Kiddipedia

Kiddipedia

Written by: Kiah Paetz

 

With Easter well-known as the chocolate-filled holiday, it can be a very difficult time to maintain a healthy diet.

In addition to this, many Australian families are making the switch to eat a plant-based diet. Research shows that almost 2.5 million Australian’s are now eating a predominantly plant-based diet.

This begs the question, how can we help our family balance having a healthy plant-based diet, but also enjoy chocolate easter treats!

  1. Begin the day with a balanced breakfast

You may have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This is certainly true when it comes to Easter. When we skip meals, especially breakfast, this often leads us to be hungrier later in the day. This can contribute to intense cravings and binging.

During Easter time, you may also find that you swap your balanced breakfast for sugary sweets. This often leads to an initial spike in energy levels, quickly followed by an energy dump making your feel sluggish and looking for more sweets.

Instead, make sure to combine your morning sweet treats with a balanced, plant-based breakfast. This might look something like:

  • 2 slices of wholegrain toast with baked beans, wilted spinach and grilled mushrooms
  • Rolled oats with plant-based milk, flaxseeds and fresh berries
  • Soy or coconut yoghurt topped with fresh fruit salad and muesli

If you don’t have time to make this yourself, you could also try Soulara’s balanced breakfast options such as Ruby Sunrise Chia Pudding, Peanut Butter & Jam oats or Sunbliss Granola Bowl.

By combining a nutritious meal and your easter morning chocolate treats, you will find that everyone in the family is less inclined to go overboard with sugary sweets as you’ve enjoyed a nice, nutritious meal.

  1. Have healthy snacks easily available

What we see is what we eat. If chocolate is lying around, we will have a tendency to go to that first. However, if fruit and vegetable-based snacks are more readily available – we will go for these too!

To encourage kids to eat healthy snacks throughout the day, make sure to leave a fruit bowl on the counter. This makes eating fruit easily accessible, and kids will be more likely to pick some up as they walk past the kitchen.

Also fill up your fridge with other healthy snack options. This could include:

  • Carrot sticks and hummus
  • Celery and peanut butter
  • Guacamole and crackers
  • Homemade popcorn
  • Coconut yoghurt and berries
  • Protein balls

  1. Eat regularly throughout the day

On many holiday occasions like Christmas and Easter, we’re so involved with the day’s festivities that we might miss some of our meals. Skipping meals is one of the biggest contributing factors to overeating and cravings.

Instead, make sure to keep a regular routine throughout the day by having your three main meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as morning tea and afternoon tea snacks.

If you’re finding it difficult to balance having a nutritious meal with the craziness of the day, you may want to consider using a plant based meal delivery service such as Soulara. Soulara will help you fuel your body with nutritionally balanced, plant-based meals in a convenient way.

  1. Don’t deprive yourself

In addition to skipping meals, depriving ourselves of food’s we enjoy (like chocolate) can be a huge factor that leads to binging later on. If you or your family feel like eating some easter chocolate – then go ahead and enjoy it – but aim to do it mindfully.

  1. Keep chocolate eating a judgement-free zone

If you’re a health-conscious person, it is common to think “I shouldn’t have eaten that” or “chocolate is a bad food.” These negative thoughts can often be more detrimental to our health than the food that we’ve eaten.

Children from a young age also start to listen to what their parents say to themselves and inform their own thoughts around food based on these. To avoid your child developing a “good food” and “bad food” mentality around eating, it is important to be mindful about how we speak about food.

You can do this by:

  • Removing the guilt around anything you’ve eaten, even if it is chocolate.” Just remember – you’re eating chocolate, not poison!
  • Remind yourself that food is not only there to provide nutrients to the body, but for enjoyment as well. Chocolate (especially at easter) plays an important role in social occasions with friends and family.
  • Rephrase how you think about chocolate, instead of saying “chocolate is a bad food” instead say “that was so delicious, I really enjoyed eating that chocolate” or “chocolate can be part of a balanced diet.”