Changing Our Relationship With Food Together As A Family
No Eating After Dinner Challenge: Day 5 & 6
I had to combine because I was wrapping up the social media challenge.
It’s clear that to be successful with even the smallest habit changes, we should be mindful about why we have chosen to make a change. Mindful about sticking with the task and mindful about setting an intention each day to stick to our guns.
What makes this habit important to you? What will you gain or lose as a result of making this change?
As I reflect upon the three challenges I’ve done so far this year, it is clear that doing yoga, minimizing social media usage and not eating after dinner have impacted my life immensely. With yoga, I am taking care of my mind, body, and soul each day. Loving myself and watching a holistic change happen. In reducing my time on social media, I am allowing myself the gift of time doing the things I love. With no eating after dinner, I am giving my body a rest and in the morning I will literally break the fast. I am treating my body with kindness and the changes that have happened within myself allow a deeper look into seeing how this is benefiting my children. When I treat myself with kindness and compassion, they will see it and want to do the same.
Our relationship with food and our bodies is a work in progress for the whole family because the kids learned everything from us. They model our behaviors and then we have to work hard to make better choices. We eat because we are hungry and need to properly fuel our body so that it is able to have the energy to do the activities we love. Boredom is not a time to eat.
As the kids’ pediatrician put it this morning as we visited him for a well check up, would you rather play basketball and do fun things or sit on the couch with a stomachache? This struck a cord with me because 5 years ago when I put my health as a priority, my main focus was being an active mom for my kids. I don’t know if what he said resonated with them but it did for me. So while I am making personal changes to better myself, I also need to be mindful about the choices the children are making. We are still at a point in their lives where adjustments can be made without putting up too much of a fuss. Our goal as a family is to make choices that will give us the energy to enjoy life.
While I will continue on with my incremental changes at night, I will also be implementing small habit tweaks for my family as a whole. I will walk the walk and make these changes with the kids because I don’t want to be called a hypocrite in any situation or ask them to do things that I wouldn’t dare do.
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Put your oxygen mask on first.
Self care is essential for all parents to make it through the day.
So I’ve created a guide just for you: 7 Steps To Saying Yes to Yourself.