Meet Coach Krystyn
Hello! As a nutrition expert I will never judge you! So don’t judge me. 🙂 People always think registered dietitians eat 100% healthy all of the time and that we always cook from scratch. Umm, nope. We had pizza last night. We live our lives.
There are some things I try to do every day at home with my family. I work and have a toddler. We have swim class, gym time, everyone has an activity! We have a busy, crazy life!
Here are some tips I keep in mind. Try them out! These help me to keep us sane and eating well!
Don’t count each meal
I don’t stress out about what my kid eats every day. I try to serve a fruit and vegetable at every meal. That is what a balanced diet looks like for us.
Call food by its name
We’re pretty basic when it comes to talking to our kid because he is so little. But! Call the food by its name. We don’t use words like healthy, unhealthy, good or bad. I also try to say what the food does for our bodies, like this chicken is for strong muscles or this carrot will make us see better. It’s fun for him to learn!
Don’t stress because there’s no pressure to eat
Seriously. Kids (especially toddlers) can read stress and they use it to their advantage! It makes mealtimes suck and it’s a vicious cycle. One thing to keep in mind: your role is just to provide the food and your kid decided to eat or not. If he doesn’t eat it, that is ok! I’m not offended. If he says yucks, that is OK too!
Focus on mealtime behavior
We worked hard to get our son to sit at the table. When he is done he has to wait for all of us. He now yells “Im done. I’m waiting” very loud and on repeat. I’ll take it. We focused on things like sitting at the table, no food throwing, no sharing food with the dog. My favorite? If you don’t want to eat it move it to a special spot on your plate and move on.
Eat together
Family meals is all my kid knows! Before my kid was eating solids, I’d hold him at the table. When it was time for him to start solids, we did baby-led weaning and he’d be right there eating with us. With baby led weaning, we gave my son the same food that we were eating.
The Instapot makes lives easier
This thing is great. I put everything in there. We use it at least twice a week. Right now, there are lentils in there. For a whole year my son rejected meat so we are used to lots of vegetarian meals. That habit of beans and lentils is one we’ve kept. It helps us save money too.
Here’s a good one to try: Lentil Bruschetta
- Make lentils in the instant pot. I do 1 cup lentils with 1.5 cups liquid. I use the manual setting for 5 minutes. The lentils are still firm, which makes it easier for my toddler to pick them up (you could cook a little longer to make them mushier for younger kids).
- Add bruschetta! There is a ready made version from Trader Joes that a lot of people love. I usually do homemade, because my 3 year old loves helping me cut tomatoes! I eyeball measurements, but we generally dice up 4 roma tomatoes. Mix in some diced garlic (I get a big jar of pre-diced garlic from costco to save time), olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, and parmesan cheese. I’ve made it without the parmesan to make it lower sodium/vegan/dairy free and it still turns out great.
- Serve with crackers. My son loves to eat it with a spoon (you can preload the spoon for little ones or just let them dig in with their hands).
Want more Coach Krystyn?
I’d love to be your Foublie Coach, especially if you’re ready to take on baby-led weaning or baby-led feeding! Let’s chat.