Healthy Holiday Eating Strategies for Parents and Children

We’re already well into the season of holiday parties — the endless buffets of treats to wreck havoc on a mom’s healthy eating goals and turn our sweet kids into over-sugared monsters! I enjoy the special foods as much as anyone else, but I also try to be aware of what I eat during this time of year. I don’t know about you, but out-of-control eating makes me bloated, sluggish, grumpy and less likely to have positive meaningful interactions with my children during a time of year where we should be having fun family time. In addition, allowing my child with food intolerances to indulge leads to a sick little boy who can’t enjoy the fun, either. How to  attend all the parties and enjoy times with family and friends without too much negative impact on our health? I have a few strategies that I hope might be helpful to you, too.

Plan ahead

This is probably the most important tactic, but the one that gets lost in the shuffle of holiday activities. I like to sit down with my calendar and my husband once a week and go over the activities we’ll be participating in that week. We do this even outside holiday times, but during the holidays it is particularly important because it gives me the chance to look at the times during the week that we’ll be gone during regular meals. For dinners, I plan crockpot meals or I buy healthy pre-prepared main dishes from places like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. For lunches, I pack lunch boxes for myself and the children the night before. It’s a little extra work, but very worth it!

Example: We have a playgroup Christmas party in the morning and I have another get-together in the early evening. I know that the kids will need to nap early so I pack a bento lunch box for each of them the night before and they eat it in the car on the way home. I either pack a lunch for myself as well, or I eat lunch at home while they are napping. During naps, I put food in the crockpot or I go ahead and prepare a meal. We all eat at home before I have to leave for the evening. We have avoided the drive-through for the day and I arrive at the evening event having already had a full, healthy meal.

Which brings me to the second strategy…

Bring your own snacks

The principle of this tactic is to make sure your body’s needs are met with healthy whole foods throughout the day so that you don’t make a meal of the snacks at a party. Whether you are a mom or a child! Bring lunches or your own snacks to eat before you arrive to keep you from relying on the sugary, salty snacks that are usually part of a holiday celebration. When our children aren’t babies anymore (mine are 2.5 and 4 years old), it’s easy to stop packing snacks like we did when they were babies and just rely on the adult food that is available wherever we go. But that food is not always the healthy fare that children need to build their immunity and grow strong. Instead, we’re inadvertently allowing them to fill up on sugar, salt and preservatives. Kids are still building their food knowledge, and the preferences for unhealthy food can last well beyond the holidays.

Examples of some snacks I put in my bag for myself and the children:

• Rice crackers/regular crackers
• Dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, mangos)
• Cut up whole fruit in small container
• Assorted nut mixes (watch out for trans fats/hydrogenated oils – I buy our nuts from a healthy food store)
• Cheese sticks (if there is not a dairy intolerance)
• Homemade granola or granola bars (watch out of sugar-packed commercial granola)
• Carrot sticks with hummus
• “Ants on a log” – celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins
• Yogurt or cultured coconut yogurt (for dairy intolerance)
• Organic “squeezy food” like Happy Family brands or Plum Organics

Don’t skip meals

You’ve probably heard that 5 small meals during the day keep a steadier metabolism than 3 large meals, and this is true. For adults, the tendency is to skip meals so that we can “save our calories” for the holiday eating. That myth has been debunked a number of times — the dip in blood sugar caused by fasting has been shown to have the opposite effect. We tend to eat more than we intended when food does become available. As parents, we have to be vigilant because too much snacking leads to not eating “real” food at meal times. So again, this takes a little planning. The goal is to avoid skipping real meals. Sometimes this means saying no to activities or arriving late. Sometimes this means stopping to eat when you are hungry, even if you are busy.

Example: An at-home option that works great for us is green smoothies. We’re packing in extra green vegetables that we might be missing at meals or we’re adding “bulk” the good meals we do have.

Extra tip: If your children are in preschool or school, the teacher frequently asks for volunteers to help plan holiday parties. Volunteering to bring the snacks allows you to choose healthier options for your kids. I did this and both the teacher and the other moms expressed gratefulness to me for not packing their kids full of sugar yet again. I’ve Pinned some healthy holiday snack ideas for kids on my Dallas Moms Blog Pinterest board.

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Holidays are a time for fun, and I hope you and your children have plenty! Have some great meals and enjoy the time together!