Working as a team is always better when it comes to your family’s eating habits.
I see both sides of the fence, I train a lot of teenagers and I train a lot of parents, and they can both blame each other for their eating habits.
Your parents buy the food, they make the food and they actually put the plate in front of the kids in most cases. So the parents decide everything?
According to latest statistics this is not true, more and more teenagers are heavily influencing the family shopping, whether in the supermarket or through online shopping for groceries.
Over 50% of teenage girls contribute heavily to the eating choices, and a third of boys will say loud and clear what the foods should be in the household.
It doesn’t stop in the supermarket, most parents when surveyed said the kids were most influential when it comes to choices for fast food, snacks when they are out and restaurant choices.
So when teenagers say they have no control of what their parents give them, research says that if they keep telling their parents that they really want, then well made tasty healthy food with a bit of imagination should become a reality, as the parent is likely to eventually cooperate for the benefit of everyone in the family.
So if you are a teenager who is looking to get fitter and healthy, you had better keep on to your parents. The parent will be confused because for years you may have told them that you want Mcdonalds or pizza, or fish and chips and they got used to providing those foods that made you happy.
So changing your choices takes a while for the whole family to sink in.
If you are the parent, then usually you have got used to those “little treats” too, as you usually will get stuck in yourself! So change for you may be hard too!!
This is why when the teenager suddenly discovers that they really would like to be fit, healthy and strong, the parent needs to be completely onboard and live a healthy lifestyle themselves.
Expecting your child to be eating good nutritious food, while you’re stuffing yourself big time on sugary and fatty foods sets a terrible example, and will lead to a much big struggle in your child being successful.
Work as a team and the whole thing is much more likely to work!
