Health Kick

I'm getting concerned about our "habits" in our household.  I will admit that I am concerned about my daughters in this obese society that we are becoming.  I am concerned about my kids watching too much TV.  I'm concerned about their obsessiveness with eating and snacking.  I'm concerned that they don't always seem to have the drive and energy that I see other kids have.

I started back to the gym 2 years ago and hopefully I am role modeling a healthy lifestyle. But I am still FORCING them to do activities. Plus I'm at this point trying tons of different things so they will hopefully find a love with some sort of physical activity. They generally like the things they do, but if I left it up to them I think they'd choose to sit home and watch TV and play video games. If one kid in the house is playing a game on our phone or the computer, the others come around and just watch.  Bleck.  That's even worse!  I hope some of it is just their age. They are still somewhat young and just want to play but they are going into the phase where kids start doing more activity and playing less with toys and hopefully they won't resist that.

So I am struggling with how to make a healthier lifestyle for my kids. I am probably average on what I give them to eat. Definitely too much going out, but I generally substitute fruit for fries and stuff, they don't drink soda, etc.  They even eat tomatoes like crazy! But I believe kids should be kids and if I withhold too much will they go crazy when I'm not looking. But some of them go crazy any way when I'm not looking and I'm concerned. Without going into all the reasons why, I have good reason to be concerned.

I know I need to cook more and better foods.  I have been surviving so long, just cooking or picking up the easiest thing but I think it's time to step it up.  But it seems I rarely have the energy by the end of the day and cooking doesn't come naturally to me (nor do I find it enjoyable) so it feels like it takes a lot of effort, especially when it's something new. We also eat a lot of carbs because for my growing family of 6, they are easy and fill everybody up.

And so that's where my thoughts are today. It's burdening me I guess, which is a sign I need to do something about it.  Also trying to figure out how to instill a more "active" lifestyle in my kids.  I will admit having two sets of twins I have relied a lot on the TV for either down time or to get things done and now I am finding I have to self-correct it.  We don't have it running all day but I still think it's on way too much.  And they ASK for it all. the. time.  Goodness!

And I also want to be careful how I say things so as not to screw anybody up regarding their body image or self-esteem or anything. But sometimes just telling them what's healthy and what's not doesn't seem to fully sink in. They think they DO eat healthy but have no idea how the snacking and stuff is going to catch up to them.

So that's it. If you have any great, healthy, easy, kid-friendly recipes do share! Or great ideas on how to get ALL of us moving!  I know we are doing swim team every day but it's what everyone does when we are at home that bothers me.