Changing Eating Habits for a Healthier Family

From the Austin Statesman (TX).

"I don't want my children to inherit my food issues.

Even more so, I don't want them to inherit my lifelong struggle with weight.

These were tough words to admit to myself, but once I had the nerve to face them, it was much easier for me to start a journey toward healthier food choices for my family. And at the start of the year, I did just that.

I have never been one to diet — I like dieting just slightly less than I like the word "diet." I don't like scales much, either, and up until my first pregnancy 10 years ago, I avoided them, preferring to gauge my weight by how my clothes fit. Aside from a handful of months as a size 6 back in college when I was training for marathons and lifting regularly, I have always been a heavier girl (even in the size 6 days, I ran in the "Filly" division. Although it varies by race, that is the category for women who are 140-150 pounds). I ate a variety of foods — some healthy, some not — but I also had an insatiable addiction to chocolate. Yes, I know many of you claim this same addiction, but I doubt you have eaten chocolate for breakfast — melted and smothered on bread or waffles, or fried inside pancakes or crepes — for most of your adult life. I have and, up until a couple of months ago I still did, and my three children were headed down that same path.

During that first pregnancy, it became clear quickly that I was gaining more weight than was acceptable (I gained about 70 pounds in all), and so I grew to dread the days of my monthly checkups because I knew that I would have to step on the scale. Yes, I was growing a little person, but I also saw those added pounds as something I was powerless to rein in even to a moderate level.

Thanks to exercise, I got back to within five pounds of pre-pregnancy weight after Baby No. 2, but after Baby No. 3, who came along six years later in 2009, I was seemingly stuck with 15 extra pounds. I continued to work out five days a week, mostly running and lifting, but I couldn't get rid of the weight.

Anytime I tried restricting certain foods, it backfired; I was never able to lose the cravings, and I always felt like I was depriving myself of something everyone else got to enjoy.

In the midst of my own struggle, I noticed last fall that my 9-year-old son had put on more weight around his middle. It wasn't hard to pinpoint the problem: poor food choices. My kids would eat a bag of chips as a replacement for a meal while watching TV or playing games on the laptop. I would go into the kitchen and find the table littered with wrappers and empty soda cans. And that's when I realized that if I didn't step in, my children were headed down the same path as me — continually struggling to get rid of the last remaining pounds and not being able to do it. Exercise was not enough; we had to make changes to diet.

I was also worried about the health implications. There is a history of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol in our family. And I was increasingly alarmed by the national diabetes predictions. A report in October from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of adults with the disease could triple by 2050.

Being half-Hispanic, my children carry even more risk factors than I do. The good news is that obesity has been cited as the biggest risk factor that is changeable. So, after talking to my husband about my concerns, we decided to do something.

I wasn't looking for a quick fix but rather a healthy approach to eating. My overall goal was to teach my children to make good choices, including snacks. I wanted "bad" foods to be something they enjoyed on rare occasions as opposed to several times a day. I also wanted to teach them a way of eating that they could carry with them through their lives, not a "diet" they would follow until they reached some magical goal weight. After seeing the success of a friend who had been eating paleo — basically a diet of meats, nuts, vegetables and fruits, or foods humans ate in the Paleolithic Era before agriculture — for a couple of years and learning more about it while researching a story on Crossfit, I decided to give it a try.

I would go whole paleo but be less restrictive on my children. I wouldn't encourage them to eat bread and pasta (verboten on the paleo diet), but I wouldn't deny them either. They would continue to eat dairy.

I got rid of the granola bars, fruit rolls and other sugary snacks they were consuming in abundance, including chocolate; the same with chips. I replaced them with individual packs of raisins and other dried fruits as well as nuts. I put them all within reach on the bottom shelf in the pantry. I made sure we always had the kinds of fresh fruits they liked to eat, and I made a point to slice strawberries and apples and put them in bowls on the kitchen table so that they were easily accessible.

What I discovered is that they liked some of the foods they weren't eating before. Though I'm still working on my daughters, my son happily gave up cereal for my scrambled eggs, bacon and veggies. My 7-year-old discovered that she loves boiled eggs; she snacks on them at home and puts them in her school lunch. She ate almost no fruit before we started this, and now she seems happy to munch on apples. They genuinely get excited when we're having Brussels sprouts. They treat yogurt like a dessert.

Honestly, I expected grumbling, but even when talking with them recently about how they felt about the changes, they were critiquing my methods of cooking asparagus (not enough seasoning) rather than that they had to eat it.

They still eat burgers, pizza and pasta on occasion, mostly when we eat out. They can have a soda on weekends; they decide when. They helped make and partake of a heart-shaped chocolate pizza for their Granny at Valentine's Day.

They do still ask if we can get Nutella every time we pass it in the bread aisle, and I've been asked more than once why I don't make pancakes anymore. But since we've made these changes, they aren't whining about where all the bad food went, and maybe it's because they don't feel deprived — they're learning to live in moderation."