If you still haven't changed your diet, start now. Switch your white bread for wheat and start stocking the fridge with fruits and vegetables. If you have kids, well, monitor how many snacks your children eat in a day. Add more vegetables to the dinner table. Make food more fun. Healthy eating takes time but is worth it in the end.
Chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese seem to be the mainstream diet for many children. Parents often struggle to get their children to eat healthy foods. My family started on a new diet. My mom switched our white bread for wheat and started stocking the fridge with fruits and vegetables. We rebelled for a while, but now we are used to it. We even fight for the last strawberry. Here are some suggestions to help you make the transition to healthy eating in your home. Continue reading after the jump.
Monitor how many snacks your children eat in a day. Create a rule at your house, for example, snack at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. You won't have whiny kids wanting treats all day, because they know when they can have them. However, if they want something healthy like an apple, a bagel, or some fruit, they can have it without asking.
Add more vegetables to the dinner table. Try a variety of vegetables, and keep trying them even when your kids say they don't like them. Taste buds change over time. Have them try one bite each time you serve something they don't like.
Make food more fun. Serving dinner that your kids can adapt to their own tastes makes dinner more fun, and gets them to eat better. Try taco soup with a base to include tomatoes and pinto beans and let them add their own ingredients: cheese, sour cream, chips, olives, corn, etc. They probably won't notice that there were tomatoes in there.
Healthy eating takes time but is worth it in the end. Your kids will adjust and eventually won't miss the candy and chips that they used to munch on. And everyone will benefit from the change.
Labels: healthy foods