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“Have you ever wondered “How can I help teach healthy habits to my kids?”. Us too. That why today, my guest, Dani Spies from Clean and Delicious, and I are going to be talking all about building healthy habits for kids.
Dani is a health, wellness, and weight loss coach as well as foodie and amazing recipe developer. She is joining us today to give some insights into her own experience of parenting and answer questions like:
- How has having kids changed healthy eating for you?
- How do you get your kids to eat healthily?
- What are some of your strategies for building healthy habits?
- What is your advice if a kid doesn’t naturally love “healthy foods”?
- What are your favorite hacks for making a healthy meal for the whole family?
We have a great conversation about all this and more in the video (below) and podcast episode (above), but if you prefer to read, feel free to check out the post below.
Building Healthy Habits for Kids in the Real World
No matter what season of life, there are challenges in fostering healthy habits for kids.
When they’re young, they exert their limited power through food and food refusal. As they get older, they have more and more outside influences.
Dani shares that when her kids got to an age when over 50% of their day involved external influences, it got extra challenging. Whereas when they’re little we have a lot of control over what they’re exposed to, when they get a little older it can be harder to draw the line and figure out how you want to parent this.
The key? Giving up a little bit and trusting that your kids are equipped to make their own decisions goes a long way.
The Importance of Flexibility in Building Healthy Habits for Kids
We have the least control over food at parties and events. Which, of course, happen more and more as our kids get older.
This is where trusting your kids and the healthy habits you’ve built at home goes a long way.
For this reason, it is so important to figure out where “your line” is. One of the things that Dani shares is that the line is ever-moving. For example, she’s a lot more flexible on things in the summer because she’d rather stay flexible and have a good time than drive everyone crazy trying to hold the line when they’re busy.
That said, it’s important to remember to always come back to home base where healthy habits are at the forefront. This helps your kids see the continuity; that treats are more “interludes” rather than the new norm.
Facing down a long summer and want to make sure there’s something healthy available? One easy thing to do is to always bring along a dish of “real food” to potluck parties to make sure that there are healthy options available.
How has healthy eating changed since having kids?
In our interview, Dani shared that before kids it was “easy” to eat well because “I could find lots of things I loved that were clean and delicious”. When kids were little, it was easy to keep that going because they only knew what she fed them. But now that the kids are in activities and we’re working and on the move, it can be a lot more challenging.
With older kids, healthy habits in the real world mean that “decent choices” abound and time is a huge part of the equation. For example, Habit Burger may not have been something that she deemed “healthy” before, but now that the kids have their own schedules and appetites “good enough” goes a long way.
And let’s be honest, staying sane is a big part of the health journey.
When we’re obsessed with just nutrition and all of the compartments of it and we don’t look at the bigger picture of wellness, healthy food, connection and more we are missing a big piece of the picture. (P.S. want to hear more about what connection has to do with being healthy? We have a whole episode on that here.)
Easy Hacks for Building Healthy Habits for Kids at Home
The good news is that you have a ton of influence over your kids based on what they consistently experience and see at home. The bad news is that you have a ton of influence over your kids based on what they consistently experience and see at home 🙂
Or as Dani says, “It really comes down to influence…what they see and what is normal most of the time?”
Want to help your kids build healthy habits? The best thing you can do is a lay a good foundation of healthy (but not obsessively so) eating and living at home.
Let’s talk about some of the easy(ish) ways to do that:
What are some strategies for getting my kids to eat more healthy foods?
Here’s Dani’s take: “When my kids come home from school they’re hungry. It used to be that I’d give them snacks and it’d be this endless parade of yogurt, popcorn, and other treats. Now, I’ve started giving them a meal when they get home from school.”
This is a chance for them to eat a real food “linner” (lunch/dinner) and then if they’re hungry they have more of a snack to fill them up later.
This is a great example of giving ample opportunity for healthy choices. It also showcases the power of adapting your rythms and schedules for your kids’ eating times and preferences.
