Tag Archives: thoughts

The Healthiest Fast Food Restaurants for Kids

06/20/2014 R.C. Liley 11 Comments

After extensive research and numerous comparison tests, I have compiled the healthiest fast food restaurants for our children. To some, the results might be shocking, while it may come as no surprise to others.

With all of the claims made on billboards, tv, and magazines, it’s hard to know what truly is best when it comes to going to a fast food establishment. Hopefully this info will help you navigate the confusing hub bub and make the best decisions for your family.

Here is my list of the healthiest fast food joints to take your kids:

1. NONE!

And that concludes my list.

Nope, I didn’t forget 2, 3, 4, etc.; number one is the only answer. There is no healthy fast food restaurant for anyone, and especially your children who depend on you to provide! Maybe there are healthier choices, but they are still devoid of the nutrition from something similar made at home.

I get that many parents are short on time, but I don’t see that as being a good reason to resort to fast food or frozen, packaged meals to feed your kids. True, I don’t know everyone’s life story or current situation, but our kids depend on us, their parents, to protect and properly provide for them.

If you claim to care about your child’s health, then why subject them to overly processed, chemical laden “food”? It’s unfair to children who don’t know the difference between healthy vs. unhealthy food, and can only accept what you get them or have nothing at all.

Most fast food options will have you waiting in line either at the drive-thru or inside which can take upwards of 15 to 30 minutes depending on time of day. Alternatively, you could prepare a healthy meal with whole foods at home and even get the entire family involved.

And the argument over the cost of healthy food being too high is absurd. The amount of money you spend on going out easily outweighs the cost of buying your own ingredients and cooking at home. Factor in the gas it takes to go wherever you’re going, price for drinks, added tip if at a sit-down restaurant, and the lesser quality food that impacts health, it’s just not worth it.

We show Avery how eating our homemade meals makes us feel great and gives us energy to get through the day. Plus, making your own food can be educational and fun for your kids. She watches me prepare meals in the kitchen and then takes part in eating (or attempting to eat) healthy foods like carrots, broccoli, and lately, cucumber.

It’s important to start your kid on the path to eating healthy from the start, but I realize many of you have grown children who may resist your attempts at offering healthy food. This is no reason to just give up and let them go about their way; that’s just a guarantee to lead your child down the path to obesity.

Here are 5 ways to get your kids interested in healthier food options and maybe even help you bond more as a result:

Teach by example. As parents, we are our children’s role models, so when you eat healthy, they will want to eat healthy too.
Take them grocery shopping. Sounds crazy, huh? Well, stay out of the middle isles with colorful boxes promising “fun” and “happiness” and peruse the perimeter with your kid. Let them pick out a new produce item to take home; they will be more interested in trying something they chose.
Let them help. If your kids are old enough, get them in the kitchen to “help” however they can. Just having the slightest bit of participation will make kids more prone to trying something they had a part in preparing.
Don’t give up. If at first you don’t succeed, try again! A child may need to see a food several times before actually trying it, so be persistent. We learned this with Avery; she wouldn’t look at the carrots we gave her, but now she’ll pick them up and bring them right to her mouth!
Make it easy. Kids (and most adults) tend to pick food based on what’s the easiest to grab. So when looking for a snack, most of us will grab that bag of chips instead of chopping fresh produce into bite-size pieces. Try cutting fruit and veggies and have them ready to grab right out of the fridge for your kids to snack on. You’ll be surprised at how they’ll go for them now that they are easy to eat! This will also help the adults in the house!

By now, you get my point, if you truly want to best for your kids and want them to grow up strong and healthy, focus on healthy food. Exercise is another important aspect, and I’ll get into that on another post I’m sure. For children, just getting outside and being active is the best exercise. Limit time in front of a screen and hey, try joining and playing outside with them!

Here’s a long, but extremely eye-opening info-graphic on the childhood obesity epidemic; it’s sad to read, and I hope to do what I can to change this!

Our kids look up to us and want to do what we do, so by living a healthy life, we are helping shape a healthy future for our little ones. If you don’t know how to start on a healthier path, MR. Google has plenty of information.

