What were some "food rules" you had growing up? How does it affect you, today?

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  • misscagal
    misscagal Posts: 195 Member
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    ToastofLou wrote: »
    This is a great thread. I find this so interesting because at nearly 30 I've recently moved back home with my parents. Portion size is a big deal for me, the food is piled on my plate so much so that I actually am unable to cut up things without other things flying off the plate! And if you leave anything my mum gets all offended and majorly p'sd off. You're also not permitted into her kitchen at dinner time. She and only she is the cook.
    Yes -very interesting thread! My parents went through WWII and at some points were starving so wasting food was never an option. It was expected you cleaned your plate and everything on the table so my mother "didn't have to throw it away". She always also would always insist we eat more if we took a small portion and would assume we were still hungry. To this day she can't seem to accept you don't need to eat gargantuan amounts of food to be full. But she's also the first to point out I need to lose weight. *sigh* I love them but am glad they live on the other side of the country lol.
  • kazminchu
    kazminchu Posts: 250 Member
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    Clean your plate. My family has no idea what a portion should be, so we had giant plates, piled high with food. And you were told off if you left anything. I was once forced to eat the fat off of a gammon steak. I vomited right there on the table, and ever since I will spend full minutes picking the fat off of food. But apart from that, I will eat everything on my plate, even if I don't like it or I'm full.
    My parents are also very frugal, so I will eat things I pretty much hate, just because I paid for it and won't waste it. This I am slowly working on, last night I threw away the rest of a pasta salad I made because I didn't like it, and I would be the only one eating it. I am slowly making my calorie goal as important as moneysaving.
  • Shells918
    Shells918 Posts: 1,070 Member
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    RodaRose wrote: »
    My mother also has an ED.
    She keeps her weight down by snacking on little carby things all day and lots of activity.

    My mom does the same thing!!!
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
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    Hoarding food. I grew up very poor and for quite a few years of adulthood as well. I lived on ramen and pasta and dollar store food for a long time. Now life is better and I can afford to eat fairly well. For me the hard thing is to realise that I can go and buy more food in a week so I don't have to have the kitchen stuffed to the rim on pay day. (I get paid once a month) If I don't stock up so much on cheap filler foods that have a long shelf life, I can afford and have room for more fresh fruits and veg.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited July 2016
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    No dessert unless you eat your vegetables/meat. Don't spoil your dinner with snacking (a small after school snack was okay). Fast food/pizza/going out is for special occasions. If you don't want to eat what mom makes, make your own meal, I'm not catering to you. Eat dinner with the family (unless I had a dinner date or plans with friends on a weekend).
  • rachelr1116
    rachelr1116 Posts: 334 Member
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    I don't remember any food rules while I was growing up. I was a very picky eater though and I just didn't eat a lot. I was also a lot more active when I was younger (dance class at least twice a week, riding my bike or walking around town, etc.) My mom was almost constantly on a diet but I don't remember that really affecting the food that I ate. We never really had sweets in the house and didn't even keep soda in the house until I was in high school. My biggest problem has always been eating even if I'm not hungry just because it's "time" to eat. My mom wouldn't let me leave for school unless I ate something and I've just never been a breakfast person.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    I didn't have any. That's probably why I was fat. I'd get a look or be questioned if it seemed like I was eating too many snacks maybe. Who knows...I snuck food from a young age too.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
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    No dessert if you don't eat your dinner.
    Eat the dinner I prepared or go hungry.
    Sit at the table until you clean your plate.

    I think that's about it. The first 2 were good rules I also used when raising my own children. The third was not.
  • Camish911
    Camish911 Posts: 150 Member
    edited July 2016
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    mootsie981 wrote: »
    When we would go to a restaurant, we were not allowed to order any soda or juice. Mom only let us order water, because it was free! Luckily that set me up for a great lifelong habit of preferring water over any other liquid. I rarely drink soda or juice.

    We didn't order soda either, and luckily that also set me up to prefer water over juice or soda. So when I did decide that I didn't want to drink calories it was not problem at all for me to cut out the few times that I did drink soda.

    My mom never had the "finish everything on your plate" rule, but I think the mentality I got from my family was worse than that. I grew up with 5 siblings, and when my mom made a meal it'd be demolished. So I got the mentality of, "Eat as much as you can because other wise it'll be gone." It was a very difficult transition when I lived on my own and cooked for myself. I really struggled with portion sizes, because suddenly I had enough for seconds! And thirds! And hey it's almost gone so I may as well finish it! I've gotten better, but I still have problems occasionally. Like the other day when I took down almost an entire bag of Fritos in one sitting...
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited July 2016
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    Food rules were simple, the kitchen is only open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Cabinets and fridge was never open for free reign. Having my mom pop popcorn on the weekends after dinner every once in a while was a huge treat in my house. The occasional summertime homemade ice cream was also a huge treat for us.

    So needless to say when I moved away from home, I started opening the kitchen anytime I wanted it to be open! That's how I lost my waistline. Moms way of restriction kept us normal in weight but abnormal in our relationships with food. I now realize that there are times when I was hungry a lot, but that may have been because we could not have it.. You always want something you cannot have!

