Review the materials that the clinicians give you at your own pace. Don’t forget to refer to them. The nutritionist gives out a lot of good menus that you can look at if you get stuck. She also plays a game where half of your plate is supposed to be salad, and the other half is broken down into thirds. We usually keep that as a reference for how our plates should look– how much protein we need etc. If we’re having a bad day, we go back to that so that we can gain some control over a day that’s gone out of control in terms of eating and making healthy choices.
Providing choices
Dinnertime is usually when we talk about weight issues such as planning the meals we’re going to eat. I try to give them choices, and one good thing about my children is that they love vegetables. But it can be so tough. For example, they went to a birthday party and everyone was eating junk; it’s tough when they are surrounded by poor food choices. I try to tell them, “Okay, you know you’re going to this party, so you can have one thing.” You can’t just cut out everything. Try to get them to incorporate this into their daily lives. Even at school– before, my daughter would always have juice, but ever since we saw the nutritionist, she’s been buying water or milk instead. So I tell her, “That’s good.” Just try to encourage them.
Cooking
He likes to cook, so we decided to involve him more in the cooking and food preparation process, so that he can appreciate the effort that goes into making food and also help to make food choices. We want to get him involved in those choices as much as possible.
For her health
It is hard to deny my daughter things. I was rewarding her with food and she liked that. But that stopped when we started the [weight loss] program. We had to keep in mind that this is for her health. We have increased her exercise. She dances, swims every day, takes karate classes, and attends a children’s gym. This fitness center in particular is wonderful, and I highly recommend the classes. She also does gymnastics and we try to take daily family walks. My daughter has chosen activities that she likes and enjoys.
The biggest things that we cut back on were the beverages that we were drinking. No more juices, and sodas have been really limited. Sarah almost never drinks soda, and if she does, it’s a diet soda on a special occasion. My five year old is drinking either milk or water, and that is a change that I don’t think he really realized was happening; I just stopped giving juices to him. My fourteen year old encourages her sister, but she is not necessarily herself taking on as many of the good habits as we would like for her to take on. But she is very positive, upbeat and helpful, and she is slowly making some of the changes. Certainly, Sarah’s father encourages her in a big way. But I can’t really say that it has affected the household as a whole in any huge way; there have just been mild changes.
Changing eating habits
On pizza day at school, when the classrooms orders pizza, the nutritionist suggested we give Greg cracker bread with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce on it. He really liked it, so I sent him into school with it for pizza day, but now he says that he wants to be able to eat the same pizza that everyone else gets to eat. So that worked for a while, but now he doesn’t want to do it anymore. So now he’s allowed to eat one slice of pizza along with a salad that I send in. Before, we were eating macaroni and cheese like it was a whole meal, but now we just do the macaroni and cheese as a side serving, and we get the healthier kind. We also make sure that we have it with hot dogs or meat so that we are fuller afterwards.
Accepting criticism
Birthday parties are not a beneficial time to talk about weight. Prior to a family party or something, we’ll talk a little bit about what we’re going to be serving, and if she’s in a good mood and willing to accept constructive criticism, we can talk about it. I can judge when she’s willing to accept it. If it seems like she might take it as being badgered then we stay away from it.