FREE WEBINAR THIS THURSDAY: Reclaiming The Dinner Table

Would you like to win 6 months of free dinner meal plans that come with their own shopping lists?  Well, then join me for a FREE webinar this Thursday, November 10, 2011 when I discuss, "Reclaiming the Dinner Table."  Everyone that attends the webinar will go into a drawing to win to use my new recipe dinner plan, "Eat with Angela."  One winner will be drawn.

Here is the information: In today's day and age, many families are completely separated during a time when they should be connecting - during mealtimes. Schedules are tight, so many are eating on the run instead of having that intentional time to stop, relax and enjoy food flavors and company. And we know that the benefits of having family dinners goes way beyond the benefits of nutrition.

If you are ready to make family dinners a priority in your life, join us for a free webinar. Angela Lemond, Registered Dietitian and family nutrition expert will be discussing all the benefits of family dinners in addition to very practical was busy families can make dinners happen at home.

Objectives:
• Understand the long-last benefits that family meal have on children and families
• Explain how mealtimes are a great time to model healthy eating behaviors to children
• Offer practical meal suggestions that will get dinner on the table fast!

Presentation time: 45 minutes
Q&A: 15 minutes

Regsiter today!  There are two times to choose from:

10:00-11:00 A.M. Central Standard Time

8:00-9:00 P.M. Central Standard Time

Post Halloween: Teaching Our Kids the “Why” Behind Moderation

My 4 ½ year old son, Evan, was on quite a roll this morning!  He started off by telling me his leg hurt.  I asked him if he hit it on something and he said no.  I then explained that when his body grows, it can cause his body to hurt sometimes.  He said, “Oh, I know why!  I think I ate too much candy for Halloween.”  I stopped in my tracks and smiled.  “Really?  You think that’s why?”  He said, “Yes.  Mommy, will you give me something healthy to eat?  I need to make my leg feel better.”  I almost fell over.  I explained to him that the foods he ate for breakfast were actually healthy (whole grain waffles, yogurt, orange juice) so that should make his leg feel better soon.

I think Evan remembered me telling he and his sister about how candy can make them feel “yucky” if they eat too much.  I’ve explained that eating some candy is fine, but eating a lot can make them feel sick and can even take some of their “super powers” away.  Even when I thought Evan wasn’t listening, I think that made an impression on him after all.

My kids, Evan & Hannah, about to head out trick or treating!

As parents, let’s remember to tell our children the “why’s” behind being healthy.  Avoid making associations between food and weight or "to avoid getting granny's sugar disease," but instead mention things that matter to them right now.  Evan loves soccer, being strong, smart and running fast.  I tell him that eating healthy foods help him with those things and he gets it.  Get them invested in the healthy lifestyle for their own reasons; it will stick with them for the rest of their lives.  [By the way, he recently started eating broccoli after over 3 years of rejecting it on his plate and now he says it’s his favorite food.  Perserverance in healthy messgaging and exposure pays off!] 

Stick with those positive messages, Mom and Dad.  They are listening even when you don’t think they are.  I was reminded today that my son is listening to me. J

Check out my post last year will give you ideas on what to do with leftover candy: Operation Halloween Candy: The Party's Over! 

Food Made Fun: Featuring SuperKids Nutrition's Super Crew® (Part 5 of 5)

Meet Super Baby Abigail. Her powers change with the different foods she eats. Wearing her blueberry encrested cape, Baby Abigail gets her powers from all kinds of foods, and she is constantly finding out new powers she gets with every food she tries. Baby Abigail is part of the Super Crew® characters, a group of culturally diverse, superhero kids who get powers from eating healthy foods of certain colors. Brought to life through the Super Crew® colorful website, coloring pages and beautifully illustrated children’s books, the Super Crew® encourages kids to understand and value the importance of good nutrition. Super Crew® adventurous learning is geared toward children ranging from pre-kindergarten all the way up to 8th grade. My daughter has both of the Super Crew® books - Havoc at Hillside Market and Super Baby Abigail’s Lunchtime Adventure – and loves them! As a mother, I love them because they reinforce what I teach her about what “always” foods do for her body. The extra benefit with these books is that there are free downloadable book guides and activities that the kids can do to reinforce their learning.  The Super Crew® coloring pages are wonderful for children to color or watercolor while moms are cooking.  If you "like" the SuperKids Nutrition Facebook fan page, you can get daily tips on feeding your family.
The Super Crew® was created by a dietitian that I highly regard, Melissa Halas-Liang, MA, RD, CDE. I met her a few years ago when she was developing her SuperKidsNutrition site (back then it had a different URL) and was looking for online article editors. “Kids are savvy consumers and they make choices based upon what they know,” says Melissa. “The problem is that children have been inundated for years with kid-targeted marketing and messages and that becomes what is familiar. At SuperKids Nutrition, we are trying to change that by providing kids, parents and schools with knowledge about the powers of healthy foods and making healthy choices and showing them how simple education can make a difference.” [More on Melissa Halas-Liang, MA, RD, CDE in a future Mommy Dietitian guest interview.]