This post is part of the “I’m Proud of That” Link-up on the Daddy Space blog. Click the badge below to check out other awesome parent bloggers:

Here’s a search I performed for you to find Healthy, easy weekday meals.

Are you currently trying to change your unhealthy habits at home?

Do you already follow healthy living? If so, any tips for other parents?

Monthly List, Parenting

7 Memories from my 7th Month Since “Going Dad”

06/16/2014 R.C. Liley 6 Comments

Really? Another month already?!

Geez, who needs a time machine for the future when becoming a parent “apparently” yields the same effect? Avery is now over the half-year mark and is becoming more active (and vocal!) every day.

On my 6 Memories post, I anticipated that one of my 7 memories for her 7th month would include her crawling, but it hasn’t happened yet. Seriously, the 8 month post is sure to have a memory of her crawling!

I think I'll just stay in this position and do nothing else. — I think I’ll just stay in this position and do nothing else.

Scooting, military crawling, and forward thrusting while on her hands and knees are all there and fool us into thinking “this is it” every time. Soon, baby, soon.

With my 30th birthday and first Father’s Day behind us now, hopefully the rest of June will be a bit calmer and we can focus on our little girl crawling. Oh, and she’ll be helping me clean up our neighborhood too.

If you haven’t entered to win an awesome Outback baby carrier from Onya Baby, click here and do it now! I wear Avery in our Onya everyday and it allows us both to get quality father-daughter bonding time.

Okay, lets get started…

1. Most of our nights now have us in the living room before your bath time where we play on the floor. Depending on how the day went, you can be really fussy or a happy baby. When you’re happy, I will hold you in the air and let you jump on my stomach or just try to entertain you with toys.

As it gets later, or you just had a rough day, getting on the floor with you does nothing for your temperament. This is when we break out the laser and get Lou (the fat black cat) involved to help us keep you calm. It works well, and “Fatty” gets some exercise.

Don't move, you might scare it off! — Don’t move, you might scare it off!

2. Just recently, you have started grabbing at my face while I’m trying to feed you a bottle. I start to make weird noises and act like I’m going to eat your hand and you laugh every time. It’s cute, and no matter how ridiculously annoyed I am that you won’t take the bottle, I forget all of my frustrations and just give you a kiss on the head.

As an aside, you also grab at anything and everything in your sight; other people’s faces included. You may or may not have grabbed a bottle of beer as mommy was trying to take a drink and spilled it on the both of you. But don’t worry, the beer was safe!

Daddy's face can be boring, I'll grab at Paul's. — Daddy’s face can be boring, I’ll grab at Paul’s.

3. We were in our first race together and won 1st place! Sure it was a small race with very unenthusiastic competition, but we rocked it, baby! Thanks to G-Ma, Paul, and Mommy, we had the best spectators out there, and they made the day even more special.

Besides it being our first race, we’ll never forget this day because of how much we stood out from the rest of the cheerful attendees. 🙂

4. You got to experience your first trip to a brewery! The same day we won the 5k, we went with G-Ma, Paul, and Mommy to the Martin House Brewery in Fort Worth as part of my 30th birthday celebration. I had more than my fair share of good beer, and luckily mommy drove us home safely. I did help direct her out of our tight parking spot though!

As you can see, you were thrilled to be there! Even with live music and clusters of people drinking and talking all around you, you managed to sleep quite well.

Actually, when live music stopped is when you seemed to wake up; coincidence? We’ll never know!

5. You had been to Nana and Papa’s pool before, but this past month was your official first dip in the pool. Mommy, You, and I all walked down to our neighborhood pool where you happily splashed around in the baby pool just like it was your own giant bathtub.

You must’ve really enjoyed yourself playing, because you were out before we made the walk back home.

We brought you back again on my birthday and you still loved the water like before. I have a feeling we’ll be making many trips to the pool since you obviously enjoy each time we go; even if you’re “too cool for pool”.

