I’m so excited to be a guest blogger! I have been contributing recipes to singledadstown.com for a few weeks now, and I’m honored to be a part of this growing community.
Many kudos to you for joining us! Your participation speaks volumes to your commitment as a parent, and your attention to raising healthy, happy children. In this empowered place, we can shift the focus from “dealing” with child-rearing, to “embracing” all that comes with raising wonderful adults!
I am equally committed to this as I raise my son Max, who is the inspiration for my company, MaxLife Therapies. It is my mission to teach families to take back their health through proper nutrition, exercise and positive thinking. I not only meet personally with families, but I share my message to larger audiences through my keynotes, books, DVD’s and Blogs.
My message is this: “Small Change, Big Impact”.
If you can commit to Small Changes every day – even if just eating one more piece of fruit each morning – you will be guaranteed to see Big Impact results in your life…with EASE!
Max and I see this showing up in our lives all the time. In fact, just the other day we went to the Farmer’s Market to shop for local produce. Despite my influence on Max, he’s still a 6-year-old and would much rather choose the foot-long hot dog over the bright red apple!
However, as we walked through the market, I asked Max to pick out a vegetable that he would like to try that night for dinner.
You can imagine the response…“MOM! (or Maaawwwm!)”
But I persisted and said I would put a little butter and sea salt (which he loves) on his choice, and that he just needed to try two bites. He chose butternut squash. Needless to say I roast a mean batch of butternut squash, with touches of olive oil (okay, I know I said butter) and sea salt for extra flavor.
Max LOVED it! He ate a huge helping and asked for seconds. “Gladly!”
More importantly, he’s starting to trust that I’m not going to force anything on him, but will continue to encourage him to try new things. Just giving him that freedom, but being persistent with the deal, opened up a whole new world for us.
Max has been much more willing to give the Two Bite Rule a shot. The other night he tried my lentils with spinach and yogurt. He tried two bites, kind of liked it, so he tried a third and a fourth. After the fourth bite he decided he didn’t like it so much. That’s okay. The other night he tried my green salad with mandarin oranges and almonds and loved it! And guess what…no Ranch dressing!
I’ve been delighting in his openness to try new things; further confirming that just the small change of picking ONE vegetable to try, without force, has allowed us to slowly move away from the nightly battle over vegetables.
FUN!
Join me every Tuesday for more stories. It is my hope that in living my life as a single-mom, I can impart knowledge and tips that allow you to successfully create a culture of healthy living within your home. The fact that I can offer sound nutritional advice makes it even more rewarding!
I’ll look forward to “seeing” you next week!
Great advice Julie