What can I say. I was born into a family of Southern Rednecks where eating vegetables meant dipping them into a batter and frying them. Food is the center of not just our lives but our culture. If you were eating at someone else's house you had to eat at least 2 big plate fulls or you would offend your host. My family not only loved to eat, we would spend hours and hours talking about food. So many health problems run on both sides of my family, high cholesterol, colon cancer, heart disease just to name a few. A few people in my family decided a few years ago to change their eating and made a lifestyle change. The biggest change I saw was my cousin who have always been big and ended up losing 150 lbs and is still today continuing on that journey.
Although this has inspired me, I have wanted so many time to join in but have failed each time. My personality is all or nothing in everything I do. I go big or don't go at all. So I'll go strong but then when I mess up one time, I give up.
I'm now a 35 year old mom of 2 very energetic boys (5 and 4). I don't have a lot of time on my hands. My husband and I work in Siberia, Russia as humanitarian workers. Obviously, we are very limited to what we can buy here. We can get basic fruits and vegetables but no specialty foods. It's easy in the sense that there are no restaurants to go to and we walk everywhere. But, I always have to have sweets in the house as it is the culture to give guests tea and sweets when they come over (which is a drop by visit since they do not believe in calling ahead).
So, to sum up: I can't refuse food because I was taught that that is rude, I have to eat big plate fulls of everything served me, I always have sweats around me, I do not have access to a lot of variety of healthy foods, I do not have a lot of time on my hands, I have no idea how to cook healthy, and I LOVE to eat and fill full.