Take The "Anytime Snacks" Challenge
Sit down with your children and explain that the family will be taking the "Anytime Snacks" challenge. Together you can make a list of these foods. You may select the images below or have your children brainstorm and research their own "Anytime" inspiration. Rotate the options throughout the week to encourage variety and continue to slowly add options with time to expand their palettes. In exchange for making a notable improvement (you decide - is it a day, a week, or a month of improvements) you may offer a non-food related reward (A toy, book, special outing with a parent or friend, etc.) Do you remember giving your children rewards for potty training? The same applies here as we teach them to eat healthy foods. We won't be rewarding them into adulthood, this is a temporary method as we teach them to develop a healthy relationship with food.
What is an "Anytime" snack? Foods that are good to eat anytime such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, poultry, whole grains, complex carbohydrates, complete protein, and healthy fats. These foods can be further categorized as green and yellow foods. Green means "go" and can literally be eaten anytime such as fruits and vegetables. Yellow means "slow down". For example, there is a limit to how many nuts and seeds you can eat. The category of red foods does not apply for "Anytime" foods since red means "stop" and we should really reserve this category for "Sometimes" foods.
What is a "Sometimes Food"? Foods we can eat once in a while. The objective here is not to label anything as taboo since this may have the unintended result of making these options more desirable and enticing.
