Healthy Kids Seminar

Today I went to a 90 minute seminar at my local library called "Healthy Kids". It was put on by a friend from church who is a personal trainer and fitness coach. She has had two successful businesses in the past and this is her latest creation. As I shared in my "100 List", teaching kids good eating habits is something very important to me. I remember when I read the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", it mentioned that teaching your kids to sleep is an important LIFE SKILL. No matter what they do in life, good sleeping habits are essential. Sleep will affect their life each and every day. I feel the same about eating. Proper nutrition is what fuels your body. When children get too much sugar or if they are deficient in a nutrient, serious side effects can occur; behavioral problems, physical issues, frequent colds and sickness, low immune response, asthma, etc.

Like sleep in children, it's easy to take the lazy way out. But the thing is, how will they learn? If you don't set an example and provide good food choices, are they supposed to spontaneously figure it out on their own? The statistics are staggering. If both parents are healthy and an average body weight, the child has only a 7% chance of being obese. If one parent is overweight, the rate goes up to 40% and if both then 80%. And you've probably all heard that about 1 in 3 children are now obese and the rate is expected to go up to about 50% in the next 15 years.

Some of the important things she talked about:

Water
-Water is an essential nutrient. Juices have a lot of sugar. It's best to water them down to about 1:2 parts. The average can of soda contains 8 teaspoons of sugar. She had an empty glass with 8 tsp. of sugar in it and it was a lot. Yuck. She helped her son (7) set a goal to drink a full bottle of water each day at school. He slowly drank more and more until he now finishes the whole thing. I really need to do this with Austin. Its so hot here and he often comes home with only 1/2 cup gone from his water bottle.

Serving Sizes
-Teach them what a realistic serving size is. Do not give them adult portions. The average plate is 3 inches bigger today than 20 years ago. We eat too much. Never give kids a bag of chips or a box of crackers to eat from. Always put them in a small bowl or on plate to serve. Avoid eating in front of TV as much as possible. Teach them to eat in appropriate places like at the table or in highchair, etc.

Emotions
-Try to watch and see if they are eating just b/c they are bored. If so, set specific eating times that are allowed. ie. Breakfast 7:30, midmorning snack 10am, lunch 12:30, midpm snack 2:30, dinner 6:00 and so on. DO NOT use food as a reward. (I am SO guilty of this. I totally bribe them to eat dinner to get dessert or if they memorize an Art. of Faith they get an ice cream at McD's). She said reward them with something else like stickers, an outing, going to the park, a movie, whatever. If you bribe them to eat broccoli just to get ice cream, statistics show that they do not like broccoli at the end of the day and will always associate it with that negative experience when older. Jamie Oliver changed school lunches in England and the school saw a HUGE effect on behavior.

Encourage Phys. Activity
-Let them PLAY! Use imagination. Dance with them. Games games games (kick the can, tag, statues, etc). The average child gets 5000 hours LESS time in physical activity in school than the mid 70's. They burn 350-400 calories per hour playing games. Create fun outdoors- have scooters, jump ropes, soccer ball, etc. Go for walks together. Be active together as a family. Play at the park. Be a good example yourself. If they see that you value it and want to keep your body healthy, they will too

Eating at School
-If you pack your child's lunch box, this is supposedly the 'ideal' lunch box:

1. 1-2 servings fresh or dried fruit- grapes, melon, apple, box raisins, etc
2. 1 serving vegetable- carrot sticks, cucumber, red pepper slices, salad (on sandwich), celery
3. 1 serving protein- ham (on sandwich), tuna, beans
4. 1 serving dairy- yogurt, cheese sticks, cheese (with crackers), milk
5. 2-3 servings grains- sandwich, wholegrain crackers (with cheese), small bowl of pasta, roll
6. drink-ideally not juice unless watered down, water, or milk




Bad Weather Tips
-create fun indoors. Do a race to finish chores like sweeping and dusting. Play with soft balls, Hula hoop, hide and seek, rake leaves, shovel snow, etc. Go for walk around shopping center and get a smoothie for a treat.

