Saturday, January 15, 2011
Growing up with food
Okay, my friend's comment prompts me to ask this question to you reading this....what where your models for eating growing up? Did anyone in your family have a weight problem? How was food dealt with? What did you learn about interacting with food and why? What's your theory about why skinny people are skinny and fat people are fat? This inquiring mind wants to know. And thanks G for the comment....I know you love to make me think!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
and a might fine question it is, too!
ReplyDeleteHere's a post that has some pictures of what my family looked like when I was growing up.
http://ananchorage.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/i-missed-my-dads-birthday-again/
Food did not equal love in my house. Mom and Dad were both lousy cooks. My grandmother was a decent cook, but didn't use food as a bribe, reward or anything else. You just ate.
I'll be interested to see what people's experiences are.
Gloria (can you put a follow comments link on this thing?)
I wrote a response a couple of days ago but I couldn't get it to submit.
ReplyDeleteWe grew up playing outside a lot, most meals were prepared from scratch at home, and there was little "junk" food available in the house. My parents outright refused to buy us "candy cereal" so the sweetest stuff we had was raisin bran. I distinctly remember when Honey Nut Cheerios came out because we were allowed to eat them.
When we went out to eat it was to nice family restaurants, a local Mexican place in particular, in our small town. This was before all the chain restaurants moved in. There was a McDonald's within walking distance and occasionally, but not regularly, we would get to go there or another fast food place. The trips there were probably a mixture of reward and convenience.
My parents were both pretty physically active for a long time. My dad was a "jogger" in the 70's and was (still is, actually, an avid cyclist); we'd go on family hiking/camping and skiing trips for our vacations around New England.
So, I think they installed a healthy foundation for health and wellness. They also instilled a love for ice cream; my parents met over a cone of Breyer's mint chip on the boardwalk in Cape May. Also, a love of GOOD food. They also got more an more busy as they got older and both spent a considerable amount of their lives at work and doing community service. I don't think they knew how to find balance and just BE. I'm not sure I know either. As they got more busy they gained weight and have never, in 20 years or so now, figured out how to take it off - they also seem to enable each other.
So my goal now is to stop letting my very busy life dictate how I eat and my health. When I finish my masters degree this summer my next project will be scaling back and scaling down. In the meantime I do what literally looks like exercise three times a week, with over an hour of "lifting heavy things" (and I have a personal trainer who also happens to be my husband) once a week. And then I play with my kids by going snowshoeing, sledding, dancing, hiking, yoga, etc. with them. I need to move more.
I also realized I have trigger foods and GI reactions to some foods so I went paleo and gave up grains, dairy, legumes, and sugar. It was intimidating at first but is actually very easy and I don't miss anything. I cook everything myself and I can eat a tremendous amount of REAL food, so I too often feel sated.
I think these changes are good for my kids too. What are you thinking about your girls?