Mothers, Daughters, and Food

I’ve seen lots of postings from women who grew up with moms that lived good examples for healthy lifestyles. I wish I were one of those women. It took my mom until she was on her late 60’s to unlearn most of the bad habits she developed over the years and get to her weight goal.

Mom was a yo yo dieter. She was a very thin young women, but by the time she had her first three (of six) kids she was starting to plump up, maybe 20 extra lbs. When I was little I thought my mom was beautiful, not glamorous beautiful, but pretty and wholesome beautiful. I didn’t see why she would put herself thru these harsh diets. When an event was coming up, she’s go on Dr. Stillman’s Water Diet, eating stuff like cottage cheese, meat patties, lettuce, and washing the syrup off canned peaches. She’d spend most of her time in bed too, either to avoid the hunger pangs or from starvation exhaustion.

When she did embark on an exercise plan it’d be some weird calisthenics where she would swing her legs around, or row like a boat across the floor. We’d have fun watching and mimicking the weird moves.

As I got older and struggled with my weight I realized i had many of the same bad habits like eating standing up, grazing on junk, filling up on white bread and rice. I became interested in cooking light and started buying books on healthy cooking, plus I got into Jazzercise. Around this time, mom embarked on a walking regimen, which nudged her to rethink some of her food habits.

When I got into a weight loss plan, mom asked me share my info with her. Our weight was our bond. Later I joined WW and again shared all the materials with her. It wasn’t until many years later, when Mom had a friend in WW that she became seriously interested in healthier eating. She joined Curves with her friend. That’s when I bought her a membership to WW. She filled her house with healthy faire. She always left a few bites on her plate. She started to see the difference in a healthy lifestyle vs a diet. She was making the connection of healthy diet, healthy behaviors, healthy person. Mom hit her weight goal at age 70. A life long battle for her, and finally success. I was so thrilled for her and how she stayed focused for a year or so to slowly get there.

I wish she would have made the mind-body-food connection while I was still an impressionable girl, but I guess I’ve had to learn the lessons on my own. And I keep on learning…