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(reply to Anonymous)

Dear Carol,

I cannot give you a "professional" answer, but I can tell you that my mother was always obsessed with her weight. My entire life, there was always a small piece of paper on the kitchen counter with the calories written down on it that she'd consumed that day. Usually it was 400 or 600 calories per day.

When I began to overeat (compulsive eating) as an adolescent, and I started gaining weight, my parents tried everything they could think of to help me to lose weight. They offered to give me $1 for ever pound I lost. They offered to "buy me a new stereo" if I lost weight. Keep in mind that this was in the mid-70's. Not much was known about eating disorders back then. They were only doing what they thought was best for me, but they were actually causing more harm to me and driving me into full-blown eating disorders. They didn't know any better at the time.

My mother was always around 128 pounds, and she was 5'3" tall. That is "normal!" But she always "felt fat", like she should be "skinny" (I hate that word - skinny). When she looks back at pictures of herself today, during that time, she talks about how "normal" she looked! She says, "I wasn't fat!!!"

Shelley

June 8, 2009 - 4:49pm

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