Presentation

Emily has been learning all about health and fitness at school lately. She has been bringing home lots of pamphlets and fliers about how to eat and be healthy at home. I am really proud to say that if I had to grade our family and our health and fitness at home I would give us a B+ to A-. This only because we still eat fast food and out at restaurants more than we should. My kids are not picky eaters. However, they are still kids and are very likely to turn up their nose to almost everything new they encounter. This drives me insane and forces me to remind myself constantly that they are still just kids and that it is not a personal attack on my cooking skills :) Recently I have been trying something new. I have been trying to present their meals and different foods in new ways. For example none of my kids will eat banana bread. I have no idea why. I guess it is the way it looks (brown with weird things inside says Emily). Something they love, though is muffins. So instead of making banana bread I pour the batter into muffin wrappers in a in an whalaa. They can't eat them fast enough. Palmer even called them desert. I tried the same thing with zucchini bread and same results. I found a couple of recipes online for other types of veggie muffins that I plan to try as well. Lunch is something that Palmer and I go round and round about. He doesn't want to eat anything except cereal and chicken nuggets. About a year ago Bret's mom found the most awesome set of metal dinosaur cookie cutters. Although we have yet to make dinosaur sugar cookies we have used the heck out of them. We make dinosaur sandwiches. Doesn't matter if it is peanut butter and jelly or ham and cheese if it is in the shape of a dinosaur Palmer will devour it. Sometimes the dinosaur is bigger than the sandwich so I cut the tail out of a different part of the sandwich and he loves it all the same. I read in a magazine that a great way to get kids to try new foods is to use the bento box. The idea is to have small portions in their own space. Kind of like a lunchable. I used a muffin tin and cups and Palmer loved it. He still wasn't to crazy about the veggies but at least he tried them. I have trying to introduce new foods like hummus, cherry tomatoes, etc. It is a slow process for both boys. Palmer will try something and if he isn't crazy about it he will chew the same bite for 20 minutes unless you stay on him. Logan will put something in his mouth and then literally spit it right back out and if he decides he doesn't like it good luck trying to get in his mouth. Emily has grown up a lot and will try everything but will tell you if she doesn't like it very much. She will eat what you tell her to but no more. She tried sushi for the first time the other day and said it wasn't her favorite. We were still proud that she tried it and didn't spit it out. Who knew that food could be such an issue. I want my kids to be healthy. They are all pretty skinny and very active. There are certain habits that I really want my kids to have that I never had. For instance breakfast. In my house growing up we had poptarts or granola bars except on weekends. My kids sit down every single morning and eat breakfast. It may only be cereal or frozen waffles but they start their day out with breakfast. I think this is influenced more with Bret has eaten breakfast every morning of his life too. I also want me kids to drink water. My mom and dad hated water. We never drank water with our meals let alone throughout the day. As I have been working on my weight this has been a really big shift for our whole family. I have a water bottle constantly and my kids drink from it as much as I do. I never realized how often they were thirsty throughout the day before and they actually ask for water regularly now. I can see that the change has hit Emily the hardest. We never put water in her sippy cup and now she is not the biggest fan unless she is really thirsty. The boys drink it all day. Logan rarely gets juice and when he does it is kind of a treat. Both boys still drink a ton of milk and will as long as the want to. With regards to the fitness part we are all doing things everyday. We walk with our kids or take them on long bike rides several times a week. The kids swim, play soccer, and run around the backyard with Bret and I. In our society is more important than ever to be setting good habits in our kids starting at a young age. Although I feel like we are working pretty hard at it I want to keep doing more. I want my kids to have a solid foundation.