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How was your day at school?
Good.
Healthy eating means eating a balanced diet.
Eating in a way that complements your lifestyle
and making sure all of the food groups are hit.
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Even at 6 years old she's very active.
She's plays soccer, she does dance,
she does swimming, and she knows that
in order to have the energy to do all
of these things that I want to do,
I have to keep my body healthy.
I usually pick Sophia up in the afternoon,
so she always asks me, "Daddy, what's my snack today?"
It's usually a fruit, it's usually a granola bar. (knife chopping)
I do the cooking,
I do the food shopping
and then if Sophia is helping with dinner,
I'm always in like, a teacher mode.
At one point we had iceberg lettuce,
I said, "Well let's choose romaine lettuce.”
"Why, Daddy?" and I said,
"Well, the dark green parts are really the healthy parts."
I just want to teach her about everything.
Try this, and try this, and put these together,
and this is why these go together.
I talk to her about using fresh vegetables
and fresh herbs.
So we have a little herb garden out front
and we'll go out there and we'll chop some off
and then we'll bring them in and then we'll taste them.
Smells good.
Then we talk about color,
we talk about how it looks.
I said, “How does your salad look?"
"Daddy, it looks kind of plain.”
I said, “Well, what can we do to add color to it?”
So, we'll add tomato, or chop up a red pepper,
or something to add a little color.
And I'm just teaching,
“Does it look good?" “Yes.”
"Does it taste good?" “Yes.”
"And is it healthy?”
And we kind of go through that as we cook.
We don't cook separate meals.
I know that sometimes toddlers
are very finicky about what they eat.
But I think if we had started to
offer differences then that may have become
a habit so we just never started it.
I love to eat new things,
and I'm always pushing her to eat new things.
One of the games that we play is if we go grocery
shopping she gets to pick a fruit.
And it's usually, you know, once you've done the basics,
the apple, orange, banana, then it's like,
"What's that one?” "That's a kiwi."
"Well, let's try that."
Or, “That's a pineapple."
Or, “That's a persimmon.”
Or that's a, you know,
we'll try those and we'll take them home.
Having Sophia has really encouraged
me to want to try new foods because
I know that she's watching everything that I eat.
If I'm reluctant to try something,
she's more likely to be reluctant to try it,
so I try to be very excited about trying new
foods so that I can get her to be excited about it.
When we go out to restaurants I'm always ordering
the thing on the menu that none of us have heard of.
I'm like, "I'll try that.”
She's usually asking to take a bite,
but I always encourage her and
if she's like, "I don't know"
I'll say, “Just try one bite.
If you don't like it, it's ok,
but if you do then it's opened up your world.”
You gonna have a little tomato?
We have a favorite restaurant,
and typically when we go we'll order a few
small plates to share between the three of us.
(laughter)
I like that. (laughter)
Well, I like the food first of all,
but it also makes us aware of our portions.
We try to make sure she knows
that each food group is important.
And all of them help us to keep going
throughout the day and keep our bodies healthy.
I always have a list in my head of
how many proteins, how many vegetables, how many fruits,
how many diaries did we have in day.
It's important to teach them about balance at an
early age so that it becomes a life-long habit.
Hi I'm Bryan, I'm Keah, I'm Sophia,
and these are our family's healthy eating solutions.
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