What ONE food habit... would you go back in time to stop.

I work at a restaurant and I work nights. Therefore I eat dinner late, usually always accompanied by wine or beer, as I wind down. Add on the fact that if I had skipped dinner and decided to drink I'd get SUPER hungry and crave unhealthy food and I'd end up pigging out on all that's greasy. I'm also always surrounded by yummy food at work so this makes it even harder to stick to a diet. I also would change the fact that I never ate breakfast! So bad for me!

I have no food regrets, but I have fitness regrets. I regret that I did not listen to my body when I was young and I pushed too hard and injured myself frequently and spent a lot more time recovering / sitting around than I needed to. I also did not progress in my fitness because I did not educate myself on how to break fitness plateaus. Now that I'm older I pay attention to warning signs and I haven't been injured (or sidelined) in years! I'm also stronger and faster than I've ever been. :drinker:

Indecisive eating... I go to McD's. Do I want the fish sandwich or the double cheeseburger? I don't know. I can't decide. Ah, I'll just have both...

"Economical" eating. Wow. The burger is 11 rmb, but the meal is only 15... seems like a waste of money to not get the meal...

ARGH!!!!

Oh my gosh. I gained almost 8 pounds in china over the summer because of all the AMAZING yet cheap food. My lunch was always either Mcdonalds because a meal was like $3 or those fried chicken breasts and bubble tea. It was so bad, yet so good!

This is a truly smart and interesting thread. I never really thought about the genesis of eating issues. I guess I'd say letting portions get out of control. I don't eat a lot of crap, but even the best food needs serious limits.
Also, the yo yo cravings of salty to sweet to salty to sweet....

I think mine is more of a psychological issue than a bad habit, but shame eating. Hiding what I ate or drank because I felt I would be criticized for what I was seen to eat. I was criticized by my parents and siblings, but I was also unsupervised through most of my childhood. Breakfast before school was whatever I could find before the bus came. Lunch was either the basic school lunch through middle school or whatever I could afford from the snack bar in junior high and high school.

At home I developed a habit of buying food and hiding it in my bedroom because I didn't want other people to know it was there. I would go to a nearby restaurant late at night, pick up a day's worth of food, hide in the basement and inhale it all without a second thought. I would stock the basement fridge with pop and candy and freak out whenever someone found it.

At the same time, I'm aware that some of my habits were fed by others. I would get "gifts" of liters of Pepsi whenever I wasn't feeling well or "just because". It became generally accepted that I would eat whatever was placed in front of me and that I would eat whatever leftovers would come about.

None of this led to healthy eating habits. None of this led to a healthy relationship with food. I still can't stand eating in a social setting, I still can't stand having someone sit there and just watch me eat. But I don't hide food anymore. I don't go to the grocery store and get the 10/$10 boxes of Nutty Bars (which are still the greatest invention in creation). I don't have meals as snacks. I don't drink 2-liters of Dr. Pepper with dinner.

And I will NOT be ashamed.

I wish I would have ignored that "last couple of spoonfuls" in the bottom of the pan or bowl or whatever. When I was younger, I was an athlete that burned through 9,000 plus calories a day. My mom asking me to eat that little bit more wasn't a big deal. While I was lucky in that my body didn't try to keep eating those insane portion sizes after I stopped, I still had/have a problem with wanting to finish off that last little bit...even if I don't want or need it.

Mine is not a food habit, but it is a drink...sweet tea...it is my WEAKNESS.
I have been doing so good going without tea for the past few days though. I got one from McDonald's, just a tea, yesterday while I was uptown and when I took the first sip...WOW...all I could taste was sugar. It didn't even taste like tea anymore.

I think mine is more of a psychological issue than a bad habit, but shame eating. Hiding what I ate or drank because I felt I would be criticized for what I was seen to eat. I was criticized by my parents and siblings, but I was also unsupervised through most of my childhood. Breakfast before school was whatever I could find before the bus came. Lunch was either the basic school lunch through middle school or whatever I could afford from the snack bar in junior high and high school.

At home I developed a habit of buying food and hiding it in my bedroom because I didn't want other people to know it was there. I would go to a nearby restaurant late at night, pick up a day's worth of food, hide in the basement and inhale it all without a second thought. I would stock the basement fridge with pop and candy and freak out whenever someone found it.

At the same time, I'm aware that some of my habits were fed by others. I would get "gifts" of liters of Pepsi whenever I wasn't feeling well or "just because". It became generally accepted that I would eat whatever was placed in front of me and that I would eat whatever leftovers would come about.

None of this led to healthy eating habits. None of this led to a healthy relationship with food. I still can't stand eating in a social setting, I still can't stand having someone sit there and just watch me eat. But I don't hide food anymore. I don't go to the grocery store and get the 10/$10 boxes of Nutty Bars (which are still the greatest invention in creation). I don't have meals as snacks. I don't drink 2-liters of Dr. Pepper with dinner.

