Red Light Green Light

I have two daughters. As parents of girls my husband and I have a goal to raise them to be as confident as possible. We want them to feel good about who they are. We want them to focus more on how they feel not on how they look. As someone who grew up with some serious body image issues I am aware of all the pressure and misconceptions of what a healthy person looks like to young girls. My husband is 6'5 I am 5'2 so the chance that my girls will be shaped and built differently then each other is very likely. We want each of them to know that no matter what their heighth, shape or build as long as they are healthy they are perfect.

The first thing we did was to eliminate the words fat and diet from our house. I do not believe a person can be fat. Fat is something that we can have on our bodies and in our food but it is not something that defines us. I believe we are healthy or unhealthy. I do not believe in "a diet" I believe in a life style. You can be living a healthy life style or an unhealthy lifestyle. When it comes to eating being healthy and having a healthy lifestyle comes in two parts. First having balance and second having moderation. It was our goal to find a way to teach our daughters to have balance in their eating and to be able to recongnize what moderation means. In doing so we started to use the Red Light, Green Light Method and have been amazed at how well it has worked not just for our daughters but for my husband and I as well.

The Red Light Green Light Method is simple and easy to use! I will explain what the colors mean-
Green Light Foods are our healthy, non processed, clean, whole foods. They are fruits,veggies, whole grains and lean meats and healthy dairy products and of course water.

Yellow Light Foods are those in between foods. Pastas, breads, cereals, crackers foods that are not the best but by far not the worst.

Red Light Foods are the treats, resturant foods, sodas you get the idea.

The key to having a balanced lifestyle is to not cut out items or deprive yourself from things you enjoy. This only leaves you starving and eating the whole cake (yep been there done that because I love cake)

Each day your menu needs to be made up of all three lights. When planning your meals make sure 75% are green lights, 15% yellow lights and 10% Red lights. This helps you eat what you need and what you enjoy.

We started teaching our daughters how to use this method at dinner. Every night as we sat at the table we would discuss what on our plates were the green, red and yellow lights and why. They picked up on it suprising fast and were soon telling us on their own what color different food items were.

This has also helped with treats at our house. When the girls ask for a treat or dessert or a free cookie from Publixs all I have to do is ask "Have you had a lot of Red lights today?"
They always take a second to think and will answer yes or no. Once I asked my 8 year old if she wanted dessert after dinner, she replied with " No thanks there was a party at school today and I had a lot of yummy red lights." Happy Mom moment!

Now I must let you know that when it comes to vacations and holidays we have Red Light Days! Halloween is a total Red Light Day ,as it should be, as well as Christmas and Easter. That is just the way it is supposed to be. We also know that before and after visits with Grandparents we eat extra green lights. A Grandparent's house is and should be a total red light zone :)

This is what we have found to work in our home. This may not be what works for you and your family as we are all different. There are a lot of fun and creative ways to teach your children to be healthy. The important thing is to teach them! Give them the tools they need to be healthy, happy and confident!