One time I was watching one of those "overweight teenagers lose weight" shows, and there was one parent/child dynamic that startled me. The mother would buy cookies or other snacks and leave them in plain sight of her daughter, knowing that she couldn't resist eating them. Then she would find the wrappers that her daughter tried to hide and just leave them out on her bedspread as if to say "I know what you did". She would constantly set her daughter up to fail by buying the snacks and then would punish her for it.
My family works a little bit the same way, but to a less extreme extent. After every candy-associated holiday (Christmas, Easter, etc), we have what I call the "Sugar Holocaust". This is when my dad starts to feel sluggish from all the holiday food and throws away our treats, sometimes without us knowing. He claims that we don't need the stuff, which is true, but this purge only happens a few times a year. Even less frequently, about once every two years or so, one or both of my parents decides that the entire family needs to eat healthier and we try a diet (or something resembling one). This usually lasts a week or so but then my mom starts to crave brownies and the whole thing goes down the tube.
Like the girl from the TV show, I can't really control myself when I'm surrounded by treats. Just knowing that there is a bag of Mike and Ikes "hidden" in the cookie jar means that I can walk by and grab a handful whenever I happen to walk by the kitchen. The same can be said for the rest of my family, although they tend to eat in substantial amounts during one sitting as opposed to grazing. I've been trying to get away from this habit and next year it should be easier because I won't eat "unsafe" foods, and therefore won't eat as often. However, until I actually move into my new dorm room next semester, I am still out to pasture.
What really chaps my khakis is the fact that my family doesn't know a wide range of food groups. My parents are the children of WASPs (on my dad's side) and Scottish-Canadian immigrants (on my mom's side). Therefore, our diet is mostly made of meat and starch. A meal might be steak, potatoes, and corn. Or chicken and peas. See the pattern? My mom doesn't make too many salads because she knows that they won't get eaten, however somehow this has translated into very few greens at all. The most exotic we get with our vegetables is green beans or maybe asparagus on occasion. There are even times when the meal is only one item, but in vast quantities. These are often quick meals that my mom makes when she gets home late or has me or my sister start, things like spaghetti or some other pasta. Now don't get me wrong, all of this tastes great. However, I think my parents are having trouble thinking three dimensionally when it comes to meals.
Recently, my dad saw me eating a bowl of instant ramen noodles. For the record, I hadn't had any in just about a month, but my dad made a comment about how I should probably watch what I was eating. The truth is, I have been craving "safe" meals with quinoa or a delicious mixture of veggies with a little bit of ground beef but I am afraid to suggest them because my parents don't really show an interest. The most adventurous grain we use is white rice, and most of the recipes I've made over the last year have relied on beans as the protein source, and my mother isn't that keen on legumes.
Furthermore, my dad said that come fall, when both my sister and I go off to college, he and my mom would start cracking down on what they were eating. Why wait? Why are they telling me to watch what I eat when they aren't going to bother until the fall. Okay, the hypocrite horn is sounding right now, I realize. However, I want to make quinoa and eat cabbage but can't find an outlet (or inlet as the case may be).
I think one of these days I might just break down and make one of my recipes, even if it's just for me to eat. The trick will be finding the quinoa....
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