurred to me pre-diagnosis, I am starting to suspect this now.

I can eat the same foods over and over again without tiring of them. There are meals that I've now been eating 1-2 times a week, every week for the last four years. I've also had lots of extreme food kicks throughout the years. When I was 11, I ate cooked imitation crab meat at least every other night for dinner for a solid two months and did a similar thing with sauteed mushrooms when I was 10. Just thinking about imitation crab like that now makes me want to hurl, but for some reason that was my food for awhile. I had a lot of things like that with food when I was younger, but I'm not *that* bad anymore.

What kind of eating disorder?

Perhaps Anorexia Nervosa? I was a bit heavy – between the ages of 10-18. Then, when I was 19, I lost a lot of weight. At the time, I promised myself I would never let myself get fat again. Probably my symptoms include:
- Inadequate food intake leading to a weight that is clearly too low [check]
- Intense fear of weight gain, obsession with weight and persistent behavior to prevent weight gain [check]
- Self-esteem overly related to body image [check]

It may be why I choose to eat the same thing all the time. As it gives me control over food intake. I have no idea.

As a side note, I remember when I was young, one of the neighborhood kids told me that I just had a little extra baby fat and that I would lose this baby fat once I grew up. That so confused me when I heard it. As I wasn't fat as a baby. LOL

I applaud your optimization of your breakfast and lunch preparation and optimization activities.
It is too bad that your wife refuses to follow your regimen.
She probably wastes lots of movements when she is cooking dinner, I would guess.

So, from my perspective, one part of optimizing the meal preparation involves minimizing the amount of mess made. As this streamlines the total amount of time required to eat (where eating includes food preparation, food consumption and clean up).

My wife definitely dirties a lot of dishes. As her meal preparation is not optimized at all. Part of the “agreement” we have is I have to do the dishes (which is only fair, since she does the meal preparation). Luckily, this (doing the dishes) is a skill my Mom taught me when I was quite young. Fortunately, I don’t mind doing the dishes too much. Other than the annoying fact that she dirties many more dishes than necessary

Yes, definitely minimizing mess is a big part of meal optimization.
The best kind of meal is the one with no mess at all, nothing to throw away (initially, my fingers typed up instead of what my mind was thinking which was away), not even a napkin.

One thing that I have optimized is cutting corners, like when I am walking around a corner, I make verry merry berry smooth curves around the corner. Also opening doors and going through doors such that there is minimal clearance between my entrance and the door, so only I can go through the door, which immediately closes behind me.

Rocket, do you like optimizing movements in general?
I mean do you get special satisfaction out of performing optimal movements that feel right and don't waste moves?
I feel that I really get this satisfaction out of such movements.
Many movements like going down stairs two steps at a time, I have optimized to perform smoothly without falling down the stairs or wasting moves.
I like doing this thing when I am walking next to a ledge and I jump in one move onto the ledge sideways and keep walking on the ledge like I was walking on the ground, and without wasting any moves to break my stride during the transfer from ground to ledge.
I don't like it when I pick up a chair to move it somewhere else and it accidentally hits something during the transfer like another chair or the table, this is definitely not optimal and feels bad.

The only reason I eat the same thing is convenience, I live alone so cooking for yourself is hard so I cook a couple days meals at a time. It's nice since I can relax on the off days.

I was more like that before I had children, once I had children I had to be a little more flexible. I still do it for breakfast though, it's easier to do it with that meal, since we often have different things. My thing is scrambled eggs and vegetables, will have that for s while ,often a couple of years, then switch to granola, muesli or oatmeal. I still do it for supper sometimes, I will have the same salad for awhile. My children are older now, and they can be quite similar to me. My younger child has had cheese, crackers and ham for lunch, for as long as I can remember, and she only eats vegetables raw.

I tend to eat the same meal for a few days in a row simply because it's easier to cook once for several days. I'm also diabetic, so it helps to have similar meals set up at the same times of day to keep my blood sugar regulated better. I'm also not a picky eater. I grew up poor and thankful to just have food, so you ate what you had and dealt with it.

My son and my husband are NT- and they drive me nuts with their incessant need to eat completely different food every day. The rest of my family are like that too and I don't get it. Why not cook once or twice a week, use everything up, and budget more effectively? I could care less if I have tacos every night for a week, or salad every day for lunch. I know when I was a little kid I probably had a tuna sandwich and a bowl of chicken noodle soup for lunch every day almost every day. Why not?

I only know I do this, totally. I latch onto a few certain types of meals and particular brands of things, and I don't like to shop for anything other than those, my favorites.

I'm not actually that inflexible when eating out or if a friend has me over, but for my own food shopping and my eating habits in my own home, yes, I'm very rigid and I have my favorites.

It's not that I never try out anything new, but once I do decide I like something I don't like having to change or give it up. It makes life easier, I think. Fewer decisions to make equals less stress.