So yesterday I was eating at our favorite local diner with Z and my parents. My stepdad says to Z, near the end of the meal, “Tell your mother to finish her lunch”. I responded “I am finished” and he looked at me shocked. He then told me I “barely touched it” (which was so not true, the portion was HUGE). I quipped about portion size and that I didn’t have to eat the entire thing and he joked “How unAmerican of you”.
So it ended on a humorous note but the whole thing made me think - did I hear comments like that growing up? I really do not remember experiencing membership in the Clean Your Plate Club but that can very well mean it blended in to the every day. I really don’t know.
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On a totally random note, someone found my blog by searching “The lungs of my body pic”. What the hell??! LOL.
I’ve tried to think back on just this sort of thing lately. In my early childhood I was forced to eat things I didn’t want and denied any other food (by my parents anyway…grandma was a whole ‘nother story!) if I didn’t finish my dinner. That didn’t go on my whole life long though.
In my own life I’ve found that, when I overeat, I am often battling a feeling that I will never have access to this food again. I know it’s irrational, but I suppose it could be tied to the fact that I dieted my whole life long, so every time I ate a “bad” food, it really was supposed to be the last time ever.
(Just a note: My parents weren’t trying to starve me or anything; my leftover dinner was saved and I would be allowed to finish that if I was hungry.)
LOL, that is funny. I remember being told to clean my plate etc. I also always got the guilt trip of being told about all the hungry kids out there with no food. I never understood how by my eating my food or not would change their situation. I guess that even as a kid I understood that stravation was a political issue.