Feeding your family a healthy diet can be a daunting task. There are so many different ways and ideas to eat healthy that it can be difficult to decide what path to take. Regardless of what eating plan you choose to follow, here are some healthy eating tips that are simple to accomplish and will work for whole family.
1. Eat From Small Plates Such as a Salad Plate
When my little children started eating table food, I brought plastic kid size plates to preserve my china. What I did not realize is that I would also eventually be eating on the adult version of the small plate. It can be hard to put too much food on a small plate. Because I do not like eating from plastic or paper plates, my husband and I eat from the salad plates that are part of our everyday dish set. Of course this smaller plate idea may be a ploy from my husband to do less clean up work after dinner.
2. Easily Measure Your Portion Size Using Your Hands
I admire people who weigh and measure their food to ensure they have the right portions. If I had a food scale in my kitchen, my five year old would use it for a science experiment involving wooden blocks, a stuffed animal, and some maple syrup. I'm not the type of person who has the time, energy or inclination to measure food portions, so I use the following system: A serving is the size of my fist, and an ounce of something such as cheese, is approximately the size of my thumb. I use these guidelines to help me understand what makes up a reasonable portion of food, but I don't ever believe this type of measurement is an exact science. Beyond that, if the food can't fit on my plate, then I probably don't need it.
3. Clean the Kitchen As You Go
After I finish my food and think that I might still be hungry, I sit for a few minutes just to be sure. Some nutritionists suggest it takes 20 minutes for your body to feel full. I tried to sit this long this once while my five year old kept asking, "Are you done yet? How much longer? Are three minutes up yet? Mommmmm, why are you just sitting there?"
Since the recommended 20 minute meal time is out of the question, I adopted the "clean as I go" food preparation strategy. I fix the appropriate portion of healthy food, and then put the food away. If I really am hungry after I finish my first serving, I'll take the food out and prepare some more. Chances are I am not hungry and I don't want to clean the kitchen again just to overeat. Being tidy can have its role in keeping you fit and healthy.
4. Listen to Your Body
On days when I feel life is spiraling out of control, and I am on the brink of not keeping it together, I want to just sit. And eat. But I learned to ask myself, "Am I really hungry?" Ask your body if it is really full, and listen to its response. You might indeed be hungry, or you just might want a cold glass of mineral water and five minutes to yourself with the newspaper. Or maybe you are nervous or anxious and just need to sit and breathe.
5. Eat in One Place In Your Home
But back when I was first married, I ate in all parts of my house and left a trail of crumbs everywhere I went. My husband banished me to the kitchen table to sit down with a napkin in my lap. But I realized that by eating in one place, I was actually eating less and enjoying it more. I now eat by myself or with my family at our kitchen table. I sit in a chair, put my fork down between bites, and place a napkin in my lap and a glass of water on the table. How civilized.
6. Turn off the Television to Foster An Emotionally Healthy Environment
After we had our second and then third child, my husband and I were both tired at the end of the day. I convinced him that if I was really careful I could enjoy healthy meals on the sofa while watching television. We began to park ourselves on the family room sofa and have dinner in front of the television. We did some work on our house, and we were forced to disconnect our television for several weeks. And back to the dinner table we went.
Our conversations at the dinner table became longer and more interesting. We ate more slowly and enjoyed our food. As a mother I realized my family bonds when we eat together at the table. I know television is not good for small children, but I never realized how much turning off the television could foster an emotionally healthy environment for my whole family. To this day, I still believe that turning off the television is of the best healthy eating tips around.
Mary Rentoumis writes about her humorous adventures in feeding her family a healthy diet on her website, healthy-diet-mom.com healthy-diet-mom.com Although Mary cannot cook, she endures kitchen disasters and grocery store mishaps to create a healthy diet program that can be adapted to fit a whole family, or just a single person. With an Ivy League degree in History and Chemistry, Mary Rentoumis is comfortable understanding on a molecular level why some foods are not healthy choices. Mary regularly uses her scientific background to explain to her youngest son why he can't have candy bars for breakfast.
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