    But to this day I HATE and DISPISE two things, oatmeal and chicken and dumplings! Gross!!
  • RachelElser
    RachelElser Posts: 427 Member
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    Just a few rules for me. My dad is a pretty picker eater who mom MADE him eat things he didn't like, so he said he would never do that to his children. I remember that in restaurants if you ordered it, you ate it (sometimes we got to eat on mom's company's dime so I would order things like Shark Steak, tuna tar tar or a whole lobster.....at 7 or 8 years old). And at home you had to at least try a couple bites and if you didn't like it you made yourself a sandwich. And we all ate dinner together- no sitting in front of the TV.
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
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    We always had to finish our meals too, even if it had gone cold. My brother used to pig out on friends' sweets before dinner/tea so wasn't hungry, but I learnt not to do that.
    We weren't allowed fizzy pop, but as I never liked it anyway it didn't matter to me.
    If we wanted sweets we bought them with our own pocket money, so I learnt I'd rather spend my money on other things and ate at home whatever my Dad had in.
    We had a healthy balanced diet with occasional treats, chips with some meals and veggies with some meals.
    So the way I ate as a child I don't think has anything to do with why I put on weight as an adult.
  • jessleon1984
    jessleon1984 Posts: 50 Member
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    My mum was over the top healthy stuff and not much meat we had a healthy meal every nite and fruit whenever we wanted cereal or sandwich after school but rarely junk never had take away only fish an chips once a fortnite I think having not much sweets etc is why I have had a bad relationship with food over the years just went nuts for takeaways and sweet stuff now finally at 31 I've learnt what's good nutritious food and you can have a small amout of everything my kids get desert every nite and treats and I find my doughter dosnt eat it all in one go she will save lollies choc. For weeks I'm really trying to teach them balance we start everyday with smoothies and they have unlimited healthy snacks fruit yogurt etc takeaway once a week balance
  • RainaProske
    RainaProske Posts: 636 Member
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    This is a fun thread. Interesting to read how people ate.

    Mother only cooked what we commonly call "soul food," and I never liked it. Collard greens, cornbread, okra, limas and other beans, chit'lin's, pork fat, fatback, etc. I never liked any of it, except for grits. Furthermore, she served the food, and we were expected to eat it. Period.

    If I didn't eat it, I had to stay at the table. The dishes were washed, the lights were turned off, the others went into the living room and sat around the big blond radio listening to The Shadow Knows, and I still sat. I learned to throw my food behind the washer. Mother would ask if I ate my food, I would lie, and my food would be found the next morning. I would be spanked. Now, I eat what I want, of course. But to avoid feeling guilty if I don't finish, I put it in the 'fridge and finish it later.

    I still don't like soul food, but I keep thinking that there has to be some cornbread I would like. Yesterday, I found a recipe for Johnny Cakes, which I am going to try. I think I'll like them. My brother wants me to try his cornbread recipe that has lots of sweet potato in it.
  • Josh_lol
    Josh_lol Posts: 317 Member
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    As far as I remember, there weren't really any rules with food. I didn't know what was too much. My mum didn't cook an awful lot so we had takeaway maybe 3-4 times a week. I have a really bad sweet tooth and would spend all my pocket money on sweets. I was always fat as a kid from like 8+ years and I'm still pretty fat.

    I don't know whether to blame myself or my parents really since there was always some sort of junk food or soda in the house to have. Rather than them drilling eating habits into my head which I would use later on in life to eat a balanced diet, I developed my own bad habits.

    In September 2014, I was 310 lbs and I'm down to around 217 lbs atm.
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
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    The only real rule we had was to not touch any food that didn't belong to us, which mainly consisted of "luxury items" [chips, candy, sodas, etc]. I grew up in Southeastern US and having a healthy appetite was always a good thing. It didn't help that we would always have the traditional southern Sunday brunch/dinner [really big breakfast, really big dinner].
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    Don't eat all of the food meant for everyone.
    Don't waste food. Eat it, save it for later or offer it to someone else.
    If you don't like dinner you can eat a bowl of cereal or a sandwich.
    There must be a potato or it isn't a meal.
    Cook enough to feed twice as many people.
    Make enough popcorn for the whole family.
    Our menu is limited. This is the way we have always eaten. Trying new things is weird.

    I think I did not grow up knowing what a portion size should be or that it should be different for everyone.
    I was very thin as a child but ate huge portions at times while skipping meals other times. No one said anything about it.
    We did not have to clean our plate. We did not have to eat what was made. I did because I liked most foods and liked eating.
    We did not have dessert or soda pop every day. These were special occasion items. I drank water.
    It took awhile to learn to cook less. I married someone with a smaller appetite than my family and had a picky eater child. Neither of them like popcorn.
    I rebelled against potatoes for awhile even though I like them. I learned that I can eat them but I enjoy other foods too.
    I have a lot more variety in my diet.

  • MalbaJayne
    MalbaJayne Posts: 24 Member
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    What a fascinating question!

    I don't think my family food habits affected me in a negative way - but my moms food and body insecurities were absolutely passed down to me. She constantly asked me if she was fat, talked about how fat she was, and would sometimes (in separate conversations) talk about our similar body types, leading me to think I was fat, too. Don't get me wrong - none of this was intentional or malicious, and she told me I was beautiful just like all moms, but her insecurities trickled down to me, and now I find myself being the obnoxious one to my boyfriend, asking him constantly if I am fat!

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