[WormwoodDoll]

My mom was a health freak...kind of. She always portioned our meals, made sure we ate our veggies, and kept the snacks to a minimum. Soda was barely in the house and she hid the "good" stuff for herself. Once I hit puberty, I gained 100lbs.

But when I moved in with my grandparents I had access to every cake, cookie, junk food imaginable. My grandma didn't cook, so it was quick and easy meals: sandwiches or t.v dinners. I drank a case of soda every day practically! I'd eat whenever I wanted and however much I wanted. It was bad. And we often ate fast food. That's how I caked on my last 50lbs from 2004 - 2007. I'm surprised it was only 50lbs I gained!

[BlueToBlue]

Originally Posted by PhotoChick

My brother and I were not ALLOWED to be picky eaters.

Same in my house. My mom did not tolerate picky eaters. If you didn't like what was for dinner, you went hungry. Unless my dad got involved--then you sat at the table and cried until you ate whatever it was. My mom never made special meals and she never gave in on this. I can't even imagine what kind of wrath gagging noises or trying to hide our food would have wrought, but it would have been bad. My parents were formidable.

As a kid, we didn't eat badly. Probably the worst foods my mom allowed were sugary cereals. My mom made dinner every night and she didn't really allow a lot of snacking. In fact, we were not allowed to eat food when visiting friends without calling home to ask first. I kid you not--if we were at a friend's house and were offered a snack, we had to call home and ask first. Usually we just said no. I remember wistfully watching my friends eat cookies. But my mom would have known and, like I said, she was formidable. My sister once got in huge trouble for trading something in her lunch with another kid at school.

So the problem wasn't what we were eating; it was how much of it. We ate enormous portions. It was crazy. My mom was definitely a member of the clean plate club, so we were praised for eating everything on our plates and going back for seconds. People were always commenting on what "good eaters" my sister and I were and my mom was proud of us for this. When we ate dinner at our friends', they often didn't have enough food for us. Both my sister and I were skinny (oh to have that metabolism again) so it wasn't a problem then, but it sure is now. Portion control is my biggest problem.

Then I hit high school and the problem became not just how much I ate but what I ate. I never ate breakfast (a waste of time). Freshman and junior year my lunch consisted of an order of fries and a Twix bar. Junior and senior year I stopped eating lunch altogether--too much trouble to pack it and no money to buy it--or I ate a small slice of grease-soaked pizza from the cafeteria. There were many days where both my sister and I went all day with little or no sustenance. Then we would get home from school and just binge. We would eat twinkies, ice cream, peanut butter, cake, chocolate chips, just tons of junk. I remember feeling like I couldn't stop eating. We were mystified by our behavior at the time (I remember joking that I must have a tapeworm to eat such abnormally large amounts of food). But now I look back and think, well, duh. No wonder we ate so much when we got home from school, we were starving.

[jarheadwed]

I think we got alot of mixed messages about food as kids. We had a rule that we couldn't eat any junk food for bedtime snack unless we had five servings of fruits and vegetables, but that wasn't a hard fast rule. My stepdad is a big guy, very tall with a little extra body fat too. He would make giant meat and starch heavy dinners- ribs with potatoes, steak with au gratin potatoes, and always some sort of bread too. We always ate until we were stuffed. I would watch how much my parents would put away themselves (except when mom was on her on again/off again diet) and I figured it was normal, that we were eating right. We were occasionally limited on junk food, but not too much.

I remember my mom joked (and we still do) if asked if she hungry "since when does being hungry have to do with eating?" I know it was her poking fun at how much she ate, but I have recently started wondering if that mindset did shape my relationship with food.

My stepdad would make comments when I was still a very skinny teenager about "a second on the lips, a lifetime on the hips." It was hurtful, and my mom would get on him not to say that stuff to me, but I know in his way he was warning me that if I didn't watch out, all that overeating and junky eating would add up.

And it did. And thats why I am in this boat now. The thing is, some days I don't even think of myself as being overweight until I look in the mirror or feel my squishy stomach. It almost shocks me that I let myself go this far, and its sucks because I keep gaining more and more.

[aneleh]

Hmm I really wonder what the childhood eating habits are of people who have always had a healthy relationship with food.
I remember sneaking food when I was little all the time so my parents wouldn't tell me off for eating junk food. One time I had a time-out in the laundry room (where the freezer was as well..) for setting my brother's pet birds free.. I was crying and upset cause everyone was mad at me, and got into the ice cream in the freezer and everything was better!