Time and time again, I get emails from parents who want advice on how their family can be healthier. Parents are worried about their weight, their kids' weight and what they can do to ensure a healthy life for their whole family. The truth is: it isn't rocket science. With all of the health claims of "eat this," "eat that," "don't ever eat that," "new weight loss superfood," and so on, it can feel defeating to know how to feed your family. I'm here to tell you to ignore all that.
Now I get to put on my Health Coach hat and share with you the greatest secret of all: LOVE YOUR BODY.
That's it? Oh my.
No, that's not all. It is that simple but, how do you go about doing all of this loving and how can you translate it to the rest of your family? Here are the simple steps:
- Start with yourself. Healthy parents lead to healthy children. Teach your children well. (There's a song about that.)
- Evaluate how you treat your body physically.
- Your body is the sum of the parts you put into it. Do you know your body, as adults, completely regenerates every seven years? (If we are making new parts this quickly, imagine a growing child!) You literally are what you eat. Your body can only use what you give it. Your body can be made up of the nutrients found in highly processed foods or it can be made up of the nutrients from whole real food. What do you think makes stronger bones, chemically-derived preservatives or nutrients from the soil? Learn about your food. Read labels, please. Don't trust just any old brand and don't underestimate the quality of store brands. Find foods with ingredients that you can pronounce and know what they are. Or, even better, find foods with no ingredient list at all (produce, dairy, meats, etc.). Choosing quality food is this easy. Don't pay attention to the health claims on the front of the box. Don't pay attention to the nutritional content. Learn to read the ingredients list and you are many steps ahead of where you were yesterday. Teach your children to read them too.
- Get good sleep. Please. This is when your body heals and takes a break. Please, give your body this break.
- Move. I don't mean train for a marathon. I don't even mean join a gym. I just mean move. Take the stairs. Don't park in the closest parking space. Walk to the library. Be with your kids outside. Make movement part of your day.
- Evaluate how you treat your body mentally.
- You are what you think you are. Do this, right now. Close your eyes, sit tall and still, take a deep breath and think about two things you love about yourself. Make one of them a capability and one of them physical. Me? I love the confidence I've found in the last few years and I love my shoulders that are broad and strong. Now, your turn. I don't care how big or small or fast or slow you are or how well you can concentrate or deal with your emotions. Acknowledge where you are and love yourself where you are.
- Lead by example in front of your children. I try hard not to look at myself in the mirror and note things that I don't like in front of my children, whether my bloated waistline or bumps on my face. Your children think you are beautiful and you know what? They are right. When you show them that you don't like things about yourself, they will learn to hate their bodies too.
"We can, and must, develop dialogue and relatedness with our body because it’s talking to us all the time. And please remember, your body loves you. It does everything it can to keep you alive and functioning. You can feed it garbage, and it will take it and digest it for you. You can deprive it of sleep, but still it gets you up and running next morning. You can drink too much alcohol, and it will eliminate it from your system. It loves you unconditionally and does its best to allow you to live the life you came here for. The real issue in this relationship is not whether your body loves you, but whether you love your body. In any relationship, if one partner is loving, faithful and supportive, it’s easy for the other to take that person for granted. That’s what most of us do with our bodies. It is time for you to shift this, and working to understand your cravings is one of the best places to begin. Then you can build a mutually loving relationship with your own body.” ― Joshua Rosenthal, Integrative Nutrition: Feed Your Hunger for Health and Happiness
Until next time,
Jenny
