What were some "food rules" you had growing up? How does it affect you, today?
Options
Replies
-
Gosh I had so many strange rules. We NEVER got any type of candy or dessert unless it was Twix bars. So needless to say, I hate twix now, but really struggled with not binge eating on any type of dessert. We never had frozen or fresh vegetables, just canned. I hate canned veggies, but found I love lots of fresh and frozen veggies, if only I had ever been offered them as a child. Almost everything we ate was processed, out of a box or can, etc.0
-
So for those of you who had to sit at the table until you finished everything on your plate - did you ever sit there until, like, 1 a.m. so your mother had to finally give in and let you go to bed? Like Dawn Weiner in Welcome to the Dollhouse?
I guess I wasn't that stubborn. I would whine and cry and beg for it to be reheated (which always happened), but once everyone had left, I would finish eating in a few minutes. I hated being alone more than I hated the mashed potatoes or whatever vegetable (spinich or peas, typically) were giving me grief. Like I said above: with me, it wasn't a matter of me being full and not being able to eat. It was a matter of, "Mashed potatoes are yuck." (Which they are, when they get to be ice cold, because you've put them off until the end.) For the record, I like mashed potatoes now, so I don't have the, "My parents forced me to eat X and now I can't stand it." Also... when I really couldn't tolerate something (winter squash, yams/sweet potatoes), my parents didn't make me eat it. They offered alternatives. "You don't like squash or sweet potatoes, eat some mashed potatoes and corn instead."0 -
- "This isn't a restaurant, you'll eat what I cook!" To be fair, my mother wasn't an awful cook and I liked most everything she cooked... even the macaroni & cheese and hotdogs that was a staple when I was a toddler. They were poor and it was all they could afford. My mother gags on macaroni and cheese; meanwhile, macaroni and cheese (or any pasta+cheesy sauce dish) is my favorite thing in the world.
- I don't remember there being an explicit "clean your plate" rule... I just always did. I think we all ate rather hearty servings. My mother always assumed that not finishing a meal meant you disliked it and would get upset. I recently realized that I didn't drink very much during the meal - I wolfed down my food (because YUM) before I probably had a chance to register being full. Nowadays I force myself to take breaks and drink because I'm still very much prone to eating too quickly.
- I had cousins who were horribly picky, fussy eaters. They refused to eat almost anything except crap and dessert. I was always praised as a child for having a "good appetite". I wonder how much of my excessive consumption as a teen was self-justified because "I just have a good appetite".
- I don't remember much of our food being "fresh". A lot of it would be prepackaged stuff - fresh meat with instant mash, or instant rice dishes, frozen veggies thrown in the nuker, or what have you. I grew up knowing how to make these things (obv) and how to make chicken or beef somewhat palatable, but realized later on that I had no damn idea how to work with fresh veggies or how to adapt a dish. Again... our family was poor most of my childhood and my father refused to eat veggies, so my mom's options were few and far between.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »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).
Lots of these - though our mother was almost always willing to cater if there was time and energy for it.
Also: don't swim after eating for at least an hour.
Weekend breakfasts could take a very long time while we all gathered at the table and talked - lots of times about medieval Spanish history.
Well-composed meal consists of a meat, a vegetable and a starch. I had an internal rule about this: eat meat first, then veggies, then starch.
My father always insisted on eating slowly and "shewing" your food nicely.
No pet food for people; no people food for pets.
No reading at the table when others are there too (read away when on your own!).
Always have food in the house: you never know when company will come, and you *must* offer food to company.
Try everything - how do you know you don't like it unless you try it?
On your birthday you get to choose whatever you want for dinner.
I think these were pretty much positive reinforcements.
We had lots of these additional ones too: swimming, make up of the meal (not a rule, but that's what it was -- I always saved my favorite part for last -- usually ate the veggies first, but not if they involved some special preparation with cheese, heh), the reading one (I also read when eating on my own, can't do it now), the company, the trying things. We also were required to eat what we were offered if at someone else's house (for a meal, at least). I remember choking down some things I hated and never would have been forced to eat at home. I also have this weird hatred of cold cereal, and recall that being the one thing I hated about slumber parties or staying the night at a friend's, since EVERYONE but us seemed to love cold cereal and eat it for breakfast.0 -
Learn to cook or learn to tolerate microwaved frozen meat0
-
The only one that was bad for me was my mom's insistence on my drinking a glass of milk, which I have always hated and do to this day. I could stand it if it was skim and ice-cold and I downed it quickly (sometimes I plugged my nose so I couldn't taste it) but the absolute second she relented on that when I was a teenager I stopped drinking it and haven't since. Lots of tears and tantrums in my childhood over milk but for some reason it just makes me gaggy although I'm not a picky eater at all.
Other than that my parents were really reasonable. Appropriate portions, vegetables, not a lot of junk in the house, pizza and fast food and soda only infrequently. I never had a weight issue until I went to university and started bartending and piled on 30 lbs from eating and drinking like crap and never sleeping and all that. Nobody forced me to finish stuff (except the milk), "bad" food wasn't banned, and my mom baked almost every day but I ate it only moderately or sometimes not at all.0 -
So for those of you who had to sit at the table until you finished everything on your plate - did you ever sit there until, like, 1 a.m. so your mother had to finally give in and let you go to bed? Like Dawn Weiner in Welcome to the Dollhouse?
No. I remember putting my head on the table and falling asleep, but not often. I wasn't allowed to whine and cry or beg to be released from the kitchen. My only recourse was to dump the food, lie, and be sent to bed.
