How I got my kids to try new foods and actually LIKE them!

Anyone that knows my family well knows that mealtime is a struggle. I dread it every single night except on Mexican Monday, formerly known as Taco Tuesday. Taco night is the only night my children eat with no battle. It is the one night that I know they are getting quality grass fed meat. Quite frankly, I feel like Taco night sustains them for the week. 

It hasn't always been this way. When we were a family of three and Harrison was a toddler, he was a pretty good eater. I wasn't an adventurous cook at the time. We fed him a ton of those disgusting Gerber graduate TV dinners. Yuck. That poor child. He ate a decent variety of meat, fruits, and veggies. He even liked a few exotic things. Fast forward to sometime after his second birthday. The food drama began. He would refuse to eat things that he normally loved. As he grew older, the list of things he enjoyed became fewer and fewer. As a nine-year-old boy, he weighs about fifty-five pounds and you can count his ribs. He will only eat ground beef, certain types of chicken nuggets, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, apples, bananas, perfect grapes, oatmeal, cereal, cottage cheese, yogurt, very limited types of cheese, crunchy tacos, spaghetti, cheeseburgers, almonds (sometimes) and a handful of other things. He will eat most junk food though. 

Kadie started out as a pretty good eater too. She isn't quite as picky as Harrison, but her list of foods that she will actually eat is not much longer than Harrison. Her picky phase started closer to age three. Sam has been the best eater of the three, but he is starting to get a bit pickier and doesn't really expand his palate. We personally feel that most of Harrison's food issues are because of his texture issues and sensory processing disorder. He will literally make himself gag to the point of vomiting with many foods. Because he is the oldest child and the example that Kadie and Sam see at dinner every night, they follow his lead. When Harrison sits down at the table and expresses his disgust for a meal, they usually aren't far behind him. 

So, this leads me to the epiphany. Friday night, we had Asian beef cooked in the crock-pot with broccoli and other stir fir type veggies. To make a long story short, Harrison had a super rough time with dinner and ended up getting sent to bed because of his attitude. Later I explained to him that I worry about him because of his eating habits and the only reason I want him to try new things is so that he grows to be healthy and strong. We are trying to teach our children that we eat to nourish our bodies, so the choices they make need to be quality foods most of the time. Harrison has actually been evaluated by a feeding therapist and qualifies for therapy, but our insurance won't cover it. Anyway, about ten minutes later, he was crying in his room. I went to check on my pitiful boy. He told me that he wanted to try new foods and be healthier, but he didn't know how and that he just didn't like most foods. I explained to him that it actually takes 7-15 times to try something before you can say if you actually like it or not. Thanks Dr. Google for that tidbit of info. Now, I've told my kids hundreds of times that they have to taste something more than once to decide if they like it, but it actually struck a chord with him on this particular night. So, we decided right then and there to make a food list. I told him that I would do it with him because I have texture issues with most fruit. On our food list, we wrote down all of the foods and drinks that he wanted to try. I explained I would put a tally mark beside each time that he tried it and that after 15 times of trying it, he could wait until the following year to try it again if he had not acquired a taste for it. So we made up a list of foods together, which consisted of mostly fruits and veggies. We put a lot of the things that we grow in the garden on the list. He decided that night to try an orange because they seem like they might be delicious. Sam loves oranges and eats several a week. So Harrison ate one orange wedge and sucked the juice out of another wedge. He was so proud of himself! And we added a tally mark next to the orange because we both ate some. 

The following night, we made a big garden salad with grilled chicken chunks. We had lettuce, raw zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, yellow pepper, radishes, avocado, garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds, cheese, and croutons. This seemed like a great time to try new foods. We explained that we expected him to try everything, but that he didn't have to eat all of it. I also had a back up food so that he wouldn't go hungry. Well, Sam and Kadie wanted in on this too and of course I obliged! We coached the kids through each bite. We took the bites of the same things together and talked about the way each bite would feel in our mouth and how it might taste. This worked really well. We weren't angry or disgusted and the kids were all really willing to try new things so that they could get those tally marks. 

I was absolutely astonished at the results. There was no gagging, no fighting, and no crying. Everyone ate their food; tried new things and we had a very peaceful dinner. That NEVER happens! Harrison thought lettuce was okay and added tomatoes and garbanzo beans to the things that he likes. Kadie liked cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes. Sam actually ate most of his salad without complaint. 

Then tonight, I made chicken salad to eat on sandwiches and crackers. Chicken salad has never been something any of them would eat. Quite honestly, I make really yummy chicken salad, so they are really missing out. Kadie and Sam ate every single bit of theirs and Harrison didn't like his. However, he did eat tomatoes. Kadie ate a plate of cucumbers and tomatoes with hers too! 

