Snack Attack Midweek Update

So far, so good. Well, good enough. My goal on Monday was just to make it two hours between eating. We did it! Tuesday my goal was three hours. We did it! And today my goal is still three hours, but also to be more purposeful about WHAT and HOW we eat.

Like - I try to sit down WITH the kids and start every meal with a prayer (which means waiting until I have the food mostly ready before calling them in - compared to before when I would say "Time to eat!" but nothing was prepared and they'd be snacking on pieces of cheese as I put sandwiches together because I didn't want to hear them whining about being hungry but then by the time I finished making lunch they weren't hungry enough to stick around - DUH).

Also, we all eat the same foods. (Before, Alex would start eating something, then Daphne would come in and choose something else, then Alex would want what Daphne had and refuse to finish what he started, then I would wait to eat until after the kids were done, which would make them think it was time to eat again, and so on...)

I try to give some options, but mostly I choose what we eat. ("Do you want peanut butter and jam, or peanut butter and honey on your toast?") I guess it's all about balance - giving them some control but not all of it - and being prepared with a meal plan.*** Otherwise we get stuck in conversations like this:

Daphne - I'm hungry.
Me - You just ate!
Daphne - But I'm HUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNGGRRYYYYYY!
Me - Well, what do you want to eat?
Daphne - I don't know.
Me - Do you want a granola bar?
Daphne - No.
Me - Crackers?
Daphne - No.
Me - Apple? Banana? Cereal?
Daphne - No. No! NO!
Me - Then what do you want?!
Daphne - Hmm... Chocolate chips. (or some other dessert, and way too often in frustration I would give it to her! Granted, sometimes she would pick something like "cucumbers and ranch dip" but still - I think it was overwhelming to her to have ALL the control, and it was frustrating to me that I felt like I had none.)

So we're making progress. Not that they are adapting without complaint. But now the conversation goes more like this:

Daphne - I'm hungry!
Me - That's good - you'll really enjoy your next meal!
Daphne - But I'm super super super super super SUPER DUUUUPER HUNGRY!!!
Me - Oh wow, you are really, REALLY going to like your next meal!

And then she shakes her head or rolls her eyes before leaving the kitchen, but she is also smiling, and she is also LEAVING the kitchen, without further argument. So that's good enough for me. Alex is still opening the fridge and pantry too, and asking for things between meals, but it will just take time to convince them both that this is not the way we eat anymore.

***It's not like I hadn't heard these ideas many times before, so I don't expect them to sound original or groundbreaking - I always knew how I thought we SHOULD be eating, but I just let us slip into bad habits and now I'm trying to reverse that. Actually there are lots of bad habits I need to work on besides just the food-related ones, but if I think about it all at once it's a bit too much to handle. So for now we're just working on snacks. Gotta start somewhere, right?