While we lived in California, we had plenty. We moved to Mississippi when I was 8-1/2, then we became dirt-poor and remained so for years. In Kentucky when I was 12-13, we were given food by the church where my father ministered a few months. It was full of weevils. . . . the food, not the church.
1 -
Because of my IBS (irritated bowel syndrom) my childhood was full of "don't eat"s. Don't eat white bread, cornflakes, skimmed milk, candy, fat food and so on.... So when I moved away from home I ate all the forbidden food - resulting in wheightgaining and stomachache. So I quickly stopped again, but not after gaining approx 10 pounds. Except for the fat - it helps my IBS, but I have to be aware of the calories.
I have allways loves vegetables especially raw, so that was never an issue.
My biggest problem however is that I eat with my emotions, both when I'm sad, happy, stressed, tired and bored. And any food will do, and eating more than I burn results in owerwheight.0 -
Looking back, there are a few things that my mom consistently talked about when it came to food. It was:
-eat your vegetables!
-eat your vegetables!
-don't waste food b/c there are people in the world who are starving.
-Avoid foods that have a bunch of dyes (ie: juices. Mom always got 100% juice).
-Limit foods that are overly processed. Here she meant frozen TV dinners, food in a can like spam/Chef Boyardee stuff/soups, etc.
-Cooking your own meals is better for you.
0 -
Clean your plate...but my parents always gave us plates with reasonable portions appropriate for our ages and what we were doing. Things like sodas or juice or whatever were reserved mostly for special occasions and outings...not part of daily life. We didn't eat out all that often...it was usually a special thing when we did and it felt special...we just didn't have the money to eat out regularly. We ate desert usually only on Friday or Saturday nights. Sunday lunch was usually a feast of some kind after church.
0 -
I realized I didn't answer the second question either, but the result should be obvious. I have Type 2 Diabetes as a result [diagnosed at 16] and weighed 250 pounds by graduation.0
-
So for those of you who had to sit at the table until you finished everything on your plate - did you ever sit there until, like, 1 a.m. so your mother had to finally give in and let you go to bed? Like Dawn Weiner in Welcome to the Dollhouse?
My mother's rule was sit there until you clean your plate, or it's bedtime. I did sit there until time for bed a few times, but usually when my mom left the room I'd feed whatever I didn't want to eat to the dog. That dog would eat about anything, including broccoli which I hated as a child. The few things the dog wouldn't eat I'd stuff in my pockets and then ask to go to the bathroom and flush it. It's a miracle that we never had plumbing problems.
We had one of those old school kitchen tables that had metal legs and a Formica like tabletop and my older sister recently told me that she used to pop the caps off the table legs and shove food in there.1 -
Clean your plate.
I imagine you all know where that one got me....
0 -
Can't really think of too many. My dad was a recipient of the 'clean your plate' rule and didn't want the same for me, so that one was out.
One was that I was supposed to eat some amount of vegetables at dinner. I also remember that if I didn't finish a serving of dinner (we're talking a few bites of meat and veg - very small portion), I couldn't have a snack or dessert later. Neither were well enforced because when I was five and younger my parents would have done just about anything to get me to eat more. I ate very little, was a super picky eater to boot, and was very thin and short.
As far as I know, none of that really affected me. I've never been clinically overweight, either.0 -
Yeah.. "Don't waste the food! Finish it up".. And the added guilt trip: "think about all the starving hungry kids in Africa".
It made me into the undefeated champion eater l am.
Still a big eater but now also a gym freak
0 -
So for those of you who had to sit at the table until you finished everything on your plate - did you ever sit there until, like, 1 a.m. so your mother had to finally give in and let you go to bed? Like Dawn Weiner in Welcome to the Dollhouse?
*snort*
Yes. That was me. Except I also sat there with a partially chewed piece of steak in my mouth. See, I didn't have to finish everything on my plate so I could leave the table - just swallow the one bite of steak that I'd taken (and didn't like).
I was the super-stubborn kid.0 -
If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!2
-
Wow you guys said a lot more that I hadn't even thought of that also took place in my household.
Similar observation - I have a very large aunt and a very skinny aunt and I would stay with them over the summer (they lived with my grandparents). My large aunt loved to eat as a hobby so she would take me to many places and cafes to eat, and sometimes even if she didn't want to eat something because she was on another diet of hers, she'd still get me something and watch me eat as if living vicariously. She was the only family member who encouraged me to eat desserts and eat between meals, etc.
Meanwhile, my skinny aunt constantly called me chubby and poked my stomach while laughing. She always said it's bad to waste food (actually, she would wind up eating everyone else's food that they couldn't finish when we were at restaurants) but she could easily go for days without eating anything at all.0 -
You must have a "No Thank You" portion even if you weren't interested in the dish.
I was once forced to eat soft-boiled eggs, which I found disgusting. Still do.
My mother was out of it, so I ended up doing a lot of the cooking. I could make pork chops and fried chicken at nine. Maybe that's one reason why I have no interest in cooking.
My mother had her special treat foods, too, like smoked oysters, which she hid away in a high cabinet.
If we went shopping and at all the fruit by Wednesday (and we were not greedy kids), too bad. No more fruit until the next trip.
Ah... childhood.0 -
TheHungryHorsie wrote: »Yeah.. "Don't waste the food! Finish it up".. And the added guilt trip: "think about all the starving hungry kids in Africa".
It made me into the undefeated champion eater l am.
Still a big eater but now also a gym freak
My mother's country of choice was China. "Think about all the starving hungry kids in China".0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.7K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 394 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.3K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 941 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions