Testimony of the Day
“Hi, My name is Dennis and I’ve been following the Keto lifestyle for 4 months.. I started in April and lost a total of 60 pounds. I went from 295 to 235 and feel great. The Dr said that I don’t have to take insulin anymore” – Dennis
Start your path to healthy healing today! Click HERE to get started!
BACK TO SCHOOL STRUGGLES
I’m reading a booked called Heavy, which is a memoir of a mother who is helping her young daughter lose weight. She writes about how at school they have stations. One of the stations is a “snack station” (which her daughter spent most of her time at). Really!? Craig and I remember getting in trouble if you ate in class.
What are your biggest hardships when it comes to your kids eating healthy? It is the school lunch? Treats?
If you are looking for an easy and tasty “Breakfast Bar” on the go, why not make it Paleo with a meat bar?
EPIC is a great company that provides paleo bars and snacks. You can find them HERE on Amazon.com
I’m often looking for easy on-the-go treats when I take my boys to outings and these have been a life-saver. Sure, I can make my own jerky and I often do, but I appreciate it when I can find products like Epic to make my like a little easier.
They are so gracious that they offered to do a giveaway for my readers! It is easy to enter! All you have to do is 2 things:
1. Like Keto Adapted on Facebook and tell your friends and family about Keto Adapted.
2. Comment below: What are your biggest hardships when it comes to your kids eating healthy?
Winner will be picked on September 23rd. Good Luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
AND THE WINNER IS…… Anna Grossman! Congrats!
kids can be so picky…one day they like something, the next day they hate it!
The biggest hardships I see as a pediatrician are income based and food poor areas of our large city
Yes, and WIC certainly does not help 🙁
SO TRUE! My daughter receives WIC and most of the items included make me cringe. Bread, cereal, 1% or skim milk only, sugary juice. I am, however, grateful for the fresh veggies and peanut butter we receive. Those items I can work with.
Wanting what the other kids are having. Or adults that don’t think there is anything wrong with feeding your child what they think is “okay”.
My daughter is picky and not a big meat eater but we have made great strides since low carbing and now keto! The schools these days offer horrible lunch options and ice cream or sugary desserts. We pack lunch daily to make sure we are eating healthy.
It’s hard to get kids to eat healthy when the child next to them is having sugar filled or grain filled snacks.
It’s hard to get them to eat the ‘healthy’ foods because their friends are eating the ‘crappy’ foods!
I’ll pack my kids lunch and they won’t eat it. It’s nothing like what the other kids eat
I have this problem with my middle son. He comes home with most of his lunch every day. And I am certain he is getting milk (not the healthy whole milk either) and filling up on that 🙁
My kiddos are underweight and eating for them is never exciting! My kids are really not that in to food. So for us, if they want to eat something we let them with not a lot of thinking about what it is. We just want them to eat. But I also know healthy foods would help them grow stronger. It’s always a battle.
Trying to encourage them to just try new things, even a year later, because our taste buds change and things don’t taste the way they look sometimes.
My kids are older and make their own choices when eating. I’m trying to set a good example by getting healthy.
wanting what other kids have especially during birthdays and celebrations.
I work at your former high school, Maria, and am shocked by the breakfasts they serve these days. How can a huge, frosted cinnamon roll be considered healthy? They serve breakfast pizza, breakfast sandwiches, bagels, cereal. All very high carb options! Also, canned fruit or juice. Not good in my opinion! I wish I could get my adult daughter to give up carbs, but she loves them.
My kids, even though now young adults are picky and if they perceive it to be unusual or healthy its a no go. They still will try things at other people’s house before they try it at home!
“Nana” doesn’t follow the rules our house has for food. Brings sodas, doughnuts etc
The biggest hardship is when friends offer you chips and stuff snd you know you can’t have that.
Anytime I bake something that is the “healthified” version of something they love to eat (sweets, cakes, cookies) they instantly think it is going to be gross…I’ve even had one of my kids tell me that it tasted too “chemically”…What do you think a Twinkie is kid?!?
My kids are somewhat of picky eaters, the chips and cookies are just too easy for fast food and tastes good, but I keep pushing the veggies and proteins as much as possible and educate them — someday it will pay-off when they make the right choices themselves.
Our kids are grown but I like to have healthy stuff for grandkids to eat if they’re hungry between meals.
When you have a picky eater who won’t eat at all.
I pack my daughter’s lunch, so I know what goes into it and the school doesn’t allow kids to share due to allergies. However, I am a teacher, so I see first hand all the treats being offered. With between 20 – 28 kids in a class and all of them bringing cupcakes on their birthday, that’s a lot of cupcakes! Even the kids with summer birthdays will either bring them at the beginning of the year or the end of the year. Room parents are starting to send home goodies for every holiday (don’t get me wrong, I love our room parents!), or even providing cupcakes for each holiday. I’m trying to build up a stash of keto-adapted goodies at home to send with my daughter telling her that these are great for her and the other’s aren’t. It’s hard to get a 7 year old to pass up the cupcake. She wants it. Everyone else has one. It’s a process, but I’m not pushing too hard since we just started this Keto Adapted life. I’m offering choices and I know that when she’s at home she’s eating much better.
When they see others eat foods they crave.
I am a picky eater myself and love little snacks I can bring along with me so I am not tempted. With kids, they are tempted by all the other junk that their friends have and want to share. Maybe they can share something that is good for them.
I’d love this!
Me being consistent and buying groceries and introducing them to new foods. It’s completely my fault that they eat like crap. My biggest struggle is ME making the right decisions for them!
Eating enough vegetables
Not being able to afford high quality ingredients for my large family…so I just do what I can to make small changes and set a good example for my kids and grandkids!
Biggest hardship: Channeling Maria’s spirit into my kitchen and having delicious alternatives. 😉
I would love to able to try these products, and have them for my grandkids.
Kids can be such picky eaters! Getting them to try something that “doesn’t look right”.
My kids only like RAW veggies, so I my biggest struggle is finding ways to smuggle them in to prepared foods undetected 🙂
My son – a young adult – doesn’t take the time to prep food for himself, ends up “starving”, and than buys processed fast food crap. He will it eat nourishing foods I prepare that are “copy cats” of his high carb favorites… but getting veggies into him is a challenge.
My kids are older and out of the house. It’s harder for me to still be an influence on their
choices but then my daughter buys your new Keto cookbook and starts cooking healthy. You just never know how much you say gets absorbed until they surprise you.
I don’t have children but I worked at a daycare for a few months. Daycare food and the treats of sugar they gave away at school all the time as a reward were the most frightening to watch.
Having friends/family members view us as “strict” or “unfun” or “over the top” because we care what food goes into our child. My favorite question, “How long to you plan to feed her like this?” My response, “Forever.” At this point she’s only two – so she’s completely unaware of other options.
Since I’ve been LC/Keto two of my three grown children have begun to make healthier food choices. I wish I had discovered LC/Keto li when they were young and been able to get them started off right.
Keeping snacks like cookies in stock
My first webside to learn about low carb recipes
My biggest struggles with my kids eating healthy is that there are so many kids eating so unhealthy and my child just wanting to eat what they are having.
Hi Maria and Craig, I just bought some of these on Amazon for my kids for school snacks and to take to soccer and football. The absolute hardest thing in regards to the kids is I don’t have complete control because they are not with me all the time. They are off to school and on the bus, to grandparent’s, aunt’s and uncle’s, and friend’s houses, etc. I work hard to keep them lower carb and gluten free and it is hard for me. I put fat in as much as I can. I make a lot of food and quit giving grains with meals. Part of the struggle in our house is their dad doesn’t eat as strict as me. He is GF but still eats a lot of processed carbs. I am hopeful we will all get here one day. My goals are paleo for my kids.
For us it is anything outside of the home. We can’t control ever factor and they want what all the other kids have. I find that I don’t try to over push anything because I have seen/heard how they want to binge around others who offer goodies. I think its all about trying your best, teaching your children the principles and goals you have for them and hoping they in time will be as thoughtful about food choices as we are for them.
Trying new things
Other kids make fun of them for eating healthy and that healthy options are not as readily available and more expensive.
The biggest hardships I see for kids eating healthy are too many advertisements for junk food, as well as too many junk type snacks available at the stores & even in the checkout lines.
