1. Love and Acceptance

First of all, let your children know they are loved unconditionally by God and by you. In a society that says otherwise, children need to understand that their self-worth is not wrapped up in how they look or how much they weigh. Talk to them about who they are in Christ and assure them He has good plans for their lives. Focus on giving your children the faith, encouragement and confidence they need to become successful in life.

2. Fast Food Out—Fruits and Veggies In

You can help your child become healthier by providing healthy snack choices and balanced meals. A child’s diet should include all of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for vitamins, minerals and protein, and contain the major food groups.

Foods should be low in calories only, not in essential nutrients.

Have your children begin each day with a good breakfast. Among other things, it has been proven to help with weight loss.

Then aim toward giving your children at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. If they are presently eating two servings of fruit daily, add one vegetable a day this week, and perhaps an additional piece of fruit the next. Gradually change their diet.

Of course, healthy eating requires keeping low-fat sandwich meats, whole-grain bread, fruits and veggies on hand. It’s a good idea to make sure tasty snack choices are always available so your kids won’t feel deprived. (A few of my favorites are frozen bananas, baby carrots, string cheese, apple slices with peanut butter and dill pickles.)

Another simple way to prevent your children from gaining weight is to limit the amount of fast food they eat. It should come as no surprise that eating fast food has been linked with weight gain. Not only is it typically low in nutrition and fiber, it is also high in fat, sodium and calories.

Keep in mind that the more healthy foods your children consistently eat, the healthier they will want to eat—eventually. That may be hard to believe but Hebrew 5:14 says “those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” By gradually replacing unhealthy foods with healthy foods, their senses will become trained to prefer what is good!  I’ll have more tips and ideas for you in next post.