Why do you eat what you do and who is watching?

So, why do you make the food choices you do?
Do you eat the foods you ate as a child?  Do you eat all of your veggies?  Do you rebel against what your mama made you eat as you had to clear your plate too many times?  Seriously, what drives you when you plan your meals, when you head out to a restaurant, when you go to the grocery store?

For some it is simply money.  What can I afford?  How can I feed my family with X amount of money!  Fair enough.  Lets weigh out long term health in that though.  Are we planning on coming into a lot of money down the road to cover high health costs for the health problems we are now enduring from the poor but cheap food we put in our bodies yesterday?  If we cannot afford healthy foods at the big chain stores we have a few choices.  1. Grow our fruits and veggies!  Eat them fresh when they are ripe, freeze them for future use, learn to can...no excuses there.  2. Look for sales and stock up. 3. Coupon clip (I will admit, very rarely are there good coupons for fresh healthy food). 4. Buy in bulk, cook extra and freeze. 5. Avoid fast food!!!  This won't save you money now, but it will save you money down the road with your health bills!

For some it is "what will my family eat".  Well guess what...if there are only healthy options, they will eat them or they will go hungry!  My husband is fighting the whole grain pasta movement in my house!  My kids have adapted, but he still puts up a fuss.  I have learned that if I make some fresh pesto he will eat anything that it covers ;)  Vegetables are a large portion of our meals.  They fill you up, they are healthy and there are many ways to cook them to make them yummy-tonight was summer squash and zucchini with a little salad dressing on the BBQ!  Most of our grocery shopping is done on the outer ring of the grocery store.  Produce, dairy, meats plus a few fillers from the middle rows!  Yes, my kids have goldfish and cheezits and animal crackers, but also mozzarella cheese sticks, carrot sticks and yogourt.

I personally rebel a bit against what my dad used to serve!  I remember those weekend breakfasts with fried cheddar cheese, then the eggs and tomatoes were fried in the fat...I remember enjoying that...now it kind of makes me want to gag! 

Our kids are watching us, they are learning from us, they are developing their eating habits based on what they see and experience...if we want to help them, we need to take a look at ourselves!  Let's not force them to eat every last bite, lets not offer them unlimited fattening snacks throughout the day, let's teach them how to help themselves.  Teaching them what they are eating, why we need to eat foods with high nutritional value and not a lot of junk...they get it, they are smart, they are sponges.  If they understand the logic, they might help keep us in check!  People worry that teaching a child about calories will lead to eating disorders, I tend to disagree...eating disorders occur because people don't understand how to eat properly and healthfully!  Good fitness and good nutrition make a healthy body!

If you are looking for some fitness and nutrition support please join me on my Beachbody site at www.beachbodycoach.com/nicolabx  I would love to help you find a way to get healthier, lose the post baby weight or just get motivated to get in shape!  Also adding the healthiest meal of the day with Shakeology can make a world of difference!