Happy National Vitamin Day!  Yes,  January 29th is National Vitamin Day and as we head into the second month of the year I want to invite you to join me on a two week journey to explore the value of vitamins and healthy living.  A few weeks ago I was invited to join Nature Made to reflect on healthy resolutions made for the new year, and consider how vitamins may play a role in those resolutions.   Many of us may have resolve to living healthier ourselves and providing a healthier life for our children.  Perhaps we resolved to attend our local farmers market, or buy only food from the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid the center aisles containing processed food.  Maybe we resolved to feed our families brains and hearts with healthy omega threes, or fight off winter colds with vitamin C and zinc.  Maybe we just resolved to offer our families a healthier year and are still not entirely sure how to do that.

I am a firm believer of the healthy eating and the important role it plays in our lives both now and for the future.   Since the inception of Out of the Box Food, I have become acutely aware of the benefits of label reading, choosing Real, Fresh food over processed, and providing my family with more wholesome food to nourish their bodies.  I’ve developed strategies to encourage healthy food choices, empowered my kids in the kitchen…and taught myself the value of doing this for my family.  So as I began reflecting on this process and embark on this journey with Nature Made, I came up with a guide to my favorite Out of the Box Food strategies and hope that this will help you in your own reflection of resolutions to provide your family with a healthier 2013.

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1) Get kids involved in the kitchen

By getting kids cooking, they learn to try and accept new foods simply because they helped prepare the meal.

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2) Bring kids to the farmers market 

A farmers market is a wonderland for children.  Surrounded by samples of fresh fruits and vegetables, kids are more apt to try something new. Though our children might turn up their nose at a sliced cucumber on their dinner plate, a slice of cucumber offered by the farmer who grew it suddenly becomes more appealing.

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3) Get creative 

When I say get creative, I don’t even mean you yourself have to be creative, just find someone who is.  The internet is filled with websites and blogs offering fun, creative ways to serve real food to kids.  Inspiration can be found with the click of the mouse.

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4) Become a Pinner

Pinterest is a bulletin board for online inspiration.  Pop onto Pinterest and join Out of the Box Food as well as other “pinners” offering fun food ideas for families.  I’ve  included some of my favorite inspiration below:

1. • Family Fresh Cooking
   • EasyLunchboxes
   • HandPickedNation
   • Momables
   • Super Healthy Kids
   • Weelicious

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5) Pack a lunch

Yes, lunch packing can be tiresome and frustrating, but the extra effort allows us to include fresh, wholesome ingredients to help nourish our children for the day.

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6) Read labels

My Out of the Box Food journey began with this simple strategy.  Once I learned that some of our favorite packaged foods contained ingredients like butane, carcinogenic food dyes and toxic preservatives, our door to real, unprocessed food was opened and life began to get a lot healthier.

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7) Believe

Yes, children can love real food – even if they say they don’t.  Just a few weeks ago I experienced my own kids turn a dislike for bell peppers into a love simply by offering them a “tasting challenge”.  Armed with pieces of red, orange, yellow and green bell peppers, we set off to determine which pepper was sweeter.  Faced with this mission, they forgot that they didn’t like peppers and set off to solve the mystery of the sweetest pepper.  Oh, and by the way – Orange was the winner.

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A special thanks to Nature Made for encouraging me to reflect on our healthy resolutions for the new year and to open up the disuccsion here on Out of the Box Food.  To support you in your healthy new years resolutions, Nature Made is extending a coupon to all Out of the Box Food readers to try their new supplements.  Nature Made® VitaMelts™ are a new “one of a kind”, enjoyable way to take your vitamins because they melt in your mouth and taste great. Discover how new Nature Made® VitaMelts™ can transform your vitamin taking experience by making it enjoyable. Visit our website for more information.

Until next time…

*Compensation was provided by Nature Made via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Nature Made.