It’s fine at home, but once they walk out the door it’s mayhem! I can send appropriate food with them most of the time, but it just doesn’t always work and while they are still being trained about the what’s and whys of things, they don’t always make the best choices yet!
Snacking has got to be the worst. Convenience is so important and these treats will be a real help.
My daughter is grown now but I am surrounded by friends with school age kids – the more I learn about food the more I am mortified at how poorly we all eat but especially the carbarge we feed the kids.
I would love to win this!. I love grass fed products & recipes!.
My biggest challenge with my kids is time. So many recipes call for so many steps and an abundance of ingredients that our already crunched for time schedule makes it almost impossible! I would actually LOVE to helpful resources on keto recipes that are quick and EASY-like 5 ingredients or less but are tasty. I grew up on hotdish here in the midwest (casseroles) and my kids loved them too- they were easy to throw together so I am looking for replacement dishes. 🙂
My biggest challenge is menu planning. I home school 3 boys and 1 girl, so we eat 3 meals at home. I agree with Kim S (above), quick and easy meals with few ingredients would be a blessing. Kim S. , lol, I know exactly what ‘hotdish’ is and usually it is made from ingredients, not that good for you, but my husband grew up on it.
Vegetables and fruits. Texture issues can be a problem for any mix such as a casserole.
My biggest challenge with getting my grandkids to eat is to find something they like to eat that isn’t junk. Anything healthy that they enjoy eating, I give them as much of it as they can “stomach”.
Our biggest issue is tackling the texture of food. Our son has sensory processing disorder and a bunch of other issues, and they all seem to culminate at dinner time. There’s something about the different flours, sweeteners, and other ingredients that make what we think tastes normal taste completely different to him.
My 4 year old son tries almost everything, but refuses second bites of fruits and most vegetables all the time!! My 7 month old daughter loves everything at this time, hope it stays that way!
I love epic bars, but rarely eat them since they do have fruit…would you ask them to make a bacon bison nut bar…add some habanero too…without fruit? Sounds like you would have an audience with them. I do eat them when we are out and I need a snack, but prefer to not eat fruit. I am fortunate enough to have two stores locally that sell them.
As for your question, I am finding two problems with my kids and keto…school lunches, which I will pack exclusively this year (they just entered a private school last January when I had to go back to work so it was our first experience with school sugar, I mean “lunches”), and sabotaging by grandparents who think we are too extreme and are denying them normal foods. That is the most frustrating because it is a lack of respect for me as their mother and I don’t want it to ruin relationships, but going keto definitely puts a strain on relationships…weird.
We tried the bacon bits and loved them!
I’ve been wanting to try these! They’re on my Amazon Wish List!
My biggest challenge is that the children want the poison and not the healthy stuff. My biggest child is my husband.
The biggest obstacle for my kids are when they are at another friends house and are allowed to eat junk food and soda (their friends). They don’t want to feel left out. I would say another is the school lunches when pizza is served. They could pack, but do they eat it or through it out and buy?
I don’t have kids, but I have such a hard time as an adult trying to make good food choices. I can’t imagine how hard it is for a kid and parent.
getting protein in, in a healthy way….
My biggest obstacle is that my kids are away from me, and I have no control over what they eat! I have a 21 yo and an 18yo. Neither of them is very good at following any diet, and when away from me they eat horribly! I wish that my son could see how much better his athletic performance would be if he would cut out grains and sugar, but he’s surrounded by “health professionals” who spout and proselytise the low fat, healthy whole grains rhetoric and it’s easier to live by those rules than by mine.
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I don’t have children so I really don’t have a comment to make…
Wanting to eat what friends eat.
One of my daughter’s is allergic to corn, gluten and dairy to name a few of her major allergens. It is extremely challenging and yet rewarding preparing things for her so she does not feel left out when others eat various foods she can not eat. Especially when kids bring things to school for birthdays. She is able to eat the Epic Bacon Jerky and loves that it is pink!
I don’t have kids, but if I did I’m sure they would be picky like I used to be!
I homeschool, so school lunches is a non-issue. However, social gatherings are tough. I’ve pretty much given up when it comes to those. I always bring “heathified” foods with us, but my kids ALWAYS use social gatherings as a chance to “cheat” and eat crap they don’t get at home. Oh well!
