What My Toddler Taught Me About Eating

In "Personal Accountability" I mentioned that I view my daughter's nutrition as a blank canvas. I understand that the kind of food I allow her to eat will greatly affect her eating habits throughout her life. It took me up to this point to realize that this kind of care and consideration should also be put into my own eating habits. I'm not exactly sure when it all clicked but I know in just this last year Presley has taught me a lot about eating.

Presley enjoying some of Grandpa's watermelon

Pres enjoying carrots.

Lesson #1

Presley is constantly snacking. Her snacks of choice are carrots, strawberries, bananas, string cheese, cheerios, grapes, pretzels, and oranges. She usually tells us when she is hungry and I don't typically have a problem with giving her a snack if she asks. In observing her snacking habit, I've realized I should be doing the same. Often times when I get home from work I'm ready to eat and sometimes ravenous. This certainly isn't a good thing because when I get to this point I get moody (sometimes angry) and often make bad choices. 

I've started taking snack foods to work so I can fuel up on a snack before I leave. That way when I get home I'm ready to workout and even satisfied enough to wait out the process of cooking dinner. Making sure the snacks are healthy is another important step in this lesson. If I snacked on chips, sure it would have the same effect but it wouldn't fuel me for workouts the way nuts or string cheese does.

Lesson #2

If anyone eats around her, Presley will want a bite. She is willing to try anything. Sure, it may just be a trial lick but she's open to new foods. I've always been open to trying new things but usually it involves junk food.  More recently I've decided to use this new lesson on fruits and vegetables. I've never like tomatoes. Sure, I like ketchup and spaghetti sauce, but other than that, you couldn't get me to try tomatoes if you paid me.

On a trip to a local farm stand, there were four different types of tomatoes just staring at me. I had no idea what I was going to use them for but I just went for it. Alex was looking in horror. (He doesn't like tomatoes either.) He whispered, "You know those are tomatoes?" I may be somewhat clueless at times, but I do know what a tomato looks like.
By the time we got home, I decided there was no way we would eat all three pounds of the tomatoes and if I was going to get our money's worth, I would need to somehow preserve them. A fan of canning, I looked up a tomato jam recipe, made a few modifications and got to cooking. Let me tell you, that shit is good! I made three 12 ounce jars of the stuff and so far we have gone through one jar. It's really tasty mixed into pasta, spread on toast, and with cheese. Guess who likes the tomato jam? Yup, you guessed it. Presley. I've realized that if I don't try it, Presley won't try it. Since Alex and I are the ones putting the plate in front of her, we have the power to put whatever we want on it and if we aren't willing to try something new, the likelihood of Presley trying it is slim to none.

Tomato Jam ingredients (Can you see why I couldn't pass up these beautiful tomatoes?) 

If you are wondering what recipe I followed, it is on Martha Stewart's website. I made a couple of modifications. I didn't use cinnamon and reduced the amount of brown sugar and honey. I'm really glad I did that since I'm not much of a sweet tooth person and even with those modifications, it was somewhat sweet.

Presley's second helping of corn.

Lesson #3

Presley typically finishes her meals but occasionally she doesn't eat everything. It's very important to me to make sure that she isn't forced to finish her food. Conversely to that, it's just as important to allow her to have more if she wants it, to a point. If she wants more veggies or fruit, I'll give her more. I trust her hunger. Recently on vacation, we introduced corn on the cob to her and she loved it. She asked for another after another. I knew she had a full day and was probably starving so I allowed her to have three half cobs. 

The following day we went out to dinner and she had some of what Alex and I were eating. She didn't finish everything and let me tell you, if it was me I would have cleaned the plate. The food was so good. That's my point, though. Presley listens to her hunger regardless of the type of food she is eating. It's a really hard thing to do at my age, especially when I'm used to finishing everything, but I've tried to slow down when I eat and have found that allows me to listen to my hunger.

Changing my eating habits isn't easy, especially after 30 years of being this way. I know that children can be picky but I still believe that we should treat our own nutrition with the same attention we give our children.

- Nikki