Are you an "Almond Mom"?

[Anonymous]

I had an almond grandmother. She said women should stop eating by 4:00 and never eat more than a fist sized amount of food at any meal. Mostly vegetables.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tell my children not to eat past full. We regularly throw food away, like if they take two bites of pancake and are no longer hungry, it goes in the trash. Most overweight adults have a very hard time throwing away food, especially if it’s perfectly good and you only took one bite. I never ask what our children ate at school, I ask who they ate with. We basically ignore food outside of meals. Food-focused parents create food-focused children, and this is true of both hyper-nutrition-focused moms and severely food addicted moms.

I agree that eating more than you want is a bad idea, but so is food waste. Why not pop unfinished food into a Tupperware and stick in the fridge or freezer for later? I enjoy making meals out of random leftovers--sort of like being at a cocktail party and having a bit of this and that.

Because it trains them: there is a freedom that you get when you are able to take one bite of a delicious cookie and throw the rest in the trash (the only place it can serve the greater ecosystem). That freedom is what makes people permanently thin and diminishes their focus on food.

I'm thin and I eat the whole damn cookie...or three of them. I credit good genes and daily exercise.

That was me until I was about 47. Now I’m at the top end of the normal BMI range but I still eat the cookies. There’s so little in life for middle aged surbaban moms, I’m going to eat all the damn cookies.
But I’m still an almond mom, in that I bought a huge bag of Korean bbq almonds at Costco and have been trying to get them to eat it for snacks for protein. No luck yet, but today for lunch I had a salad, a boy bowl of bbq almonds, a bag of dried fruit and a half a bag of caramel corn. So almond mom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tell my children not to eat past full. We regularly throw food away, like if they take two bites of pancake and are no longer hungry, it goes in the trash. Most overweight adults have a very hard time throwing away food, especially if it’s perfectly good and you only took one bite. I never ask what our children ate at school, I ask who they ate with. We basically ignore food outside of meals. Food-focused parents create food-focused children, and this is true of both hyper-nutrition-focused moms and severely food addicted moms.

I agree that eating more than you want is a bad idea, but so is food waste. Why not pop unfinished food into a Tupperware and stick in the fridge or freezer for later? I enjoy making meals out of random leftovers--sort of like being at a cocktail party and having a bit of this and that.

Because it trains them: there is a freedom that you get when you are able to take one bite of a delicious cookie and throw the rest in the trash (the only place it can serve the greater ecosystem). That freedom is what makes people permanently thin and diminishes their focus on food.

I'm thin and I eat the whole damn cookie...or three of them. I credit good genes and daily exercise.

Thanks for sharing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am definitely someone with a messed up relationship food and I am perpetually on a diet. I also have no desire to stop dieting and just accepting my body as it is. The extra weight I carry makes me miserable. I think it is great that the younger generation is rejecting "diet culture".

I am also very thankful I don't have daughters because I think boy are more protected from diet culture and I am less likely to screw up my sons with diet stuff than if I had daughters.

Boys are also affected. My MIL and FIL constantly talk about weight and it has negatively affected my husband’s esteem his whole life.

My MIL and FIL are similarly obsessed with weight and others' weight, including strangers. It is so incredibly boring and unappealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am definitely someone with a messed up relationship food and I am perpetually on a diet. I also have no desire to stop dieting and just accepting my body as it is. The extra weight I carry makes me miserable. I think it is great that the younger generation is rejecting "diet culture".

I am also very thankful I don't have daughters because I think boy are more protected from diet culture and I am less likely to screw up my sons with diet stuff than if I had daughters.

Boys are also affected. My MIL and FIL constantly talk about weight and it has negatively affected my husband’s esteem his whole life.

My MIL and FIL are similarly obsessed with weight and others' weight, including strangers. It is so incredibly boring and unappealing.

Ugh mine too. Especially after FIL lost 30 lbs, due to having cancer 🤦‍♀️ I can't get him to stop talking about it around my kid and it drives me crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, I'm definitely not. I'm very thin, though, so a lot of people assume I'm like that if I say even the mildest thing in terms of restricting certain foods. Like my kid's school gives them cupcakes every Friday for good behavior. I am not against cupcakes, but don't love the fact that they get them every week or the fact that it's a reward (not into food punishments or rewards, food should be separate). But when I raised this with the PTA, several people looked at me and made comments that indicated that they think I'm starting myself and my kid. If they know what an almond mom is, some of them are definitely calling me that behind my back.

I'm just naturally thin. I eat a lot of baked goods. I just think store bought cupcakes with pure-sugar frosting EVERY Friday is maybe not sending the healthiest message to kids, especially not when linked with following rules and behavior expectations. Just have a cupcake if you want a cupcake, not as a reward for "being good." That's the disordered behavior but a lot of people don't recognize it because it's so engrained in our behavior.

Man. I’m glad you’re not a mom at my school. Lighten up. You use too many words to deny being an y mom, when it appears that u are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I'm definitely not. I'm very thin, though, so a lot of people assume I'm like that if I say even the mildest thing in terms of restricting certain foods. Like my kid's school gives them cupcakes every Friday for good behavior. I am not against cupcakes, but don't love the fact that they get them every week or the fact that it's a reward (not into food punishments or rewards, food should be separate). But when I raised this with the PTA, several people looked at me and made comments that indicated that they think I'm starting myself and my kid. If they know what an almond mom is, some of them are definitely calling me that behind my back.

I'm just naturally thin. I eat a lot of baked goods. I just think store bought cupcakes with pure-sugar frosting EVERY Friday is maybe not sending the healthiest message to kids, especially not when linked with following rules and behavior expectations. Just have a cupcake if you want a cupcake, not as a reward for "being good." That's the disordered behavior but a lot of people don't recognize it because it's so engrained in our behavior.

That's a lot of words about behavioralism but I am left unclear: do you or do you not think it's a problem to eat a cupcake every week? Do you think there is a meaningful difference between cupcakes made at home and those bought in the store? How do YOU make frosting that makes it something other than "pure-sugar" (and butter or other carrying medium)?

I’m not the quoted PP, but, assuming this is elementary school, a normal-sized cupcake is a pretty massive serving of pure sugar to have for a kid that age, and as someone else said there is a birthday or Valentine’s Party or whatever else like every week. So my kid is getting like 2-3 servings of dessert at school, plus birthday parties, grandparent visits, holidays—it feels like I never get to just buy them a treat for fun because there is too much sugar. So while the cupcake wouldn’t be that big of a deal, having a guaranteed weekly sugar bomb would not be my favorite, then to add the food-as-reward thing which is its own problem would be a big thumbs-down from me.

And FWIW, when we make cupcakes at home I do frosting that is almond- or cashew-butter with enough sugar for sweetness but since the nut butters are already pretty thick, you don’t need as much sugar to get the right consistency.

So we’ll call you nut-butter Mom instead.