Some ideas for easy “linners” / heavy snacks:
- Crudite platter
- “Big pot” meals that they can eat over and over:
- Stuffed peppers
- Roast chicken with potatoes and vegetables
- Smoothies (here are a couple great looking ones from Dani’s blog)
- Head start ingredients like pre-cooked brown rice, hard boiled eggs, and other staples
What are your favorite hacks for making a healthy meal for the whole family?
One thing that stresses us out is the feeling that we have to be Pinterest moms. Dani shares that she’ll make the same meal her kids like until they say “ENOUGH”.
There’s no shame in keeping it really simple and that’s been one of her secrets in feeding her kids healthy food on the regular without stressing herself out.
What do you do every week to help build healthy habits for kids?
Dani’s family has a routine of things they do every week to make sure that they have healthy options on hand.
Here are some of the foods that they make and/or buy:
- Weekly crudite platter:
- Carrots
- Celery
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Radishes
- Sometimes fennel
- Pre-washed baby spinach
- Buy Siggi’s tubes (which are a little lower in sugar) and freeze them like ice pops
- Avocadoes
- Fresh fruit
- Nice cheese
- Hummus
- Crackers
- Eggs
This way, there are always healthy options on hand.
Between that and things to make smoothies, that is 80% of the food they eat every week.
Want to hear more about quick, healthy dinners? I talked all about it in last week’s episode, including why we don’t plan more than 3 dinners per week at my house.
Need something in a pinch? Not everything has to be homemade. Some easy order-in staples like sandwiches or sushi rolls and edamame are great options as well!
What about kids who don’t naturally love healthy foods?
The thing is, you don’t need to be a perfect eater to be healthy. A huge part of helping build healthy habits of kids is giving them trust and helping them trust themselves.
Every meal doesn’t need to be perfect and we all have our own inner guidance system built in. (We parents have this too btw).
At the end of the day, kids are likely going to get to a place where they want to put energy and attention into their health eventually. What we don’t want to do is create shame and negativity where they start to judge themselves.
As Dani says, “Not everybody has to eat kale salad every day. People find their own paths. I think we’d all be surprised if we could look at the menu of everybody who was just feeling good and doing well and what was on their plate. There’s a big variety.”
How can I help my family to build healthy habits?
We cannot control other people (except our kids a bit depending on age).
When the kids are a little younger we do have a bit of control and we have to use it. Dani uses the term “you need to eat real food” with her kids to help them know that they need to find balance.
With your partner and older kids, the best thing you can do is set a great example. When you worry about your own self, you may influence them through your actions. But you can’t convince another adult to do something they don’t want to do.
As an idea, one strategy Dani uses is to give a variety of options but to hold steady on what they WON’T be having. For example, she says if they don’t like something then they can have a smoothie or a salad. But she doesn’t let them “wiggle over” to the mac and cheese or chicken nuggets. As she says, “we get to serve the macaroni and cheese for the nights we want to serve it”.
A phrase I use a lot in my house is “that’s not on the menu tonight”.
Holding the line goes a long way to helping kids build those healthy habits over time and not getting into a chicken nugget or macaroni and cheese rut.
Remember, you are in control of what happens in the house and the food ISN’T their decision. Want to hear more about how I manage the division of responsibility in our meals? I talk all about it in this episode “How can I get my kids to eat more vegetables?“.
Want more ideas of key healthy habits for kids?
- Top 10 Healthy Habits for Kids
- Top 20 Healthy Habits for Kids (this one goes beyond healthy eating habits)
- 7 Healthy Habits for Kids (less food-focused as well)
Conclusion: Building Healthy Habits for Kids in the Real World
Our role at home is to show our kids:
- Here is food
- This is real food
- Here’s what an eating experience looks like
As Dani says, “we plant a seed and then stand back and see what happens”.
Plan the seed on healthy habits for kids and let it grow. And don’t get too micro with it.
And remember, this is a practice and we can all make progress in doing better every day.
Want to try a new practice today? In the moment of making a food decision for yourself or your kids, ask yourself: “What feels most like love?”
This is Dani’s go-to phrase for flexibly and lovingly navigating healthy habits in the real world, for herself and her kids.
Want to hear more from Dani? You can find tons from her at the links below:
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