Loss; the statistic that they gave was alarming. “A third of all children in this country are overweight. In the past 25 years, the number of obese kids has doubled,” read the script on her show’s website. I just knew that I had to watch. My kids aren’t obese but they’re both under the age of five and since I’ve struggled with my own weight since the age of ten I just know that the genetics aren’t in their favor.
Joanna Dolgoff, author of the book and program, Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right, has created a simple program that teaches kids to make good food choices. The thing that I love about the program is that it’s focused on making the right food choice. Here’s how it works:
Green Light Foods – Foods that help us grow and go! Otherwise known as, grow foods. Fruits and veggies are it. You can eat these at any time!
Yellow Light Foods – These are foods that you can eat daily but in limited quantities such as cereal, milk, eggs, etc.
Red Light Foods – You guessed it…STOP! Think about it. These are foods that you can eat but not daily.
I think this promotes a healthy approach to eating without too much focus on food that your child must stay away from. I created a chart and my son and I talked about which foods were Green Light Foods and which were Red Light Foods. Then he helped me choose the images and we put them into our chart.
Now, Brennan, my son, is a big time snacker. He’d like to snack all day long on animal crackers and graham crackers. And since Easter just happened we’ve had tons of candy and chocolate lying around the house. Our eating habits really needed a kick in the butt.
After having the chart up for an afternoon Brennan loved looking at the food and then making Green Light choices. The chart has been up for a week and he’s been showing every person that comes to our house what Green Light Foods are. On Sunday we had to do some work on our previous home to get it ready for renters to move in; not doing a good job planning snacks to bring we had a lot of quick food – chips, candy, etc. The next day, after the sugar binge, Brennan was begging me for one thing – Red Light Foods. He calls junk food that now and it seems to be sticking. I find myself making better choices too now because of our little chart.
You can download it too and print it off for your own use.
Bio: Bert is a stay at home mom of two, wife to college sweetheart, and what she calls a "semi-crunchy" mama. After four years of being overweight related to pregnancies, Bert submitted a video entry into a local Biggest Loser type of fitness challenge; she was chosen and lost 25% of her body weight in 90 days. She blogs at FirstTimeMom about everything from cloth diapers, parenting, life and her recent passion with health and fitness.
