There’s nothing better than meal time battles with our kids.
Not.
It’s bad enough that the pressure is on as a woman to eat healthy, but the pressure to get our kids to eat healthy also is a pain in the you-know-what.
Though there are no guaranteed tricks to get your kids to eat well, and kids do tend to go through faces of being a “picky” eater, there are some things you can do to tilt the scale in your favour … so to speak.
And the facts speak for themselves, eating healthy will stabilize your child’s energy, put them in a better mood and help them concentrate better in school.
That’s enough to convince me!
10 Ways to Make Eating Healthy Easy for the Whole Family
- Homemade rules. Eating out is expensive, high in sodium and often leads to dessert (you know, it’s a typical kids meal). Make your meals at home and you’re more likely to eat a healthier meal.
- Option number one. Enough of you making 2, 3 or 4 meals to make sure your whole family has something they’ll eat on the table. Make one meal for everyone. If they don’t want to eat it, that’s fine – they won’t starve.
- Eating with your eyes. We eat with our eyes first – so make it fun. Cut foods into fun shapes or arrange the food into fun pictures on the plate – find your inner kid.
- Family affair. Get the whole family involved in making dinner for a fun family cook-off. You have no idea how good your hubby can cook until you challenge him to a competition!
- Make it available. Keep healthy snacks on hand for when anyone in the family gets the urge to snack.
- Sit down. Dinner time should be a sit down meal where the whole family gets together to chat because food brings people together. When you make meal time a regular family time the kids start to get excited and want to participate.
- Find healthy alternatives. It’s not necessary to avoid the foods you love, just find healthier alternatives. Whether it’s making homemade mac & cheese instead of KD or making a healthy homemade pizza instead of ordering in.
- Control Freak. Offering up “make it yourself” meals with healthy options helps everyone enjoy their meal but leaves you knowing it was still healthy. Options like tacos, salads, homemade pizzas, baked potatoes etc are great options.
- Let it go. A stressful meal time will make even the healthiest eater want to sit down with a box of chocolates. Make an effort to have a positive and fun meal time … every time.
- Be realistic. Kids go through phases where they eat lots or eat little and phases where the eat well or are picky eaters. Offer healthy options in a positive atmosphere and know that sometimes you’ll win and sometimes you’ll lose.
A fun snack that my kids love to help make and chow down on are homemade Tortilla Chips + GuacaSalsa. It’s super easy and a delicious and nourishing afternoon snack for the whole family!