My mom is an overweight Southerner. I never realized it until I was 13, and the boy I was crushing on was making fun of her for being overweight.

She must have dropped 100 pounds when my sister got married. It was the one event that spurred her to action.

Unfortunately, she also didn't age well. I'm happy I'm adopted and don't share any of my family's genes.

I get my eating ideas from my dad, actually. We would rather skip a meal and maybe have dessert, but exercise on a regular basis. My moms obsession with food makes me want to eat less. She is too dependent on it, and that just turns me off. She is overweight and doesn't seem to mind that she has let herself go. My dad takes pride that he is 60 and still wears the same size pants he did when he was 21. That's more how I think and feel. I actually wear a smaller size at 32 than I did at even 25, but definitely smaller than when I was 16. I want to stay that way.

My mom has always had a love-hate relationship with food. On the one hand, she loves to try new things and she loves to have a good meal and she especially loves to provide food for other people. But on the other hand, she's very overweight, she's always trying some ineffective new diet or another, she's an emotional eater, and she's so overworked/underpaid that all she usually has time/money for is unhealthy fast food. So I tend to struggle with those same issues. In high school I had to deal with an eating disorder and right now I'm trying my best not to gain any more weight than I already have-- I'm a bit overweight now, but I refuse to let myself get to the state my mother is in now.

Both my parents are overweight and have terrible eating habits. I inherited the habits and it took a long time for me to break them.

My mother has been thin her whole life, she put emphasis on healthy food, we werent aloud to eat junk. I never the inside of a fast food joint till I stayed the night at someone elses house when i was 8. We never at out at a restaurant unless it was our birthday. Candy was only aloud at holidays, and sweets were a treat not a daily thing.

we also raised our own pigs, cows, chickens, we went fishing, hunting and traded goods with other people around the town.

I did develop an eating disorder but that wasnt untill i was in my 20's and living on my own.

My mom has a pretty healthy diet (now -she's had ups and downs throughout her life, I guess). She's not a health nut, but she watches what she eats and exercises moderately. She's always been very body-conscious (she complains about her body a lot), but I don't think that attitude has affected me negatively, probably because I believe she has a nice figure for her age, regardless of what she thinks.

My mom wasn't really happy with her figure (she wasn't overweight, just bigger than she liked) and I heard about it alot. I also would see her take diet pills now and again and sometimes just go through periods of "why bother, I'm going to be fat the rest of my life".

I developed an eating disorder for years (but some of that was caused I think from childhood molestation), and its only within the last few months I finally feel like I have a good relationship with my food.

Huh. My mom's a healthy eater and I would live off junk food. Guess she didn't influence me that much

My mom is a healthy weight, not super fit though, and definitely loves to cook. I think I did inherit her views on food, but we are lucky enough to have great genes. She did teach me how to eat slow and the right portions too, which I think all parents should teach their children rather than forcing them to eat all on their plate.

My mother and father have always had a healthy out look on food and exercise. I do also. Thanks guys!
My brother, on the other hand, has an eating disorder. That's just the beginning of his problems. Don't think my parents have anything to do with it.

My mom is also a huge snacker and growing up there were always open boxes of crackers or pretzels in the kitchen to grab when hungry between meals. I certainly continue that practice today.

My mother was a horrible role model with her diet and not suprisingly how she viewed her worth in this world. Growing up I saw her try various fad diets or hardly eat enough calories and not have a healthy body or body image. She is much older now and has hardly changed. The only difference is that when we are on the phone I now act as her amateur nutritionist because her doctor has told her she has to adopt better eating habits but she has zero education on what foods are good for her.

Both of my parents have an unhealthy relationship with food. Food is like a drug to them, and they derive immense pleasure from eating. They're like food junkies, and they're both overweight (one parent is clinically obese). And yes, they have the gamut of medical conditions bought on by excessive weight.

Also yes, I think my parents affected my attitude towards food. My parents serve as warnings as opposed to role models.

When I left home for college, I worked hard on breaking the bad eating habits from my childhood, I was an overweight child and an overweight teenager But thankfully, as a grown-up, I knew better, and changed that.

Sadly, both of my parents don't have a good relationship with food. Even more sadly is that I have developed my mom's eating habits. She was always a boredom eater, I have found myself eating when I am bored too (and never eating when I am supposed to, during the day). I was always thin growing up, absolutely the healthiest in my family (though I did have an unhealthy relationship with food then, myself and rarely ate at all).

Now that I live in the South, it has gotten worse. I am starting to try to clean up my habits, lose the weight I have gained since I started eating so unhealthily. It's good that I recognize the issue now, but it still sucks. I really need to work on eating regular meals, though. That is my biggest downfall, even more of a downfall than eating when bored. Ugh, I feel so lame!

Yup. My mom still has an unhealthy realationship with food. She picks at things throughout the day, but then denies herself of anything good at meals. She is also a big food hider... closets, freezer. Growing up, I knew exactly how long I had to sneak a frozen ding dong. I'm still trying to work through the issues she passed on to me, along with the ones I've added on myself Arrrrgh

Neither of my parents have any hard feelings toward food. My little brother had always been a bit overweight and I'd always been a bit underweight. However two years ago my dad got diabetes and my mom had a stroke (she's fine now) so they whole's family's eating habits have become healthier.

