Post: #1

My parents generally kept a pretty healthy house, which made me pretty jealous of other kids' houses really.

We always had whole wheat bread instead of white. Other kids thought that was really weird.

We never really had lots of packaged treats. My friends would always have like cabinets full of all kinds of sweets bought off grocery store shelves.

Hell, my parents avoided getting cable and the internet for way longer than it seemed possible to me. I'd always love going over to my friends' houses and watching all the TV and shit I couldn't at home.

But man am I thankful.

Post: #2

No. When I was growing up I didnt know anything about eating healthy nor did my parents. I believe I learned what protein is at around age 19-20. But times were like this, If I ever get kids I hope they follow my way and learn about healthy lifestyle before I did.

Post: #3

Generally yes. I was sickly as a kid and missed school often, but I never got seriously sick, had to go to hospital or broke anything. The worst things I've experienced are a bruised knee (from falling off a bike) and mononucleosis (pretty much a joke, just stay home, eat low-fat and restrict yourself to light activity for a month).

My parents and grandparents always nudged me to eat vegetables and healthy stuff, but my problem was not that; instead my problem was that I ate too little (of everything). Someone had to spend an hour with me after every meal to convince me to eat the remains of what was on my plate. Looking back, I think it's a lot better for both the kid and the parent instead of the kid devouring everything and filling itself up with sugar. That said, while I did spend most of my time in front of computer, I did go out to run, play, etc. every day so I grew up thin but muscular.

Post: #4

I grew up eating healthier foods and spent the majority of downtime outside. It made a difference coming into adulthood. I feel bad for kids now that are forced to live with such poor role models.

Post: #5

I grew up almost exactly like the OP, only vegetarian also.

Couldn't agree more on how thankful I am for them not getting a TV. I had a real childhood. Camping out building fires in the woods three miles from home. At age 13.

Good times.

Post: #6

I didn't grow up healthy at all. During high school we were allowed off campus lunch and every day during my jr year I went to Taco Bell. I'm really lucky for my genes because I should probably be a fat unhealthy fuck. Luckily I have learned a decent amount over the past few years and feel that I live a fairly healthy lifestyle compared to the average person.

Post: #7

(12-02-2013 11:52 AM)Sonsowey Wrote:  My parents generally kept a pretty healthy house, which made me pretty jealous of other kids' houses really.

We always had whole wheat bread instead of white. Other kids thought that was really weird.

We never really had lots of packaged treats. My friends would always have like cabinets full of all kinds of sweets bought off grocery store shelves.

Hell, my parents avoided getting cable and the internet for way longer than it seemed possible to me. I'd always love going over to my friends' houses and watching all the TV and shit I couldn't at home.

But man am I thankful.

Not crazy healthy but we never ever got soda of any kind, rarely got candy except for Halloween, and I was handed 6 glasses of cold milk every day.

As much as some people rail against dairy and especially whole milk I must say I have never broken a bone, despite being in car accidents, falling out of trees, playing hockey for 13+ years and generally doing a lot of other rough and tumble shit.

Post: #8

Terrible. Grains, dairy, processed nonsense. I asked for healthy food one year and they got me granola bars with lots of sugar.

Tonight I cooked steamed chicken and vegetables with a spicy Asian sauce I made myself. So happy to be eating better.

Post: #9

As far as eating habits, we ate pretty healthy. I always looked like an idiot trying to find some normal snacks in the kitchen whenever my friends were there.
Today though, I'm thankful for that.

Post: #10

My parents still don't know the first thing about nutrition

Post: #11

No I really wish now I would have. I drank crazy soda and ate the little sugar cubes you can buy a box of for cooking. Discovered porn on the satellite tv (before the internet) as far back as I can remember maybe around 7 years old or so. I would stay up late so I could watch the porn when everyone else was in bed. Didnt sleep worth a shit. Smoked weed all day everyday from about 15 till maybe 20 years old. I would smoke a bowl before I went to bed and first thing when I woke up. Was drinking every chance I got (I got a lot of chances) Fortunately I never got into smoking cigs but my family did so the house and car was always smoked out all my childhood life.

