So, my kids are young, 4 and 6, and they've never known any 'diet' except that mom always keeps fresh fruits and veggies cut up for them, we always have yogurt, string cheese, whole grain crackers etc. Occasionally, I do buy them something more 'kid-geared' such as spiderman or princess gummie bears or whatever, but its a once a month thing, and I just looked in the cabinets because it was on my mind. They still each have 4 packets, and the boxes come with 8. So, halfway through March, they still have half a box apiece. I think it helps that I've always kept the healthy stuff right at their eye level in the fridge, cleaned, cut ready to roll, all they have to do it grab it.
The NSV came last night. I make a really good grilled shrimp alfredo, sorta. I use whole grain, organic rotini noodles, because the kids eat better if it's in a fun shape, grilled shrimp, and just enough sauce to give it that taste of alfredo, usually, if you look at a jar, I use a 1/4 of the jar, to an entire box of pasta, a bag of frozen broccoli and a big bag of fresh spinach, mix it all up, grind fresh pepper over it and top with a pinch of freshly grated parm. My kids EAT THIS UP. (And I love it, because, hey! it's alfredo) But it's chock full of veggies. So, I was making this and my daughter, the 6 yr old, brings me a bag of grated carrots I use in my smoothies and toss into salads and asked me to put some in the alfredo, I checked with my son, he agrees, and so I toss it in there. Same amount of the -unhealthy- stuff, such as the sauce, but they ate this up. I love that my kids are looking for ways to increase their veggie intake. So, last night at dinner, we had 3 veggies, all at my kids request. To me, thats one of the best NSV's I can ever achieve because it tells me, my kids will more than likely never have to battle this weight issue, or overcoming a dislike of veggies to eat more healthily. They already do, they know no other way of eating.
The other one came last week, but my son, who is 4 loves water, I mean he will drink it over soda, chocolate milk etc. He got one of those fun Batman water bottles and has been carrying it everywhere. I notice when he comes home from school he always heads straight to the faucet and downs 3 glasses of water. At breakfast and lunch at school the options for liquids are 2% milk, whole milk and chocolate milk. No juices or water. So he's asked if he can just bring his own water. I talked with his teacher and at first they were initially against it, because if one kid does it, every kid will want to do it, and while I understand that, I'm sorry, really, but my son wants water, give the kid water. So, now he fills his water bottle and we drop it off in the cafeteria every morning so it's available at lunch and he drinks milk with breakfast. YAY for kids learning wonderful lessons
