Healthy Eating Tips in Your HomeThanks to my husband, these healthy eating tips have helped my entire family have a better relationship with food. But back when were first married, I ate in all parts of my house and left a trail of crumbs everywhere I went. My husband banished me to the kitchen table to sit down with a napkin in my lap. When I finished, I had to sweep up every crumb that I missed. It’s amazing my marriage survived those first three months.
Tip: Eat in One Place in Your HomeWhen my husband told me to pick one place in our house to eat and stay there, I knew this was important to him. But I realized that by eating in one place, I was actually eating less and enjoying it more. I ate by myself or with my husband in my small, but now clean kitchen. I sat in a chair, put my fork down between bites, and placed a napkin in my lap and a glass of water on the table. How civilized.
Tip: Turn Off the Television!After we had our second and then third child, my husband and I were both tired at the end of the day. My husband relented on his eating in one place rule and we began to park ourselves on the family room sofa and have dinner in front of the television. I convinced him that if I was really careful I could enjoy meals on the sofa while watching television. Maybe this was one of those healthy eating tips that didn't really work?But then the unthinkable happened. We did some work on our house, and we were forced to disconnect our television for several weeks. The first night we sat on the sofa staring at our blank screen. I found my husband whispering commands to the remote control, muttering something about 16 castaways on an island in the South China Sea. On the second night of no television we decided to make a list of our household and personal projects that included simple things that we could accomplish in a relatively short period of time. Perhaps we were a bit ambitious, but without television we thought we now had time to rewire our home electrical system, learn three new languages and build a replica of Stonehenge in our backyard. On the third night, we cleaned out the closets and laughed at my large shoulder-padded suits from the 1980’s, which paled in comparison to my husband’s acid washed jeans. With no television, we found our communication to be better and our relationship to be stronger. When our TV sprang back to life three weeks later, we decided to turn it on only to view a couple of favorite shows. My husband still takes comfort in watching sixteen people stranded on an island with no food. Maybe it reminds him of my cooking. During those three weeks, we moved back to eating at the kitchen table and had interesting conversations. As an adult, I realized how beneficial it was to turn off the television and do something good for myself with the extra time. As a mother I realized my family bonds when we eat together at the table. Television is not good for small children, but I never realized how much turning off the television could foster an emotionally healthy environment for my whole family. To this day, I still believe that turning off the television is of the best healthy eating tips around.
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