Eating Healthier

I have had big success with leaving bowls of fruit out during snacky times and not saying a word! My son will run buy me with a banana or apple and I didn't even know he had gotten it. Leave things out like that all the time and bowls of watermelon, grapes etc... a couple times a day. You are right, if it is in the house you can't fight it! All chips come in the baked varieties now, goldfish are whole grain now. Those gogurt things are great too. Make some popsicles from pure juice and make the change yourself, that is most important. Sweet peas, green beans, corn and carrots seem to be the easiest veggies but they come in many forms. Fresh, frozen or canned try them all. I always use fresh or frozen and then I discovered my 1 year old girl will eat almost anything canned, different taste I guess! My main advice will be talk about it as little as possible,just do it, leave it available and they will eat when hungry! They will fight at first, but if it isn't there, they can't win.

Oh hunny I do know what you are talking about. Between a picky eater, an adhd and a 4 yr old... I have my hands full too. I find it better to shop week by week. There are fruit and veggie bags out there now to help keep them fresh. I also buy the juicy juice or slash drinks that have the veggies in them. My kids (including the picky one) will drink those up with no problem. I also cook with olive oil or nothing most of the time. I get mixed nuts with and without a honey coating on them however you can make them yourself. You can have them take that "juice" and make frozen pops with them. I also make alot of chicken, pork and turkey. These can be made into wraps or oven fried nuggets for dipping etc. Making their own snack mix should also help. I let my kids add whatever they want out of several choices. Nuts, pretzels, crackes, dried fruit, yogart covered things etc. Then when they want a snack they can have a small bowl of their own mix. I'm always trying to come up with ideas (rachael ray helps too). I hope this helps :)

L.

Hello Tammi,
You've gotten some great advice, but I would like to add not all natural or organic food is lower cal. or fat. We have also jumped on the making better food choices. First thing you need to start with is fast food! Its so so bad. Check out there websites first before you take your family there so you know what the best meals are on the menu for you all to eat. Dont think a salad is always the best thing, if your adding ranch and croutons and bacon bits you might as well eat a burger instead.

Ok at the book store check out the Eat this Not that books. Its great they have ones for kids, eating out, what to buy at the store.

Always check the facts on the lables. This will take time the first 10 shopping trips or so, but you will know right off hand what to get of each thing thats got the lest amount of cal and fat. The go yougurts have more cal and sugar then the dannon light ones for kids. Some cereals have more sugar then in your cup of coffee.

My son is only 3, but we make sure to give him veggies more then 20times to determine if he really likes it or not. There are certain things we dont like either, but will make anyway so he can try them. I always buy frozen, or shop at sams club and buy them in bulk. I usually go with mix veggies so there are so many to choose from with each meal.

Fruit in a bowl on the counter will help give them something to snack from. We live in an apartment so I cant leave food out due to bugs, but I will sometimes freeze it with juice as fruit popcycles.

We also keeps snacks, baked chips are 100X better then fried. Walmart or publix brand crackers are also great for tuna dips. But make sure you've compaired the lables at all stores where ever you go because they will change if the prduct is different. We also keep cookies, yes cookies, but there is a limit to how many he can have.

I personaly dont buy natural or organic as it cost 3X as much and some of it has more cal and fat then the other brands. We have also cut out red meats to only once every few weeks and buying 90% ground beef or better. Yes its more expensive but if you shop at casco's or sams its cheaper in bulk. Lots of chicken, and fish. Fish isnt as expensive as you would think, sometimes publix puts talapia on sale at $4.99 lb. We also have learned to use Mrs. Dash and lower sodium soups.

If you are soda drinkers Pepsi zero taste just like pepsi. If you dont like that, try buying coolaid sugar free and adding truvia sweetner to it. This doesnt taste like splenda, believe me I DO not like splenda and can taste it everytime.

I hope this helps, and just keep trying new things, every little low cal thing helps. We still eat out once a week at chick-fil-a or subway so you dont have to starve yourself from the good yummy foods in life =)

Make your own trail mix. Kashi has cereal that you can add, then some kind of nuts or seeds and even toss in a few of your favorites like chocolate chips.
My boys love fruits, but they don't like complicated food. If they can grab it and eat it while playing, they're more likely to pick that one. Plums, nectarines (peaches have the fuzz and they hate that!) pears, apples. I will cut up melons with a melon baller so they're bite sized. Mandarin oranges and grapes. And bananas. Don't be afraid to try new things as a family too. My uber-picky 4 year old recently tried calamari!
Veggies... have you tried spaghetti squash? You roast it then use a fork to pull it into strands like spaghetti noodles. Top it with a little melted butter and fresh grated parmesan cheese and you're all set. Almost all veggies are good roasted or steamed. If you like things seasoned, Mrs. Dash is good and doesn't have the added salt. Get some butter spray and you're all set.
Publix is the perfect place to shop... check out their greenwise section. The Flat Earth chips in Farmland Cheddar are delightful.
Instead of regular french fries, you can make sweet potato fries. You'll find lots of ways that don't cut into your way of life much, but add lots of nutrition. Good luck and remember to make it fun!

