For the last month I’ve been working with The Co-op on a healthy eating challenge. I’ve written about our slightly suspect diet, and the high proportion of chocolate brioche in Belle’s diet, Belle has made a tomato soup video, we’ve shared recipes, and switched from white to brown bread.

Great, that’s all good. Easy peasy you might think.

But if it’s so easy, why aren’t we all eating well?

The challenge has really made me think, not just about what I put in my mouth, but why. We all know the theory after all – we all know that too much sugar is bad for us, that we need to eat more fruit and vegetables, that fibre is important – it’s a no brainer. We know that by eating rubbish we are risking our long term health, and yet most of us still do it.

We make excuses of course – we’re too busy, we don’t have time to cook from scratch, good food is more expensive – but when it comes down to it, all of these things are just excuses. Changing your diet isn’t about just switching to wholewheat pasta and filling up the fruit bowl, because if it was that easy, we’d all do it.

It must be something else.

healthy eating

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If you don’t have time to read this whole post, please watch the video of Belle making tomato soup right at the end as it’s very sweet!

As you may have read last week, we’re currently taking part in a 21 day healthy eating challenge, supported by The Co-op. Last week we kicked off by looking at a typical day in the life of Belle, and I was slightly ashamed by the prominence of chocolate chip brioche on the menu.

Still, looking on the bright side, it gave us a nice low starting point, so surely it would be easy to make a positive difference?

Well yes actually.

As we’re just about 7 days in at the time of writing, I thought it might be nice to pick out one easy change for each day. The idea with any change is that you don’t need to do something massive to make a difference, and in fact change is often more sustainable if you start small. All of these 7 changes are things that you could do yourself, this week, now even. So what are you waiting for? View Post

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I came across an image this week which made me think “Yes! This is Belle! This is my life summed up in a postcard!”

This was it:

healthy eating tips
Does this sound familiar?

I had thought that by the age of 13, Belle would have grown out of her fussy eating. I imagined a gradual acceptance of onions in cooking, a growing fondness for courgettes, and friendly banter around the dining table where we looked back and laughed at her fussier days.

“How silly of me,” she would say, chomping her way through a kale salad, “to have been so fussy for all those years!”

Alas, that day has yet to come. Still, as a teenager, her list of acceptable vegetables is limited pretty much to:

  • Sweetcorn
  • Carrots
  • Spinach (raw, not cooked)

It’s not cool is it? The tricky bit for me lies in how far to push it. I appreciate that 50 years ago she would have just been made to sit at the table until she had finished, but we don’t live 50 years ago do we? We live in an era where ‘food issues’ are constantly on the horizon, especially with girls, and I worry that forcing her to eat something she doesn’t like will mean I’m responsible, later in life, for her crippling obesity/bulimia/inability to visit a supermarket without having a panic attack. (Delete as appropriate.)

Perhaps I just think about it too much.

I’ve decided though that the time has come to be a little more proactive about things. Being busy is no excuse for not making changes to our diet. I need to man up and remind Belle who’s boss. (I hope she doesn’t read this bit and shout at me.) The Co-op agreed to help me out with some ideas for recipes, snacks and easy switches, and so our 21 day food challenge begins. 

If your family diet could do with a kick up the bum, or that daily moan of ‘what’s for dinner?’ sends shivers down your spine, why not join me?

I’ve always been a fan of The Co-op. We’ve often had one just around the corner from us, which is very handy for me at 5pm when I still haven’t thought about what to have for tea, and I like their ethics, food wise. In theory it’s not hard to make changes; a handful of grapes here, a wedge of cucumber there – it shouldn’t take much to make a difference. The Co-op also have lots of recipe ideas, and plenty of Pinspiration.

healthy eating Pinterest

To kick start proceedings, I suggest keeping a diary of what your family eats for a few days. This was a horrible reality check for me, as I like to think I eat reasonably well. Oh how wrong I was. It’s shocking how easy it is to go a whole day and not eat any fruit…

This is a day from Belle’s diary, so you can see what I mean. (Please don’t report me to anyone):

  • Breakfast – a bowl of chocolate cereal, toast with butter, pineapple juice.
  • Packed lunch – cheese and ham sandwich, crisps, Babybel, yoghurt, satsuma, water. (I often find the fruit and three quarters of a bottle of water at the bottom of her school bag.)
  • After school snack – chocolate chip brioche.
  • Dinner – pasta (not wholemeal), sweetcorn, tinned tuna and pesto. Three chocolate truffles.

Now overall, it doesn’t feel hideous, fairly typical I would imagine, but let’s break it down…

I use the word chocolate three times. Not cool. Even counting the juice, she’s barely scraping two portions of fruit and vegetables on this day.

*takes a minute to reflect on parenting skills*

I then thought it might be a good idea, rather than just spying on what she ate, to ask Belle how she felt about her diet:

Over the next three weeks then we’ll be making an effort to eat better. This might be something as simple as switching from white to brown bread, or it might mean thinking more broadly about how we can encourage Belle to eat a wider variety of fruit and vegetables.

We’d love for you to join us, and share your tips and troubles as you progress, and to get you in the mood, we’re holding a Twitter chat this Tuesday at 1pm. Please RT the invitation and come along with your questions. Experts from The Co-operative will be on hand and I’ll be bringing 20 years of parenting wisdom/sympathy to the virtual table.

 In the meantime, please do leave a comment and tell me about the food issues in your family!

 

 

Project in partnership with The Co-operative Food.

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How is your post-Christmas diet shaping up? January is supposed to be a time for fresh starts – healthy eating, wholesome walks in the countryside, that sort of thing. Not so for me. We get given so many food related Christmas gifts that the first half of January at least is awash with sugar in a veritable sea of fudge, fruit liqueurs and violet creams.

Thursday was a particularly shameful day for me as I was entirely alone and so had no one to look at me, eyebrows raised, as I reached for the seventh biscotti.

Here’s roughly what I ate (in chronological order): View Post

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This competition is now closed.

I’ve got a little competition for you today. When I was first approached about it, I have to confess that I saw the word ‘IQ test’ and immediately wanted to take part. It’s not that I’m competitive, I just like to be the cleverest. All of the time.

"Be food smart"Don’t panic though, it’s not an ordinary IQ test – this one is a food IQ quiz, to see how much you know about hidden nasties like fat and salt. Apparently 77% of respondents have scored 50% or less, so I’m sure you won’t be able to resist seeing if you can do better.*

The quiz is part of the he Government’s healthy living initiative Change4Life and the new ‘Be Food Smart’ campaign, and as an extra incentive, everyone who signs up to Change4Life gets one of these funky ‘Meal Mixer’ healthy meal planners:

"meal planner"

If you’d like to win a meal mixer AND £50 to spend on food at the co-operative, all you have to do is take the food IQ quiz and share your score. There will be a bonus entry for liking the Slummy single mummy Facebook page and for every time you share this post.

Entry will close on 30th January and a winner will be picked at random after that date.

Good luck!

*I got 75%. Just saying. Not that it matters. *Whistles casually*

Also listed at ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions

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