Food always seems to be the big challenge for many of my mom friends and clients, you have so much to do and basically you are just trying to feed your kids the best you can. But here’s the thing, that kind of mindset needs a bit of a fix. It’s not just about getting your kids fed, it’s about giving them the right fuel for growth and development, immune support, mental clarity, and focus.
Your food choices are giving your children their foundation of health for the rest of their lives.
This means that every morsel and every bite has a direct correlation to their health. I know this sounds really out there, but at the end of the day, as I’ve mentioned before, food is fuel. Your goal when you’re feeding your family should be to offer them good quality nutrients from fruits and vegetables, quality protein from both animal and plant-based, and quality fat.
Every meal and snack should have a balance combination of all those three things. Trying to feed your kids just to feed them is only going to lead to a terrible addiction to sugar, flour, and dairy. Think about the trials and tribulations you have about food, these came from somewhere.
My average client is addicted to sugar, flour, and dairy. Honestly, this is the hardest addiction for me to break. When you are choosing the right foods for your kids, please remember this. Foods like mac and cheese break down and metabolize as a sugar, so they help the addiction become stronger.
Your mindset about feeding your kids is directly related to the food choices that become main staples of the house.
Changing your mindset to more nutritionally dense foods will enable you to offer foods that will actually feed your children for success. By no means do I want to sound harsh, but as a society we have somehow decided that candy is a reward and mac and cheese is easy. You are creating your child’s pallet
Of course all of us have some picky eaters in the bunch, but there are ways around that. At the end you should feel comforted to know that they really won’t starve. When you are planning your meals, start with the basics like I mentioned above. Each meal and snack should have an equal proportion of carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables, good quality proteins, and good quality fats this is going to help stabilize their energy throughout the day. Now, on the other hand, you do have those kids that really don’t want to eat vegetables, so what do you do? Here’s where your creativity has to kick in. Something as simple as ground beef, marinara sauce, or even a smoothie can hide a whole array of vegetables.
This is a stealth operation, share nothing, don’t let them know what you have slipped into their meal until…they accept it as yummy! Remember it takes 4 times for them to really tell you if they like it or not. Once accepted, you may mention one of the added ingredient, they may put their nose up, but since they like the food they will go on eating it. Progressively you get them in the kitchen to help prepare that food, this is when they see the ingredients and start to open up to the fact that broccoli may not be so bad and even though kale is green, it’s still pretty good.
I rea
lize life gets busy and sometimes you can get incredibly frustrating feeding the pickiest eaters but always remember that they will not starve and sometimes you just have to put your foot down. If you cater to their every need and want, as it applies to food, you’re going to create that addiction to sugar flour and dairy. On the other hand, if you create a plan, and an agreement with your kids that they are to at least try something on 4 different occasions you will expand their pallet of flavors and save yourself a headache.
One last thing, don’t make yourself crazy making four different meals, set yourself up with the right proteins, veggies, and fruit options so that anyone can make a decent meal with what is on the table. My daughter goes through phases where she doesn’t want chicken, but since I also have beans and quinoa on the table she creates her own combination with the other items. At the end, everyone eats well and I don’t have to stress about it!
With Love and Light,
Adita
