Good Eating Habits

by Debrah Hertz Community Worker
(Rockford, New Jersey )

Good Eating Habits

I am sharing this diet experience about good eating habits and this is because I actually agree with the Vegetarian Diet Tips you recently posted. The writer Terry is right about our children not being able to lose weight if they will go through it alone.

I practically had the same experience with Josh, my ten year old boy, who grew too fat for his age. It was all a matter of good eating habits to put him in the right weight and it was not something only he had to practice but the whole family as well.

Parents as Models of Good Eating Habits

Josh being the first of my three kids, acquired his not so good eating habits when my husband and I were just new parents. Back when Josh was growing up, we really were not into good eating habits because we often had ours at fast food diners. We really did not mind whether the food will give us enough nutrients but only something that could fill us up in the quickest and most satisfying ways possible.

I cannot say that we had a too busy lifestyle, it is just that burger, pizzas, tacos and the likes tasted better than the food I attempted to cook. Naturally, all three of us grew thick around the belly

When I became pregnant with my second child, it was important that I got into good eating habits. I cut off on the fast food cuisine and stayed on the diet my doctor prescribed. He gave me stern warning to follow it if I do not want any complications with my pregnancy. That was when I became a good model of eating habits.

Persuading Kids to Develop Good Eating Habits

Josh was not too happy with the vegetables, although he welcomed the fruits. He tended to have these tantrums because he was hungry for the burgers and the fries. It was really a battle of wills between us. I tried to explain to him that something bad will happen to mommy and the baby if we do not eat healthy foods. I was not sure then if it was right to scare him that way but somehow it worked. We settled to a compromise of him having burgers and pizzas on weekends if his daddy was home.

Soon enough Josh developed a taste for salads because he liked them crisp. He started to like omelets because egg was the only thing I mastered in cooking. I searched the net for recipes for vegetable omelets and soon I was whipping up different recipes. In the nine months that I was on a strict diet, Josh totally lost all interest in fast food and became interested with home cooked meals. As for me, I found out that cooking was not really that hard. It was only a matter of not giving up if it did not turn out right the first time.

Making Meals a Family Affair is a Good Eating Habit

I realized later that Josh only developed his not so good eating habits because it was what he saw in his parents. Meals now became a family affair. The other kids grew up seeing the family eating properly at meal time. Unlike when Josh was growing up, we often took the fast-food meals in front of the TV, watching movies or playing video games.

Even our family doctor gave us the thumbs up sign, for changing our lifestyle because he said good eating habits will save us a lot of health problems in the future. Josh slimmed down but he is still heavy but more solidly built. Unlike before when he was obviously fat and flabby looking like an overgrown baby.

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