Our Mother's Diets

TaraMaria
TaraMaria Posts: 1,975
edited September 22 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Everyone, its me! lol...

Anyways, I was sitting here thinking about the different impacts things make on our lives. I've never had the best self image and it often goes through my head: Why? I'm an adult now. I should be able to look in the mirror and say yup, thats me! And forgo the grimacing and moaning.

If I look back far enough, to the first time I stepped on the scale or the first diet I went on, a lot of it had to do with my mom. Mind you, this is not a thread to diss mothers...lol...I love my mother to the ends of this world. However, she was constantly dieting and I was constantly watching. I saw the craziest diets come in and out of my house. I watched the clothes go flying off the hangers onto the bed and out of the dresser drawers onto the floor as things didn't fit right. And she was right there with me when I announced my first doubt in my looks. She helped me get started on Atkins, another time it was an all salad diet, or this really really really awful creepy apple cider diet and others. I remember not knowing where I should be on the scale but remembering I felt better then it would go down, not up.

This made me think to ask this question: How many of you were affected by your parent's dieting? Do you remember any specific crazy diets they tried? One my mom and dad did together...they made this soup and it ended where we all drove through burger king and they order more food then I've ever seen in my life come out of that window. Looking back now...I'm pretty sure any diet that ends you at a fast food joint should be described as FAIL. Haha! :o) I think the bottom line is that no matter what "diet" is tried, it has to be a completely healthy living overhaul that changes your life for the good, hence why we are all here!

But tell me...I want to hear about your mom's diets! Ha ha!

Replies

  • tammietifanie
    tammietifanie Posts: 1,496 Member
    It wasn't my mother but my Grandma put me on a smoothie diet one year during the summer when i was in 5th grade! Crazy now looking back and thinking about how i had nothing but fruit smoothies the entire summer!!!!!!!
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
    i remember my dad dieted but it did not change how we ate, he just ate more salads. My mom never dieted, but I did inherit her cooking skills... or lack of... I do make a mean bowl of cereal though.
  • garedds
    garedds Posts: 251
    My mom was a yo-yo dieter my whole life. I remember her doing Jenny Craig, weight watchers, nutri-system, cabbage diet and others. I also remember, as a teen, her telling me to watch what I was eating and I didn't want to end up like her, ect. Now I was a heavier teen (but not awful, about a size 12) and I remember thinking and deciding that I wasn't going to be like her. I wasn't going to obsess about what size I was. This was great I stayed about a 14 until I got pregnant. Then I went up and up. I had 4 kids in 5 years, but I knew I wasn't in for a quick fix and so instead I did nothing.

    I didn't want to yo-yo like my mom, so I stayed fat. Then after my 3rd baby I found a healthy eating program and it worked! Then I got pregnant, my hubby got a long term illness, we moved countries, had to live with my in-laws while adjusting to Canada and I gave up.

    Again I didn't want a yo-yo, so I waited and in June of this year I was ready again and here I am 32 pounds lighter than June!

    So I guess it worked OK that I I didn't want to follow my mom in this. She is great and I love her though!
  • cherfurr
    cherfurr Posts: 38
    My mom put us all on a liquid diet where we ate nothing but soup all week and on Sunday we each got a steak - no veggies or anything with it, just steak!
  • jojoworks
    jojoworks Posts: 315 Member
    OMG, my mother had big time eating issues, but she was never overweight. Her thing was to eat like a whole bag of potato chips in the afternoon, then she'd make supper for us and she'd sit at the table with a cup of coffee and a cigarette and watch us eat. She HATED to cook. I think I became a robust eater as a reaction to her unhealthy eating. I couldn't stand to observe her at the table not eating.

    I've had to work real hard to reprogram the messages in my head about food; including ITS OK TO LIKE TO EAT, FOOD IS GOOD FOR YOU IF YOU EAT HEALTHY FOOD!

    great topic!
    happy eating,
    JoJo
  • superwmn
    superwmn Posts: 936
    In my house, my Dad was the crash dieter. He would brag about being on starvation diets. Starving meant having will power. It was a good thing. You'll be shocked to learn that in our youths, when my sister and I wanted to lose weight, we just stopped eating.

    Needless to say my father was VERY overweight his entire life. Food was always forbidden so he always over-ate. This also became my pattern. I over came my addiction to food but my sister is still suffering.

    Yup. Kids will do what you do.