It’s been a while since I had to face this reality, but when my kids were younger and I changed our diet drastically to combat severe allergies, the biggest struggle I faced was criticism from fellow moms. My kids were healthier and better behaved than anyone’s at the time, and people still chose to judge me on the choices I was making for our health. Interestingly, a number of those same parents now feed their children the same way. I guess in a way, I was leading by example — though not intentionally.
I love these bars, really looking forward to trying the new flavors. I don’t have children but a child was brought into my office the other morning…..eating ice cream….for breakfast!! I was totally speechless. What do you say to that kind of behavior?
I can only comment on the hardships I see my friends face as parents … their children are surrounded in this society by unhealthy food and want what everyone else has. It’s so much easier for my friends to just buy something packaged than make something healthy for their children because of time and money limitations.
Staying on plan; not snacking too much or overeating.
SUGAR TEMPTATIONS everywhere! Help! We are surrounded! SOS!
It’s definitely the food provided at pre-school. There’s not much I can send that’s low carb and nut free to replace the refined carbs they serve. Fortunately, he doesn’t eat a lot of it and eats well at home.
I have really wanted to try these. Thanks for all of your super information.
Our schedules are so busy sometimes I don’t make the time to prep food and then we end up grabbing fast food.
Keeping up the protein without relying so much on nuts.
My teens are great about whatever I fix – just made some almond flour biscuits and they loved them!
I don’t have any kids so my biggest problem is just me 😀 I think if I had kids I’d be better at this.
I think the hardest thing is that in my case, my kids are very picky eaters and aren’t very open to trying new things. They also go a lot off of how the food looks and smells and if that doesn’t pass their test, they’ve already made up their mind that it’s gross.
My biggest challenge is that my kids are non-compliant when they’re not home. We were always on the fringes of the S.A.D. – cooked from scratch for all meals and only had processed food on occasion. We now eat Paleo most of the time, but we came to it well after the kids had tasted all manner of junk and sweets at the homes of relatives and/or at school. They’re teenagers now and while intellectually they understand what the “bad” stuff is doing and enjoy what we eat at home, they turn around and eat whatever they want when they’re not home. I’m shifting to keto/Paleo and hope that the transformation I hope to achieve will at least make them think twice when they’re considering water vs. soda or a salad vs. a muffin. Sigh.
Sometimes the sheer volume of food my kids eat makes it hard! Costs of quality foods continue to increase and so do their appetites.
I would love to win these for my grandkids.
Thanks for this giveaway!
my ridiculously picky grandkids would love these!
finding healthy recipes that my child loves. I often referr to your blog for healthy recipes. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and creative delicious recipes. Your one of my favorite blogs to read.
Too much snacking
My teen is a sugar junkie and his school supports it. It’s like enabling his “addiction”. I have some control over breakfast so I give him bacon! He loves it and at least he won’t carb load all morning. As for dinner he eats keto but doesn’t know it. I just keep rotating the 4 veggies he will eat (carrots squash broccoli and green beans).
The biggest hardships for my family is keeping other people’s opinions out of their menu. At school/daycare and even at the grocery store it seems there is always someone trying to ‘treat’ the kids to a sugary, carb laden snack. I know their hearts are in the right place, but sometimes I just want to ask them “Why are you trying to poison my child?” Of course I would never actually say that since it is a little extreme. I do, however, politely decline and try to explain my position.
Hooray!
I think the biggest problem my children face are too many grain based carbs at school lunch – rice, pasta, bread. Luckily they have food services that include local vegetables, healthy options, etc. Still, with a lot of choices, sometimes that choice isn’t always the best.
We have celiac disease and diabetes in the family so it is a real challenge. I try to provide healthy meals to meet the needs of all.
I dint have much trouble with my son besides he has a dairy allergy and live yogurt and cheese! He is a little picky, he won’t eat tomatoes, besides spaghetti sauce or soup, mushrooms, hey I hide these in the tomato sauce and burgers wink wink, bell peppers, and celery. I used a “copy kids” dvd to expand his palate when he was little and would only eat cereal, chicken, broccoli and carrots. Copy kids dvd was a game changer in the first 5 minutes!