publix should have all you need :)
just wander around the 'health' aisle...
cheetos brand makes a healthy alternative of natural cheetos (yum!)
Newman brand makes 'oreos' (newman O's) and fig newtons and all kinds of stuff...
or, how about graham crackers?
not sure how much 'healthier' stuff is 'just' because it's labeled as such...
Me, I look at SUGAR and FIBER. less sugar and more fiber.
how about crackers, even triscuits. gold fish aren't 'so' bad! and cheese. string cheese, cubed cheese, etc.
as for fruits: any chance they'll eat them frozen?
or in a smoothie?

as for veggies: I've read somewhere that it can take a LOT of times of exposing kiddos to a food before they might 'take' to it...so keep introducing it and see what happens. one son likes organic canned peas (publix greenwise) mixed in with his mac n' cheese. the other one (when eating same mac n' cheese- Annie's brand- found at publix)will eat frozen (organic) peas on the side. *sigh* talk about picky! two kinds of peas! LOL.

how about dipping celery or cucumber or carrots into humus? or a 'healthy' salad dressing?

oh yeah: our publix carries Health is wealth brand (they will order it for you!) and my kids eat Spinach Munchies- little 'dough' squares w/ creamy spinach inside
and they'll also eat Amy's brand feta spinach squares (also frozen & found at publix)

how about guacamole? publix carries a boxed 'natural' kind in the refrigerated section
avocado is a 'fruit'
or cherry tomatoes?

ENJOY

In general 'healthier' will mean looking at the labels of the items and seeing which ones have high amounts of things known and researched to be 'unhealthy' or less healthy.... This usually means high amounts of trans fats (in pastries, chips, donuts), high amounts of sugar especially added sugar vs naturally occurring as in fresh fruit, and lots of added chemicals, colors and preservatives. Whole foods such as fruits and veggies obviously are best but if you are looking for packaged processed foods it's hard to really get one better than another unless you look over the specific label and see how much ' bad stuff' is in the item you are considering. The reason people sometimes choose organic is because it's easier than researching every label.... With organic you already know that it won't have a lot of the stuff you are looking to avoid by asking for alternatives to some of the less healthy snack items the family has gotten used to. There are some healthier brands that are not organic but have reduced amounts of the junk and some are organic but often font cost more.... Such as Publix Green Wise products.

Overall veggies with some ranch dip vs chips, fruit with honey or peanut butter vs cookies, nuts, dried fruit or raisins vs fruit roll ups or pop tarts, cheerios with a little added sugar or fruit vs most sugar cereals, tortillas with salsa or fresh guacamole, fresh made smoothie with plain yogurt and frozen fruit, oatmeal raisin cookies instead of oreos, 100% juice instead of Capri sun or hi-c.

It will definately take some adjusting for the older kids as they have developed a taste for the sugar, fats and oils in the junk food but there's no better time to start than now! If the junk stuff isnt bought for them they will have to eat better, but I would go baby steps replacing a couple items at a time and allowing the adjustment. It will be a great start and future for your 3 yr old to see such great examples! Best wishes!!!

Hi Tammi,

No lectures here! I shop almost exclusively at Publix for my food and have found that if you pay attention to the specials it's actually cheapest there...

Like I said, no lecture but they do have a good organic section with LOTS of snacks and they aren't really any more costly than in the rest of the store. (I love my peanut M&Ms) Chips that are made from veggies instead of white potatoes for example. Veggie Booty is my favorite......

If you can remove white potatoes from your meals and substitute red potatoes, you've made a huge stride toward health. I did and now my family doesn't want white ones any more.

Also any produce grown in Washington or Oregon doesn't use pesticides the way the rest of the country does. Their state standards are higher than the national organic standard. Any fruit will be good for the kids and they sometimes have some exotic ones that you might want to try for variety.

Granola bars are good for the pantry. You can even get the ones with dark chocolate chips..(Dark chocolate is a wonderful antioxidant.)

And MY absolute favorite snack is string cheese....it's really good while I'm eating an apple or graham crackers..

Sugar is not the evil one in the overall scheme of snacking. It's usually the stuff they put with it, lol.

As far as how often to shop, I shop once a week for produce. Some weeks I give out early and some weeks I have a little that's left that's on it's last leg. Usually if I tell the kids (including hubby) that we have fruit that needs to be eaten before it gets too ripe, I have plenty of volunteers.

Hope I helped!

M.

Hey Tammi, have you tried those Voortman Flax Seed cookies? They have omega 3's (or is it 6's?) in them and they are awesome. Fiber too. We like the oatmeal dark chocolate chip ones. Just don't eat too many.. at once. something about the flax seed or the fiber... not sure exactly what... but uh... just don't eat too many at once, okay?

oh. As for fresh veggies. My kids actually ENJOY eating red bell pepper. They are pricier than the green ones, but I just read the other day about how they are the most vitamin/antioxidant/nutrient packed food ounce per ounce... Just wash them, de-seed them, slice into strips. Keep a ziploc baggie handy in the fridge for easy snacking. I will add a couple of strips to the side of my kids' dinner plates and they eat them every time... even walk through the kitchen while I'm cooking and swipe them off the counter... lol