Have you heard about mindful eating? Just think about the words. Eating. Mind. Full. A mind full of food. Presence of mind. Think about what you eat. How much you eat. What quality of food you eat. With whom you are eating. Be mindful about eating.
As I continue to search for and create solutions to childhood obesity and diabetes, I always get back to this statement: You are what you eat. This is what mindful eating means to me. When you know where your food was grown and you eat the right amount and kind of foods, and you enjoy what you eat, things start rebalancing themselves.
For me, mindful eating begins on Saturday mornings when I head over to one of our two Green Markets. I talk to my friends who happen to be the farmers growing the yellow beets, swiss chards, and Purple Cherokee tomatoes I buy. I plan my menus around what I just bought. Then I pair the menus with friends. This to me is mindful eating. Quality, not quantity. Enjoyment, not convenience. Balance, not greed.
If we are going to solve the childhood obesity epidemic, we must first take a look at ourselves. Think about what you eat. Be mindful of what you eat and how much you eat. Enjoy what you eat. You have the power to prevent diseases and obesity if you just think about it.
Growing Healthy Kids is a movement to halt, reverse, and prevent childhood obesity one child and one garden at a time. Be part of the solution. Your children will thank you.
Your friend,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids
Showing posts with label healthy eating tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy eating tips. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Yes, Your Son is Eating Vegetables
Last week, this was part of a Reuters news article ("NIH Obesity Plan focuses on Real-World Research") about obesity in America:
"Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of U.S. medical spending, or an estimated $147 billion a year.
Studies have shown that obese children are more likely to stay obese as adults, and that they develop chronic conditions at younger ages, burdening the healthcare system."
Obesity is a result of an energy imbalance. Getting back into balance with the foods we eat and the daily exercise our bodies desperately want and need is really simple when you know what to do. Nearly 17% of America's children are obese. THIS MUST CHANGE. Enter, Growing Healthy Kids, stage left:
At the GIANT SALAD PARTY held by Growing Healthy Kids this week, one parent came to observe her two children who were participants. When I spoke with her, she was speechless because she was watching her younger son from a distance and HE WAS EATING HIS VEGETABLES!!! She was just beside herself with joy seeing a new habit forming in her younger son known for never eating vegetables, a great source of dietary fiber.
This kind of response is what the Growing Healthy Kids movement based in Vero Beach, Florida is all about. Showing kids how to eat great food, some of which is grown right in their own neighborhood, and teaching them things they can then teach their parents. All kids deserve access to healthy foods, not the junk and sugar and salt that stops up their digestive and cardiovascular systems. Ask any pediatrician in this country if they are seeing kids with digestive problems due to too little dietary fiber and too much sugar and you'll hear a resounding "YES" across the land.
For the parent who was speechless this week watching her son have an amazing time helping prepare a salad and a simple vinaigrette dressing, then eating all of it and asking for seconds, I say, "Now help me teach other parents how simple and affordable it is to eat healthy when the kids know what to do." Healthy eating is key to getting to and staying at a healthy weight.
Growing Healthy Kids is a movement to erase childhood obesity from America. We teach kids and adults how to eat better, eat economically, and enjoy locally grown foods when and where available AND move more, all while having fun. As we like to say at all our educational programs, "Having fun IS the best way to learn new stuff!"
Here's to your perfect health,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids
To support our national education work, please go to www.RedCarpetCompetition.com and click on "Vero Beach".
www.GrowingHealthykids.blogspot.com
www.GrowingHealthyKids.me - click on "store" for the new Growing Healthy Kids Get Shot by Ella-designed shirts as featured in the April 2011 issue in Vero Beach Magazine and debuted at A FUSION OF FASHION AND FUN.
"Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of U.S. medical spending, or an estimated $147 billion a year.
Studies have shown that obese children are more likely to stay obese as adults, and that they develop chronic conditions at younger ages, burdening the healthcare system."
