Why do I overeat?

I have been thinking a lot about obesity, why some of us choose to eat too much, whether it is addiction or addictive personality, etc.  And of course, that is leading me down the path of trying to figure out why I overeat, when I began to overeat, when I first realized I was fat.  I have 3 brothers and none of them are obese.  All of them have had short periods of time where they got a little overweight but they took control, lost the weight, and have stayed pretty fit and healthy.  Why am I different?

We grew up pretty poor and food was sometimes kind of scarce.  The food we did have to eat was not of great quality and our mom was not a good cook.  I was pretty skinny as a child and I don't remember food being much of an issue.  I was very active, always outdoors, always playing, running, riding bikes, you name it so I probably would've been skinny no matter what we had to eat.  I remember lots and lots of bologna.  To this day I don't like it, had enough as a kid I guess.  I remember being upset when dad butchered our rabbits and made Hasenpfeffer.  But other than those 2 memories I don't recall much surrounding food.

When I eloped with DH at 16 I was pretty thin.  We hardly had 2 pennies to rub together and ate cheap.  Lots of things made with ground beef, hot dogs, that sort of thing.  We were in the military and made very little money and had to stretch it between paydays.  I was still pretty thin and even after my daughter who was born when I was 17, I still didn't have a weight problem.  I guess it was after my eldest son was born when I was 22 that I began to pack on the pounds.  I was a stay at home mom and I didn't have a car so I guess I began to use food as a companion.  I would bake a lot, especially cookies and when the kids would nap I would get a big glass of milk and a plateful of cookies and watch TV while I scarfed them down without paying much attention to what I was doing.  Mindless eating...I think that has been part of my downfall and I am still struggling with it.  For at least 40 years I have been eating while watching television, reading a book or doing something on the computer.  It is hard to change habits that have continued for that long.  I still find myself doing it and it is a big no-no on the list of things I have to do for my success.

I don't have any answers for you as to what was making me overeat for so many years.  I am and will continue to explore and try to recognize what it is that causes me to do it and if I come up with any answers, you, my blog readers, will be the first to know!