So far...so good....

I am serving as a squad leader for my daughter's American Heritage Girls squad. We had our first meeting a couple of weeks ago and we began working on the Physical Fitness badge. One of Annie's requirements is to track everything she eats and drinks for three days. She did and it was a big eye opener for me! I always had in the back of my head that she didn't eat quite enough fruits and veggies but I figured it probably all evened out in the end. Well, I can tell ya that she hardly ate any fruits or veggies! Sure, there were days when she had some bananas or apple sauce but there was not a single day she had veggies, unless you count spaghetti sauce! What? I knew something had to change.

I decided then and there that I was done fixing seperate meals for each person in our family and trying to give everyone what they wanted for dinner. So, I put a stop to that practice. I was no longer going to make individual meals for anyone. I was also going to serve a fruit and a veggie at each and every dinner we sat down to. Well, that was almost three weeks ago and I am happy to say that we are going strong!

My children, who basically never ate meat or veggies, have had a whole variety of things in the last three weeks. They have eaten homemade vegetable soup, baked potatoes, chicken tacos, roast beef, green beans, grilled chicken, corn....the list goes on and on! I have also added more fruits and veggies to my diet. I had asparagus for the first time the other night and it was good! I forced myself to eat cooked carrots, which were something I stayed away from at all costs before. However, I couldn't expect my children to do a better job of eating if I didn't do it myself. So, I dove in! Annie, who only likes applesauce and bananas, has eaten strawberries, grapes, plums, nectarines and raspberries!

We have also tried to have less processed snacks in the house. So, I have made more things from scratch. We had homemade chocolate chip cookies last week and banana bread the week before that. Yes, it's been a bit more work to bake/fix/cook all our snacks but I feel like my kids are going to be healthier for it.

So, I am proud of my kids for stepping out of their comfort zones and I am proud of myself for sticking to my guns and following through. I just hope we can continue our new and improved diet.