It can be tough enough eating healthy when you’re at home and have your whole kitchen at your disposal. The challenge is even greater when you have to plan and pack it for the day for your kids. So lets look at some tips to try and make it easier.
The first thing is to plan ahead. The more prep work you can do ahead of time will eliminate the “Oh no the bus is almost here throw something in your bag and get going!” panic. Having snacks pre-packed and ready to go will make it much easier to grab and go. Also buying ingredients in bulk and sectioning them out into snack sizes will save money. You’re just paying more for packaging when you buy food already sectioned out in snack sizes.
When it comes to snacks all foods are not created equal. You want food with a high density of vitamins and nutrients. That means things like fruits and veggies, nuts and protein. Chips, crackers, cookies and sweets are empty calories. They are full of sugar and simple carbohydrates, which just break down into sugar in our system. This will give you a short quick burst of energy as the sugar hits your system. Then shortly after that your body releases insulin to bring your sugar levels down and you get the energy crash leaving you feeling more tired than when you started.
Choosing healthy snacks will give your child a slow steady supply of energy that lasts and doesn’t peak and crash. Trail mix which is a blend of nuts and dried fruits is a great choice. You can buy the ingredients in bulk and blend them into snack size portions yourself so it’s only the stuff they like. Nuts are very nutrient dense foods that have protein, healthy fats and vitamins that will give a slow burn of energy that lasts.
Fruits are always a good choice. Most are grab and go just how you buy them. Apples, bananas, oranges, they all come in their own organic wrapper ready to go! You can also cut up a bunch of veggies like celery, carrots, cucumber, or peppers and have them ready to go into a snack container. Use another small container with some dressing to dunk. One of my kids favorites are the fresh peas in the pod, they love digging them out and eating them raw.
These are just a few ideas to use to get your kids eating healthier throughout the day. Experiment to find things that they like. Sure if you ask them they would always pick a bag of Doritios over trial mix but if you start introducing these healthy options they may find something they really like. One good way to get them into it is to take them shopping and have them help pick out healthier choices and get them involved in the process of mixing and packaging their own healthy snacks. This can really get them excited about the new choices.