My Mom has struggled with her weight most of her life. She also equates food with nurturing and love. She gets the greatest pleasure out of cooking for people, but it's not always the healthiest stuff. I'm very different from her. I like food, but it has never been the end all be all in my life. Even when I was overweight it wasn't because I couldn't get enough of food, I just wasn't eating the right foods and wasn't active at all. I have never been the type to "live to eat". I'm not sure that my mother's relationship with food as affected me in any way, I never really thought about it. I just haven't been into food the way my Mom always has been.

My mom and I both have the same body type. Tall and average weight. I did pick up on her eating and dieting habits. Sometimes we like to eat and sometimes we like to diet when we notice we're getting a little thick around the middle. She and I have a pretty good relationship with food. She likes to indulge a little too much sometimes and I'm the same way.

I love my mom to death, once that's clear. I hate the fact that she can eat EVERYTHING and won't gain weight. She is 56 and has the body of a 20 year old woman, even better than most. She doesn't even work out. The woman is so lucky that without working out every thing is on the right place, her ass, her legs are define, if you look at her you would think that she spends at least 2 hours int he gym. The fact that she is so lucky makes her have a good relationship with food. She is not conscious about her weigh at all, and has pretty healthy habits ( except for French fries, she loves those.) Me in the other hand, I'm not fat, I think I have a good body, but I do work out and have to watch what I eat, I wasn't as lucky as my mother.

My mom was always healthy about food. In fact, I don't remember her ever lingering over her weight and/or diet. And yet, I still had an ED. Who knows how this stuff works?

I grew up becoming anorexic. In high school I was 5ft 4 105 lbs and didn't eat breakfast or lunch most days. I would see my mother diet and skip meals. She was a size 8 after having 3 children. Junk food wasn't in our house. To this day I still obsess with becoming overweight.

I've seen a couple of comments on here about living in the south...I don't understand. Everyone is aware of the healthy vs. non-healthy choices we can all make in our lifestyles, regardless of where we live. It's common knowledge these days. I grew up in the south (live in the midwest now) and we always ate lots of greens, vegetables out of the garden, chicken and fish, etc....desserts were an occasional treat. Fast food happened very rarely. I know there are more overweight people in the south, but those are the poor individual choices those people are making. In answer to the question, my mother has always been petite, but as she's aged and developed some pretty painful physical ailments, she's put on a little weight. She can't work out at all anymore.

My mom had her ups and downs throughout life with her weight. When she was growing up as a kid she was overweight, then when she was a teenager she developed some form of bulemia. After she had me and my sister she put on weight and has struggled to get it off. I'm not saying she's huge but she's not as small as she used to be. I grew up having issues with food - but not with overeating so much, more trying to be skinny. Still have those issues...So I don't know if there's any correlation between my eating habits and my mom's.

My mom has definitely been a part of my, at times terrible, relationship with food. She was constantly bringing up my weight and would tell me how much prettier I would be if I were just a little bit thinner. I saw that she was like this with my sister as well. Unfortunately, my sister developed and continues to struggle with bulimia. When my sister was at her thinnest and very sickly looking, everyone was scared for her and tried to get help, except for my mom. My mom would say that she thought my sister looked great and she's just "naturally small".
Luckily, both my sister and I have come to realize that the obsession our mom has with being thin has more to do with her own insecurities.

My mum has a good relationship with food, but I still had an eating disorder.

My mum is overweight, and eats a lot. She has big meals and is a constant grazer. (Not to mention her love of meat of top of meat on top of meat on top of cheese) She also tries out fad diets, but refuses to exercise.

I've picked up her grazing habits, and we would have massive meals at dinner until I put my foot down because I'd put on too much weight.

She was anorexic, so not good.
I'm all right though other that guilty feelings if I've eaten a lot of carbs. Ha.

My mom never had any problems with food. She has a great 50's style hourglass figure that she got complimented on all the time (and still does!) I'm naturally thin and growing up I never once thought about diets, calories, etc. Guess I have to thank my mom for that!

My parents are both naturally thin, so they always kept portions a reasonable size. Soda was only allowed with pizza or spaghetti (for some reason they determined milk didn't go with red sauce lol) and dessert was allowed after every meal but in small portions as well. Every meal included a veggie, protein, and starch. So basically I had a good balanced upbringing. Now did it all rub off on me? Not exactly. I have a major sweet tooth, and I'm much more of a foodie than my parents are. But I rarely eat candy or drink soda and I still eat small portions. I do need to eat a bit more healthy but that's my own fault- I know what I should be doing! And since both my parents are thin, there was never an emphasis on guilty eating or feeling fat from eating or anything like that.

My ex wife still suffers from bulimia. I've seen all the behaviors, binge eating, excessive exercise and the starvation and the covert vomiting. It all started with her family on excessive diets and not acting on the signs of her bulimia when it showed up in her late teen years. Now, she does not keep a lot of food in the house and doesn't sit down to dinners with my two girls. (I did all the cooking before and love to cook and I am hopeful that I have given them a healthy respect for food. However, I can see my daughters(ages 11 and 14)starting to count calories and being concerned with their weight. They are in the normal range. Sad.

My mom had good relationship with food as in she naturally had high metabolism, and she loved sports. She never really craved snacking, and she always ate healthy. Since I was born with slow metabolism compared to her, she could not understand why I was always a little on the chunky side ever since I was very little. She stressed herself over it, and controlled every single thing I put in my mouth. Anything remotely unhealthy wasn't allowed, and I developed my ED when I was 13 or so. I don't really blame it on my mom, though.