[Glory87]

Now that I am a working adult myself, I have a lot of respect for my mom. She put a healthy (I mean, it was the 70s/80s so what was considered healthy at the time, if you know what I mean) dinner on the table every night. Meat, veggie, carb. She made a lot of those potato mixes out of a box (the scalloped potato stuff), but overall she did a great job. I don't recall many instances of her being "too tired" to cook and getting pizza/fast food - we very very rarely had those things. I don't think my mom was a GREAT cook, but she definitely did a good job. We had a vegetable every night!

My brother and I were allowed milk or water, soda was reserved for gingerale when we were sick. We never had a lot of snacks in the house (I remember granny smith apples being the afternoon snack of choice) and we didn't go out to dinner very often. We weren't allowed sugary cereal, I remember Raisin Bran (with those sugary raisins) being the big breakfast cereal treat.

I definitely can't pin my food issues on my mom's cooking - she did okay in that department!

I've pretty much traced my issues back to being a latchkey kid. My mom went back to work when I was in the 6th grade. My little brother and I had to come straight home from school, and we weren't allowed outside. During the summer, we had to stay inside all day. There was nothing to do but watch TV and eat. I ate because I was bored. I would do stuff like sprinkle white sugar on bread and eat it. I would eat spoonfuls of Nestles Quik out of the container, sneak spoonfuls of frosting out of a container in the cupboard, spoonfuls of brown sugar.

When I started losing weight, I quickly identified "afternoons" as a tough, snacky time when I just wanted to eat. Coming up with strategies for dealing with this habit was key for my longterm success!