    Charmagne
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,021 Member
    I remember my mom drinking Slim Fast and very briefly taking Phen Fen. Other than that, she never dieted while I was a kid. She was 50 pounds overweight for most of my life, and 4 years ago when my older brother announced he was getting married, my mom vowed to lose the extra weight before his wedding. And she did it totally with diet and exercise. No more gimmicks or crazy pills. Just clean food and working out.

    She has gained a few lbs back because she stopped exercising, but she still looks great and still watches what she eats. I would say what influenced me from my childhood was that we ate a steady diet of home-cooked meals. Eating out was rare. Soda and junk food were rare. Then when I got to college, I remember having this epiphany that I could have pizza and soda anytime I wanted because Mom wasn't around. I put on 40 lbs before I graduated. I lost all of that weight this year, thank God, but I definitely think your family's eating and dieting habits affect the way that you view food as an adult. That's probably why you're never really successful at losing weight until you confront what made you fat in the first place, and it's hard to see it when you think it's totally normal because you grew up with it.
  • themommie
    themommie Posts: 5,033 Member
    My mom was always really tiny while I was growing up ( she has gained a little bit in the last 5 yrs) but she is 4'11" and weighted between 98 and 105 the whole time I was growing up, but she was always dieting, watching what she ate and exercised. I always felt like a giant because my great grandma was 4'9" , my grandma 4'10" all of my aunts under 5'3" and my brother was always very short , he is only 5' 8: now. I went on several diets growing up, but eventually somewhere along the line was busy taking care of everyone else and just gave up and didnt pay attention to myself. So I know all about nutrition and eating healthy I just dont always do it
  • LynnBirchfield
    LynnBirchfield Posts: 581 Member
    I've dieted off and on throughout the years. My youngest daughter is 17 and she has lost about 15 lb unexplained and she didn't need to lose. The peditrician ran a bunch of blood tests on her (such as thyroid) but everything came back normal. Now, I have to take her once a month to get a weight check and the last peditrician we saw asked me to take her to a nutritionalist (that appointment is in a couple of weeks). I worry that through my constant dieting if I haven't put something in her head that she must diet. She says that she gets full easily. I wished I had started exercising and dieted by portion control and not made such a big deal about it. I may be putting guilt on myself that I shouldn't, but you never know. Lesson learned for me. Of course I'm dieting now, but I'm trying to do it without talking a lot about it -- doing it more healthfully (including exercise).
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
    No specific diets from my mom, just negative "support". She never actually called me fat, but I always knew that's what she meant. And as an adult she would tell me when I needed to lose weight and her advice was always telling me to just eat less. She honestly couldn't understand why my trainer told me I needed to eat more (I was in starvation mode).
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
    I've dieted off and on throughout the years. My youngest daughter is 17 and she has lost about 15 lb unexplained and she didn't need to lose. The peditrician ran a bunch of blood tests on her (such as thyroid) but everything came back normal. Now, I have to take her once a month to get a weight check and the last peditrician we saw asked me to take her to a nutritionalist (that appointment is in a couple of weeks). I worry that through my constant dieting if I haven't put something in her head that she must diet. She says that she gets full easily. I wished I had started exercising and dieted by portion control and not made such a big deal about it. I may be putting guilt on myself that I shouldn't, but you never know. Lesson learned for me. Of course I'm dieting now, but I'm trying to do it without talking a lot about it -- doing it more healthfully (including exercise).

    I recently read an article about this very thing and it made me very sad. Girls learn from their mothers and seeing the constant dieting and the unhappiness with physical appearance is getting learned at younger and younger ages. I was already exercising and eating better (to get to a healthy weight, not to be skinny) when I read this but it made me realize just how important it is for me to be a healthy role model for my daughter. Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. I don't want her to struggle with her weight or feel bad about herself because she isn't a specific weight or size. My husband and I both want to teach our children the health and wellness lessons that we were never taught.
  • NatalieWinning
    NatalieWinning Posts: 999 Member
    My Mom was a constant yo-yo dieter as long as I remember. WW lifer, too. I grew up with only apples as fruit, and only american cheese slices as cheese. I hated apples and cheese, I thought. Butter was this whipped stuff that sweated water when you scraped it on your toast. She would eat cottage cheese and peaches, which just about made me throw up in my mouth thinking about it, now! My Dad, however, was from the "stroke belt" in the south (USA) and insisted on only fried food, greasy stuff, with a side of greasy stuff. As the years went by she got larger, never smaller for long. I never knew all the foods I liked until I got my own house and bought my own food. I'm still discovering food! Mostly food was forbidden, like someone else here said. There was also good and bad food. The dairy and fruit went on the bad list. The more processed, the more she chose it because it was labled "diet" on the box. Box food. I still don't know a more food obcessed person than my mom, who was prone to diet, then binge. I tried never to do that to my kids! I'm sure I did some, but healthy is what I keep trying to go for.