Increase Incidental Exercise
-take the stairs, park father away, dance together, do chores, have a day with no remote, make a rule they must walk around while on the phone (for teens). When you do these things they won't even know they are 'exercising'.

Family = Healthy Living Team
-number one rule- YOU must do it. You can't preach to them or complain they just sit around if you are doing the same. Don't ban chocolate and other sweets, just limit them to special occasions or weekends, etc. Whatever attitude you have toward food your kids will pick it up. Do not associate guilt with food. Don't diet all the time. Do not complain about weight. Do not belittle yourself or criticize your body in front of them. You must teach them to have a healthy self image. It will affect them all their lives. It's a gradual process. Just work to improve habits. Set a goal to change ONE thing a week- ie cut out snacking in front of tv. Next week- increase veggies, following week- go for walks, etc.

The last thing she said was "you have the control to save your kids from being a statistic (obesity, diabetes, etc). What are you going to do about it?

I think I am pretty good, but when she had us fill out the survey that said to 'write down everything one of your children ate yesterday'- I realized that I could be better. Austin had a healthy bfast and lunch but he had a strawberry milk and a donut for a snack and also had ice cream after dinner. I tend to think that I let my kids have treats 'now and then' but I think it's more often than I realize. They also love to eat bfast while watching cartoons, which I never even thought about. I guess once you write it down you realize that you're not as good as you think! (Selective thinking). I am going to try and improve some of these things. I also want to be more active as a family. Jared and I both exericise most days, but we don't do it together. We need to get out and have fun- kick the soccer ball, play tag, go to the park, etc. It's hard when it's hot but we can go swimming and do other things outside. I hope that someone out there got something out of these notes b/c I really enjoyed it. ** If you are a mother who packs a lunchbox every day PLEASE tell me what you pack b/c I am always out of ideas. Especially if your kids is not into lunch meat or cheese, like mine, or veggies **


******ADDITIONAL INFO******

After reading Annalisa's comment, I have to add that Mireille (the girl teaching the seminar) was very good about NOT being too psycho and strict with the kids, which I totally agree with. Although I am sure some of you who know me and are reading this think otherwise (meaning, you think I AM too strict). Mireille says they follow the 80/20 rule. 80% good choices and 20% of fun foods. They mainly eat whatever they want on the weekends and during the week they really adhere to the rules (eating at certain times, no ice cream, twinkies, or other junk).

I absolutely agree that if you are too strict about it your kids will go the other direction or they will freak out when at friends' houses eating chocopuffs and other sugary stuff, and if not then, in adulthood, once they are the ones responsible for their diet. I just want to teach them to make good choices and like Annalisa said, I pretty much require that they 'earn' the treats by eating nutritious food first. If they do not eat at least most of their lunch/dinner (meaning, at least 3-4 bites of chicken, minimum 2 bites of veggies, along with bread, pasta, rice or whatever we're having that night) then they do not get dessert. We don't always have dessert either, but if we are, they must eat some good stuff first. I don't feel that is too strict because what intelligent kid doesn't try to get away with as little as they can? If any of you have seen the Dr. Phil on this one it's so good. You just can't believe how manipulative those kids are and the wimpy parents give in every time. The kids scream and cry until they get the chocolate cookies or whatever it is they are going for. Anyway, like you Annalisa, I could go on forever. I just think it's easy to be lazy about it and say it's no big deal, meanwhile we are totally affecting our kids' health. They are kids- of course they are not going to pick the healthy stuff. I wouldn't have when I was that age! All I wanted was Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, Ding Dongs, etc. My biggest goal is just to get all the processed stuff out of the house. I try to buy as little pre-made, flavored, colored, processed snacks, meats, etc. Obviously it's really hard not to have ANY, but I think we do pretty well. I just need to be more mindful of those 'treats' I let them have so often. Just trying to make sure it's just that, a treat, not a daily food group. You know what I mean? Ok, end of story.