My family has
a culture, its a culture built around food. My mom when cooking
dinner on any night of the year would cook for about 20 people. Once
I asked her why she did this and she said "I cook like this
because I never know who might show up, but I want to be prepared."
It was like this everyday and even worse during the holidays. We
would have desserts and treats around the house constantly. As a kid
this was great because as a child your eyes are always bigger than
your stomach. This is where I get to my second relationship with
food, it was where food and I developed a negative relationship. This
negative relationship was becoming someone who used food as an
escape, no I don't deny it, because cooking and baking became more
than just culture, they became a bad habit.I gained
almost 40 pounds within two years, a culture built around food can be
a good and a bad thing. I would not eat healthy food I would eat the
things I call guilty pleasure foods. The things I baked or making my
own sweet creations, they were never really healthy, they were just
an escape. This is especially bad with the obesity rate rising in
America, I eventually realized that this negative relationship was
causing me to gain so much weight and being in middle school and high
school the negative food relationship, between food and me, it became
a negative human relationship due to bullying because of my size. I
took matters into my own hands and changed my relationship with food,
I looked at my culture with all the food, and just changed it to be a healthier one. Food went from being public enemy number 1 to my new
best friend. I was able to not only change my relationship with food
but my families relationship to it as well. My whole family has now gotten on track and eats healthier now. I never wanted to get rid of food, but making sure
the food was healthy made it easier for me to enjoy the food part of my families culture.Thursday, January 9, 2014
Food and Me
My family has
a culture, its a culture built around food. My mom when cooking
dinner on any night of the year would cook for about 20 people. Once
I asked her why she did this and she said "I cook like this
because I never know who might show up, but I want to be prepared."
It was like this everyday and even worse during the holidays. We
would have desserts and treats around the house constantly. As a kid
this was great because as a child your eyes are always bigger than
your stomach. This is where I get to my second relationship with
food, it was where food and I developed a negative relationship. This
negative relationship was becoming someone who used food as an
escape, no I don't deny it, because cooking and baking became more
than just culture, they became a bad habit.I gained
almost 40 pounds within two years, a culture built around food can be
a good and a bad thing. I would not eat healthy food I would eat the
things I call guilty pleasure foods. The things I baked or making my
own sweet creations, they were never really healthy, they were just
an escape. This is especially bad with the obesity rate rising in
America, I eventually realized that this negative relationship was
causing me to gain so much weight and being in middle school and high
school the negative food relationship, between food and me, it became
a negative human relationship due to bullying because of my size. I
took matters into my own hands and changed my relationship with food,
I looked at my culture with all the food, and just changed it to be a healthier one. Food went from being public enemy number 1 to my new
best friend. I was able to not only change my relationship with food
but my families relationship to it as well. My whole family has now gotten on track and eats healthier now. I never wanted to get rid of food, but making sure
the food was healthy made it easier for me to enjoy the food part of my families culture.
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I can relate to you on many levels with your relationship with food. I to use food as an escape sometimes and I'm trying really hard to steer away from that behavior. I'm curious to know what you've done to turn your relationship with food around because I'm currently trying to do the same!
ReplyDeleteThe way your mom and my mom cooks is the same! She makes more than enough food so we have so much left over all the time. I thought it was great that you could share your personal story with us on this blog and I'm sure a lot of people can relate. I for one can relate cause I had some struggles throughout middle school. I'm glad you wanted to change for the better because every little thing effects health!
ReplyDeleteThis is just like my post. I gained 40lbs over the course of three years. Although I was a stick to begin with and needed to fill out, gaining weight is never fun. Congrats on changing your relationship with food around!
ReplyDeleteMy wife's parents cook like yours. I can't believe how much food they make for many meals!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to know that I am not the only one that has a mom that cooks like that and that I'm not the only one that has experienced a negative relationship with food! Thank you guys for making me feel like I'm not alone!
ReplyDeleteI found this really interesting too. This is the same book that I read and I thought it was interesting how the pecking order worked from the farmers to the workers and how they were unfairly paid.
ReplyDeleteMy husband's mother is like this - she always cooks food that would easily feed at least six times as many people as are actually present. And she starts cooking one meal almost as soon as she's finished eating the previous one. My husband's family life revolves almost entirely around food. My upbringing was completely different in that my parents seemed to consider food almost an afterthought. As long as it provided sustenance they didn't seem to really care much what it was. Didn't have to be tasty. Healthy, sure - to some extent - and we didn't eat meat, but meals were thrown together very hastily and never talked about in advance.
ReplyDelete