And I will NOT be ashamed.

Okay in response to this one and other's where family encouraged bad eating habits by either not supervising, criticizing, or reward feeding, stinginess, greediness, cheapness, or otherwise I am going to write what DID work and remind that even though I did post a bad habit I wish I'd changed it was short lived and did not stem from childhood. My basic eating habits are quite good and I'd like to share what GOOD things my parents did that led to this, so you may learn how to inspire and help your own children any of you that are parents that did not have a good model for food.

1) My mother cooked dinner every single night from scratch from the grocery store...(it was the 70's and yes she was a liberated woman with a full time job.) I learned how to cook this way because my father insisted I always sit in the kitchen and watch while she cooked, yes above playing with friends (allowed earlier in the day) and even above homework (should have been done immediately after school or else there was always after dinner, or in the morning if I'd forgotten or postponed).

2) At least once a weekend we were taken out to eat somewhere. My father wasn't totally free from cheapness so he'd remind us to eat the protein first as that was the most valuable thing on the plate, my mother would warn us from too much cheese as she believed it can constipate you but otherwise we were allowed to eat as much or little as we wanted. The children starving in china was something I only heard once older from other peoples parents. (ps. When my hubby tried to employ the finish your plate kids in china routine with our kid, I plainly told him, I don't imagine any kid in china is sitting around worrying about him? He blinked twice, smirked, then never mentioned it again.)

3) We were not allowed sleepovers until older as to prevent learning ANY unhealthy habits of any kind...food included. (and this actually stemmed from my first sleepover as the oldest child I returned telling a story of something that had been offered to me a peach baby food swirled with a pillsbury crescent which my parents both found disgusting and inadequate and paved the way for the no sleepovers until older rule.)

4) On vacations we were allowed to explore foods freely and my family stocked up on whatever natural things in the region and we gorged on those while we could learning the benefits of fruits and veggies and having the incentive that we wouldnn't have access to it the exotic fruits/veggies for long.

5) Holidays had their share of treats but for every "treat" or sweet dish there were about 3-5 other "real" foods prepared.

6) They gave us a clear and simple kid understandable distinction of "real food" versus "not real food". ie. Meat, tacos, enchiladas, chicken, juice, broccoli, soups, pastas, rice, tortillas, breads,= "real food". Sweets, chips, soda, pastries, donuts, pies, fries and burgers from fast food places, pizza "not real food". My kid just the other day when offered a cookie by his dad said " no" wrinkled his nose like yuck, "I need REAL food first".

7) Once a child knows how his/her body feels eating regular filling nutritious foods over the course of many many meals, they quickly learn how it feels when they are in need of more of it and how bad it will feel to eat sweets only or junk only in comparison (they'll naturally learn this at birthday parties or amusement parks or anytime they have been too stubborn and yacked up too much halloween candy, or been nauseated by too many christmas cookies). They become their own barometer for how much is too much and can be trusted later when they are older and on their own in school or sleepovers, etc.

8) When I got older and learned more about nutrition than they did, they did not recoil, feel one upped, or anything but proud and encouraging and as freely as possible within budget constraints indulged my pleas for grape nuts, yogurts, bagels, and any host of healthy foods I had learned about either from friends or school. By that time I was in high school and they knew they could be equally indulgent with the sweets I heard of too since they knew they'd taught us when to say when.

I see them employ the same methods with my younger siblings and now the grandkids.

Hope this helps any of you who just had no good way of learning but especially I hope it helps your kids in the long run.

I'd never take up fast food, EVER. We got a Wendy's in my small town around the same time I started driving and well... that started a lot of things.

I have this bad habit of waking up during the middle of the night and snacking. I have not yet conquered this monster..but I'm working on it! I have been trying to "consciously" eat better things when I do wake up or even drink water, but it's been a tough one to break for sure.

McDonalds, I think it was kindergarten. I wish I had never gone there. I don't understand when people say McDonalds isn't awesome, because I LOVE the devil-food.

Avoiding vegetables and eating too fast! I wish I had the craving to eat more veggies. My brother loves them and I wish I was the same. Would make looking for low-cal snacks a lot easier.

Eating in private or secretly. Either stopping at fast food or eating alone at restaurants. Or stopping at gas stations and buy food to shove in my face in my car.

Growing up we didn't have soda with meals because it was too expensive. We usually had hot or iced tea. And we had to finish all the food on our plate because "there were children starving in Asia." After dinner we were allowed to have some homemade cookies.

Now I only put on my plate what I know I can finish without overstuffing myself. After dinner I have a Healthy Choice fudge bar (only 100 calories). But as soon as I moved out of my parents' home I began to drink soda. I only drink diet soda now but I drink too much. For all those years of not drinking it I am making up for it big time. I wish I could still stick to iced tea or water; it's better for me than the soda.