Aspire, Perspire, Nourish Yourself

©Lebensmittelfotos

Last Saturday my son and his friend were hanging out together at our place. They surfed, skateboarded, and watched YouTube videos. At least that’s what I thought. Apparently, the boys snuck in a meal at McDonald’s late in the afternoon, just before dinner. They didn’t say anything about it until we were seated at a restaurant and about to order food! It was my son’s friend who mentioned it, while my son looked at me sheepishly.

Do you know what your kids are eating when you’re not watching? Well, I guess we can’t do much about their actions when we’re not around. We can hope, though, that our attempt to educate them about making good food choices has an impact.

On the other hand, what can we do when we are in control of their meals?

Move Slowly and Purposely…

This weekend’s experience reminded me that kids are human too. Tasty food brings enjoyment to life, and fast food has its share of taste to entice kids, and many adults for that matter. Typically, items on fast food menus are loaded with sodium, fat and preservatives. These ingredients are tough to spot, and kids in particular tend to choose foods based on taste, not nutrition content.

Taking the not-so-healthy foods away from him ‘cold turkey’ has not been a strategy that has worked for me when dealing with my son. Instead, I’ve tried to ease my son into healthier eating by blending some of his favorite foods with healthier ingredients or sides. As his tastebuds have changed, he finds the fast food too sweet, too salty or too greasy.

Strategy 1 – Blend/Mix/Add/Substitute

The easiest strategy I’ve used for easing into healthier eating is to mix or blend fast foods with my own healthier ingredients.

©Max Blain

For instance, my son says he loves the taste of packaged mac and cheese. Yes, I find that disturbing as a first-generation Italian! So, what I’ve done is made mac and cheese from scratch using real cheese for the sauce, and then added a teaspoon of the sauce mixture from the store bought package. The first time I did this, my son was a little suspicious of the taste, but as I persisted with this practice and slowly reduced the amount of the packaged sauce, he got used to the new taste.

Chinese food is another perfect meal for mixing or blending. In this case, I’ve made a healthier version of chow mein using buckwheat noodles, nut butter, ginger, and fresh vegetables.

©Neil Mey

With the noodles as a base, I’ve added a few pieces of orange chicken from a Chinese restaurant’s signature dish and a vegetable dish I made at home. Doing this has cut down the calories, sodium, and preservatives my family is eating. Result: my son devoured this meal and asked if we had leftovers the next day!

Next on my agenda is trying to make my own orange chicken that my son will love. Maybe that will be next week’s recipe of the week!

Strategy 2 – Make Your Homemade Version

Another strategy that takes a little more work is making those fave fast foods at home from scratch. Of course, modifying the ingredients and cooking methods is a must to make these meals healthier.

I’ve re-crafted many recipes from fast food restaurants such as milk shakes and smoothies, Acai bowls, chicken nuggets, fries, ice cream, hash browns, tacos, and more. The information on ingredients and nutritional content is available online for most foods. You can use this basic information to create your own versions. Keep the sugars to a minimum by reducing the amount and/or using natural sweeteners in their place, and replace artificial flavors and ingredients with fresh ones.

After a few tries, you might surprise yourself and your family. They may like your version better than the fast food version.

Read our past posts about kids and their healthy eating habits:

Share Your Ideas

What tricks do you have up your sleeve? Share your ideas for healthier eating, whether for your kids or yourself.

Recipe of the Week: Home Fries

Fitness Motivation: Take the “No Sweat” Advice!

Do you hate exercising? Although you understand that’s it’s important for your health, you just can’t get yourself motivated to run, go to the gym, or do much of the stuff we recommended in this blog. The threat of health problems down the road is not enough to get you moving. Well, you are not alone!

Maybe you need to stop thinking of exercising and start thinking about doing what you enjoy.

http://michellesegar.com/books/no-sweat/

In her new book, “No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness,” Michelle Segar, Ph.D. writes about how to discover your motivations for healthy living from the “inside out”. Dr. Segar makes the point that “doing what you enjoy is a better motivator for sustained physical activity than exercising because you think you should exercise.” (p.15)

Dr. Segar also emphasizes that the key to health is movement and that everything one does counts as exercise. She makes the point that research on physical activity has been misunderstood, and as a result created a belief that a minimum amount of exercise is needed to see health benefits (i.e. 10 minutes). In the 1996 and 2007 reports of the US Surgeon General on Physical Activity and Health, the guidelines for physical activity “encouraged people to engage in thirty minutes of moderate-intensity activity five days per week or ten minutes of vigorous-intensity activity three days per week, which could be divided up, providing that each instance consisted of at least ten minutes.” (p. 75). Interestingly, when Dr. Segar looked into the research behind the prescribed 10-minute rule, she found that it based on the fact that researchers at the time did not have scientific measurement tools that would allow them to accurately assess exercise of less than 8 minutes, and not because the evidence shows that the minimum number of minutes required is ten.

Changing Your Life…

The heart of the book is about behavior change. Using self-determination theory as the basis for her approach, Dr. Segar developed a program that coaches people to re-think exercise, and re-build their approach to healthy living so that it fits into and adapts to their busy lives.

In a scientifically-based, systematic approach called M.A.P.S., she asks people to:

Examine the Meaning they attribute to exercise and why they exercise.
Raise their Awareness of “what’s been keeping (you) them from staying motivated,” (p.11) and what makes them feel great, energized and excited to sustain activity as a lifestyle.
Give themselves Permission to prioritize healthy living and “self-care”.
Develop Strategies that will help them start and sustain physical activity and healthy living as a lifelong experience.

The book is written as a how-to and includes several worksheets/questions to get the reader experiencing the program while reading the book. It is also filled with many inspiring stories from clients who have struggled with integrating exercise into their lives as a life-long commitment.

Wellness Ideas for Everyday Living…

In many of our past posts, we have also urged you to move. Remember that every bit of activity you do counts towards enhancing your health and keeping you fit. This activity can be every day actions like climbing the stairs in your house, walking to the grocery store, gardening, or doing housework. Beyond this, we encourage you to find your true love for movement, pursue it with passion, and reap the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits it will continue to provide.