Re: breaking out of the cultural push to eat more

I get that all the time. My whole family struggles with weight issues, and my poor son has inherited a double whammy.

The problem I'm trying to overcome right now is "dinner-time". It is the time we sit down as a family, every night, and of course a good meal helps the whole experience. But I've notice sometimes that I'm not hungry at all at dinner, but I still sit down with the family and eat. I have no control over them at other meals, so I have no idea what they are eating during the day, but it's not big heavy meals at least. A vegetarian burrito here, and big salad there.... They are looking for the big meal at 6 pm.

I've started serving lighter fare at night, and that's been received with mixed emotions. It seems to me that the dinner thing has emotional weight for everyone. And I certainly don't want the dinner meal to go away. I have a 16 year old son who loves his Mom and Dad, and I think this will serve him well for the future, these nightly meals. But I also worry about that these nightly meals are also giving him messages that may or may not be healthy - eating-wise.

I hated eating dinner with my Mom and Dad. They were very stiff, formal professional type people. You couldn't come to the dinner without shoes, no elbows on the table, many times we ate by candlelight...there was such a sense of formality. I hated it. If you burped, or god forbid farted, it was literally like dropping an atom bomb. Farting was for the bathroom...even though my Dad, as he gets into his 80's has definitely not been able to maintain that decorum. My husband will not walk behind Dad anymore.

It's also been a challenge to move away from protein at night. I've managed to get the family to give up carbs with protein however...they get that.

I think I'm as messed up as everyone attending dinner. I think I've got emotional eating issues too. But I love our time together.

It's a conundrum.

Molly Tweet