Ten years ago, I started to fight for my health. Having no idea why it was declining so quickly, I knew I needed to treat my food and exercise as medicine.
Now, I use what I’ve learned to teach my kids how to make healthy food choices.It Started With A Question:
“Is this choice going to serve my body, or work against it?”
The answers were usually simple. Now though, understanding why has evolved into a deeper knowledge and passion for teaching others how to shift their approach toward building health. If everyone would just ask themselves this question before their choices around food, they would immediately unlock the potential for progress.
What’s better? Ask your kids.
Tough, but doable
Kids are a sensitive and difficult area when it comes to healthy foods. They have limited ability with a developing mind to understand much past immediate gratification when they’re young. Also, it’s often hard to know how to communicate in a way that has impact without giving so much detail that we lose their attention. To check out those who have helped me, see Kids Eat in Color, Paleo Running Momma, and Against All Grain.
What I hope to do is encourage you in that there are ways to involve kids in conversations around healthy food choices. Having 3 kids (ages 8, 5 & 3), I have had success (and, of course, failures) in not only teaching them about better choices but instead, having them be excited about their healthy choice.
Here’s what I’ve seen work:
1. Meal Plan
Meal plan for the upcoming week and have each kid pick a meal that they’d like added to the menu. When they pick a meal that is healthy, celebrate that by saying, “oooh, I really like that choice! I also really like broccoli with (fill in the blank). When they choose something that doesn’t serve our bodies as well, also celebrate their choice, but say something a little different like, “Pizza sounds great for our fun meal this week. What can we add to it to make sure our bodies are getting what they need?”
2. Teach Their Bodies To Like Healthy Foods
Kids tend to eat what they enjoy first, and then leave what they don’t. In our home, what I cook for dinner is what we’re having, and the kids are expected to at least try their food. We ask them to eat the healthiest part of the meal first. This helps in two ways;
- They eat it, it’s done, and then they can focus on enjoying the rest of the meal.
- They aren’t filling their bellies with other things making it more difficult to eat whatever it is they don’t like because their starting to feel full.
