Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Overcoming Nature with Nurture

My future children aren't even a twinkle in my eye yet, but my fiance and I already have aspects of their life planned out.  We know between the two of us they are going to be prone to weight problems, and that terrifies us.  We don't want our children to go through everything that we have.  We were talking the other day about getting them involved in sports and other healthy activities at a young age.  We also talked about implementing what we call Family Exercise Time, but what they would simply know as some fun activity that we all do together.  What are some fun and creative ways to pull this off?

I fear one of my biggest hurdles in keeping my children healthy is going to be to get them to eat vegetables.  Sadly, my fiance does not eat them.  AT ALL.  He refuses to.  How am I going to get my kids to eat them when they don't see their father doing it.  My mother did buy me a cookbook on how to hide vegetables from children and I'm hoping that it will work on him too.

I just already feel like the odds are stacked against my children.  But I pledge to do my best by them!  Does anyone else think about this sort of thing too?

2 comments:

  1. I think an often overlooked part of making your kids eat vegetables is getting them into the kitchen asap. From a very young age, my grandfather took me to the market every Sunday and I loved it. That is mostly where my passion for cooking comes from. So, take your kids to the grocery store and cook together with them. Obviously, you do not want your kid wielding a massive knife but they can help with breaking down vegetables ( pulling florets off a cauliflower, taking apart a head of lettuce, etc) or mixing sauces.

    Also, there is something to be said about making vegetables look appetizing to kids. At 28, I still wouldn't eat a bunch of microwaved green peas. Now, roasted or grilled vegetables...now we are talking.

    I think there are a lot of things you can do to put your kids on a healthy path - cook with them, work out with them and encourage them to play sports from as young as possible. I would also focus on the word 'healthy' instead of 'skinny'...I know that would have helped me a lot growing up!

    Last but not least...as our mothers know...there is only so much you can do to control your kids. In the end, you just hope you have given them the right tools to handle life.

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  2. I think this article I just found speaks to your final comment. Lot's to consider!

    http://meadvilletribune.com/opinion/x966118607/Solving-childhood-obesity-with-family-mealtime-It-really-freakin-matters

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