Just wait 20 minutes

One of the challenges of being a parent is teaching my children to have healthy eating habits. Let's face it, neither my husband nor I are the poster children for health. We could both stand to lose several pounds, and have often discussed how much we love food. I grew up in a family that was surrounded by food for all sorts of occasions: celebrations (Thanksgiving, Christmas, a fabulous report card, a new job, graduations), sadness (deaths, divorces, a general bad day). You name it, we could find a reason to eat.

One of my fondest memories as a child was going to the Rainbow Ice Cream Palace one summer evening with my mother, sister, and cousin to have ice cream for dinner. I thought I was in heaven! Ice cream for dinner? Wahoo! We were allowed to order a bucket of ice cream to share. Each of us was allowed to pick five flavors. That's 20 scoops of ice cream shared between 4 people, most of whom were under 15.

Even then, I was portly and wearing husky sized jeans. One of the flavors I picked was coffee. I was trying to be cool. But really, I think I ended up ruining a good chunk of the bucket. The coffee ice cream was plopped right in the middle of the entire bucket and mingled with all the other flavors around it. Ew. Since I ordered it, I had to eat it. But it turned out I didn't actually like it. I know I choked down several bites (even thought I was full and hated the taste. I was having ice cream for dinner! When would that happen again?)

Fast forward about 25 years. I still battle with my weight. Can't remember not battling with it. But now I have children who deserve to have healthy relationships with their food and their bodies. My daughter LOVES food: especially sweets, potatoes, and anything carbohydrate rich. Even though her pediatrician is comfortable with her height and weight ratios, we're nervous that if we continue our family eating habits as they exist, we will ultimately have overweight children.

So, we're biting the bullet. We know that the only way we will raise healthy eaters is if we become them ourselves. So we're introduced a new family rule at dinner time. It's called Wait 20 Minutes. From the time we sit down to dinner until the time someone is ready for seconds is usually about 7 minutes. That's really not enough time for the brain to even know the stomach has lots of food in it. If we go for seconds right away, when the brain has caught up to the stomach, we're already over eaten.

Last night was the first time we tried this little exercise. My mouth SO wanted more food... but since I'm trying (and hubby is trying) to break habits within ourselves and not teach them to our children, I ignored mouth cravings for more food. My daughter asked for seconds first. And I said, "Let's wait 20 minutes. We can do your homework while you wait. If your tummy is still hungry after that, then you can have more."

And you know what? No one ended up eating more dinner.

I love how my children are helping me to be the person I know I can be! And I'm so thankful for the experience to learn from and with them.