How To Have A Balanced Relationship With Food From A Young Age Without Developing Unhealthy Body Image (Outweigh)

an expert, a personal trainer. She's very passionate about inspiring and motivating her clients, including kids, which I don't know if you even have kids clients, but I know last week you mentioned, okay, you do have kid clients. Okay, so you do go speak at the middle schools though, and you mentioned the Titans. So are you going with the Titans cheerleys or is it the Titan football players.

So I was a cheerleader for six years and right after I got in cheering, they brought me onto the NFL initiative that's the Place sixty program where the NFL has initiative to inspire kids to move their bodies for

sixty minutes today. So I go into the middle schools and elementary schools with the Titans mascot t rack, and we talk all about just basic things like moving your body and eating healthy because you know they're at school for a majority of their days and so getting this information, especially from an organization like the NFL, has just spoken volumes from getting this message across. And on top of that, I also have quite a few kid clients, But it's

not necessarily that the kids reach out. It's the parents who reach out and they're like, I don't know how to inspire my kid to move to eat healthy, or the opposite, my kid is moving too much and too restrictive. That's my background when it comes to children, and so last week was more about movement and exercise, and then this week we're focusing on food and body image. And it's such a tricky time when you're going through adolescents.

I mean, we've all been there, we know how it was for us, and we want to do anything and everything to help make it a little bit smoother for our kids. So what kind of things do you talk about with those students or with your clients when it comes to having a healthy relationship with food and keeping that balanced. My disclaimer before all of us when I talk about about kids and food in general is the acknowledgment of we're not living us kids in this present time.

And I tell that to all my kid clients. It's like I don't know what you are specifically going through in this day and age. However, I also know what's going to help prepare you for a healthy life, and so I'm that's what I help you with, That's what I work with. So the main thing I start to talk and we talked to kids in schools and I talked to my client kids about this is what looks

like with balance. What does balance look like? You know, because a lot of them actually don't get balanced at home, whether it's they don't have the opportunity to have food beyond packaged foods at home, or they have parents that have the opposite behaviors and they're too restrictive, so they

don't even know what balance looks like. It's like eating your grains, eating your proteins, eating your vegetables, your fruits, and your dairies, like actually eating the old school meal plan, which I know, the food we all which a lot of people have their own opinions about if that's good, if that's bad. Portions are off. The FDA, you know, is often their recommendations of all this. But at the end of the day, kids need to understand what each of the food groups looks like and how to eat

from there. There's a reason that we learn this. You know, a lot of people in the health and fitness world believe the food pyramid is kind of often it's approached to portion wise, but kids need to know that, like, these are all food groups you need to eat on a daily basis. Because a lot of them don't understand it. A lot of them don't understand to eat I need to eat a protein, I need to eat a dairy, and it's I need to eat a fruit, a vegetable

and all that. They just don't understand that concept. So we literally approached food with understanding the food pyramid. Period. It would shock you to know how simple but yet effective that concept is because first of all, that removes any kind of personal opinion out of it. It's like, here's food groups that exists in the world. Let's talk about just eating balanced food groups to start with, and then conversation kind of escalates from there. But that's the

initial entry point. Is literally just using the good old fashioned food pyramid when it comes to this, No, I like that. We've been printing out all kinds of charts and I just hang them up. The kids know where to go. Now. We used to just talk about things, but I realized, Oh, if they had a visual this would be so much better. If we could dressed down and they could keep track of things, It's so much better.

