Moms and Dads, what does “building healthy habits” mean to you? Is it about changing the foods we eat or incorporating more physical activities into our families’ daily lives? While these are certainly important factors, building healthy habits is about more than just food and exercise.
Please take a second to read the personal account of a young lady’s journey, whose self-driven nature drove her to make healthier lifestyle modifications.
“Growing up in the South, cooking was always a huge part of my life, unfortunately it was not always the healthiest cooking. Three years ago, I decided to make a positive change in my life. I threw out the processed foods and swapped the takeout for healthy meals I made at home. My love for healthy eating and lifestyles also impacted my professional career. I worked in fashion for over 7 years and decided to follow my true passion and am now pursing a degree in Pediatric Nutrition. I am a believer that if you expose children to healthy foods from a young age they are more prone to develop and maintain healthy eating habits in their adult life. I believe that cooking and nutrition should be fun. It does not have to be a challenge to eat healthy, nutritious meals, instead you can turn it into quality family time and get everyone involved!“
— Stefanie
As Stefanie’s story shows, building healthy habits includes building self-confidence, motivation and empowerment—key components that we, and our children need—to lead a happy and healthy lifestyle. Her inspiring story tells us that as parents and caregivers, we have the ability to influence our children’s relationship with foods and to start them on the track towards leading a healthier lifestyle. In addition to setting a foundation and equipping our children with the tools they’ll need to maintain healthy eating habits, we can help them build self-confidence, motivation and empowerment along the way.
Helping our children build healthier habits can be challenging, but not impossible. For guidance and additional tools, I have developed a Healthy Habits Program to help children and their educators educate children of all shapes and sizes on how to make appropriate nutrition choices for the rest of their lives. For more information, details about the Healthy Habits Program can be accessed here.