6. Avery, caffeine and you don’t make for good times……ever! Along with all of the other firsts the same day as our race and trip to the brewery, mommy had more than one cup of coffee for the first time since pregnancy and it became apparent that night. Caffeinated boobs are lethal!

You woke up crying more times than you had in a long time, and despite mommy’s many attempts, you wouldn’t stay asleep very long. This, in turn, resulted in starting my birthday earlier than any of us had planned (or wanted), but the day ended up being great. I even got to try out your crib with you in it for the first time.

Since then, mommy has been keeping her coffee consumption to one cup or less per day. Phew!

7. You ate your first solid food! We started to introduce you to solids through baby-led weaning, and at first we felt like you’d never eat what we gave you.

But after several encouraging commenters on the blog, we kept at it and eventually you took your first bites. You also gagged a little, but that was expected, and you didn’t let that bother you a bit!

As I write this, we are waiting on a hair chair mommy ordered since what we were using wasn’t working out, so hopefully we’ll have the new one soon and start feeding you healthy foods once more.

Okay, so I’ve exhausted my “7 things”, but I must add one more thing. You are becoming more vocal about EVERYTHING! Yes, if we so much as think about stepping on foot out of your sight, you’ll turn into hysterics and scream as loud as humanly possible. The sound resembles that of a cat screeching when you step on its tail mixed with a very frustrated baby bear trying to growl. Not a pretty sound.

From what I gather, this isn’t ending soon, so I guess we’ll just deal with it as it comes.

We are hopeful to see some crawling action before the 8th month rolls around, so we’ll keep working with that laser!

At what age did your kid(s) start crawling?

What about when they found their loud voice?

Parenting, Pinterest Picks

Going Dad’s Top Ten Pinterest Picks (7): Food Matters!

06/06/2014 R.C. Liley 3 Comments

Do you know exactly what went into the last meal you ate? If it wasn’t you making the meal, chances are, you may not.

This way of thinking has had me making my own meals for several years now. There are times when I go out to eat, not by my choice, and I have to pick apart the menu and annoy the crap out of our wait staff. But, I have no shame when it comes to wanting to know exactly what I’m being served and how it was prepared.

I wasn’t always like this, I used to go out all the time and the words macronutrients, calories, trans-fat, high-fructose corn syrup, MSG, etc. were never a consideration. If it looked and sounded good, I ate it. Back then, I was being “healthy” when I requested no cheese on my double-meat hamburger from McD’s.

Yeah, things have changed and now I’m a health food advocate who questions any and all ingredients. If it’s packaged, I have to scrutinize the label several times and maybe even perform a Google search. For the several years I’ve been like this, I get extremely irritated at how food companies advertise their “healthy” products and at the ignorance of the average consumer.

And now, as a parent, I’m disgusted at what some parents feed their children. I might get a lot of negative responses here, but I see no reason any kid should have to eat fast food. There is a wealth of information out there on what is healthy vs. unhealthy and enough buzz on the topic to claim you “didn’t know.”

I know Going Mom and I will instill our healthy values in Avery, but I fear how powerful the influence of her peers will be. I remember what it’s like being in grade school, and how no one wants to be the odd one of the group! All I can do is hope Avery values health and knows what is good and what is not when she’s faced with choices on her own.

Hopefully, these ten food related Pinterest Pins help open your eyes and inform you in a way to be able to make changes for the better. I know right after I changed my eating habits, I felt, looked, performed, and recovered better than ever before. I could easily go way beyond ten, but for these are a great to start with to make changes today!

3. 10 reasons not to eat at most restaurants.

4. Convenience, not price, limits veggie consumption.

5. A 20-ounce soda contains 65 grams of sugar, that is approximately 22 packets of sugar in just one bottle.

10.

Hopefully you found some or all of these thought-provoking and useful to help you start making changes for yourself and loved ones. Or maybe you’re already in the know and these are nothing new to you.

If you already are a health living advocate and you have older children, how have you worked to keep your little ones from eating fast food or other processed junk when at school or a friend’s house?

I would love to hear anyone’s tips/advice as I feel like we are a minority when it comes to caring about what we eat.