Food for Thought

Around the world, what children and teens eat makes such a difference in their lives. And for the hundreds of thousands going hungry everyday, what they are not eating makes a difference too...understatement.

Here in America we have the best of choices to be made and an entire advertising industry wanting to skew out powers of observation.

Helping your child eat well begins during pregnancy, even for adoption. It continues with the addition of solids beginning from six months or so.

Simplify things a little bit by dividing foods into categories:
Must haves: Veggies, Fruits, Protein, Healthy Fats, all the foods bones and brains and skin and muscles need.
Family traditions: Favorites that are part of your culture
Seasonal Treats: Foods that appear in season in your particular part of the world
Guilty Pleasures: Those rare and wonderful moments that are about celebration and mouth happiness.

Nowhere on that list is the hyped promo foods that are trending. Observe what you eat and why. Observe you baby, child and teens' preferences. Like potty training, your children need to take responsibility for their food choices early on. Make becoming nutritionally savvy a big priority.

Keep the four food groups I mentioned above in balance. No child needs to eat nothing but healthy. Mouth happiness is OK. Move out of family traditions and find new recipes and new foods. Make it an adventure you go on together as a family.  Freeze or can seasonal treats rather than eating from another part of the world. Enjoy your guilty pleasures and call them what they are, treats.

And remember, eating at table together is one of the best gifts you can give your children.
Encouraging you in the basics. No advertising needed.
Love,
Deborah

Give yourself a break

Yesterday I was reminded of how intensely I observe children. Getting through meals with preparation , serving and eating, constantly anticipating what's going to go wrong and be a safety or care issue, thinking up new and interesting ways to be in relationship, listening as they try to get their thoughts out then lose track or grow self conscious, all take enormous amounts of concentration and being 'on' no matter what the age. From infancy to young adulthood we focus so much on our kids we literally lose ourselves.

So today I give you the tip of the century. Think of yourself as an air traffic controller. Your responsibilities are the same, the pressures are the same, the skill set is the same. They take a break every fifteen minutes! Do you?  Do it. Every fifteen minutes, absent yourself from the game for just a minute or two. Things will be fine. You will be fresher, and more attentive and less resentful of the demands.

Whistle a happy tune, think about a hobby, attend to something that needs to be put on 'the to do list'. Obviously stay physically present, but just check out for a minute. Yes, make sure all is well before you take your mini break. And no more than sixty seconds or so...but change your focus. Watch a butterfly out the window, change the radio channel, something that freshens you a bit.

You will be able to hang in there for the long haul much more easily. More small breaks makes you feel less desperate to disengage. Try it... You'll see it works.
Love,
Deborah