"Forgot to share a funny that happened yesterday morning. I'm making breakfast and izabella said "you're changing mom" and when I asked her what she meant she said "remember when we took your challenge pictures because you wanted to see what chanted when you eat healthy? Well your tummy is getting smaller!" Yay for honest kids lol. And before anyone says anything about what I'm teaching my daughter about body image let me say that yes she asked why I would take pictures when I started a challenge and I simply told her I was eating super healthy and was curious to see how my body changed. We talk all the time about how healthy food helps us FEEL better, helps us be less cranky, helps us fight germs, etc. we NEVER EVER talk about healthy food making us smaller!"
As I received responses NOTHING like I expected, I felt like I needed to elaborate (or maybe I'm just overly passionate about this topic)
" I have ALWAYS said that I will NOT make my daughter feel bad about how she looks....EVER! I can not tell you how much my own personal vision of myself damaged who I was as a person all through my childhood and teenage years and I do not EVER want EITHER of my children to feel like I did, so I am VERY careful what I say in front of them. And to be completely honest, this journey of mine is not about getting thin or looking like a super model or getting to a weight that a group of drs who don't me think I should be at. This is about me being healthy and getting to spend as many years with my children as possible. My past has already likely dwindled those years and that breaks my heart, to continue to knowingly subtract more from that time is just plain selfish. I have NEVER referred to myself as "fat" or "needing to lose weight" or "ugly" or ANY of that. I have always said I'm working on being as healthy as I can be so I can run and play and do sports and all of that with my kids. That's all that matters to them anyway, why would I phrase my view of myself in such a way that they would care about anything superficial? Sorry, this is a VERY touchy subject for me and probably will be something I'm ALWAYS passionate about. And in return for focusing my energy on my kids and how they think and the kind of people I want to raise them to be....it has improved my self esteem tremendously. I started out this journey of mine to get smaller, but this far in....it's just not about that anymore. It's not about the jeans size, it's not about the numbers on the scale and in fact, if I slip back in to that old way of thinking, my anxiety escalates, because it's NOT a fair standard."
The responses I got on FB were astounding. I fully imagined people to shame me for teaching my daughter to recognize this about me (or anyone) when it wasn't at all me teaching her. It was just her honest little self making an observance and it happened to be in regards to how I looked to her. My kids tell me all the time when they like how I look. "I like your hair today mom!" "You're the beautifulest mom ever" and on and on and on and maybe that's because they hear me compliment other people, maybe it's because I tell them how beautiful they are when I think they look extra great on a particular day. Maybe it's because I'm raising genuinely good people. I'm not sure but either way I'm proud of what and how I teach my kids about eating healthy.
In fact, just now my daughter walked in from school and this conversation just happened....
Izabella: "Can I have some candy from my Valentine's bag"
Me: "What do you think about that?"
Izabella: "As soon as I have something healthy first"
....and she pulled out some carrots and hummus from the fridge and is happily snacking away. I'm not hear to brag or be a show off about my kids or our life or eating habits, but I know there are a LOT of people that struggle with how to get their kids to eat healthy, so I'm just sharing what I do to try and help. Even if it's only one person I help, that's enough for me! In fact, here is another conversation that happened after I posted a picture of a dinner we made this week (grilled flounder topped with avocado and roasted garlic broccoli on the side).
So there it is! All of the kid vs healthy eating talk you can handle for one day! Enjoy!
Happy Hump Day!
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