And so now I'm envisioning maybe printing out and maybe even different facts about the food groups like why protein, Why what part of the brain does this benefit it? And or what part of what organ does this support? Or what is this doing for our muscles or a bone health? So they can learn that way too, and they can see because I feel like sometimes Amory honestly like my approach with my kids as I used to be. When I first adopted them, I was in my eating

disorder and I was so restrictive even with them. I get so they almost have a totally different mom now because now I'm very laid background food. But again, we've talked about that pendulum swinging, and I sort of swung all the way for them too, where it's like, okay, whatever, I don't want to be restrictive, whatever you want. And then now that I'm balancing out, I feel like I have a duty to educate them. And this isn't about my opinions or anything. This is science, it's facts. It

is it removes that pressure. Yeah, you need some greens in your life. And my daughter looked at me the other day and she said, well, I ate a peach, And I said, okay, we need to back up, because a peach is not not a green, right right, Well, and that's and that's the thing. And like I'm even my oldest is just only three, and I realized, even at this age, she's gotten into her she'll only eat crackers and cheese phase. No matter how much I try to put healthy foods in front of her, that's all

she'll eat. So I've definitely been experiencing the whole preaching about something for years, but now experiencing it two different things. I even take the approach for her at being three from an educational standpoint and teaching about foods give us energy and why you know, protein gives us energy and all this, and I believe, I think the latest pronoun is called the my plate approach. So it's not necessarily

what we're used to with the actual pyramid. It's just a plate and there's different colors section of the plates, and it's like, this is where your protein goes, this is where your vegetables go, this is where your fruit goes. Like that's how it looks versus day. You need to have two to three servings, three to four servings type of approach. But I believe it's called my plate or something in that. I'm pretty sure, Yeah, it's my plate. And I just thought of someone too that's been a

great resource for me. I actually am now motivated to revisit this because I am feeling this urge in my parenting to be more proactive in this lane and that it's okay for me now to do this because again there's that tricky space and recovery where it's like, oh who cares talkie and mac and cheese every meal? Who can?

And then I know that they're not going to wake up feeling their best, or they're going to have certain food swings and whatnot, or when they're trying to take a test at school, are they going to be able to concentrate? And I come, I know that I'm speaking from a place of privilege and having access to certain

foods that I know can help them. And that's a whole another conversation of you know, every child getting access to certain foods that are going to be good for them, which is why working with the Titans program going into the schools, you know a lot of kids that we talked to don't necessarily have the resources that we talk about, and so we're very sensitive to that and keep it very We explained them very basic, using them my plate concept about what can even look like eating your grains,

what can look like your protein that you have the importance of drinking milk, because milk has gotten such a bad rap now in the in the diet culture. It's like, no, kids actually do need the nutrients that you get in milk. You know, it's it's taking everything from a science standpoint and presenting it and removing adult diet standards from anything in our minds. But especially when talking to kids about

the foods they need to eat. Parents bring me on first and foremost to talk to them about food, to talk to them about just eating healthy and balance because they either don't know how to eat them balance themselves as parents, or just don't the kids don't listen to them, period. And so another resource as a parent if you're having a hard time getting your kid to even listen to it all when it comes to food, is just remove yourself from the equation and try to look for these

other resources. If you have the means to bring somebody in, bring somebody in, if you, you know, utilize your schools, Utilize school counselors to have these conversations, Utilize school health coaches, peat teachers. I mean, they do exist, and they do want to help your kids, and so just go utilize them and have them talk to your kids. So you can just be the parent on the sidelines with this

and have them talk to somebody else. Yeah, and the other resource that I was going to mention a second ago, and then I get sidetracked is kids eating Color, Kids eating color dot com And I know, I think her instagram might be like kids dot eat Dot and dot color dots. Anyway, you might be able to find some helpful ways to encourage your children to try some new

things and consume it. And then I just went to fit city world dot com because that's your website and marine I know that your your story is up there. If people want to go back and read that if they missed you a couple of weeks ago on the first episode that we did with you, because I feel like you're full of all kinds of knowledge. Are there any other things that you'll try to talk with the kids about when you're there. I keep thinking of the school setting, but I know you have clients as well.

But when it comes to having a healthy body image, I know we've been talking about the food, but just to shift quickly before we wrap. Yeah, the battle that you probably talk about all the time, and the battle that's going to be in textbooks for years to come, is the role that social media plays with all this.

