5 Tips for Getting Started on a Healthier Family Diet

I always thought my family had a fairly healthy diet – not perfect but healthy compared to a lot of other families. I was amazed at what other people had in their grocery carts, and what snacks and treats parents were allowing their kids to have. My perception of our diet did a 360 degree turn last October when I first came across the idea of raw food. I began to see that my family was still eating a SAD diet – just a little healthier SAD diet than other people.

So we began a journey to transition our meat and potatoes family to a more healthy lifestyle.

We are slowly adopting healthy strategies into our lifestyle and will continue to do so slowly but surely. My goal is to add one new healthy change into our lifestyle each week. As I progress through this journey I thought I’d share some tips that we have found working for us with the hope that it will inspire other Moms and Dads out there to do the same.

Tips

1. Green Smoothies – I know, I know if you’ve read this site you have heard this over and over, but kids really do love green smoothies. It’s one of the easiest and most beneficial changes we have made. If you have not had any luck with your kids, try having them create their own concoctions – usually if they have made it they are sure to like it. Note -we always taste test our new inventions before we pour them so we can adjust things if they do not taste just right.

You can try the 3-day green smoothie challenge here!

2. Try It – Each week we bring home a new fruit or vegetable to taste. We have a chart to detail who liked it and who didn’t. Everyone gets to draw a happy or sad face on the chart depending if they liked it or not. You could very easily take this game to the next level and find out all the benefits of the new fruit or vegetable so it turns into a fun learning experience for all. How can you know if you like something unless you try it!

3. Find a Raw group in your area - it’s great to be able to get together every so often with like minded people. Many groups have pot-lucks so you get the opportunity to try new recipes as well as talk with some very knowledgeable people. A good website to try to locate a raw group in your area is www.meetup.com.

4. Substitution - if your kids are like mine they bring home treats filled with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, dyes and all kinds of other chemicals they get from schools or parties. We have a rule that we get to go through the bags and take out anything that is bad and they can substitute it with something else they like that we approve of. This makes everyone happy.

5. Educating – we always try to let the kids know why they can or cannot have something. This makes them more aware. Hopefully it will help them make better choices when we aren’t around to see what they are eating – but I’ve seen this is not always the case J.

Please post any suggestions below that you have found working for your family. Knowledge is power.

As a last note I’m currently reading “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan. I’m only about three chapters in but I thought I’d leave you this from his book to contemplate:

“But I contend that most of what we’re consuming today is no longer, strictly speaking, food at all, and how we’re consuming it – in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly, alone—is not really eating, at least not in the sense that civilization has long understood the term.”

Take care,

Jody

Jody is one of our new Transitioning Moms and will be writing regularly on the joys and pitfalls of transitioning from Cooked to Raw…

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