WIAW: The Olden Days

Your comments on yesterday’s post seriously blew me away! And my mom too – I read some aloud to her and she was pleasantly surprised by the fact that some of you called her inspiring. Thank you so much for your support and for sharing your own struggles with feeling inadequate about doing “enough” cardio. Together we can learn to love and congratulate ourselves for WHATEVER workout we do, be it HIIT or a gorgeous afternoon walk!

And after that workout, it’s perfectly acceptable to drink wine in our workout clothes.

Now it’s time for a BLAST FROM THE PAST edition of What I Ate Wednesday. Thanks Jen for hosting the WIAW party each week!

If you’ve read my About Me you may recall that I didn’t really like much of…anything…until I went to college and had a dining hall of free unlimited food to expand my palate. I thought it’d be fun to show you all what I ate for each meal and my snacks around the elementary/middle school eras. Sadly there isn’t much difference between those two time periods.

Breakfast

I ate one fat-free Jello chocolate pudding cup each morning, while half asleep. I had no appetite for anything else and barely any appetite for that. This probably is why to this day I’m still not a big breakfast person. Pretty funny that I still eat these now, but after dinner!

Also always enjoyed a glass of skim milk with ANYTHING I ate. Source

Lunch

Needless to say after looking at my breakfast, I was hungry for lunch by, oh, about 10am. I was often seen eating my lunch in class because I couldn’t make it til the lunch period. I had the same thing for lunch every. single. day. from 1st to 12th grade.

No I didn’t eat a baby sandwich but I think this is hilarious. Source

My mom was a choosy mom.

Two reduced-fat Jif creamy PB sandwiches on white Wonder Bread – crust cut-off OR I WOULDN’T TOUCH IT. Now I’m obsessed with interesting PB (no reduced fat for me), hearty wheat breads, and all manner of crusts (preferably burnt). Oh how times have changed. Oh, and whenever my mom tried to sneak me a bread other than white Wonder Bread, be it partially wheat or just a different brand of white bread, I could ALWAYS tell and gave her shit about it when I got home from school. I was a jerk.

I also had a Ziploc bag full of exactly five saltine crackers. Again, I could always tell if they weren’t the above brand. My poor mother. I ate them so strangely…you know the little “bubbles” on each cracker? I’d scrape those off with my teeth first and eat them. Oddball.

Now these just scream stomach bug to me. Source

And for dessert I had a number of options I’d find packed in my lunch (Mom always packed my lunch even until 12th grade, embarrassing, and in a brown bag too). Mini candy bars or Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies were common choices.

And again, ever-present skim milk. I hated drinking out of the cafeteria cartons! No I did not dip my cookies into the milk. I mean it’s hard to do that with a carton, but I never would have anyway.

Snacks

In a desperate effort to get a fruit in me, my mom almost always had me eat a banana daily since it was the only fruit I’d touch. Same goes for baby carrots – only veggie I was willing to eat! I also loved snacking on Tostitos and anything sweet – if I was at a friend’s house. We didn’t really keep much in the name of sweets in my house.

Dinner

Often I ate the very same two crust-less PB sandwiches for dinner. But sometimes I’d go crazy and have…

True life: it’s nearly impossible to find an image of plain buttered pasta online, probably because it is just not the way to eat it. Source

Mashed potatoes, butter ONLY. Source

Nothing but butter on this, thank you. Source

Lots and lots and LOTS of white carbs. One thing that hasn’t changed…carbs are still my fave. And yes I love wheat bread, but dammit white carbs are fabulous.

Smug asiago roll lover.

And if we went out to a Mexican restaurant, I’d just eat all the chips in the beginning, and order a side of french fries as my meal.

No way did I touch that salsa though. Source

These were also all I’d eat from a fast food place…unless it was breakfast, during which I ate Cini Minis from BK or hash browns. Source

I loved eating out at restaurants too because I could order THEIR milk aka WHOLE milk. It was so creamy and wonderful, and it was a special occasion when I got to order a second glass. I also usually felt sick afterward, ha.

Dessert

I LOVED Publix ice cream sandwiches when we lived in Florida, but I was also a big fan of Dove milk chocolates! Sometimes after my parents went to bed I’d go sneak chocolates…ha. Of course ice cream was always a joy to – but nothing other than vanilla. Kinda like me.

So artificial they call them “vanilla flavored”. And so good. Source

I loved the messages on the inside of the wrapper! Source

I now have a serious ice cream craving. Source

Just goes to show you…

What you eat as a child CERTAINLY doesn’t determine how you’ll grow up food-wise! There is always time to try new food and expand the palate (I’m talking to YOU Sarah! ;-)) so if you have little ones who won’t touch veggies or refuse to eat their bread with crusts (oh wait was that just me? Dammit.) fear not because there is hope that they will grow up to be everythingarians like me!

Were you a picky eater as a kid? How about now?

What’s the BIGGEST difference in your diet between today and 10 years ago?

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