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Develop Healthy Eating Habits by Changing your Kitchen Defaults – Part 1

January 2, 2020 by Chris Leave a Comment

Develop Healthy Eating Habits by Changing your Kitchen Defaults – Part 1

Our little guys tried more varieties of food before they turned five than Karen and I have before turning twenty-five. One reason is availability. Specialty foods have gone mainstream so a Slim Jim has to cozy up to sheep jerky and pomegranate is about as exotic as Peanut M&Ms. Taking advantage of variety has really aided in developing our boys’ robust palate.

We’ve been asked how we go about designing our meals as well as what we buy at stores. This is a two-parter since Karen has a professional background in picky eating and I’m just a reformed picky eater who tries to keep it healthy.

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He had a dream to have crackers with four dips for breakfast.

Here are some default settings I generally follow. The first thing to make your unhealthy foods yourself. If I crave a muffin or brownies we try to make it from scratch. So we can appreciate the work that it takes to make it and what ingredients it takes.  We have cookies in the house but they’ve not made by Nabisco.  Cooking your own food, even if not totally healthy, will give you knowledge that translates to healthy cooking.

Another default is planning your meal around the veggie. We always have proteins in our meals, but ensuring the vegetable is cooked in an appealing way ensures the kids get the nutritional benefit.  This could mean leaving some foods raw, like snap peas or bell peppers or steaming broccoli or boiling peas.  I also invited other veggies in every recipe.  We add cooked sweet potato to pizza crusts or adding green vegetables to store-bought mac n cheese.  Sneaking veggies into foods is all the rage and half the pasta aisle seems to be made up of noodles from everything from spinach to seaweed.

Tips & Tricks

Here are a few other tips/tricks and defaults we turn to make cooking and planning with kids.

  • A treat at the supermarket is letting the kids pick their own fruit. They’ve had fun picking out dragon fruit, jicama, and other strange-looking fruit that just wasn’t available twenty years ago.
  • If kids pick it, pack it, stir it, chop it and add it, chances are they’ll eat it.
  • Never toss out bananas. The darker they get, the sweeter they’ll taste in a smoothie.  Freeze them.  The kids love designing their smoothies.  They’ve used just about everything in the fridge and spice rack.
  • Never tell them it won’t taste good, even if it’s a cumin, basil, banana, and watermelon smoothie.
  • Pack your pancakes with fruit and greek yogurt.  I don’t like greek yogurt but find it pretty good if it’s been hidden in something baked.
  • Add frozen berries to cooked oatmeal to cool them down faster.
  • Not just pancakes use greek yogurt in everything.  It’s super versatile and adds a bit of tanginess to Italian dishes.  It’s also a great way to stave off your appetite at night.
  • Only use half the Mac n’ Cheese additives in boxed mac and cheese.  Use the extra additives in your burger mix for a little extra cheesiness.
  • It’s okay to toss unhealthy foods. If you wouldn’t feed it to your dog, it’s better off in the bin.
  • Use a calorie counter.  It’s a good practice to check the cumulation of the foods you’re taking in as a baseline — no need to do this every day. Many apps can handle this, and you don’t need to be obsessive about making it happen. It’s a good idea to check on occasion what nutrients you may need help with or if you’re taking in more sugar than you realize.
  • Our favorite snacks – unsweetened applesauce, carrots, greek yogurt, snap peas, pb&j, naked popcorn, bell pepper slices, string cheese, as well as every type of nuts we can find.

The thing is, keeping it healthy has gotten harder. Our rules haven’t changed much since they were two, but they are much more independent at five. Now they don’t always think rules apply, and that’s perfectly fine. They will still go to the fridge and pull out snap peas or finish off a pint of strawberries at a sitting because that’s what they like and it makes them feel good

We’ll be back soon with Part 2 – Grade School Snaking

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Better School Lunch Options

September 25, 2017 by Chris Leave a Comment

School Lunch OptionsPlanning for two kindergartner’s day of food is stressful.  They never stop eating. They leave at 7:30 and come home at 3:30 that’s a lot of hungry time. I’m quite sure they eat more in than anyone in their class and then buy a second lunch on top of the one I make a couple days a week.

Here is Gordon’s take on the school lunch.  Which one are you making for your kids?  Scotch Eggs?!  Who’s he kidding?  Maybe this should be directed to your school’s food director.

 

Instead, try one of the 100 actually workable options One Crazy House posts Take note to what kids like. I like to keep an ongoing google keep file so I don’t forget.

We’ll be following up with some of our own school lunch ideas soon.

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4 Links Worth Investigating

September 4, 2016 by Karen Leave a Comment

Children should consume less than 25 Grams of Added Sugars Daily.

The AHA say Children, in this case being defined as between the ages of 2 and 18, should consume less than 25 Grams of added sugar daily. Sugar includes regular table sugar, sugar added to foods or drinks and even honey.

A diet high in sugar increases the risk for heart disease, obesity and elevated blood pressure.  Not coincidently, a high sugar diet supplants a nutritious diet that includes fruits and veggies so the less sugar a child eats, it bears to reason the better the diet is. The study notes added sugars should not be included at all in a diet of children 2 and under.

Here’s a link to the statement from the AHA.

7  Surprising Benefits of Exercise

Did you know exercise is great for the brain, makes you happier, slows down aging, improves your skin, aids recovery from illness and shrinks your fat cells?  Exercise is the magic pill. So why isn’t everyone doing it all the time.  Maybe this article in Time Magazine  will convince you to at least do it part of the time.

How I Stopped Yelling at My Kids and the Surprising By-Product of Doing So.

13687180_276761802710449_1813372247_n (1)Mindfulness is like exercise, make it a habit and it’ll change you’re life. If you are like us and have moments where our emotions get the best of us and feel bad about it later this article from Kelly Brown on Huffington Post is a helpful reminder the benefits of Mindfulness. We struggle with making it a habit ourselves but there are easy ways to get started including the app Headspace to learn what it is and how to do it. Highly recommend the article and the app.

 

 

 

How to Fight Sarcopenia

Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass and strength as we age.. There are a number of reasons for this but it is important for everyone from peak performers to weekend warriors to know why we have to change up our workouts and diets as we hit our 30s and 40s. Hit the link for info and lots of graphs.

 

 

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About Us

All our Boys

Karen Rodgers is a mother of twin boys, wife, and speech language pathologist for the Champlain Valley School District in Vermont and New England Speech & Feeding. She knows her way around a weight room and here on the GoodFitFam blog Karen and her husband Chris will share their wisdom, experience and contagious passion for kids, fun and fitness.

Speech + Feeding

Why Picky Eaters LOVE McDonalds

Kid’s Who Say, “I can’t”.

Be flexible and other Social Dynamics

Address the Social and Emotional Impact of Food for you and your Kids

Getting Your Kids to Eat New Foods.

Workouts

5am arm quickie/ back blast

30 minutes Chest and Tri’s

30 Minutes to Muscle: Back Workout

Stay Focused

Getting Stronger and Meeting Goals

Parenting

Everyone needs some Small Town Living

Oh Crap, We’re now HomeSchooling! Resources for Organized Learning anyone can use

Is My Child’s Development on Track

Pump Iron to Reduce your Cancer Risk

Traveling with twins; The 3 Little Pigs

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