This "healthy" stuff is for the birds.
How do you break the cycle of unhealthy eating? Anybody got a vegetable tip? I've got four kids and I'm down to three vegetables, with corn being on the cusp of being a vegetable anyway and none of the three veggie choices I have are universal within the family.
I grew up just this side of chubby, but once I hit sixth grade and sports, it remained under control through my school years. But I grew up in a family where we never met a vegetable that couldn't be fried. Including spinach. You think I'm lying, but I'm not. We were a family of contridictions, we fried our vegetables, but never ate white bread, only wheat. Had cream gravy with two out of three meals, but no sugar cereal or poptarts. You always had to eat three bites of every thing on your plate, including brussel sprouts (not fried).
Charlie on the other hand, grew up in a family with eight brother and sisters and once the food hit the table, it was gone. He doesn't really understand the concept of left-overs, and "Friday night leftover buffet" ? Forgetaboutit. He reports liver as the only thing he can remember that didn't get eaten. He says you had to be at home when his Mom brought home the groceries, or you didn't have a hope in hell of having a bowl of Frosted Flakes.
So we don't have a firm food policy. As in most things we seem to be navigating on the fly. When Ace and Peach went for their 3 and 4 year old checkups recently, they were both in the 90th percentile for height and the 95th percentile for weight as were Melee' and John at that age.
Mom and I have been trying to crack down and keep the kitchen on lockdown and trying to plan healthier meals, but to be truthful, we might not know what we're doing. This week she's told me I need to get the kids totally off of dairy and that we should cut the carbs. Tonight we planned Pork Roast, baked sweet potatoes and salad. Pork, the other white meat, right? Then when we fixed the kids potatoes I was looking in the cabinet and she said "What are you looking for?" "The cinnimon/sugar." "What for?" "The potatoes." "Well doesn't that negate any good you might be doing?" "Well, what good am I doing if they won't eat it?" "Just put butter and salt and pepper on them." "They won't eat them." Both of us giggling to ourselves.
Melee': "You're not putting those on my plate are you?"
Me: "Yep."
Melee' "How much do I have to eat?"
Me: "I don't know, we'll see."
Peach: "OH! I don't want those on my plate."
Me: "Oh, taste them, they're nice and sweet."
John: "You're not giving me salad are you? You're just wasting it. I'm not going to eat it."
Nana: "Let me just get them all some cottage cheese."
Me: "Isn't that dairy?"
Ace: "I want meeaalk."
Twenty minutes later I put most of what was on their plates down the disposal.
The walks have been really good, but the food? Well, the stress of it just makes me want to eat something.
5 comments:
I have a suggestion, what about steaming vegetables and then melting some low fat shredded cheddar on top, that's how I get my boyfriend's kids to eat them, and the cheese is a good source of dairy and low in fat.
it's so hard with kids. over the last year i have been attempting to get my kids to lay off the junk. so i just stopped buying it. they have adapted. i give them a choice with dinner, they can have a salad or veggies. but they absolutely have to eat it. carrots with dressing, fruit cut up. fruit mixed with lowfat yogurt. and i wouldn't cut anything completely out of a kids diet. just use lowfat dairy and whole wheat products.
steamed veggies are way better tasting, as theresa suggested. give it a try, just don't give up. your kids won't even know the difference in a couple months.
also check out meals.com, there are tons of receipes for all occasions. i use it daily.
My mom used to do what Theresa is suggesting and it worked beautifully!!
I think it is wonderful you are trying to change your kids eating habits, these days we as a society just seem to let our kids eat anything, just because they beg, scream and kick for it. I do give in to my son sometimes, occasionally he has a cheeseburger (junior one of course) but he is almost 2 1/2 and has just got to that picky stage. He will take two bites and tell me he is done. All I try and do is make sure I make healthy (sort of) meals and if he refuses to eat it, he goes without. Sounds harsh but what is the point in trying to force feed your kids, eventually they will come around to it if they realize that is the only thing to eat.
Good luck!!
Thanks for the tips and encouragement everybody! I'll definitely try the cheese, I can't give up my cheese!
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