Eating Like My Kids: I did it!

I did it! I ate like my kids all week. I recommend all moms try this -- I fed them healthier and I ate healthier. I actually had much more energy than normal -- I was eating about every 3-4 hours and trying to stay away from processed foods. Also, I realized that they eat much more fruit than I do. I make sure every snack includes a fruit - since I do not typically snack often, I was not getting as much fruit as my kids. So, last week I ate about 5 servings of fruits a day -- if everyone did this, based on population studies, we would have a lot less heart disease and other chronic illnesses. There are several good habits from last week that I will continue --
-- Eating breakfast sitting with the kids instead of in the car while driving them to school
-- Snacking on fruits, nuts and seeds in the morning and afternoon
-- Eating my meals at the same time everyday
-- Eating at least 5 fruits a day (I typically do hit 5 fruits and veggies a day but this takes me to a whole new level)
Looking at my list, I realize that these are recommendation that I typically give to my clients -- as much as I try to practice what I preach, as you can see, there is always room for improvement.
So, here is your challenge -- eat like your kids for a week and let us know what stuck. I already know of one mom considering the "Eat Like My Kids" Challenge -- a fellow blogger from mom-for-ma-tion.

The kid-vegetable challenge

Every night I face the same challenge: getting my kids to eat something green (that grew from the ground). Well, I just found a new product that has made getting my kids to eat veggies easier and the prep time much quicker for me. Birds Eye Steamfresh veggies are ready-to-go, in bite size pieces, frozen vegetables that you pop in the microwave for 5 minutes to steam. Tear open the bag and you're done. Tonight the kids ate the green beans as is and had the mixed vegetables last night. For the broccoli or cauliflower I've thrown a slice of American cheese on top to melt and both my kids gobbled it up. Not only is the prep so much cleaner and easier, since they are steamed right in the bag, they taste just as good as fresh. No worries about freezer burn or ice in a half used bag. What products have you found that make the "kid-vegetable challenge" easier? (Not to mention the "husband-vegetable challenge" I've faced as well. I'll save that for another posting.)

The mental factor

We all know there's a big psychological component to weight loss, right? I find this field fascinating. New research from a Cornell lab that studies why we eat what we do in the quantities that we do, showed that people ate more calories when they thought of the restaurant as healthy than if they thought of it as a typical fattening fast food joint (ie. Subway vs McDonalds). Surprised? I was, until I realized that it's a version of the Snackwells syndrome all over again. You know where you eat bigger portions because it's "lowfat" and end up taking in more calories than with a normal portion of the regular version. People in the study also rewarded themselves with dessert more when they thought they were being "good" during the meal.
You know as a busy mom, you're going to have to grab food on the go or takeout to feed your family sometimes. So should you just forget trying to eat at the "healthy joints"? No, of course not. Just keep in mind the mental factor of eating is as important as the nutrition you put in your body. And stop thinking of foods as being "good" or "bad." Tune into what your body needs and wants - hey, it may just tell you that some spinach is what it craves - and make the portion reasonable no matter what it is.

Eating like my kids results

Here is the result of Monday's trying to eat like my kids. First as a reminder, here are the foods we ate --
B-fast - oatmeal, drinking yogurt
Snacks - sunflower seeds, mandarin orange cup, banana
Lunch - sunflower butter and all natural jelly on whole wheat bread, raw almonds, natural fruit leather, skim milk
Snack - baked Cheetos, grapes, skim milk
Dinner - Cooking light recipe, Sept. issue, p. 172 Chicken Pot Pie and Skim milk
Here are the results (I have also included the percentage of hitting my recommended intakes based on my gender, age, and activity level).
-- 2176 calories which is 97% of my recommended amount of 2245 calories
-- my macronutrient breakdown was -- 51% carb, 21% protein, 29% fat (all within the optimal
ranges of 45-65% carb, 10-35% protein, 20-35% fat)
-- my omega 3's intake was very low at only 20% of the recommended 1.1 grams
-- my fiber was 100% at 25 grams
-- cholesterol was 45% of the ok amount of 300 mg at 135 mg
-- my folate and iron were low
This is not bad for one day. We typically do not evaluate a diet on just one day of eating but instead look at the entire week. So, if you have a bad day it is ok, because you can make up for it. To improve my eating this week, I will increase my omega-3 intake by eating salmon, walnuts and flaxseed bread over the next few days. Also, I will add orange juice to breakfast to help increase my folate intake as well as a serving of beans with dinner to help increase my iron (and folate intake).
I said I would do this the whole week, so I am still eating like my kids. So far, I have really enjoyed taking the time to sit down and eat breakfast with them.

Eating like my kids continued

Yesterday, I ended my Eating like my kids day with a mid-afternoon snack of a handful of baked Cheetos, grapes and homemade lemonade (yes, I actually make my own lemonade. It is actually quite easy). Then for dinner, I made a recipe out of the Sept issue of Cooking Light p. 172 -- chicken pot pie. This was pretty labor intensive for me. Especially given my day -- I had to drop the kids at school, get work done, work out quickly, pick them up, have a snack, do homework, do some more work, take my daughter to her 1st soccer practice (I am the assistant coach), then go and introduce myself to a new prenatal group that I am teaching at the Y -- this was not the right recipe for a day like yesterday. I actually had to have my neighbor come over to turn off the oven for me since I was running late to my daughter's practice. However, it was a very good and healthy recipe and the kids ate it and my husband and I loved it. And bonus, I have enough leftovers for tonight. Tomorrow I will share the nutrition analysis results of my first day of eating like my kids.
As for the homemade lemonade --
-- Squeeze about 6-8 lemons using a hand press directly into my 1.8 L pitcher (cut the lemons into thirds, you get more juice also rolling the lemons on the counter top seems to help)
-- Dissolve a cup of sugar in boiling water (I do this while I am squeezing lemons)
-- Finish filling the pitcher with ice, cold water and the boiled sugar water
Sometimes, I will add some tangerine juice or limes for different flavors and nutrients.

Eating like my kids

This week I am going to eat just like I usually try to feed my kids (I am not perfect). So, today at 6:45am I actually sat with my children and ate oatmeal and a drinkable yogurt for breakfast. I then sent my daughter to school with snacks, sunflower seeds, mandarin orange cup, banana and water, which I also ate throughout the morning before lunch. For breakfast, I normally would have eaten an energy bar and drinkable yogurt (one without high fructose corn syrup) in the car while driving the kids to school and would not have eaten again until 1pm because of my work. For lunch, I ate at the same time as my children did at school, 11:30 am, and had a sunflower seed butter and natural jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread, raw almonds, an all natural fruit leather (FruitaBu) and milk (I had skim, they had 1%). At the end of the day, I will run a nutrition analysis on how we ate and will report back.