Holistic Living - Nutrition

This post is our third in the Holistic Healthy Living series. Remember, in the first post Get in the Sunshine we talked about how this list is interconnected. It is good to keep each element of the list in perspective as each is a building block for the others to be supported. Don’t let this list of healthy living elements overwhelm you, because they are all building blocks for each other, the overlap makes it easy to focus on what you feel you can manage well and the other elements will get attention also.

Here is our list for a holistic approach to living healthy:

Get outside into the sunshine

Get enough sleep

Eat nutrient rich foods

Build supportive and safe community

Manage stress in healthy ways

Eat nutrient rich foods - Nutrition is the fuel for the body to work. You will

see many posts about childhood eating and nutrition in the future as it’s a popular topic for families trying to nourish children. It’s a complex topic for families because there is a lot of information and children can be tricky eaters sometimes. It can be a topic that is stressful for many families and we know that this can be the hardest of this list. For now, to make it simple: do the best you can to avoid foods with added sugar and things that are heavily processed is a great place to start. In his first book,The Omnivore's Dilemma, nutrition and food writer Michael Pollan makes this simple for us, his suggestion for getting started in healthy eating is shopping for the foods you primarily find walking around the perimeter of the grocery store. This is where you find the fresh mostly unprocessed items. What we are getting at is, if this is something new to you, if you have picky eaters or complex dietary needs in your home, we understand. We also know that nutrition matters for fueling the immune system and for lifelong health. Do your best, get simple ideas from your pediatrician, and it’s ok if it’s something that you let gradually happen as you gain confidence. 

A few tips for helping encourage healthy eating in your family. 

-Offer meals and snacks on a predictable schedule

-Eat meals together as a family as often as you can

-Drink water as primary beverage

-Serve healthy choices and let children choose how much to eat

-Avoid pressure or forceful eating

-Don’t narrate what the child is eating or not eating during meals

-Have a dinner routine; wash hands, set table, sing a song or say a prayer. Make it a fun rhythm of the day. 

-Engage in family conversation; high/low of the day, moments of gratitude that day. There are conversation cards online that can be printed or bought in a deck to be conversation starters that can help with getting children talking

-Let children help you cook sometimes

-Let children have meal planning opinions

-For many children eating the same thing allows predictability. Keep in mind it’s a phase and keep offering healthy foods alongside the constants