I know it is so tempting to reach into the pantry and grab the box of fish crackers. STOP!
Give them fresh fruit!
Cantaloupe is filled with an enormous amount of Vitamin A and beta-carotene and Vitamin C. You know that Vitamin C is important for a healthy immune system. And Vitamin A is good for your eyes. Now, most people think "good for your eyes" means 20/20 vision. Rather, "good for your eyes" means that it can help reduce your risk for things like cataracts and macular degeneration.
What do fish crackers do for you? Um, fill your belly with empty calories...and them make you want more one hour later.
How do you pick the best cantaloupe? Smell it! Works every time. If it smells like a good one, it is! If I pick one up at the store and it isn't smelling ripe yet, I just leave it in our fruit bowl for a couple days until it smells just right.
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Before I truly understood the importance of good food, I would let Ben and CC snack on whatever they wanted before bedtime. Ben would always request tortilla chips, and I would hand them over without thinking. Now? He MUST eat fruit (or some other healthy snack) before tortilla chips. Since their bellies become full with fruit, they won't eat as much chips.
After he eats an apple, he will get his chips. And sometimes he won't even ask for the chips after he eats the apple because he is satisfied.
Making kids eat fruit first is a great way to introduce your kids into eating good foods. They are motivated to eat the good stuff because they know chips will come. Before you know it, they will forget about the chips and ask for fruit. Promise!
I reach for empty calorie snacks too often with Ben, but I do manage to give him healthy stuff a fair amount of the time. A recent favorite of his is dipping yellow peppers in hummus. I love feeling good about what he's eating!
ReplyDeleteyellow peppers are full of vitamin C...awesome food! Way to go Ben for liking hummus! I know plenty of adults who don't like it :)
DeleteI jste started that shift with my son. He ws great about veggies and fruit then he started slipping and it ws all junk, now, fruit and veggies firths then orios chips and ect. Its a fight but we will get there.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fight, but one worth fighting. Keep it up, and like you said, you will get there!
DeleteJoanna just wanted to tell you that I never used to smell my cantaloupes when I bought them, last night I bought the best cantaloupe to date, thanks to your smell your cantaloupe trick. MMM MMMM GOOD, thanks for the tip, now I will be snifing all my cantaloupes :0)
ReplyDeleteyeah! Glad I can help. I tell you what, a good cantaloupe is great...and a not ripe one just isn't worth it.
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