Showing posts with label Healthy Body. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healthy Body. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
What I Learned About Teaching Kids Nutrition (Month 4)
1. Convenience is king. The foods that are sitting out within easy reach get eaten the most, for good or bad. (when grapes or cucumbers were out, kids were eating them...)
2. Healthy eating begins with a healthy attitude about your body (earlier blog post here).
3. Mind your attitudes about food too (here is where I list a lot of the research behind this list)-- no eating out of of boredom or sadness, for example, only out of hunger (easy to say, not always easy to do)
4. Keeping this in mind, let your kids decide when they are full. (don't pressure kids to finish everything on their plates, but see number 5...)
5. Linking dessert to healthy eating throughout the day can be a powerful motivator for kids. But, never use dessert as a reward or a punishment.
6. Sugar begets sugar. Save a simple treat for the end of the day, otherwise, a small amount of sugar early in the day leads to craving more and more throughout the day and derails healthy eating. This is a tough one for us. Some moms prefer not having sugary foods in the house at all. Don't guilt yourself or them over this, it's just the way our bodies are wired. (like this...cute)
7. Give kids a little credit-- my kids actually loved some of the dishes I put in front of them that I never thought they'd eat! (not true for everything) No one even noticed we ate veggies straight for 2 weeks. They will not always be happy everything you make. Don't take it personally that your healthy, lovingly prepared meal meets a "that looks like the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!" (don't give up!) They may like it after they've tried it (in our house, they have to try at least one bite of everything), and if they don't, they'll still thank you some day for trying.
8. Plan ahead. Remember rule #1? When I haven't planned ahead, and we get hungry, that is when we make poor food choices.
9. Pay attention to your eating traditions, replacing unhealthy ones.
10. Labeling something a "treat" can make it feel like one.
11. Trust yourself. I forced myself to try using things I had on hand (in my garden), and tried making up my own dishes instead of always following a recipe, and I did much better than I thought I would!
12. Eating simple healthy meals gave me more time with my kids but also was a fun way to involve them in meal preparation! Even the time I asked my kids to go pick some corn and shuck it and bring it in, and later in the day I found a box in my bedroom that looked like it was full of long golden hair. Huh? Yes, look what they saved (why is it in my bedroom?):
13. Model good eating behavior. I'm still working on this one. But our attempt to eat more vegetables resulted in the most weight I've lost since I had baby and the best I've felt since I had him.
14. Sugary drinks count as a treat.
15. Eating fresh foods and adding fresh herbs like parsley, basil, or thyme can replace some of the flavor lost with processed food, and can eventually change your taste buds so you actually crave healthier foods. After some of our veggie dinners, sugary foods sounded gross to me. If you knew me, you would know that is nothing short of a miracle.
16. Enlist their aid. When we talked about nutrition one night at the dinner table (I think this should be an ongoing discussion), I thought the kids would moan and groan, but they actually got fairly animated, saying "we should talk about this more often!"
17. Point out the connection between healthy eating and healthy bodies.
18. Make it fun. Challenge the kids to find out the health benefits of the foods in a meal. For some reason, they eat carrots better when they know that pilots in WWII were fed carrots so they could see better in the dark.
19. Teach them that being active is an equally important part of the equation. Remember the research that showed that exercise was more important than willpower? I still love that one. Getting active with the kids this month made for some really great memories. I'm hoping that they'll learn a love for active pursuits and healthy foods just by being exposed to them often. :)
20. Offer healthy snacks. One mom cuts up fresh vegetables and the kids are allowed to eat them anytime, even right before dinner. If the kids are too full for dinner, at least they are full of vegetables!
2. Healthy eating begins with a healthy attitude about your body (earlier blog post here).
3. Mind your attitudes about food too (here is where I list a lot of the research behind this list)-- no eating out of of boredom or sadness, for example, only out of hunger (easy to say, not always easy to do)
4. Keeping this in mind, let your kids decide when they are full. (don't pressure kids to finish everything on their plates, but see number 5...)
5. Linking dessert to healthy eating throughout the day can be a powerful motivator for kids. But, never use dessert as a reward or a punishment.
6. Sugar begets sugar. Save a simple treat for the end of the day, otherwise, a small amount of sugar early in the day leads to craving more and more throughout the day and derails healthy eating. This is a tough one for us. Some moms prefer not having sugary foods in the house at all. Don't guilt yourself or them over this, it's just the way our bodies are wired. (like this...cute)
7. Give kids a little credit-- my kids actually loved some of the dishes I put in front of them that I never thought they'd eat! (not true for everything) No one even noticed we ate veggies straight for 2 weeks. They will not always be happy everything you make. Don't take it personally that your healthy, lovingly prepared meal meets a "that looks like the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!" (don't give up!) They may like it after they've tried it (in our house, they have to try at least one bite of everything), and if they don't, they'll still thank you some day for trying.
8. Plan ahead. Remember rule #1? When I haven't planned ahead, and we get hungry, that is when we make poor food choices.
9. Pay attention to your eating traditions, replacing unhealthy ones.
10. Labeling something a "treat" can make it feel like one.
11. Trust yourself. I forced myself to try using things I had on hand (in my garden), and tried making up my own dishes instead of always following a recipe, and I did much better than I thought I would!
