Don't Cry Over spilt Milk

To say I was a picky eater as a child would be a momentous understatement. Lucky for me I was 5th out of 6 and mom was tired for more reasons than just having a big pack of kids. I spent many a night in front of a plate of uneaten food before she would let me go and, finally, she gave up. Subsiding off of mostly boxed cereal, I started a lifelong love affair with a few specific brands.

As a younger girl Fruit Loops, Rice Crispies (coated in sugar) and Captain Crunch were often on the menu but it was Lucky Charms that held my heart. I ate them well into adulthood. Once I had kids I knew I had to tone down that part of me. Wanting them to be healthy and good eaters, I knew I had to do better. I limited their cereals to a certain amount of sugar grams per serving. So little that all the best cereals were only on the menu when we went camping. To my delight, as much as theirs, when camping Lucky Charms were abundant, as were many other sickly sweet bowls of yumminess. 

Truthfully, many decades of my life were spent eating Life cereal as a compromise for the sugar laden ones. It was a habit, a routine (of which I have a number) that didn't exactly rule my life but was a bit of a compulsion. I think the chaos of childhood led to me loving the comfort of routine; it felt safe.

One day it stopped. One day there was a deep emotional upheaval and I woke the next morning realizing that I could not imagine consuming milk. Since that day, 7 years ago, the only milk I've put in my body has been a little tiny bit to cool an occasional bowl of oatmeal. I have not had a bowl of cereal since.

I don't miss it. Strange how emotions and memories are in charge of so much, including appetite and taste.

Comments

  1. Gee you left the best part of that story out.
    I never ate cereal. Mom wouldn't allow it. Every once in a while she'd let us have Shredded Wheat. (and not the good stuff like frosted shredded wheat) Or we'd get that when we stayed at Grandma's but c'mon to a kid that is not cereal. I wanted the stuff I saw on Saturday while watching cartoons! Then when I moved out my roommate was a fanatic about Lucky Charms and Captain Crunch. I tried but just didn't get it. So she never had to worry about me eating her cereal which made her think she won he lottery. LOL

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  2. I used to love Life cereal. But when my mother went through her health food phase in the 70s, I had to have her homemade granola and reconstituted dry milk for breakfast instead. Granola still upsets my stomach (as does milk, other than a drop in my tea, so I don't drink it). I love muesli, though, and make that regularly. I use a plant based milk with that.

    It's funny how our tastes change for whatever reason. And oatmeal is so versatile and better than Lucky Charms anyway ;-)

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  3. My mother always bought the lowest possible sugar-loaded cereal for us. Corn Flakes, Rice Crispies, Shreddies, Muffets, puffed wheat, puffed rice. Coincidentally, they were always the cheapest too.

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    1. Cereal is very expensive when you are feeding a bunch. I get it. But rice crispies tastes like cardboard with no sugar added.

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  4. I grew up on toast. Rarely had cereal, maybe cornflakes every now and then. But toast was everything. I am still addicted.

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  5. I forgot to write that I do love granola. I started making it in the early hippie days in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I just made a batch the other day... almond maple granola. Yum.

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  6. I am a cheerios man. the original not the new ones they have out today. These days it's usually porridge with fruit.

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  7. That's amazing that your love of milk stopped so suddenly.

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