I have to slap my own wrist from having another scoop of ice-cream or extending my cheat days (which is almost a joke now). So, when I see a child follow a healthy diet, and that too by choice, I get seriously amazed. Exactly how do they manage that? And what are these parents doing right to instil such discipline in children so young?
Professional footballer Tom Brady and his supermodel and actress, partner Gisele Bundchen are one such set of parents who have managed this feat. One look at them and you’ll know that these two for sure follow a healthy diet. However, one look at what the kids eat and you will be left amazed. Their kids’ diet is almost as strict as the couple's!
At 39, Tom has a physique even a 19-year-old would crave for. Same goes for Gisele, who at 36 can give quite a few young models a run for their money. It’s evident that a healthy diet and lifestyle is of great importance to them. But naturally, it has trickled down to their children as well.
According to this report, maximum of what they eat is vegetables. The rest of the diet include lean meats like grass-fed organic steak, duck every now and then, chicken and wild salmon. Not a traditional American diet that, eh? One can notice that sugar, cola, white flour, iodised salt or MSG don’t figure in the diet.
Doesn't excite you much, does it? Well, this is the tough choice you need to make between temporary gratification of cravings and a longterm healthy body. It's even more important to instill these habits in children from a young age so that they don't struggle as they grow older. Older the habits, tougher they are to get rid of. Here are some easy ways to improve your child's diet:
- Chuck the junk: Sometimes, out of sight is really out of mind. Avoid buying and storing junk food at home and you will have children who do not ask for junk food every now and then. With the refrigerator full of colas and other ‘goodies’, it’s unfair to blame them for craving for some.
- Replace packaged juices with fresh ones: Just because it says fruit juice, doesn’t mean it’s purely just that. With added preservatives and sugar, it’s a sweet addiction you are getting your child into, with only good intentions. Instead, encourage them to have more water and homemade drinks. A fresh lime water, doesn’t take more than a minute to stir up.
- Walk the talk: Don’t expect your child to indulge in a healthy diet as you sit opposite him holding a burger in one hand and a ‘diet’ soda in another. Be what you’d want him to be. Eat what you’d want him to eat.
- Get real: Just because you don’t buy junk food or indulge in it, doesn’t mean the child will never be exposed to it. Every day in the school or at his friend’s place he may get a whiff or a taste of the ‘yummy’ treats. The more you insist that he can’t have it, the more ways he will find to make sure he does. Just make sure that it doesn’t become a big part of his staple diet.
- Avoid the concept of ‘cheat-days’: They’ll start looking forward to it and then the everyday healthy diet will be torturous for them. Instead, let him have that cookie, but in moderation. This way, you aren’t depriving the child of his favourite thing.
Children largely watch and follow their parents in most everything. Make sure you lead a healthy and active lifestyle and share your thoughts on the same with the kids. It's never too late or early to start a healthy habit!
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