A little new years resolution

I've made a couple of new years resolutions for myself but I also thought I'd make a little one for the whole family and it has a bit of background.  A while back I read a book called Good Health for the 21st Century by Dr Carole Hungerford.  It's a complex read with a lot of arguments for having a more diverse diet and that's what I'm keen to do in 2013. 

The example that really hit a nerve for me was around how heavily Australian diets centre around wheat and dairy.  The book noted that a normal day in an Aussie diet might be weetbix and milk for breakfast, a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch and a margarita pizza for dinner.  While this would be a pretty unusual day for me, there would definitely be days where Leo's diet would look a bit like that.

So in 2013 I'm going to try and include at least one new/exotic/different/seasonal fruit or vegetable in the weekly shop.  I'm also going to write some more exciting resolutions (I really won't spend all year obsessing about what the kids are eating).  I hope you have a happy and healthy 2013!

Now salt can make your kids fat too!

Just wanted to post a quick link to an article that I saw this morning that adds salt to the list of things that make your kids fat.  Once I read it, it's a pretty logical finding saying that the more salt a kid consumes, the more sugary drinks they have as well (not a huge surprise).

I've mentioned before that I originally hoped that I would be the sort of parent who never lies to their kids.  I was just going to lay out the real arguments for and against things and trust the kid's intelligence.  I still stand by this for a lot of things but I also regularly lie about little things in order to get things done (i.e. Kmart isn't open today, we don't have any ice-cream, it's too late to read a fourth story). 

The very best lie I have ever told is that soft drink tastes like beer.  Now anytime someone offers Leo a softy, he looks a bit horrified and says no thankyou.  I know this is not the sort of advice that is going to work for everyone but I reckon anything that you can do to convince your kids that they don't need some forms of sugar is a bonus because you certainly can't convince them that ice-cream isn't wonderful...