Losing Weight - Share the Health with Family-Friendly Habits

[Guest guest]

A Free-Reprint Article Written by: Larry Tobin

Article Title:

Losing Weight - Share the Health with Family-Friendly Habits

See TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article.

Article Description:

Kids pick up their eating habits from their parents. They

get used to eating what their parents serve, and while they

don't share all tastes with their parents, there ends up

being a lot of commonality. Children pick up habits just

like adults do, through repetition and example over a period

of weeks and months. Making sure these habits are healthy is

an important part of parenthood, and fortunately we have

some advice to help make this process a little easier.

Additional Article Information:

===============================

863 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: 2010-04-20 12:15:00

Written By: Larry Tobin

Copyright: 2010

Contact Email: mailto:larry.tobin@...

For more free-reprint articles by Larry Tobin, please visit:

http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/recent/author/larry-tobin.html

=============================================

Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters:

=============================================

HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste

Versions Of Article Are Available at:

http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/t/family-friendly-habits.shtml#get_\

code

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Losing Weight - Share the Health with Family-Friendly Habits

Copyright © 2010 Larry Tobin

Habit Changer

http://www.HabitChanger.com/

Whether we know it or not, we're our kids' most important

teachers. They'll likely spend far more time with us in their

formative years than anyone else, and everything we do is an

opportunity for them to learn. Unfortunately, sometimes they

learn from our mistakes just as readily as our good example.

Kids pick up their eating habits from their parents, of course.

They get used to eating what their parents serve, and while they

don't share all tastes with their parents, there ends up being a

lot of commonality. Children pick up habits just like adults do,

through repetition and example over a period of weeks and months.

Making sure these habits are healthy is an important part of

parenthood, and fortunately we have some advice to help make this

process a little easier.

Teaching Tip #1 - Team Up

Children are generally very sociable, and often behave in a way

that seeks attention and approval from their parents.

Additionally, they're very quick to pick up on things they deem

'unfair,' particularly things they have to do that they don't

see their parents doing. Take advantage of this by teaming up

with your kids for eating healthy. Bring them into it, and show

them that it's a whole-family effort, not just something they

have to do alone or that you're doing by yourself.

For example, consider all the techniques we've discussed thus

far, such as eating with our off-hand or stopping for a sip of

water between bites. Instead of just relying on these techniques

yourself, share them with your children and help them learn to

use them as well. They will reap the same rewards you do, as they

slow their food intake and gain an appreciation of how to savor

their food.

Teaching Tip #2 - Portion Control

When children develop bad eating habits, it's usually because of

what they're being provided by the adults or authority figures

in their lives, not through any conscious decision. You can help

them with this by controlling how you feed them, and giving them

alternatives.

Don't put a full plate of food in front of your children.

Remember that we're learning how to eat until we're comfortably

full, not until the food is gone. Food keeps as leftovers, and

it's always better to save back a little instead of cramming too

much into the stomach. Instead, provide a moderate portion for

their plate, and if they're hungry after, let them ask for more.

This, coupled with the slow-eating techniques above, will help

them achieve a healthy sense of feeling full instead of

overeating.

Teaching Tip #3 - Don't Use Food as an Incentive

One of the most common teaching techniques parents try to use is

the food control method. They consider sending children to bed

without dinner for misbehaving, offer promises of dessert if the

kids finish their sprouts, and the like. The problem is, this is

exactly the opposite of teaching healthy eating habits because it

gets away from what the body needs and wants. Skipping a meal is

not going to hurt the body seriously, but it does have an effect.

Also, dessert is just going to pack on the pounds if kids are

stuffing themselves to clean their plates in hope of a sweet

treat.

Food is not meant to be a reward or a method of control. It's

nutrition, something the body needs in measured quantities to be

healthy. If children insist they aren't hungry, don't force

them to finish off their plate. Instead, focus on getting them to

eat at regular times, in healthy doses, so their bodies learn to

be hungry on a particular pattern.

Teaching Tip #4 - Go Shopping

Children have an immense capacity to learn, just like anyone. One

method of getting them involved in your healthy eating habits is

to take them food shopping with you, and to teach them all about

what you're buying.

When you buy carrots and greens, tell them a little about what

each one is good for, such as carrots for healthy eyes or

fiber-rich veggies for healthy hearts. Tell them how you're

going to prepare them, and what meal they'll be a part of. Teach

your children about how the store is laid out too, with fresh

food along the outside of the store and packaged food inside.

Teaching Tip #5 - Go Slow

Just as it is with adults, kids take time to form their habits.

It can take a while, a little more than a month usually, to get a

good solid habit put together. A good benchmark to shoot for is

42 days. This can be further broken up into six weekly goals to

reach, with appropriate rewards for good progress.

As a side project, consider how you're going to gather

information about your kids' eating habits. We've discussed the

power of food journaling, so consider adding what your family

eats as well when you mark down your own meals. A week or two of

keeping track can help you see where you need to make decisions

and changes, and make the whole process of building healthy,

family-friendly eating habits much easier.

Good luck!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Larry Tobin is the co-creator of

http://www.HabitChanger.com/ offering effective

and empowering solutions for losing weight.

Try our 42-day weight loss program at:

http://www.habitchanger.com/losingweight