Obesity is a result of an energy imbalance. Getting back into balance with the foods we eat and the daily exercise our bodies desperately want and need is really simple when you know what to do. Nearly 17% of America's children are obese. THIS MUST CHANGE. Enter, Growing Healthy Kids, stage left:
At the GIANT SALAD PARTY held by Growing Healthy Kids this week, one parent came to observe her two children who were participants. When I spoke with her, she was speechless because she was watching her younger son from a distance and HE WAS EATING HIS VEGETABLES!!! She was just beside herself with joy seeing a new habit forming in her younger son known for never eating vegetables, a great source of dietary fiber.
This kind of response is what the Growing Healthy Kids movement based in Vero Beach, Florida is all about. Showing kids how to eat great food, some of which is grown right in their own neighborhood, and teaching them things they can then teach their parents. All kids deserve access to healthy foods, not the junk and sugar and salt that stops up their digestive and cardiovascular systems. Ask any pediatrician in this country if they are seeing kids with digestive problems due to too little dietary fiber and too much sugar and you'll hear a resounding "YES" across the land.
For the parent who was speechless this week watching her son have an amazing time helping prepare a salad and a simple vinaigrette dressing, then eating all of it and asking for seconds, I say, "Now help me teach other parents how simple and affordable it is to eat healthy when the kids know what to do." Healthy eating is key to getting to and staying at a healthy weight.
Growing Healthy Kids is a movement to erase childhood obesity from America. We teach kids and adults how to eat better, eat economically, and enjoy locally grown foods when and where available AND move more, all while having fun. As we like to say at all our educational programs, "Having fun IS the best way to learn new stuff!"
Here's to your perfect health,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids
To support our national education work, please go to www.RedCarpetCompetition.com and click on "Vero Beach".
www.GrowingHealthykids.blogspot.com
www.GrowingHealthyKids.me - click on "store" for the new Growing Healthy Kids Get Shot by Ella-designed shirts as featured in the April 2011 issue in Vero Beach Magazine and debuted at A FUSION OF FASHION AND FUN.
Friday, September 10, 2010
3 Tips for Parents
Paradise Greetings,
It's been a busy week planning several new gardens throughout Indian River County. My back yard planting and potting table is covered with pots of seeds sprouting seeds, ready to go in the ground soon. The next couple of weeks will be nonstop working in the gardens with the kids!
This is in stark contrast to another report just released that shows most Americans are eating a lot less vegetables and fruits than needed.
Here are 3 tips for parents:
1. Give your kids a choice of what I call a fruit appetizer: "Would you like a banana or a plum?" Works every time. Another great question to ask kids when you're planning a grocery trip is this, "What 3 fruits would you like to have this week?"
2. If you have picky eaters (isn't that most kids??), then finely shred carrots, zucchini, and squash to sneak into spaghetti sauce, pancakes, and muffins. We need to eat more veggies than fruits is the general rule.
3. Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep contributes to obesity.
Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health - and lives - of America's children, one child and one garden at a time.
To your perfect health,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids
It's been a busy week planning several new gardens throughout Indian River County. My back yard planting and potting table is covered with pots of seeds sprouting seeds, ready to go in the ground soon. The next couple of weeks will be nonstop working in the gardens with the kids!
This is in stark contrast to another report just released that shows most Americans are eating a lot less vegetables and fruits than needed.
Here are 3 tips for parents:
1. Give your kids a choice of what I call a fruit appetizer: "Would you like a banana or a plum?" Works every time. Another great question to ask kids when you're planning a grocery trip is this, "What 3 fruits would you like to have this week?"
2. If you have picky eaters (isn't that most kids??), then finely shred carrots, zucchini, and squash to sneak into spaghetti sauce, pancakes, and muffins. We need to eat more veggies than fruits is the general rule.
3. Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep contributes to obesity.
Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health - and lives - of America's children, one child and one garden at a time.
To your perfect health,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids
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