My Favorite Childhood Past Time

I have been prompted to share what it was that I loved to do as a child and today, while I went about my daily work, I spent hours reminiscing. There are many wonderful (and not so wonderful), memories that came up for me. Most were of happily spending time alone in my bedroom, entertaining myself in fun, imaginary worlds. I've also always loved to read ever since I can remember, and believe I owned just about every Enid Blyton publication there was. Each birthday and Christmas I could excitedly count on a new fairy tale or adventure to lose myself in, written by this creative children's author.

I adored listening to pop music I discovered through mainstream radio, which often statically sounded through a small radio/cassette player I had been given as a young child. I would enjoy listening to my favorite bands, such as The Bay City Rollers (anyone remember them?), and would sit for hours in solitude scrap booking any pictures of the band I could lay my hands on. However, if I am completely honest, 'eating' was my absolute favorite thing to do in the whole world!

At age five, I have a very distinctive memory of sitting on a large trunk at a train station, my legs dangling down the side, eating a home made sandwich my mother had packed for our trip. This trunk carried my whole family's physical existence. My parents, my two older brothers and I were embarking on a life-changing journey, which would lead us across the seas to our new home, Australia. We were catching a train within Germany to the harbour, where our ship awaited us, and mum had prepared some sandwiches in case anyone felt hungry along the way. We'd only just left home and were waiting for our train at the station when I was ready for a bite to eat!

Most of my initial childhood memories revolve around food. It seemed to play an important and useful tool while I was growing up. It didn't matter if it was savoury or sweet food. I loved the instant gratification eating gave me. It was my dearest friend when I was lonely, sad, angry, upset, confused, embarrassed or frightened. However, I also enjoyed devouring food when I was happy. Any reason was a good time to eat.

No other family member seemed to share this dysfunctional relationship and I still to this day wonder if I was born with the 'food gene' (as crazy as that may sound). No one in my family picked up on my food issues either. I guess, as I was always tall for my age, still growing and constantly active, I wasn't ever worryingly overweight until eventually at age sixteen when I did stop growing – and started expanding outwards. Then all the bingeing consequences suddenly caught up with me and as a teenager I found myself struggling to deal with hormonal changes, body image, self esteem, boys, bullying and weight gain. I would gather all those uncomfortable feelings and shove them into chocolate, or potato chips, or Vegemite toast and eat them up! This was my way of combating my issues, and it worked, until my mouth was once again empty. Needless to say, I entered into a vicious cycle, which became my nightmare and brought with it so much despair.

However, that was many years ago now. I grew up, realised my life was in my own hands and at some point took responsibility for my actions. I still enjoy food immensely and could probably still sit and eat all day (although I doubt my stomach would cope now), however I choose not to. Today I attempt to eat only when I'm hungry and as healthy a cuisine as possible, although sometimes I do indulge in little treats. No one's perfect!