H- health #atozchallenge

I work in health care. I am a registered dietitian nutritionist, so I regularly tell my clients (mostly adults) strategies for eating healthier and what foods they should eat less of or more of depending upon their medical diagnoses. Dietitians tell people what foods are healthy, and this can translate, naturally to how we feed out families and encourage their food habits at home. 

Our expertise lies in many things, the aspects of food science, to counseling, but really the unique piece is our knowledge and ability to provide nutrition therapy for disease conditions. (And this is in fact unlawful to do if you don't have a qualified certification in your state, or the nationwide RDN) 

Still, it is often true that many other lay people have a real good idea of what is good for them and their kids, and they should! And many of us tell our kids to eat things because they are healthy....not so fast parents!

Well, an interesting study came out finding that when you tell young kids something is healthy, will make them strong, will make them grow...etc, they eat less of it. It turns out that if you attribute one characteristic to a food (like those I just listed) they see that as ruling out other characteristics for the food, i.e. it's tasty, it's sweet, it's yummy. Basically, if you tell a kid a food is healthy, they translate that to: it doesn't tastes good.

The study authors concluded that if you want your little ones to eat their veggies, fruits, whole grains, etc. don't tell them about how they are good or will make them stronger and smarter. Just put them on the plate like they belong there, and tell them to have their meal. 

Source:

Michal Maimaran and Ayelet Fishbach. If It’s Useful and You Know It, Do You Eat? Preschoolers Refrain from Instrumental Food. Journal of Consumer Research, October 2014

Tossing Cookies

Prior to flying down to LA I packed up two boxes full of Xmas toys that the kids didn't open yet and sent them down here. It cost me $13 per box and i justified that with the $25/per checked bag fee on the airlines. I sent the box to our friends house down here and they arrived the day before we did - it worked out great!
Marco got a fever the day before we flew, it must have been a little virus. So on the first flight, as the plane was descending, our feverish little man threw up on himself twice. As I was cautiously holding a bag up near his mouth, he told me he doesn't want to do that again so I can put the bag down. Since I am a year or so out from the baby phases, I did not pack any extra cloths in my carry on bag for him so we bought him a new shirt in the huge Atlanta airport. I guess he made out OK. And despite the vomit that didn't stink too bad relative to vomit, it didn't get on the car seat he was sitting in, and it didn't get on me. Plus, sick, lethargic babies make for easy travel companions, as opposed to normal terrible two year old behavior in confined spaces. I'd say we made out OK too. So he could either toss his cookies, so to speak, or literally throw his cookies, or goldfish as it was across the plane because that is what cranky kids do. But with our version of cookie tossing, at least you feel bad for the kid, where as with the other goldfish tosser, you just want to pull your hair out and toss them out the window. And the people in front of me should be happy too because he would undoubtedly be kicking their seat for 2.5 hours with me negotiating with him why that is not a good idea, instead, they now have a breaking heart for the poor baby who vomited because of the pressure changes on the descent (His vomit timing made a lovely presentation breeding empathy, but I hope he didn't pass along his virus to these unsuspecting fellow flyers)

Free Agent!

So after almost two years, I put in my resignation from my job and I am now a free agent! We are planning to move to Louisiana around May so I will be getting ready for that and spending some much enjoyed time with my husband and kids. I do not yet miss working, but when we do finally move, I would like to work part time.
We have not had it easy this past couple years and I hope for things to be a bit more peaceful going forward.
With my first chunk of time that i have in front of me in which i do not have to ask someone if I can go somewhere or not, the kids and I are flying to LA to see where Tom has been working and check out the house we decided to rent. Wish us luck...flying is always fun with kids as well as a big empty house with no toys and no routine...