I suppose I could start explaining this problem by rattling off my long list of excuses. I seem to be better at thinking of reasons not to, rather than enforcing change in my house. But, the truth be told, it isn’t something I’ve spent a long time worrying about or focusing on. I am, however wondering as time passes, if that will be a mistake or not.
What is this week’s predicament? Healthy eating. It is nearly impossible, and given our lifestyles and family budget, it becomes even more so. But, I will start with the main culprit of why my family eats less than healthy snacks, imperfectly inorganic fruits, and, well, junk: me.
Since I suffer with both PCOS and hyperthyroidism, I gave up on striving to lose weight many years ago. In short, it is dang near impossible for me, and battling two different hormone-unbalancing illnesses, I don’t care anymore. I’m going to be overweight.
I don’t say that with the long face many may picture. I am happy in my skin. I don’t mind being a big girl. It doesn’t bother me. I’m happily married, and my husband doesn’t mind either. Frankly, I’m otherwise perfectly healthy, and unless the way I eat begins to change that fact, I’m content eating as I do, when I want and how I want.
This style, however, of course then relays to the way I shop, the way I cook and the way I feed my kids. They’ve always been free to choose. Some would say to a fault, they’ve been able to decide when and what they eat. They can help themselves to snacks. They know where drinks are, and there are always lots of choices.
I do stock healthy snacks. We always have yogurt, apples, bananas, granola bars, oranges…there are healthy choices. But, more often than not, and likely in a “monkey-see, monkey-do” response, when my kids have the munchies, they tend to reach for salty pretzel sticks or potato chips over the fruits and veggies.
I do love vegetables. I think with the exception of one or two, I eat most all of them. That love, however, did not get passed onto my children. The strange desire for salty, of course, did.
They have their own tastes, and I’d call them far, far pickier than me. But, overall, are they the healthiest choices? No. They aren’t. They get fast food once a week, maybe, if schedules are too busy to sit down together at the table.
They have snack cupboards always stocked with Little Debbie snack cakes, fruit snacks, chips, cookies, and candy. They know they need to eat dinner, and sit with the family, and at least try everything offered on the table. But, they can snack as they wish. Sure, they ruin their dinner at times. Frankly, it is more often than not on nights they don’t per se like what mom made for dinner.
They also usually end the night with a sweet. I don’t have the sweet tooth that they both seem to have inherited from their father. But, they end each dinner (should it be completed to a parent’s approval level) with a sweet. They pack one to finish their lunches. They sometimes grab one as an after-school snack.
No, these are not the healthiest options. Quite frankly, most healthier foods are far more expensive than the non-healthy counterparts. For example, a 100 percent fruit juice bottle or juice box is much higher in cost than the sugary version. A half-gallon of juice might run you $4 to $5, but a three liter of generic soda is $0.79! That is a huge budgetary difference, and it makes a lot of family grocery decisions tougher.
It also banks of the laziness of parents. I admit it. I am lazy sometimes. By the time bedtime snacks or after school munchies kick in, I’m not in the mood to argue. You want an apple or you want a baggie of chips? Chips is the usual response, and if I’m not up for a fight about it (let’s say I just worked 10 hours and am exhausted),then yep, chips win.
I hope with a semi-healthy breakfast of eggs or cereal (or pancakes if dad is in a good mood and on time), a healthy-ish lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, pretzels, applesauce, and a sweet, accompanied with homemade dinner counteracts some of the other junk they stuff their faces with between meals. Snacks seem to be our biggest flaw, in the unhealthy choices department. Meals are not perfect, but at least fairly well rounded with food groups and calories. I think they eat appropriate amounts, and thus far track on a healthy scale at each and every annual check-up. They still show heights and weights typical of their age group, and have healthy BMI measurements, so I think they’re doing OK.
In the end, I may have to just chalk this one up as one of the things I’m not too great at. Someday, my kids will sit (or lay) in therapy telling their counselor how their mother let them binge eat crap day and night, and that is how they fostered a terrible relationship with food…but until then, I’ll try to just keep focusing on raising healthy kids.
None of us is perfect. This might be my major “miss.” But, I’m just like every other busy, tired mom…doing the best I can.
See also:
Montco Mommy: Allowance Versus Responsibilities
Montco Mommy: 'Sno Reason for Snow Days
Montco Mommy: Preparing Kids for Work
Montco Mommy: They Grow So Fast...