12. Eating simple healthy meals gave me more time with my kids but also was a fun way to involve them in meal preparation! Even the time I asked my kids to go pick some corn and shuck it and bring it in, and later in the day I found a box in my bedroom that looked like it was full of long golden hair. Huh? Yes, look what they saved (why is it in my bedroom?):
13. Model good eating behavior. I'm still working on this one. But our attempt to eat more vegetables resulted in the most weight I've lost since I had baby and the best I've felt since I had him.
14. Sugary drinks count as a treat.
15. Eating fresh foods and adding fresh herbs like parsley, basil, or thyme can replace some of the flavor lost with processed food, and can eventually change your taste buds so you actually crave healthier foods. After some of our veggie dinners, sugary foods sounded gross to me. If you knew me, you would know that is nothing short of a miracle.
16. Enlist their aid. When we talked about nutrition one night at the dinner table (I think this should be an ongoing discussion), I thought the kids would moan and groan, but they actually got fairly animated, saying "we should talk about this more often!"
17. Point out the connection between healthy eating and healthy bodies.
18. Make it fun. Challenge the kids to find out the health benefits of the foods in a meal. For some reason, they eat carrots better when they know that pilots in WWII were fed carrots so they could see better in the dark.
19. Teach them that being active is an equally important part of the equation. Remember the research that showed that exercise was more important than willpower? I still love that one. Getting active with the kids this month made for some really great memories. I'm hoping that they'll learn a love for active pursuits and healthy foods just by being exposed to them often. :)
20. Offer healthy snacks. One mom cuts up fresh vegetables and the kids are allowed to eat them anytime, even right before dinner. If the kids are too full for dinner, at least they are full of vegetables!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Teaching Kids Healthy Attitudes About Their Bodies
I'm learning a lot about how a person's attitude toward food affects how he/she eats. But I've also realized that there is a step before that. It is how one views one's body. (see here)
This is quite funny, because just the other day I had a little conversation with myself in the mirror. I happened to catch myself on a bad day, and looking at myself in the mirror, lets just say my feeling was bordering somewhere between horror, dismay, and disgust. Saggy, wrinkly, pasty white, wiry thinning hair, and an unflattering paunch around my middle. I tried to fight the negative thoughts with positive ones-- remembering all the good things my body has done, like nourish five healthy little miracles inside it. I tried to write a lighthearted poem about my showdown with the mirror-- it's not finished, when it is, maybe I'll share.
Here is what I've been thinking about bodily attitudes :), as I prepare to help my kiddos have healthy attitudes about their bodies:
1) My value does not lie in the way I look. I'm valuable insofar as I try to be a good person, kind, loving. That makes real beauty-- pretty is is pretty does.
2) My body is a gift.
This has become even more apparent to me after having aforesaid healthy babies. I'm always amazed that my body can perform such an amazing feat! Starting with cells smaller than I can see, I grow a little life inside me, with a tiny beating heart and little fingers and toes and functioning organs and even a little personality.
3) There is no universal optimum size. Healthy bodies come in all different shapes and sizes. Thin doesn't necessarily mean healthy.
I remember from a very young age learning from peers that some people believed there were a set of perfect measurements and they roughly mirrored the dimensions of a Barbie (ouch!). A few years ago, I read this talk (start 7 paragraphs from bottom), about how there is no universal optimum size (written by a man, no less), and it revolutionized the way I look at my body.
4) God looks on the heart. So should I. (sam 16:7-- ...Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord aseeth not as bman seeth; for man looketh on the outward cappearance, but the dLord looketh on the eheart.)
When I see my stretchmarks or varicose veins, I need to make a conscious effort to remember they are signs of one of my greatest blessings and triumphs! The fact that I'm willing to sacrifice for someone else should make me more beautiful, not less so. I need to look on my own heart, too.
5) Society is increasingly objectifying women, through music, magazines, and TV, and it starts young (think princess!).
I am not an object. Give myself positive messages: I am a smart, giving, worthwhile individual, not a collection of body parts to be gawked at (or not!). Men and women suffer when women are portrayed as objects-- it hurts men's self esteem too, to be told they are nothing more than a collection of uncontrolled hormones (of course the reverse is also true, think werewolf).
I've noticed a correlation between how many movies I watch and how I feel about myself-- when I'm watching less I have more realistic expectations about my body and feel much better about myself.
6) I can show respect for my body by how I treat it-- what I take into it, put on it, subject it to.
I used to be an unapologetic tanning machine, but seeing my kid's gorgeous creamy skin and realizing I don't want to look like a handbag when I'm 40 nor deal with skin cancer has made me a sunscreen user (I'm a Nazi with my kids and sunscreen! I want to keep their beautiful skin nice. And I cover their ears to protect their hearing in loud places, too.)
7) My body is the other half of my soul. If I degrade my body (um....half of a cake yesterday?) it dulls my ability to feel and think clearly. Also, if I get too extreme in this sense, it inhibits my ability to give to others.
8) Remember who I am! I am this. Not a set of arms and legs and abs (flabby ones). When was the last time I thought of Mother Theresa's measurements? Or how she looked in a swimsuit?
I need to have proper attitudes about my body in order to be a healthy eater. I have to model this for my kids and teach them, so they will believe in their true potential and value themselves for the right things.
I'm beautiful because of my stretchmarks and falling out hair and vein-y legs. Because they show I loved someone else more than myself. And that is beautiful.
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