I Lost My Mother to Food Addiction & Obesity, but You Don’t Have To — Four Ways to Control the Urge to Overeat

I remember my mother going to the refrigerator to prepare breakfast on one of many Saturday mornings, pulling out a pack of bacon, cooking the entire package, and then eating all of its contents. She would then eat a whole can of prepackaged biscuits, several scumbled eggs, and drink half a carton of orange juice. At the time, I didn’t think that there was anything to be concerned about. I just knew that my mom had experienced a hard week at work and that she was treating herself. She would tell me that she needed to sit down and finally enjoy her food — for once. As the years went on, I would go to the refrigerator to grab a bite to eat and find that my entrée had disappeared. When I asked my mother what happened, she would share with me that she ate my food. “Why? You don’t even like Greek pasta salad?” I asked. She said, “I don’t like it — but it was there, so I ate it.” I’ll never forget that moment. Not because my mom had eaten the Greek pasta salad that I made — but because she ate ALL of something that she didn’t even enjoy. At that moment, I began to question — why would you eat something — if you didn’t want it or even enjoy it?

My mom

Over the years, my mother’s weight would go up and go down. She was always a “thick thighs save lives” kind of size woman — never “skinny” — always “full-figured.” Once, my mother lost almost 60 pounds while going to a weight loss center, but the weight loss center closed, and after several marriages and divorces — the weight returned — and brought almost 50 more pounds of “friends” with it. My mother was intelligent and dedicated to her job. She tried her best to be a good wife and mother, yet, she couldn’t seem to find her missing piece to her puzzle. Perhaps you can relate?

My mother died in her sleep in 2016. By the time my mother passed away, she had grown so large that our family couldn’t find a normal size casket to bury her in. I was afraid that we weren’t going to be able to have the funeral. While carrying my mother’s casket to her grave, the pallbearers almost dropped her because of her immense size. After some time passed, I brought myself to look at my mother’s items, and I found three dresser drawers filled with diet books, magazine articles, and newspaper clippings…