There are tools out there like myfitnesspal. In that one you can also search my name and get a bunch of my recipes already entered. 🙂
My biggest hurdle with my little girl is that my father lives qith us and does not cool healthy or make healthy choices in treates for her. I dont buy junk for her bit its very tough because I do not want her being overweight all thru school or life like I was until dropping over 130#. Life was never fun as a kid being the “fat” one.
My biggest struggle is trying to get my son to try new foods He was never a picky eater until a few years ago. Now it;s always a struggle. The good thing is that he does like most proteins, it’s the aversion to veggies that kills me every day!!!
Too many unhealthy choices available & difficulty in finding healthier alternatives.
Time. Sometimes it’s just easier to give kids the money to buy their lunch but of course their healthy options are limited and there’s too many tempting foods at school.
Both of my kids are such picky eaters even though we try new foods with them. Time to make healthy things for them to eat. Money! I know in the long run it’s more cost effective but it’s expensive to eat healthy!
My kids think they need to have a treat every day, such as candy, pop, ice cream. They prefer to spend their money on it. I try to tell them they don’t need sugar every day but they sure think they do.
I only have one child and he/she is still in the womb! So I don’t have any challenges right now but I’m sure there will be in the future.
biggest trouble spot is group club activities that feature a group snack. my kids do not want to be left out and be the odds ones. they feel deprived…
Being a grandparent, my biggest is getting the parents to feed their sweetie healthy foods. They eat way too many carbs.
Biggest hurdle is when they are older and working part time jobs and spend their own money on Mountain Dew, Doritos and Little Debbie snack bars or cakes, ha ha…
My kids see their friends eat lots of refined foods and grains, and they ask for things by brand that they see advertised on TV. It’s quite sad how much Big Food has captured kids’ networks.
It’s hard to have healthy options that everyone likes since my family members all have different tastes. I have to get pretty creative to find a meal everyone enjoys.
I don’t have kids myself but I see the snacks that others give their kids and just shake my head. I somewhat understand it’s a convenience but there aren’t a lot of healthy choices that are convenient for busy parents.
they are addicted to cereal, which is pretty much all sugar!
No kids, but convincing my husband it is worth it!
I don’t have kids but I noticed today while checking out mommas are buying processed, premade foods! It’s killing the children!
More green veggies and less carbs is hard for all of us!
My son is grown, but growing up he was very thin (still is) and so a coach told him carbs were the best fuel for his body. So he ignored me and ate anything and everything that was high in carbs. The army did not help much either, but now he is realizing his body needs the right kind of fuel to be at top performance mode.
They market all the crap foods to the kids. So when shopping with my 2 children they see all the fun looking packaging and want it. It also doesn’t help that the schools even give them the bad stuff too!
Pressure from other children who eat processed foods, especially as the person above said, the foods with the kid geared packaging. It’s heartbreaking to walk around the grocery store and see the things that fill up most mothers shopping carts. They spend more time in the aisles grabbing sugar-laden processed foods, rather than shopping the perimeter of the store.
My biggest struggle getting my child to eat healthy is that he’s 21. And though at his age, I shouldn’t have to be so diligent, diabetes runs through our family, and he’s of the age when most are diagnosed. And he’s just not taking it seriously. He’s in college, but lives at home. He does fine while home, and then indulges at school in all the high carb, sugary stuff – the worst possible combination of eating habits. UGh!
I don’t have kids but with niece and nephew its all about taste and fitting in with the other kids
My biggest hardship is the pressure from the teachers to give my child “treats” that I do not approve of 😕 you almost have to say your child as an allergy to something for them to take it seriously! I have been able to use many of your recipes to send in healthfied treats so he doesn’t feel left out and he loves them!
My daughter is so picky it’s impossible to get her to eat more than 4 things!!
My kids are all grown, but by far the hardest part was getting them to eat veggies.
Would love to try these!
I love the Bison Bacon Cranberry bars, not nearly as excited about the lamb, beef or turkey bars. I haven’t tried the other packages yet but they sound good. The bars are just super convenient and not as likely to end up in little pieces on the floor or the carpet in the car. Great product. Would love to win these.
Would love to try these! Having healthy snacks sure helps a busy family.