    Now food has to be calorie counted or I can't loose. I used to loose easy just eating healthier and being more active. In my upper 40's I need a little help. Just not the yo-yo kind where food is bad or good and fake food rules!
  • miss_martin
    miss_martin Posts: 15
    Well, growing up my mom never did any of the crazy diets but she wasn't the best cook in the world either so we had a lot of hamburger helper, fried chicken, etc. When she wanted to loose weight she would just have yogurt for breakfast and lunch and then eat dinner. But she always made sure that I ate a somewhat normal meal and had at least canned veggies b/c I was diagnosed diabetic at age 6. She did the best she could so I've never done any type of crash dieting myself but it was hard teaching myself how to cook!! :)
  • daniface
    daniface Posts: 338 Member
    i never saw my mom on a diet, i dont think ever watched too closely, what she ate. both my parents are relitivly fit. But in my family food=comfort, food= destination. any trip we took was surrounded by breakfest lunch and dinner, eating our way through vactions and feelings.

    i was always on the bigger side, and my mom, although she does not admit it. called me fat many times throughout my adolcence . this was very scaring. one day, i think i was in highschool; I was holding our family cat and my mom looked at me and said "is that your belly! sticking out?!...you look like your 6 months pregnant" ouch. my mom wont admit to any of it, i brought it up one time and she 'doesnt remember'. i think that i will always unfortunatly remember.
  • 2bFitNTrim
    2bFitNTrim Posts: 1,209 Member
    My parents were of the "clean your plate b/c of the starving children, you should be grateful" mindset. :huh:
  • garedds
    garedds Posts: 251
    I grew up with only apples as fruit, and only american cheese slices as cheese. Butter was this whipped stuff that sweated water when you scraped it on your toast.

    This was so my family growing up!! "Hard" cheese was for special occasions only! And try melting that "butter" on popcorn. Gross!
  • TaraMaria
    TaraMaria Posts: 1,975
    i remember my dad dieted but it did not change how we ate, he just ate more salads. My mom never dieted, but I did inherit her cooking skills... or lack of... I do make a mean bowl of cereal though.

    I LOL'd at this one. I could see you there in the kitchen with a mean look on your face, determined...pouring the cereal and then the absolute correct amount of milk. That's right...I did it. NOW WHAT? lol! :o)
  • TaraMaria
    TaraMaria Posts: 1,975
    I remember my mom drinking Slim Fast and very briefly taking Phen Fen. Other than that, she never dieted while I was a kid. She was 50 pounds overweight for most of my life, and 4 years ago when my older brother announced he was getting married, my mom vowed to lose the extra weight before his wedding. And she did it totally with diet and exercise. No more gimmicks or crazy pills. Just clean food and working out.

    She has gained a few lbs back because she stopped exercising, but she still looks great and still watches what she eats. I would say what influenced me from my childhood was that we ate a steady diet of home-cooked meals. Eating out was rare. Soda and junk food were rare. Then when I got to college, I remember having this epiphany that I could have pizza and soda anytime I wanted because Mom wasn't around. I put on 40 lbs before I graduated. I lost all of that weight this year, thank God, but I definitely think your family's eating and dieting habits affect the way that you view food as an adult. That's probably why you're never really successful at losing weight until you confront what made you fat in the first place, and it's hard to see it when you think it's totally normal because you grew up with it.

    Your part about the epiphany...I will never forget that day. I was standing in Walmart, trying to decide how I was going to manage to get home to make something or if I should drink a slim fast. When it hit me, like a ton of massive junk food: I, Tara, can eat what I want. *shocking horror music* I don't know why I never realized it, I guess I just never rebelled or thought to...haha! I was in beauty school and my daily lunches started coming out of the vending machines. I tried pizza rolls for the first time in my life, spaghetti O's...Ramen Noodles! It was literally like someone said, Pssst Tara...look in there? Now eat it. Ha ha! I went from a size 4 starting beauty school to a size 9. I got a handle on myself but I think my body had already taken a shock...Haha! :o)
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