Having a diet filled with a variety of nutritious foods is important for overall health and wellbeing. Today with so many demands on our time, it may be difficult to make eating healthy a priority.  In episode 5 of our Spark A Movement podcast, host Chloe chats with Haylee, Principle Agent Associate with the University of Maryland giving our listeners tangible ways to make healthier habits and choices for the whole family. In today's post, we wanted to share some of the tips Haylee shared with us to help you kick start healthier habits for you and your family!

Habits

• Eat appropriately sized proportions
• Talk positively about healthy food regularly with your family (example talk about the taste, textures, nutritional value)
• Get moving to help with with a healthy lifestyle

Choices

• Always aim for healthier choices, constantly improving your eating habits incrementally
• Involve the entire family in the cooking and eating process

Planning

• Plan weekly meals
• Reduce food waste
• Save money
• Find creative ways you can "repurpose" meals to make them new
• Include your family in the preparations
• Family can plan weekly menu & create a list of ingredients
• Give children options at the grocery store (example: Would you like to try broccoli or carrots?) in order to have them feel included and involved in family meal preparations

Resources for Families

• Healthy Snacks to prepare for your children
• Healthy eating for families
• Recipes (can be organized by price/type or course)