When I met Melissa back in 2007, she was just finishing up Super Baby Abigail’s Lunchtime Adventure and we instantly connected due to our passion for helping healthy families. Since that time, her SuperKids Nutrition and Super Crew® sites have really taken flight. Not only is her Super Crew® portal a place where kids can have fun learning about food, but her SuperKids Nutrition website is a place where parents can get “news you can use” child nutrition information and recipes. As a pediatric and family dietitian, SuperKids Nutrition is one of my favorite family nutrition websites by far. And by the way, remember Super Baby Abigail? She is named after Melissa’s now 4 year old daughter who’s favorite food from the beginning was blueberries.

As I wrap-up Mommy Dietitian’s 5-part series on "Food Made Fun," my hope is that you take time to expose your children to these resources. Tell your friends, schools and communities. Spread the word so that these resources will stay around for maximum impact. These resources empower children to make the right food choice for their own sake – not just because Mom or Dad said so. And that will help set them on a right path that you can be proud of years from now. Cheers to that!

Tweens/Teen Girls: Be Happy. Be Healthy. Be Beautiful.You. (4 of 5)

Be Happy. Be Healthy. Be Beautiful. You.  Isn't that a great tagline?  I interpret that as saying, "You are beautiful just being you." It's the tagline on my next 'Food Made Fun' feature in this 5-part series focusing on education and empowering children at their level.  Many kid-friendly websites are geared toward elementary school age, so I wanted to highlight one that is geared more to adolescence.  GirlsHealth.gov contains great food and nutrition education, although it is more complex as our girls are more beautifully complex in nature. Girls are at risk for emotional eating that can begin at an early age, and the issues around relationships and peer pressures can take their toll.  This site may not be as "fun" as the other features, but it sure discusses many important issues related kids of this age in a way they can understand - including tween/teen girl's emotions, relationships and bullying. After all, isn't those some of the most important things to a young girl?  I remember back when I was 11-17 years old, life was all about school, yes, but emotionally it was about socializing and being liked.  These pressures impact a child's decision-making when it comes to their health - I know they did for me.  By now, you probably know how passionate I am about empowering children to make right decisions and this is definitely the case for our future women and mothers of the world.  I think of my own 6 year old daughter, Hannah.  My hope for her as her mother is that she has the confidence and knowledge to make her own decisions that grow her into a healthy and strong woman in mind, body and spirit.  It's one thing to have your mother teach you a healthy self-confidence that is the basis of every healthy decision (very important!).  But it's another thing to know that your girls have a good, reliable resource to turn to when they don't want to talk to Mom or Dad about their issues.

Girlshealth.gov (formerly 4Girls.gov) is a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health (OWH). It was developed in 2002 to fulfill the need for reliable, current health information on the Internet for adolescent girls, and to help improve the health of women from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood. Girlshealth.gov motivates girls to choose healthy behaviors using positive, supportive, and non-threatening messages. 

My series on cool food websites for kids could go on and on, but next week will be the last feature.  I am finding some great stuff out there for our children!  But to give our U.S. Government some great kudos, I wanted to let Mommy Dietitian readers know about other great sites they have put together to teach your children about health and wellness.

Other great U.S. government "Food Made Fun" websites for children include:
Small Step Kids: Kids can find out cool stuff about food and what it can do for them.
BAM! Body and Mind: Center for Disease Control's (CDC) kid-friendly site on explaining disease, health and wellness.
MyPyramid Kids: Of course we must include the US Department of Agriculture's MyPyramid Kids pages that have the Blast Off game to teach children about the MyPyramid way of eating.
Fish Kids: Environment Protection Agency's (EPA) site to educate children on fish, mercury and other chemicals that can contaminate our seafood supply.

If I missed one, I would love for you to share with me and the rest of the Mommy Dietitian readers.  I feel like I am leaving one out!  Anyway, check out the ones I listed with your children and feel free to send along any feedback as to how beneficial they are in your daily lives.  Let's do this parenting together!