Healthy Eating Tips

"8 Steps to Healthy Eating"

Healthy Eating as a Family

1. Meal plan together. This is the way to integrate what each meal should contain: protein, fat, fiber and carbohydrate. Use the colors of the rainbow to get your nutrients. Let your child be part of the preparation and take them shopping with you!

2. Try a new vegetable every week. Ask your kids to pick out a new fruit or vegetable to try. Kids are more interested in trying new foods when they get to pick them out.

3. Practice being adventurous with your foods. Most people, even the healthy ones, eat the same 10 foods every day. Research indicates that it may take as much as 5 eating experiences for a child to accept a new food. Encourage your children to take 1-2 bites of a new food to develop their taste buds.

4. Have your kids take turn cooking. We can all strengthen our relationship to our food but it’s important to introduce kids to cooking at an early age. Whether they mix something in a bowl or pour a sauce they will be happier to eat and try new foods when they played a part.

5. Incorporate “fun foods”. You can create new FUN with food by making it a game. Kids are drawn to foods that have different shapes, and bright colors. There are many fruits that can fall into this category such as kiwi or star fruit. You can also prepare it with fun by making an orange into a smiley face on the plate—a simple idea that could get them to eat it!

6. Play the rainbow game. Get your kids interested in adding in different colors each day. This will encourage fun AND nutrition.

7. Make desserts healthy. My favorite is dipping fresh strawberries and bananas in chocolate sauce. You could also make a fruit smoothie or a berry cobbler and add lots of nutritious items into them. Store bought cookies and candy often have very little beneficial nutrition and are all sugar and fat.

8. Be a role model for your children. Kids will mimic what they see, not what you say and don’t do. Your browser may not support display of this image.Lifetime habits start early so do what you say and enjoy your choices!

...About the Author...

J.J. Flizanes, director and founder of Invisible Fitness, was one of a select group of six featured personal trainers in Shape Magazine for 2003 and has recently been named The Best Personal Trainer in Los Angeles by Elite Traveler’s Black Book for 2007.

She has been featured on NBC, KTLA, CBS, FOX 11 and has appeared in many national magazines such as Fitness, Muscle and Fitness HERS, Elegant Bride, E Pregnancy, among others.

In 2004 she was acquired as an expert source and frequent contributor to the new magazine by IHRSA called Get Active! Visit online at www.invisiblefitness.com or call 1-800-571-5722.