How did I get fat? Part 1: Childhood through college

I wasn't a fat kid growing up.  I wasn't skinny either, but probably about average

I remember weighing around 115 in high school at about 5'.  I remember being about 121 in college where I grew another inch or two up to 5'2".  Then college was up and down in weight, gaining 20 lbs (hello pasta, pizza and all kinds of crappy eating!), losing it, then when I graduated, I was probably close to 160.

I grew up in a rural area.  We always had a garden and my mom cooked at home almost all the time.  During the summer, we had fresh vegetables.  For dinner, she would send one of us out to the garden to grab some green beans, corn, tomatoes or whatever else was ripe and we'd have it for dinner.  Late summer, she canned and froze much of it so we'd have good food for the long winter.  Still mom's cooking during my younger years was yummy from what I recall.  We very seldom had anything from a box or package but most things were made from scratch.  I learned to cook with my mom to an extent.

Somewhere along the way, my parents got into the whole losing weight fad (they weren't very overweight but Dad started having BP issues and Mom wanted to lose "the baby weight" etc. and went low fat/low calorie.  And us kids along with them.  Low calorie bread, snacks, sugar-free everything, counting calories and heaven forbid you eat something high in calories.  I was suddenly being watched for what I ate and questions raised anytime I ate or wanted to cook.  Thus began my really bad eating habits.  I would binge when I could, especially away from home, and sneak food when I could. 

Breakfast was often 4 pieces of (low calorie of course!) bread with margarine.  Or a bagel with fat-free cream cheese.   I could never figure out why I was so hungry not long after eating that.    Lunch, well, sorry Mom, I probably didn't eat as many of those lovingly packed lunches as you think and I ended up buying lunch at school often, especially on the days they had food I loved like pizza, sub sandwiches and french fries.  But dinner was at home, something low-fat no doubt and I'd be hungry.  My best friend and I figured out how to get access to the soda machine at school and buy diet Coke.  Thus began my Diet Coke addiction (hey, it was 0 calorie!).  Otherwise, I would get food elsewhere when I could and learned to binge with those foods.  (Little did I realize I was probably "starving" from the carb overload and lack of protein and fat).  I could sneak crackers and bread at home when I just couldn't hold out any more from the hunger.  My best friend and I, once we were able to drive, would go out for very terrible meals followed by ice cream then snacks at the movies.  

I think the biggest reason why I didn't get too overweight was my youth and my lack of access to more food.

When I hit college, I had access to that food.  3 meals in the cafeteria a day, all the pasta, bread (oh I was a bread addict), cereal, bagels, french fries, and more that I could get.  Not to mention pizza!  I don't think I went all out eating  as I was still "trying" to watch my calories, but little did I know that all those starchy foods were bad for me.  I gained weight, lost it when I went home for the summer, gained it again.  But I still had Diet Coke, all I could drink, all the time!  (What is this water thing?).

I honestly wonder what my life would be like health wise if I knew back then when I know now.  I wonder if I developed autoimmune disorders (thyroid, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) because of wheat, that I instigaged my other health problems because of margarine and Diet Coke and other sugar-free products.  That I began setting myself up for insulin-resistance with all those carbs.

More in Part 2 and how I continued the carb-cycle/low-fat/low-calorie and binging.