At the end of the day, control what you can control about the narrative and about the conversation, and how you're showing up as the parent to these conversations, and how you're showing up with your own body image approach, because we worry so much about what's being exposed to these kids outside of our control, and the reality is

it's outside of our control. Yes, we can control studyings on bones, we can have them not hang out with people, but it's like, how are you showing up as a parent, What are the things that you are saying to yourself, what are the things that the people around you? For instance, both my mom and my mother in law have made comments about their own bodies in front of my toddler, and I strictly strike that down, and I'm like, we don't talk about our bodies when it comes to that

at all, even with her being three years old. And I talked to some of my clients parents about that conversation without my my kid, clients around being like, how are you talking about your body? What are you saying that you don't even realize? Because a lot of times as adults, we've got into patterns where we don't even realize what we're saying and how it's coming out of our mouth and how we're like, we'll put her shirt on like this looks ugly on me, or we'll put

pants on like, oh, these don't feel good. Like kids pick up on those statements so easily, and so it's control what you can control, and that's the narrative coming out of your mouth at the end of the day. Because there are there's a wealth of knowledge when it comes to social media and how to deal with that and dealing with you know, friends and mean girls at school. But it's like, you're gonna drive yourself crazy trying to

think about controlling that every second of the day. And that's not what I'm an expert in, So I don't even want to start to go down that route of how to control that. But it's personal responsibility on you as an adult and parent. And what you're saying, what if you have a spouse in the picture, what the spouse is saying. If you have friends that are coming over, if you have family members, what are they saying around your kids about body image? And it's another topic of conversation,

which is a whole another probably podcast. But if their dialogue that's coming out of their mouth is negative when it comes to body image, it's like, don't just have them shut it down with their around kids, Like that's something else that needs to change completely in their own life. But that's a whole another topic for another day. But it's just making sure what's in their ears is not

negative body related information. And like I have a mantra that my daughter and I kind of we started preaching together and I say I'm strong, and she says I'm strong, and then I say I'm smart. She says I'm smart, and then I say I'm brave. She says, I'm brave, and then I'm beautiful and I'm beautiful. Because I think it's okay for girls to think that they're beautiful and to know that they are beautiful, and that word has gotten such a bad rap, but it's like, no, every girl,

every boy is beautiful. Have these monsters that they preach and that you preach with them, and so that kind of sticks in their head as they as they grow up. I love that let's do the mantra together. You say it and I'll say it back, like I'm your I'm strong, i am strong, I'm smart, i am smart, I'm brave, i am brave, I'm beautiful, I am beautiful. To anybody that might be new to a mantra, someone you're like, oh, I'm embarrassed, or that feels cheesy, or any any thoughts

that are going to counter that. They slipt into your brain. But who cares. Let it cares. It is not It is important and there is a reason why people adopt mantras and why they see them work. Yeah, And I actually with my daughter, she was born fourteen weeks early, and then the nick you because she was in the hospital for a ninety seven days after she was born.

I would speak that mantra into her ear every night at the hospital bed when we visit her, and it's just kind of something that's the same mantra that I spoke then. Obviously, you know, one could argue if she retained it that or not, but it's something we've carried around because I and she'll get to be a high school and probably not want to say that with mom,

but get these words in their head early. And also, don't just have these words, have them something that you mean in all the words that you say to them. So I make sure that she knows that she's brave. We talk about bravery a whole lot. Now we talk about strength the whole lot. You know, it's a whole action speak louder than words situations. So it's not just the mantra that we're staying at night and making sure we also execute these mantras during the day with what

we do as well. Blavery. I loved our time together. It sounds like I might be able to have you back for another topic for lots of bs that come out. Yeah, of that, yes, so we'd love to have you back any time that you're available. So in the meantime, y'all can find Anne Marie on Instagram. I mentioned her website a minute ago, which is fit city World dot com. But then your instagram is fit city Perl. Yeah it's not World, it's at fit city p. I have both instagrams.

I just in my social media hiatus have not done much for my business and and put more into my personal So hey, I love to see it. And it's been a joy talking with you the last three weeks and we will be back next Saturday. So in the meantime, take care of yourself. I thank you.