It seems like yesterday when I blogged about doing the Shifting Technique as I introduced to my son another formula. Boy, does time fly! Five years forward and we are now into another shifting episode in our little man’s growing up stage. As a brand new Mama back then, I wanted to do everything right. I even frowned upon how the older generations surrounding us back then would suggest unhealthy food choices. I held on to my gut and supplied my son with organic brown rice which I grind myself using the food processor as opposed to the commercial baby food that would have been the easy avenue to get by. Easy is not for me. Right is. 🙂
A viral photo I found on Facebook last week. Exactly why I feel strongly about eating healthy.
We were on the right track. Yes? I can say we were, initially. Because our kid grew up being a toddler who ate, for the most part organic stuff, chose vegetables over meat. But as our son was growing up, he took on what we eat as well. As I happen to have a husband who is a huge meat lover and is not exactly partial towards the healthy stuff, it has been a struggle. Truth is, I have also embraced the hubby’s food preference. Except for sodas! Which I’m afraid our son is starting to acquire a liking for nowadays – that I’m seriously bud nipping. I can be killjoy like that. 😛 As for the hubby and I preferring the same food, that’s what happens when you spend time with someone for more than 16 years. Haha! A small price to pay to living with the awesomest man in the world! 😀 Quite a paradoxical affair, if you may. But that does not stop me, nonetheless, to want the best health for my son. For us to achieve that goal, a diet shift has got to take place.
Sauteed Sayote (Chayote)
Last week I posted the above photo on Instagram. Follow me – @jenaspacio ! 🙂 Because I can say that we were pretty successful in nurturing in our son the love for eating veggies, feeding battles do not actually come very often. Our only issue during meal time is it sometimes takes him forever to eat as he reads his books while eating. He even takes his books to the bath!
Boiled Saba Banana for Merienda
Yet another photo I posted on Instagram last week – yes you can say I micro blog a lot too. 🙂 We had boiled Saba Banana for Merienda. I am blessed to not have to argue with my son on reducing his consumption of chips and junk food. My wake up call was when I noticed that our pantry and fridge were overcome with foods having empty calories. Wikipedia describes empty calories:
Empty calories, in casual dietary terminology, are a measure of the digestible energy present in high-energy foods with little nutritional value, typically processed carbohydrates and ethanol (alcohol), and to some extent fats. Also known as a discretionary calorie, an “empty calorie” has the same energy content as any other calorie but lacks many accompanying nutrients such as vitamins, dietary minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, or dietary fiber. Although carbohydrates and fats are nutrients, they are typically ignored for this analysis, with the exception of essential fatty acids.
Sauteed Bitter Gourd/Melon (Momordica charantia)
Yesterday, I prepared Sauteed Bitter Gourd for our lunch viand. Our son loved it so much, he requests for me to cook the same the next day! What a blessing to take control back when it comes to my son’s nutrition. While I very well know that it cannot all be the perfect diet on a daily basis, it is sweet to know that I have minimal feeding battles to deal with when it comes to our shift to a healthier diet.
In my years of parenting our son, I have gathered that a child’s preference for unhealthy food is a phase that most children from 4 to 7 year olds go through. This is aside from factoring in the parents’s diet, which we are clearly guilty of. Keeping at this can easily hamper and mess with the child’s proper growth and development. That, I am not going to take sitting down. So as busy as I am with my regular grind – homeschooling, house chores, online tasks and the blog projects I do in between, I had to choose to transition our meals into a healthier one. As more painstaking as it may be than just popping open a canned good or ordering in.
I wish I can say it will be perfect from here on out. That would be great if it will be. But since this it is choice we have to make on a daily basis, it is a commitment on my part to keep at it. For our son to acquire the taste of healthier foods, he has to regularly have it. Hopefully, by doing all this, our family will gradually eradicate empty calorie foods from our diet and prefer healthier ones, for the most part. 🙂
