Eating Healthy

I thought I was pretty good in watching what my kids eat. We rarely eat at fastfood places, I don't stock up on soda and junk food at home. But my son was recently diagnosed as obese....what a shock to me and my husband. My son has always been big boned but in the last 3 years he jumped pants sizes, his pants size is 5 to 6 years bigger than his age.

But when you compare him to his classmates, he's not the biggest, there were a couple of boys who were bigger. So my husband and I thought he was ok. He was a very active boy, he would play 2 sports in school, was even part of a varsity team. But when he started staying in and wouldn't go out to play because he's tired, we started to get worried. He was so overweight that his body couldn't carry his weight. Which is why he felt tired all the time.

I feel so guilty. I should have seen it coming. But I was always assured by the fact that he was a very active boy, we wouldn't even allow him or any of our children to play with video games for more than an hour a day. They would be sent out to play in the afternoons when it's no longer too hot to be out.

So now I'm more careful, not just with what he's eating but what the whole family is eating. We try to avoid all processed meat, snack on fruits and cut down on dessert. I used to always have ice cream in the freezer. Now all I have are fruits in the fridge and maybe yogurt ice cream (my kids love BTIC, thank goodness). I make sure we have fish at least 2 times a week, and I've banned lechon kawali or crispy pata from our house.

The real challenge is food for baon. What can I send my kids to school to eat....food that they will actually eat? So far, in the last 3 weeks, we have cut down on the cookies and junk food. They always bring at least one fruit to school, a sandwich and a few other snack items. They especially love bringing corn and pineapple...I hope even if it's from a can it's still healthier than junk food.

One thing I learned from this experience is that just because it's not in a bag labelled chips it isn't junk food. I now check the RDA information, if saturated fat is more than 10%, it doesn't go into my shopping cart. I miss those chocolate bars though....a compromise would be those chocolate covered mallows. It has exactly 10% saturated fat...as long as you only have one. So we all only get one in a day.

A real healthy find that I'm so happy about is whole wheat pizza crust byMacRaf Bagels and Buns. The kids love it! Now if only I can get myself to buy the very expensive low fat mozarella cheese......