So I added something to up the ante. My kids are competitive, so I decided to play on the competitiveness a bit. The child who eats and enjoys the biggest variety by the end of the summer will earn some sort of prize.

I'm sure you could be really creative with the food lists. We just wrote the food names in different colors of markers (to match the food). We are keeping ours on the refrigerator for easy access. We are also making a huge deal celebrating their successes. High fives, cheering, clapping - you name it. I'm eager to see what kind of variety of food my kids eat by the end of the summer. My goal is to introduce them to something new a few times a week. I'm curious to know if this works for anyone else. Keep me posted. 

Peace out!
 

A post Lenten update

Well, as many of you know that I decided to give up yelling for Lent. I kind of thought I was crazy, but I really wanted to do it. I will say that the first week was the most difficult. I caught myself several times and slipped twice. After the first week passed, it definitely became easier.

It's about 2 weeks post Easter and have I started yelling again? Yes, I have yelled some. I can honestly say that the hardest week was the one immediately following Easter. I failed many times in that week. My trigger during that particular week seemed to be hormonal, which has always been one for me.

What have I done to eliminate/reduce yelling?

1. I stop and take a deep breath. It sounds silly, but sometimes just taking the time to breathe before you respond can totally change the way you respond to a situation.

2. I started eliminating stressors in my life. In my case, my stressors were directly related to be over committed. It hasn't happened overnight, but I'm prayerfully eliminating things.  Many of these things won't actually change until the next school year, but knowing change is around the corner has been helpful.

3. Making sure that I eat breakfast. I will admit that I am a horrible breakfast eater. I know that it is a terrible habit. I'm still not perfect on this one, but I know that low blood sugar and hunger are definite triggers for me. I'm also trying to add in a high protein snack during my mid day crash.

4. Trying to reduce my distractions AKA apple products. This is pretty hard because I try to keep my phone on me all day, so it is really easy to pick it up and start playing on Facebook or Instagram.  I love reading blogs and researching and having my iPhone at my fingertips makes it really easy to do just that. However, by not using it as much during the day, I don't snap at my children nearly as much.

5. Offer grace rather than anger. To myself. To others. Everyone deserves grace. Again, I'm nowhere near perfect, but it is a start. During that breath that I'm taking, I try to ask myself if I'm showing grace in my reaction.

6. Getting more sleep. Because I'm a night owl, I often stay up way too late. My burst of energy comes after dinner time. My kids aren't super early risers, but they usually wake up between 7:30-8:00 am. I'm making an effort to get in bed by 11:00pm and allow myself 8 hours of sleep.  When I'm awake until 2:00 am and waking 6 hours later, it catches up to me quickly. I can assure you that sleepyhead Alicia is grouchy and snarky. Also, the more I research, the more I think my sleep issues are hormonal...which brings me to my next point.

What else am I going to do?

I'm going to make some dietary changes. I had gone gluten free with my entire family last year and slowly started introducing it after about 6 months. I realize now that I really felt better when I wasn't consuming gluten. I'm also going to slowly cut out caffeine and sugar. This is going to be really difficult. I'm going to start in about two weeks, when I don't have as many early morning obligations. After doing some research, I think these three steps will help with my hormonal issues that cause so many mood swings for me. I have never officially been diagnosed with thyroid issues, but I have almost every single symptom of hypothyroidism and borderline TSH levels. I've been researching how to heal it with dietary changes and praying this will help the out of whack hormonal issues I deal with regularly. It also seems as if adrenal fatigue and hypothyroidism go hand in hand. Honestly, even if these are not issues, changing my diet won't hurt me at all. I don't expect this to be an easy change or a quick fix. I'm more focused on long term healing with these dietary changes.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

So there you have it. God really blessed me during this Lenten season. I truly feel that ending my Lenten journey with the Walk to Emmaus was such fabulous timing. It really gave me an opportunity to re-focus and re-prioritize. For my friends who dove into this challenge with me, I'd love to hear your feedback. What was hard for you? What changes did you make?

2014 Goals and Changes

I absolutely love a new year. I love the promises that a new year holds. I love the way I feel and the motivation I have ready to make a difference in my year. I stick with some of my goals and abandon some of them. I think the important thing is to vocalize them and try to implement a plan. Last year we changed our  diet pretty drastically. We certainly need to improve some after the holidays and I need to get back into the habit of some more time consuming things, but all in all - I am happy with the dietary changes we made in 2013. We also made some large life changes - mainly in that we moved in with my mom temporarily while we try to sell our home, which should happen this year.

