[ThinningVegan]

Yes. I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and if I didn't like something I didn't have to eat it.

My mother is a bulimic and would constantly binge. There were weekends where we would have movie nights (quite regularly) and we would all stuff ourselves with whatever was there. To be honest I grew up in a very abusive, chaotic, and dysfunctional home so food became my go to for everything. Most of the happy memories I have of being a child with my family involve food. Lots of deliciously unhealthy fattening food.

That became my love and because there was no rule on how much of it I could have, I took all I could. I continued doing that even more so once I lived on my own because then I could REALLY buy whatever I wanted to eat. *sighs* I remember going to school all through junior high and high school with no breakfast and no lunch. Then I would get home and just binge on food all night. I am so glad I have control now.

[3FCer344892]

I was made to clean my plate when I was little. My dessert (which was nearly every night) would be withheld until I ate my dinner. Sometimes the dinner was something I didn't like: like meatloaf. I would cry sometimes, but still had to eat it, maybe not finish it, but at least eat some of it. Later, I could choose to eat something else, but that wasn't until much later. Most of our dinners were high in carbs. There was always a side of bread, even if we were eating pasta. There was always a main dish of meat, and most of the time a side of potatoes (usually mashed or fried). We had canned vegetables, or, if we were lucky, fresh out of the garden (but that was a rarity).

Then a little later, my Dad started to talk about my weight. My snacks or junk meal portions were limited, and if I wanted more I got "Do you want to be so big, you can't fit through the front door?" and comments such as those. So sometimes I would sneak sweets at night, because there was always plenty of snack-cakes and candy-bars and cookies in our house. Eventually, Dad started to put me on different diets, and made me try diet pills and teas and crap like that, but nothing ever worked.

Now, my little brother (who is about to turn 11), is treated vastly different. I figure it's either because my parents feel bad about the way they treated me with food, or because he's naturally skinny. Either way, he is allowed to eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He refuses to touch ANY vegetable, and mostly eats canned ravioli, pizza pockets, corn-dogs, luncheon meat sandwiches, hot dogs, pizza, condensed chicken noodle soup, or other fake foods. He is never made to eat anything that he doesn't want to eat, and I am scolded if I try to get him to. It's always "Leave him alone. He doesn't have to eat it if he doesn't want to." I'm afraid that he's going to get very unhealthy.

So, you could say, my parents went both ways on this one. Now, I'm rarely picky. I will eat almost anything, but I have a bad addiction with junk foods.

[lackadaisy]

I was lucky to have a fairly clean eating environment, growing up, but all my bad habits come from childhood.

As a kid, I didn't like to eat much -- so I was always, always being pressed to eat more. I was a naturally skinny kid (always 'underweight') so my parents position on my eating junk food was always tolerant -- but they didn't like and couldn't see the point of cookies/cake, so it just wasn't around.

I never wanted to be around at dinner but my parents insisted everyone clean their plates -- so I learned to eat quickly in order to escape. I was definitely in the 'clean plate/bowl' club.

Fast forward ten years to my teens. I lost my ascetic attitude toward sweets with puberty (OMG CHOCOLATE SO DELICIOUS). Having grown up on school lunches, I found the greater deliciousness of college dining a revelation. I quickly gained 30 lbs in just a couple of years from access to all the things that weren't around in my childhood, from my horrible habit of scarfing down my food, and from my lack of knowledge about how to moderate my intake of 'white people food'.

So losing weight, for me, is relearning how to eat slowly -- learning for the first time how to reject foods I learned in my childhood wouldn't be often around -- and training myself to love exercise, which as a kid I never did.

In a way it's like your parents can never have left you without eating neuroses of some kind... mine are both healthy and thin, and I still got them.

[marianne78]

My parents hate wasting food. So when my brothers and I were growing up, we were made to stay at the table during meal times until we have finished what we put on our plates. Treats like ice cream, pizza, soda and doughnuts were considered special items eaten only on special occasions.

Looking back, it's because we were restricted from eating sweet things that kind of made me gorge myself on them when I started living on my own income. That and the fact that I wasn't that enthusiastic with exercise got me where I am right now.

[minnie10]

i think it was when i went to high school that i was allowed to eat whatever i wanted. i think thats when my over eating began as i was able to go to the canteen and choose what i wanted for lunch and there was a shop across the road that we went too to buy our junk.

i do remember not being allowed to leave the table until my plate was cleared,even now i find myself clearing my plate even if im not hungry.

[WebRover]

I didn't mention above that one of the reasons we had to try 1 Tablespoon of everything on the table was to encourage us to sample different vegetables. There was always at least one vegetable served.