With the new year comes the inevitable resolutions and goals to live a happier, healthier life with a clean, fresh slate. Family mealtimes can be fraught with anguish for a number of reasons. The new year is a wonderful time to really reflect on family mealtimes and set goals for 2015.
Be specific about what you want to change
Think long and hard about your mealtime frustrations. This may be a confronting task, but face your fears and acknowledge areas for mealtime improvement.
You may have a picky eater in your midst or your mealtimes may be rushed. Whatever the area is, it’s important to be specific in order to progress and change.
Set realistic goals
What do you want to achieve? What would your ideal mealtime scenario look like?
While being optimistic, it’s also important to be realistic and set small, bite sized (pardon the pun!) goals at a time. That way, it’s easy to achieve each milestone and be motivated to keep going.
What do you need to do to achieve your goals?
The next logical step would be to think of tactics to achieve your mealtime goals.
Assess the whole situation and make a commitment to change. For example a while back I had real problems with my kids eating little to nothing at mealtimes. When I looked at the bigger picture I realized that they were snacking WAY too much. So, I addressed the over snacking and as a result they began to eat more at mealtimes because they were actually hungry.
Set a reminder to “check in”
Set a reminder on your phone or calendar for a few months time to “check in” and be accountable to yourself and make sure you’re on track to achieve your mealtime goals for 2015.
What are my mealtime goals?
On reflection I’ve come to the conclusion that we eat nowhere NEAR enough vegetables at mealtimes as I would like. Despite writing countless blog posts about getting kids to eat more veggies (like this one!) I still feel as if we could do with some vegetable improvement. So, for 2015 I’m making it my goal to add more vegetables into our mealtimes.
I’d love to hear from you. What are your mealtime goals for 2015?
