It seems like my kids are always hungry! The question I am asked most during the day is, “Can I have a snack?” Even if our last meal was only an hour ago.

During some of those meals, I’ve seen my kids eat as much as I would. Being they are 6 & 4…that’s crazy!

Now I know I’m the parent. Part of my job is to help control that. It’s just so hard to always tell them no they can’t have a snack when they are telling me they are hungry. It tugs at my heart strings.

I at least wait until they leave the room to eat that cookie I told them they couldn’t have. Kidding! Maybe!?

In all honesty, I think some of it comes down to not understanding when they are really hungry. Almost needing to feel that constant state of being full. So my new approach has been to start teaching them about portion sizes and how to listen to their bodies to stop eating when they are comfortable. Not just eat to eat.

We already spend a lot of time talking about what is healthy and what is not as it relates to food. They ask at each meal if the foods we are having are healthy or not. Then they make a big deal pointing out how good they did eating the healthy foods.

Now we’ve added to it. We still talk about what is healthy, but we also talk about how much of each thing we should be allowing ourselves to eat in one sitting. A lot of the stuff I’ve incorporated are really what is taught in weight loss groups. While we are not trying to help them lose weight, I think the tools themselves will help set that foundation now for healthy habits.

Portion control is probably one of the biggest issues out there related to healthy eating. Here are the tips that are easy for kids to understand and implement:

1. Meat portions should be about the size of the palm of your hand (see photo above).
2. Vegetable portions should be the size of your fist (see photo above).
3. Pasta/rice portions should fill the palm of your hand (see photo above).

A little tip, make sure they also understand it doesn’t mean you just eat multiple helpings of the right portion size. When we first started talking about it, my kids finished their plates and then asked if they could have another helping of meat the size of their hand. Fail! I think it was because they liked what I had made that night (for once). But still…fail!

Then there are a few other tricks:

1. Chew your food! This sounds like common sense. However, I’m pretty sure I’ve watched my daughter swallow her food whole. Implement a counting game. Tell them to chew 20 or 30 times before they swallow. This will help them to slow down. It takes time for the food to get to their bellies and tell them they are full.
2. Stop when you are no longer hungry. Many times I think my kids like to eat to have that feeling of being full. I want them to understand that when they get to that point, they’ve eaten too much! They need to listen to their body and stop eating when they no longer feel hungry.
3. Drink more water! I’m pretty sure my kids misinterpret hunger for thirst. Many times when I tell them they cannot have a snack because we just ate a meal, I will offer a cup of water. This will delay them a bit and help them hold out until it’s a more appropriate time for a snack between meals.

I will still continue to push my kids to move more to stay healthy and to try and make good food choices. However, this added approach should take us one step closer to establishing healthy habits. Take our “what is healthy” conversation to the next level. So for now we are all practicing these techniques to hopefully make them habits.

What are you doing to help instill healthy habits?