I did play outside a lot tho.

Post: #12

Grew up in a family of obese people who embraced the notorious British stereotypical diet.

Between the ages of 9 and 19, I didn't consume one vegetable.
Diet consisted of minimum 4 cans of cola, pies, pork, white bread, KFC, chocolate, fries and red bull. I wasn't fat (due to partaking in sports), but looked and felt like shit.

Started eating real foods when I done a bit of travelling at 20, now my diet is the polar opposite of the previous one. The drastic stamina increase alone has made going back to the old ways seem unthinkable.

Post: #13

I grew up pretty poor, I learned how to shoplift things as a kid so we had food. No joke. I ate a lot of shitty generic food that could be bought in bulk, and never even went to a restaurant that wasn't McDonald's/White Castle/Taco Bell unless I went to dinner with a friends family.

I only started to realize that a box of Kraft mac and cheese and 2 cans of coke aren't a good dinner around the age 17. It still really affects my taste in food. Butter, salt, sugar? Food never tastes quite right without plenty of it.

I think John Cheese explained it best.

"Shockingly, when you're buying food based entirely on 1) how long it keeps and 2) how cheap it is, you wind up with shitty food. When I was growing up, we knew that the first of each month was grocery day...we bought our entire month's worth of groceries all at once and stored it like fucking squirrels. When you do that, you need shit that won't spoil.

If it wasn't canned, it was frozen. TV dinners, pot pies, chicken nuggets ... meals that can be frozen forever, and preparation isn't more complicated than "Remove from box. Nuke. Eat." Because of that, by week two, half of everything we bought would be freezer burned. Just like with the canned food, you grow up thinking that this is the way it's supposed to taste. It's not that you grow to like it, necessarily, but you do grow to expect it.

But a lot of this new stuff sucks by comparison because it's not what you've been trained to eat -- the flavors and textures are all wrong, and there's a real temptation to keep eating the same shit until it stops your heart at age 43."

Even now that I don't eat total crap day in, day out, cheap shitty food isn't bad quality, it's just what sets the standard for other food for me.
Now that I think about it, I have no idea how I managed to become a successful athlete in school considering the diet I had...

Post: #14

Here's a relevant study: the number of fat cells in an adult human is set in adolescence, meaning, adults normally cannot 'kill' fat cells through dieting and exercise, but merely change their volume.

Needless to say, I'm very disappointed I'd come back from middle school and eat hot pockets and ice cream shakes as a snack. However, I did exercise quite a bit, playing basketball all my life, plus soccer and running track and x-country in high school. I'm in decent shape now, but I know I'd be much better if my parents knew what I know now about nutrition.

Post: #15

In high school, my typical meal between lunch and dinner, which to most people is called a snack, usually consisted of those XXL Hungry Man dinners. Needless to say, I was quite large. On the cusp of finally getting down to the weight I want, but if I had grown up in a house with healthy eating habits, I wouldn't have had to work nearly as hard for the past few years.

Post: #16

A bit of both - healthy and unhealthy. Healthy because I was always into sports. Unhealthy because of some aspects of my diet.

The biggest regret is that I drank more soda than water when I was in my early teens. But one good thing about doing anything in excess is that your heart is satisfied, and hence it's easy to suppress the want.

Have limited my soda consumption to almost zero after 2003 (except for some social occasions where I use it for mixing liquor). It's the best decision I ever took. Nowadays if I see anyone having soda with their lunch or dinner, I naturally exude a sense of pity for them.

Post: #17

Honestly, I wish my parents were like yours (only the healthy part, not the cable part haha).

I would never eat breakfast because I'd prefer to sleep instead. I regret that, plus both of my parents were always working so yeah..

IF I EVER become a parent, I'm going to buy all of the 'healthier' stuff probably..

Post: #18

Location was a key factor in my growth. I grew up in the tropics where fruits were my treats and every once in a while relations would send/return with man made crap (Snickers, Mars Bars,etc) that were doled out as a rare treat. Presently i'd never spend my money on candy/sweets but if i come across it for free.