Going Raw when you're 4. . .

A BIG challenge has been how to get my kids to eat more RAW. Well, the teenagers I've given up on! NOT! But they are much more resistant to change. It will just take longer to brain-wash them.... I have asked them to keep their bad sugar habits outside of our home. Occasionally they'll have friends over and make a batch of cookies, but for the most part I've asked them to set a good example for their 4 year old brother who can be influenced in a better direction as long as he doesn't have a bad example right in front of him. The Teens have even learned to fake an Mmmm when I have them try a new RAW food treat. It's not perfect but it helps.

It's interesting that several of my Teens friends have asked about my diet and new healthy eating and have even tried some of the RAW snacks I've made and liked them. Which in turn helps to influence my Teens and help them, possibly, think that maybe mom isn't such a nutso....

One of my Twenties is actually stealing Almond Milk from my pantry to take back to his apartment to use. . . Now that's a BIG step for the kid who loves Moo milk on his cereal!!! Slowly but surely. . . I usually have a big bag of apples and oranges in the pantry and I gladly let them take as many home with them as they want.

The 4 year old came home from Halloween with his bucket of candy and I let him eat as much of it as he wanted, but the next morning it was gone (not thrown away...just out of sight) and he never asked for it! He did have a sugar hangover the next day and took a 4 hour nap. I figured that was better than a weeks worth of crankiness and fighting over how much candy he could have. Why ration it out? Just get it overwith in one day!! If it makes them sick, they'll just learn not to like candy! Which by the way he found his bucket of leftovers in the laundry room about 3 weeks later. He ate a little bag of M&M's, and then told me I could throw the rest of his candy away.

He was pretty resistant to the morning smush in the beginning. But I was determined not to give up easily. I tried to figure out how to make it fun. So, I got him involved in making the smush. He would put the cut up apples and bananas into the blender and dump the teaspoon of cinnamon in and then push the button on the blender to smush it all up. I quiz him on what goes into our smush and he knows the 4 ingredients. It's not hard, but he likes knowing. Then I let him choose what color bowl he eats it in, and what color spoon he eats it with, and if he wants any chopped apples or bananas on top of it. In the beginning I even let him sit in my lap, and I'd feed it to him. He likes that. And NOW. . . he eats it all by himself! Woot!