Here are my/our January goals.

1. Grow spiritually in our marriage.
2. Grow spiritually as a family.
3. Re-establish some of our healthy eating habits and develop new ones.
4. Drink more water.
5. Evaluate budget and make necessary changes.
6. Learn to knit. (specifically casting on)
7. Make and sell crocheted items.
8. Blog at least once a week.
9. Organize a different room once a week.
10. Read one book a month.
11. Minimize ipad/electronics/computer time.
12. Lesson plan for the month of January for homeschool.
13. Develop new chore charts for the children.
14. Work on and implement structured weekly plan.
15. Exercise and rehab my knee.

Here is how I/we plan on making our goals happen.

1. Grow spiritually in our marriage. I've created a document for devotion and discussion questions. I will share it in a week if we like it and it is working for us. We are going to journal our thoughts daily and work through these together in the evening. This will keep us in close connection and help us be more intentional about our time together. Unfortunately, we've gotten into the rut of putting the kids to bed and playing on our electronics or doing our own thing. That isn't always a bad thing, but it is really easy to make it a daily habit and not spend enough quality time together. We really want to change that and we are both so excited to make this change.

2. Grow spiritually as a family. We definitely spend time reading the Bible and praying with our kids, but we want to be more consistent. We purchased a new devotional to go through with them every night. This will be in addition to what I do with them in school. This will likely become our bedtime ritual as a family.

3. Re-establish some of our healthy eating habits and develop new ones. I am going to start making kombucha again as well as having my cooking day. On my cooking days, I would make lara bars, muffins, pancakes, bone broth, and prep and foods we would need for the week. I want to start making water and milk kefir. I also need to get back into the habit of making weekly meal plans for every meal. It keeps us from dining out and helps us stay on track with our food budget.

4. Drink more water. I am going to keep my water bottle full and make myself drink it. I just get out of the habit and the best way for me to get back into the habit is by keep a full water bottle with me at all times. This is something I will do for the kids as well.

5. Evaluate budget and make necessary changes. This is where we look at our spending and see what can change. Cut out unnecessary things. We will evaluate interest rates, insurance rates, cell phone rates, etc. I also want to develop a debt reduction plan so we can eliminate what debt we do have this year. We need to figure out how to pay for some medical expenses for Harrison and work on a good savings plan. We tend to do better on a cash envelope system. Thankfully our debt isn't overwhelming and I feel like we can knock it out this year if we stay focused.

6. Learn to knit. (specifically casting on). Chris got me a knitting book with DVD for Christmas and I just need to slot myself time each week to work on it. I believe I'm going to slot out time from several evenings each week.

7. Make and sell crocheted items.  I am basically going to start posting some of the things I make for sell. I'm considering taking orders on custom items, but I need to figure out time frames and prices.

8. Blog at least once a week.  I am going to schedule time to blog. I've never scheduled time before. I just do it when I feel like it. I would really like to be more consistent.

9. Organize a different room once a week. I'm going to look through some of these plans that other people have already developed and find one that works for me. I think I can manage 15-30 minutes a day of organizing in one room. I actually enjoy it.  Something is better than nothing in this area.

10. Read one book a month.  Rather than scrolling through facebook or playing on my ipad or watching TV when I lay in bed to go to sleep, I am going to read at least one chapter a night. I love reading, but I get out of the habit. I have tons of books to catch up on, so this is how I'm going to do it.

11. Minimize ipad/electronics/computer time.  I am going to start by putting my phone on do not disturb for a big portion of the day. I am also going to start setting a timer on my electronics time. It adds up fast.

12. Lesson plan for the month of January for homeschool. I am going to do it this week and have it ready to do when we start school, next week. It will probably take me half a day.

13. Develop new chore charts for the children. Our kids have gotten lazy. They also want to earn money. I'm going to start figuring out a new chore chart for each child. I will share when I'm done.

14. Work on and implement structured weekly plan. Time management is not my strong suit. It never has been. I need to have a flexible routine of things I want to accomplish each day, so that I can consistently accomplish goals. I'm going to develop a new weekly cleaning schedule. The kids chore charts will help with this. I will incorporate my weekly organizing into this plan. I think this will really help me from feeling so overwhelmed all of the time.

15. Exercise and rehab my knee. I just need to schedule my PT for my knee. I also want to walk and/or do The Shred a few times a week. Nothing crazy. I just need to start moving regularly again.

And there you have it.  My monthly goals for January. I will update at the end of the month on how well we did. I'd love to hear your goals too!