Five Tips To Get Kids to Eat Healthier
Five Tips To Get Kids to Eat Healthier By Mubarakah Ibrahim, CPT
Dealing with an overweight child can be a very delicate
situation. We do not want to damage their self esteem by telling
them they are fat or lazy, yet at the same time they must be
conscious that they have to be more aware of their weight and
eating habits for them to be healthy. Parents have a significant
influence over the situation. Consequently most of the effort
will have to come from the parents. Try these tips for getting
kids to eat healthier. #1 Kids listen to what you do not what
you say. Parents must be an example to their children. Children
watch you even when you don't know they are. If you are sitting
in front of the TV with a bowl of ice cream and a bag of chips
you are sending the wrong message to them. They don't know you
have PMS or you had a hard day or even you've been good on your
diet for a month and this isn't so bad. They are seeing lounge
and eat. Nothing more or less. Make a salad in the middle of the
day and offer them some. Have a piece of fruit as you go out the
door and give them permission to go grab themselves a piece to
take with them. This changes the message to snack and snack
healthy. #2 Encourage healthier eating habits by cooking
healthier meals. You don't have to announce " we are all going
to eat healthier so we can loose weight". Cook a healthier
recipe that you think your family will like. When they complain
or ask "what's this", simply tell them you thought you'd try a
new recipe. Don't be disappointed or discouraged if they won't
eat it, or don't like it. Simply offer them a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich in its place. Most importantly do not go back a
cook again trying to give them what they want. When given a
choice they will most likely choose their "regular" less healthy
meal.
#3 Implement house rules that require healthy eating. If you
have a child that loves juice tell them they can only have juice
if they drink and equivalent amount of water first. If you have
a child that's use to grabbing a handful of cookies when they
get home. Instead of taking the cookies away , which is sure to
give you a "health witch" title, Simply state "you can have
cookies, after you eat a piece of fresh fruit first". This will
not only increase the amount of healthy foods and drink they
eat, but also fill them with whole foods which leaves less room
for junk.
#4) Be like your mother. Remember when you had to eat all your
vegetables? Offer (healthier) desserts after dinner to those
that eat their vegetable. You may be in a situation of one child
having dessert and the other not, however that's great learning
experience for everyone, You get what you earn. Life lesson at
the dinner table. And no it's not unfair. Kids understand
immediate reward/punishment better than speeches. Keep the
talking to a minimum, state the rule then stick to it.
#5) Be firm and be consistent. Kids will push to test your
limit. When you decide to implement a healthy habit stick to it.
No matter how much a kid cries, whines, or sneaks (and they
will). Stay firm that this is the rule. Discuss the rule with
you're your spouse so you can have a united front. If your
children are use to free range in the kitchen, and eating
whatever they want implementing all these tips at once will be
to drastic a change for them. Try implementing one rule a week
or even every two week. Remember health eating is a process and
slow and steady wins the race. Not only will the new "house
rules" be a change for your children but it will be a change for
you as well, requiring more monitoring and more planning (making
healthy snacks and ingredients always available). Mubarakah
Ibrahim is an AFAA certified personal trainer and owner of
BALANCE fitness, a personal training service for women in CT
that offers in-home personal training, on-line personal
training, outdoor boot camps, and outdoor adventure club for
women. She also lectures, promotes and conducts workshops on
health and fitness through out the northeast. She can be
contacted by visiting her website www.balanceCT.com or e-mailed
at balanceCT@hotmail.com