In the Beginning

Before the beginning of this adventure there was a girl named Julia. This girl was a picky eater and had an easier time of describing what she liked then the vast list of things she didn't. In the beginning Julia's diet basically included meat, potatoes & pasta. In the category of vegetables she liked asparagus and corn on the cob (yes... specifically on the cob). For fruit, oranges and grapefruit, but that could change at anytime depending if the choice fruit was deemed to taste funny, or had seeds in it. At which time they would quickly be put on the don't like list. If the fruit or vegetable could be served in a juice form, it was possible that Julia might drink it, or at least would give it a try.

How is it that Julia didn't come down with a case of scurvy? There was a few ways a veggie or fruit might sneak its way into her diet;

- v8 juice

- veggies with the consistency of baby food

- pured smooth soup, and

- sauces (but all the chunkies would be avoided)

Julia never wanted to be this way, a meat-e-tarian. In fact most food not on her short list looked yummy and she would even try once in a while. For example; salads. Salads always looked quite appealing but alas, each attempt to try one would fail. The food just felt wrong in her mouth; a bad texture. Also, most of the flavours were not appealing to her. The closest thing Julia had to a salad was something she invented at a friends house; "the crouton salad": bacon bits, ranch dressing and, you guessed it, croutons.

Please understand that all of this is true. This weird individual was me. I write about her in the 3rd person just to emphasize how different I am now, but it has been quite the journey.

I hated being her. I hated how I felt (emotionally) being her. I hated how when I met new people or went out to eat with people that I would always be questioned about my eating habits...

• "So you really don't like anything else? Well what about apples?" "nope" "carrots?" "nope" "mushrooms?" "nope" ... you get the idea. Those list conversations would often go on for a long while and sometimes they might find something I would eat, but it would probably have its limitations like tomatoes, but only in a sauce with no chunkies.
• "This is just a phase!" ~ Ya, sure it was... one that lasted 28 years
• "Your parents must be to blame. They just didn't try hard enough to get you to eat other things."

It wasn't until I met a friends daughter who was just like me that I realized how hard this also must have been for my parents...

I Wasn't Alone