School Snacks

I BET you think this is going be one of those UBER creative posts about lots of cool snack ideas for kid lunches this year....right?  WRONG!  I am going to choose to imagine you are all planning to send your kids to school with some nutritious, or at least what most of us BELIEVE to be nutritious, fully appetizing pintrest worthy delicacies.  In my house, I tend to be boring...and I have been scouring a few sites gathering ideas just like you.  Cheese sticks, wraps, carrot sticks, and bananas go to school here.  But this post is not about that.  It is about what NOT to send.

Walking through our local base exchange (for those non-military peeps, think Target....but not Target) I turned past the Halloween candy (yes...already) and came upon THIS sign -

So let me ask you...do people REALLY send this as a school snack?  I know, I know...not everyone is getting on board with me getting all healthy and aware.  But seriously, even before I decided to become EDUCATED about what I was feeding myself and my family I wouldn't have considered KitKat and Whoppers as appropriate school snacks!

Is it any wonder that children do not have focus in school or are fidgety? Do we really need to wonder why the kids are yawning after lunch?  How many kids are failing classes simply because they do not have proper nutrition?  Don't get me started on school lunches - blech.  This snack sign sickened me.  And made me sad.  Angry.  Frustrated.  Confused.  But most of all, it left me feeling a deep desire to help educate - to help encourage, to spur people on towards health.  It made me realize that maybe at the root of it, people are just simply overwhelmed.

As I have been watching documentary after documentary, reading articles, labels, and reports, I myself have become a little TOO on top of what I am eating.  And I have had to come to terms with doing enough.  Small changes over time can be enough.  You don't have to do it ALL or NOTHING.  So for any of you who may SEE all the information but feel overwhelmed at where to start, let me say...just START.  Have you been inundated with all the info of what to eat that you feel like it is a losing battle so you might as well not try?  Don't be fooled, it is only overwhelming if you try to do it all at once.  Start with ONE thing.  

Here is a list of ideas....

Ditch the juice boxes and use water bottles

Find a fresh fruit or veggie that every person in your family likes and cut some up every day to share as a family

Say goodbye to the sugary cereal every other day and try other things - homemade healthy muffins, yogurt, smoothies, eggs/toast...something besides Fruit Loops.

Start eating breakfast every day

Use smaller dinner plates

Ditch the white rice

Ditch the plain white bread

Buy farm fresh eggs

Read a label every day

Watch a food documentary

Skip fast food and have homemade burgers instead

Choose leaner meats

Choose fresh fish over frozen

Have a salad - every day

Bake, don't fry

There are MANY MANY more...and so many blogs about it I could go one for days - you get the point, choose ONE change to incorporate that will start the wheels of HEALTH for your family.

And my favorite recommendation of where to start - do NOT buy CANDY as back to school snacks.  God gave us all brains and we are meant to use them...educate yourself and take action.  Only YOU are responsible for your health...do not feel overwhelmed to the point of doing nothing - do ONE thing.  And then another.  And then another.  And before you know it, you will be discussing with me organic produce and growing your own cow ;-)