๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ.
๐๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ, ๐ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ฎ๐ข๐ป๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ต๐ฉ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐บ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅโ๐ด ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ, ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ.
NB. This post was first published in this blog in July 2020
I actually see it as a divine privilege to GET TO feed my family.
Like, God has GRACIOUSLY blessed me with these MEN and what an honor to show how grateful I am by feeding them with foods that will give life to their bodies and not take life away from them.
Yes, food is that powerful, and because I coach women through their weight loss journeys, I see how HARD a lifestyle change can be for them at that adult age. Not that it is impossible to pick up new habits and retrain taste buds, but things would be easier if we just planted the seed of a healthy lifestyle in them from childhood.
One person that has really modelled this to me is Heather Lindsey.
I adore how she carries her family especially Nutrition on her head. I know that when some people listen to her they may say โOh she is harsh, or she is showing off and allโ but my sister, the Satan you want to play with is certainly not playing with you and I see that he uses EVERYTHING including diet. Some of the incessant health challenges we are battling with in our kids is straight up diet-caused.
I said all that to say this: Letโs do better with our kids, Moms.
๐๐จ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ฌ, ๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฌ๐ก๐๐ซ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐๐ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐๐ค๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐ก๐จ๐ข๐๐๐ฌ ๐๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฌ. ๐๐ก๐๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ข๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ค๐๐ฌ ๐ ๐ก๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ง ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐๐ค๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ง ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ข๐ซ ๐ค๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐๐ญ.
Ready? Letโs go
1. Prioritize water over and above every other drink
I mean, tell me WHY you cannot give your kids water even in their lunch boxes? And, I do mean ONLY WATER?
Who told us we had to put โRibena and Caprisun?
โMy kidsโ school do this thing of Wednesdays being โFruit and Waterโ day, and recently, a friend shared with me how her kids school in the UAE told them at the orientation that only water and milk are allowed as drinks and they were serious.
How amazing for schools to insist on that at a systemic level, but I donโt even wait for Wednesdays and neither should you wait for the school. 90% of the time, I give my babies water only. There was a time I used to give ZOBO (a local homemade healthy drink) but I soon realized that the risk of it staining their uniform was not worth it. I mean, they are in school for less than one third of the day, so it is A-OK to drink water in those hours, and I can give zobo or tiger nut milk when they are back home.
So now its water, water and more water. Maybe two times a month, I give Milo or yogurt, and even that can stop at any time. It is not a right!
It is also a way to train our kids to be DIFFERENT and OK with it. Building very healthy self-esteem even when going against the grain. Almost everyone else would have a drink or two in their bags and when your kids ask you why they cannot also have same, you remind them that they are NOT everyone else and so donโt have to do what everyone else is doing. Noahโs example in the Bible is always a good reference.
Please get your kids to be VERY COMFORTABLE with water all day every day.
2. Donโt sweeten their cereal
I hear moms ask me what they can use to sweeten their babiesโ pap when they are introducing solids. In fact a mom asked me if she could use sugar or dates and I am like WHAT???? Phew.
At that age when their taste buds are what my founding sociology fathers call TABULA RASA is blank slate, it is sugar you want to use to make the first strokes? Breast milk is sweet but a healthy and sensible sweet, so put breast milk in the pap or formula and that is all. You can also add like mashed banana or pureed pineapple to their cereals and all but this is more for the nutrients that come from fruits than for any sweetener effect. Your kids donโt know what it means to have a sweet tooth yet, so please let us keep them innocent.
Same goes for older kids. I see moms add sugar to cereals like Golden morn and Cornflakes. That one is even worse because most processed cereals already have sugar added to them. And while we are on cereals, please avoid sugar/honey/sweet coated cereals for your kids. Give them the plain ones like cornflakes and golden morn abeg. Then oats is one of the healthiest additions to introduce to your kids diet early, and that from 6months. Blend into powder at that early age and as they grow older into 1 year and more, you can give them like so. Put milk and any mashed/pureed fruit of choice (including avocado which is not sweet but highly nutritious) in and give them like so. No sugar please
3. Put TREATS ON A SCHEDULE
You see, the ideal thing would be to completely eliminate stuff like sweets, chocolates and other junks from your kidsโ diet but I donโt think a little at infrequent frequencies would hurt. And that is the same for adults.
Let me tell a story to buttress
Recently a private squaddie was telling me how she had some treat and even though it was a little, immediately her body started to react and I guess that is a result of maintaining a clean eating program for so long.
Happens to me too and the very first time it happened was with ice-cream. I LOVE Coldstone ice-cream and donโt mind a treat every now and then, however because I had stayed away for SO LONG, maybe 3 months or more, the first evening I had it, I threw up until I was retching. By the next morning, my body was still on shut down mode. And I was PREGNANT phew. Did that mean I completely eliminated ice cream from my diet? Nope. What it meant was that I avoided going too long without it, so now maybe once in 4 or 6 weeks, sometimes 8 weeks, I enjoy a nice ice cream treat.
It still shuts down my body so I take it in the evening or on days when I am ready to do nothing else. If however I take it today, tomorrow, and next, then I stop reacting.
What this means is that our bodies really were not made for crap, but when crap becomes the lifestyle, then sadly our bodies adapt to it too
What a dangerous place to be.
Even worse, what a dangerous place to lead your precious kids into.
Said all that to say thisโฆ
SCHEDULE TREATS
๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. ๐๐ฆ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ง๐ณ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช๐ญ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฐ. ๐๐ฆ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ค๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐บ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฏโ๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต (๐ถ๐ด๐ถ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ค๐ณ๐ข๐ฑ) ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ. ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ข๐บ ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ช๐ฐ๐ณ. ๐๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ต๐ฉ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐จ๐ช๐ง๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ธ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฎ, ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฃ๐ข.
Beyond the act, it is the HABIT it is enforcing that is the scary part.
You donโt want to raise kids without boundariesโฆ I want it NOW, I see it NOW, and I must have it NOW!!!
Nah, mama, Nah. Put the brakes in place and because you are BOSS, everyone has to obey that.
Dear Moms, this seed you are sowing now ooo, when you see the fruit of it, even you sef wonโt believe it. It may seem hard but trust me, it will be so worth it
Let me end on this note
I like something someone said to me recently, about how really it is just LAZINESS that makes most of us moms make poor and unhealthy choices for our kids and I believe her completely.
If you would INVEST the time to do some research, you would know better. So much information out there for us to still be casual. Like they say, ignorance is no excuse in law. An ignorant mom is an OXYMORON abeg. It should never be placed side by side.
Being a MOM is a WHOLE JOB so I am not sure why we are not working, and by working I mean putting in the time, energy, resources, money and stuff to ensure that we are not just doing a shoddy, or average job, but that we are doing EPIC work. The kind that makes the heart of the FATHER very very happy that He entrusted these precious souls to us.
I am GAME. Are you?
Let me know your thoughts.
Love
Eziaha
Committed to #BringingHealthyBack