New Year’s Resolution: Explain Food Choices to My Boys

Did you make a New Year's resolution for 2012? I am usually anti-resolution, but am thinking about revisiting my stance. I always feel like resolutions are broken by January 5. Or maybe the 10th. How many people tell you about their success with the prior year’s resolutions in December?

This year, I am going to try and spend more time researching my food choices and explaining them in terms my boys, ages 7 and 11, can understand. Instead of calling it a resolution, though, which implies that you verbalize your goal to others and are determined to firmly change your behavior each and every day, how about a trial? You can try to do more of something, and if you see the results that you hope to, you can continue to try and incorporate it into your daily life. If something important comes up and you aren’t able to try out your new behaviors on January 1, you can begin the next day. Or the next month. All without fear of "failing."

So in 2012, instead of saying no to the box of Little Debbie snack cakes while we are in the store, I’ll explain how we can go home to make the same version of what’s in the box. It’ll be healthier because our baked goods won’t be pumped full of preservatives, which means that the food will actually go bad if not eaten instead of sitting happily in our pantry for three months– which is a good thing!

If I don’t have the time to explain this while we are in the grocery store in front of the snacks, I’ll make sure to mention the subject at another time in the near future. To be honest, discussing my decision is probably best done when we are home and they boys are more open to listening (and not in standing in front of the snack aisle!) and I am focused on one thing – as opposed to trying to purchase everything on my grocery list while navigating the store with two children.

There may be times when I say no and offer no explanation. As a Mom, I’m allowed to do that. But my goal is to explain more and involve my boys in my research. As long as I’m doing that more than I did in 2011, I’m successful.

Do you think it sounds lazy? Maybe a little non-committal? It’s not, really. I think it’s realistic. And the last thing we need around the holiday season is one more item added to our to-do lists. To me, a resolution is just that. So think about it. What’s something you would like to do more of this year?  Something you said “I should have…” to last year?

I’m going to try to...

Becca Ludlum was born and raised in upstate New York and currently lives in Arizona with her amazing husband and two sons, Michael and Jack. You can find her in a middle school classroom two days a week, and in her kitchen the other five. She’s a master recipe-tweaker and can often be found re-baking a recipe multiple times while trying to reach perfection, which is just fine with her co-workers and neighbors who reap the benefits. Read her personal blog at http://ourcrazyboys.com.