Operation CreamPuff: blog #17 - Won’t Someone Think of the Children?

I’m gonna lose some fans with this blog, I already know, because this is a touchy SUBJECT!!... But I hope to gain even more. As you all know I’ve made it one of my main priorities for the last year of my life to gain information about how to take care of myself and my family.

But one area that I have never really talked about in the blog is how this lifestyle change has and will impact the life of my 3-year old son, Blake.

If you know me, you know I am dedicated to his good health and he has come on this journey with us and we hope we have started him on the path to a lifetime of taking his own health seriously. People make fun of me and even roll their eyes because I don’t let my child eat candy and he only gets cookies or pastries that we either make ourselves or are full of flaxseed, whole grains, walnuts, honey instead of sugar, etc. He still has yet to have a chocolate chip cookie. But you know what? He is developing such good habits. For instance, he does not like donuts.

Wants nothing to do with them. Imagine such a thing! He is used to the taste of food not sugar so he doesn’t get disgusted if there is a chunk of broccoli in his pasta or spinach on his pizza. And the thing that amazes me most of all is that no matter how much he loves what he’s eating, when he’s not hungry anymore, he stops. Interesting concept isn’t it? Stop eating when you’re not hungry anymore. Sounds logical enough but we all know it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Just this weekend we went to the Orange County Fairgrounds where they have a big swap meet including an awesome Farmers Market. Since we are doing a juice cleanse right now it’s our main grocery shopping trip for the week. The only way we can get Blake excited about going is with the promise he will get to play to his little heart’s content on the huge slides and jumper houses at the fairgrounds. So we quickly get our produce fix, do a quick lap around the swap meet to see if there is any new foolishness for us to buy and then we generally spend the last hour and a half watching Blake play (and wishing we could join all the other parents in a plastic cup of beer or margaritas which unfortunately does not count as juice). This week I noticed how many of the kids in the play area were overweight. Even in this mecca of vanity and health consciousness, a good number of children between ages of 3 and 10 were significantly overweight. You didn’t have to look far to see why of course as their parents clearly were not serving as good examples for them.

As a kid who was overweight from the ages of about 6 till about 14 and as an adult who has had to continue to battle her weight despite being an athlete and living an active lifestyle, I know that starting your kid out with good eating habits from the beginning is extremely important. When I was a kid going to McDonalds was a treat. We ate our meals at home and fast food was only for days when we were out doing something fun and we would end our day with a burger and fries. These days parents feed their kids fast food every day and what they cook at home might as well be fast food. Meals that are pre-packaged and just have to be tossed in the oven do not constitute home-cooked meals.

So what is our problem as parents? I know we say we are so busy, our kids schedules are full, healthy food is expensive, and kids waste it anyway because they only want chicken mcnuggets. If your kids are older then making this change will be more difficult. It’s best to start when they are little. But I have seen and talked to many people who completely revamped their family’s diet even with teenage kids who are used to eating chips and cookies on a regular basis.

The first step? Well the first step is stop making excuses for why you can’t make this change. You already spend a zillion dollars on groceries. Bags of chips and cookies and Hamburger Helper cost more than a trip to produce section. You also probably already spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Time to start using that time more wisely.

The next step is to get all that crap out of the house! If it’s not there you and your kids can’t eat it. Don’t know what to feed your kids instead? Buy or download some recipe books (see links below). If you’re used to cooking unhealthy food you will need help with ideas for how to go from pork chops and mashed potatoes with a frozen veggie soaked in butter to homemade chicken nuggets with sweet potato fries and fresh veggies sautéed in coconut oil. If time is an issue there are plenty of healthy recipe books out there with meals you can prepare in 30 minutes or less. Buy some recipe books that have fun ideas for healthy eating and involve your kids in the process. Get them out from in front of the tv and get them in the kitchen with you so they can see all the great things that go into the foods they eat.

They will be proud of the delicious meal they helped prepare and the ideas in these cookbooks are imaginative and fun (like there really is a way to make your own chicken nuggets that are healthy, fun to make, and delish!). Eventually it becomes a game of seeing what we can try next and whether or not we will like it. A dear friend of mine has done this with her family and has a blog that is proof this is a possibility. Make food fun and adventurous and soon the sight of a burger cooked in a steam tray won’t even look appealing to them, OR TO YOU!!!

Please check out my friends blog www.themullies.blogspot.com

If your kids are teenagers play on whole clean eating health revolution that’s going on right now. It’s very chic these days. Share with them all the great benefits of improving what goes into your body like more energy for sports and activities, clearer

skin, shinier hair, and less fat to fit into those damn skinny jeans that just won’t go out of style. Little kids are easier because they love doing anything with their parents so they will be happy to help (just make sure you have an extra 30 minutes to spare because they are painfully slow).

Of course the way we eat isn’t the only answer to childhood obesity. I could write a whole separate blog on getting more active as a family (hmm, maybe I will). But we have to start somewhere and changing what we put into our bodies and into our childrens’ bodies has multiple, lifelong benefits. The best gift you can give your child is good health and that means your good health and theirs. They want their mommies and daddies to be around forever and

they want you to have the energy to keep up with them. And as a parent, that’s all we want in life.