The Importance of Healthy
Living with Kids
Come
on we can do it! Wow you’re such a strong girl! My Goodness are you going to be
big and strong like Papa? Now how do you know you don’t like it if you don’t
try it! Eat Child, eat!
These
are a few of the phrases I utter all
the time. I seem to remember my mom saying a few of them a lot too… So healthy living... Its not just for when
your grown up and need to tone, or lose a few pounds, nope healthy habits
(should!) start young and be carried with us the rest of our lives. I am going
to write it in 3 parts; Food, Exercise, and cleanliness.
I
want to start with food. What are you feeding your children? How much are you
feeding them? Do you have variety? Is it what you would eat? So often I see
young parents (and not so young parents) serving the same three or four meals
all the time, because it’s easy. The kids already like it, its simple to make,
its convenient, or you don’t want to deal with the “hassle” of getting the
first 5 or so bites through your child’s mouth. I have been a nanny for a long
time, and I’ve heard so many excuses, I’ve seen the temper tantrums over
change, and I’ve experienced the difficulty of helping kids break years of bad
eating habits. In our house growing up “picky” eating wasn’t an option. You ate
what was put in front of you, or you ate it at the next meal, or went straight
to bed, or sometimes both. Only one of us (who shall go un-named! But you know
who you are!!) tried to go the picky eater route. This sibling would faint if
the food was not what they wanted to eat, and believe it or not it worked once!
However, after the second faint Mom and Dad caught on and that was the end of
that. I hear moms complain that they are making 2-3 different dinners a night
cause Johnny doesn't “like” anything but Mac-and-Cheese, and little Suzie only
eats spaghetti-ohs. Please, if you truly care for your children, stop enabling their
bad eating bad habits! You are not a chef, it’s not your job to provide
multiple choices. Make one meal for the whole family, put it front of them, and
if there is any complaining pack it up for later and send the offending party
to bed. Because, honestly that’s what it is when they complain about the food
put in front of them, offending. You wouldn't want to go to a friend’s house
and have your child tell the host that the food put in front of them is “yucky”
or “disgusting”, you would be mortified by your child’s rudeness to that
person, so don’t let them be rude to you. I have worked with kids that when I
started watching them they ate 3 meals, maybe 4, the Mom made different foods
for all of them, and if she put something in front of one of the kids and they
started the crying and “I don’t want that!” she would take it away and make
them something else. It took me awhile to get the kids to not cry and throw
temper tantrums when I put the same thing in front of all of them, and even
longer to get them to eat the new foods I put in front of them. We actually
went cold turkey, and I cut out all of those "have to have" meals completely from their diets.
After a time they started not only eating the new foods I put in front of them,
but actually discovered that they like different foods. You can teach your
children to eat new foods, it will just take time, patience, and discipline to
not cave into pressure.
How
much are you feeding your child? And how is the plate portioned out? I try to
make sure that the plates I serve to children are heavy on the vegetables,
fruits, meats, light on the breads and pastas. If I serve Mac-and-Cheese, I
throw in Peas and Poppy Seeds, and sometimes Ham. On the plate I put plenty of
raw red bell pepper and some sort of fruit, like apple slices, or a banana.
They don’t need bread or crackers with Mac-and-Cheese, there’s already pasta.
One of the new favorites is a chef salad, and all the kids I watch have a
different way that they like it. One of them likes extra cheese, one likes lots
of red bell pepper, one likes no dressing, and another likes extra bacon.
Little things like that are fine to do for your children, as long as it’s a
treat not a right. Experiment with vegetables, some kids like them cooked, but
I notice that most kids prefer them raw, and there’s nothing wrong with raw in
fact, sometimes its healthier. Studies show you should have at least 50% of
your plate as a vegetable or fruit, 25% as a meat or protein, and the last part
a grain or starch. When the kids ask for more do you end up just giving more
starches or breads? Or do you put greens (or other bright colors) on the plate?
I try to make the plate pretty and colorful. Another thing I’ve noticed is
desserts. Desserts are not supposed to be an every night occasion; in fact they
should be a special treat. One of things that I thought was absolutely
brilliant with one of the families I’ve been with, was that “dessert” was
organic yogurt with fruit on it. The kids preferred it over other sweets. As
far as they are concerned it is dessert, which is a great healthy habit to
have.
Do
you have variety? I kind of hit on this earlier, but it bears saying again.
Make new food. Don’t know what to make or where to find it. Spoonful.com is an
amazing website that has so many healthy recipes (and its amazing!!!! Crafts,
party ideas, cooking etc! my favorite site for everything!) Or if you want to
challenge yourself, go buy a Cookbook and cook your way through it! My mom when
she first got married couldn’t cook (ask my dad about that!), but just because
she wasn't experienced in the kitchen didn't mean that she laid back and
said “I can’t!” Nope she taught herself and it took some time, but now my Mom
is an amazing cook. In fact she has written a few cookbooks that you could cook
your way through. Some fun cooking projects to do are theme weeks. My current
family was leaving for Mexico for 10 days, so a few weeks before they left we
cooked all “Mexican” foods. The kids loved it. Since then we’ve done an Asian
theme, an Italian theme, and April fools day was awesome!
Is
it what you would eat? Are you eating healthy as an example to your kids? They
notice if you sneak cookies instead of an apple, or load the potatoes on your
plate and skip the vegetables, or drink soda all the time instead of water or
milk. Drinks are just as important as the solid foods we put in our bodies. You
should be drinking half of your body weight in ounces of water a day. Example,
if you weigh 150 pounds you should drink 75 ounces of water. Something I like
to do to add flavor to my water, is to cut up lemon and strawberries and let it
sit in water overnight, then I drink it during the next day and just add more
water as needed. Do they see you yo-yoing from one diet to the next? I remember
my parents doing the Atkins diet, Weight Watchers, and some other ones that I
can’t remember the names of. I watched my parent’s make themselves miserable
with some of these “diets” that quite frankly weren’t balanced healthy
lifestyle choices. Now my parents strive for balance, watch what’s on their
plates, and they’re much healthier. So many of the diets out there are not good
for your body and it sends a conflicting message to our children as to what
healthy eating habits are. I understand that sometimes our body needs a kick
start to lose weight, but make sure that its healthy for you, and that it’s a
good example for your children. Getting skinny should never be the goal, being
happy and healthy should be what we strive for, and this should be the
lifestyle that we show our children. Not just in eating, but in what we put in
our body, how much we put in our body, and how often.
