Fall is right around the corner and so is the new school
year. I am beginning to see kids in my neighborhood getting ready for the new
school year. Some seem excited, while others not so much. Regardless, pretty
soon everyone will be hitting the libraries and will get busy with schoolwork.
While stocking up on notebooks and planning
the academics, why not make an effort to start some healthy eating habits as a
family this school year? Below are some suggestions:
1.
Plan ahead
I’ll actually begin with a confession. I
always loved junk and have been a junk eater all my life. It was only a few
years back that I decided to eat healthy after I gained a lot of extra pounds
in my dorm room back in college. I blame school stress and lots of cappuccino
for that. But the point is I changed, and what I did to make that switch was I started planning ahead. It means taking a few minutes every weekend
to plan your menu for the coming week. It doesn’t have to be all that fancy.
Just jot down your main courses for the weekdays coming up and make your
grocery list with the menu in hand. This prevents you from grabbing junk food
that appeals to you oh so much in the grocery aisle. As soon as you get
tempted, just look at precise and thoughtfully put together grocery list in
your hand and stick to it. Planning ahead also helps you include variety of
items to meet all your nutritional needs.
2.
The Grocery shopping
My parents immigrated to Canada in there
40s. One of the things they found so awesome were the sales! My parents would
just grab any item on sale. Unfortunately, a lot of these items were junk. This
brings me back to the first point: plan ahead! It works!! When you have a list
in hand, you don’t just ride the bandwagon and fill your cart with items on
sale. Just stick to your goal of checking off items from your list and put them
in your cart. Also, involve your kids in
grocery shopping. Ask them to grab a bag of milk, a bag of apples, whatever it
may be. When you involve kids while doing groceries, they start to take interest in
food.
3.
Celebrate food!
This means taking them for grocery shopping
as mentioned before, talking to them about food, preparing food together and
making food fun! Food is truly a blessing and we have to teach our children to
be thankful for having food in their plates. While preparing meals, I let my toddler throw
in garlic or just stir with me. I teach her a thing or two about safety on the
way. Make food fun by changing up the
recipe and trying out new things with your family. Ask your children for
suggestions; you’ll be surprised how creative they are!
4.
Family that eats together, stays together
An article recently published in New York
Times talked about kids who had 2 -3 meals a week with family had lower chances
to obesity in adolescence. I myself have witnessed this; I started gaining
weight when I was binge eating in college in front of my laptop. If you live
with your family, lucky you! Plan your day around mealtime and make it a point
to have at least dinner together as a family. Have toddlers and babies in the
house sit and have their meals as well. This teaches them to eat on their own
and wouldn’t always be dependent on you to help them finish their meals.If you are away from home in college, try to be not in front of screen while eating. if you can have a buddy for mealtime, that'd be great! If that's not possible, try and have your meals at a table away from all your gadgets!
5.
Don’t nibble
Don’t nibble and don’t let your child
nibble. Neither you nor your kids have to walk around with snacks all day. We
tend to do this because we spend a lot of times in front of screens these days
and we are always tempted to grab something and put it in our mouths. This
mindless eating is probably the biggest culprit when it comes to obesity and
weight gain. Restrict all foods to designated mealtimes and snack times. We
have fixed both the time and place of our meals. Dinner is served at 7 pm at
the dinner table, not at the couch, not at the bed and definitely not in front
of laptops
6.
If you really have to, go healthy.
Now, if you’re working in front of the
screen for 8 hours straight, you WILL feel the urge to have something by your
side, some ideas could be walnuts, raisins, almonds, yogurt and blueberries. Yea,
it might sound a little boring but trust me, you will miss your cookies and
cakes for a week max and then you will begin to enjoy those crunchy walnuts!
yum
7.
Take the middle path
With the recent increase in obesity and
other diseases caused by unhealthy eating, concerned parents are trying their
best to control their kids’ sugar and fat intake. Unfortunately, it seems like
there are two extreme perspectives: Parents who have no control over their
kids’ eating habits and over controlling parents who are not letting their kids
have a single bite of cookie. The better approach? Be moderate. I was one of
those over controlling parents who denied my toddler any sugar.
All she had till age 1 was broccoli, carrots, quinoa, mashed apples, bananas, sweet potatoes..throw in
a couple of more veggies and fruits and you get the point. The result: she
started falling off the growth curve after age 1. She was an active toddler and
her body NEEDED fats and sugars we were denying her. We desperately started
putting in extra butter in her meals to get her weight up but we struggled. She
actually prefers broccoli instead of cookies. My take home lesson: Be
moderate, offer a cookie or two along with veggies and fruits. What’s more
important is your kid meeting all the nutritional needs. As far as they are
good with that, having a cookie or two wouldn’t hurt.
8.
Be your kids hero!If you have a toddler who is
struggling to finish their carrots, grab a handful of carrots in your plate and
finish them delightfully! Our kids follow our lead so if we want to instill
healthy eating habits in them, we have to eat healthy ourselves. Also, when
introducing new foods to your kids, try them out yourself in front of them and
talk about how good it tastes! Let them try a little bit. If they refuse, let
them try some more at a later time. The point is to make them make decisions on
their own instead of you forcing them to eat. If they feel in control, chances
are they will enjoy their food more and finish that plate faster than you
think!
Loved this post! So many great ideas. Thanks for sharing! I'm going to get back into meal planning after this, and will also try to get my daughter involved in cooking more.
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