How to help my 10 year old

[vegggeeemom]

My ten year old daughter is SO addicted to cooked foods.
Last night everyone was happy just munching on fruits and veggies, salad and my dh made a smoothie for everyone. I drank a little bit of it.
Anyways, she kept asking what's for dinner. I said, what everyone is eating, fruit, veggies, salad and the smoothie.
She did not want ANY of it. She asked if she could look around to find something she wanted.
She found Top Ramen and Mac N Cheese (which btw, I know needs to find its way out the door so there is nothing left in the house for them to desire that's bad) and asked if I could make it. I said nope sorry, that is being donated. She got sad. I told her to keep looking to see if she could find something she wanted. Finally she found a tomato and that did it for a bit, but then she was right back at wanting something bad and cooked.
She even went to my dh and asked him if they could go somewhere and get something to eat!!!!!
I said, man, I know the addiction is strong, but she was crying because she could not have something cooked. I did not have anything in the house that I'd even consider cooking, so I had to keep saying no. Dh was totally behind me and said that we are trying to better our lives and our health, so going and getting something cooked would not help us.
She saw a commercial on tv for pizza and then one for KFC, both of them she said she really really wanted it.
She was very emotional last night and I kept trying to remember how hard it is when I want something and say no to it.
How do I help her over this stage? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
My dh wants to add in Ezekiel bread for him and the kids, but will remain raw the rest of the way. I'm not going to argue with him because he and the kids are eating a heck of alot better then they used to be.

Thanks and sorry for such a long post!

[Jamie]

:) Pam,
OH how I feel for your daughter!! I am going through the same thing! Want my cooked.
First, I'm thinking how blessed you are that she is only 10 and you have many years to be an example to her and to train her out of the cooked food addiction. Of course it is hard for her, but you just have to keep feeding her the fruits/vegies/ etc.....
Obviously you know that the cooked food should go so it isn't so hard for her...And maybe even the TV?? I know how hard it is when I"m being so good and I see an ad on TV,,,,,,one of the many benefits of not watching it!!
I, too, get emotional when I can't have cooked and am craving it. Some day she will see how blessed she is that she was raised in a high raw family.
My 12 yr old daughter is on raw with me right now and she is not totally thrilled. But she does know that it is so much healthier so that really helps her alot.
Just keep encouraging her and being a great example to her!

Best of luck :)

Jamie

[Ariannah]

What I've been doing with my family is making the transition slowly, and educating them as I am doing it. I quote from Gabriel Cousen's "Conscious eating" (which I cannot recommend highly enough) frequently. I've changed the quality of the cooked foods they consume. No junk at all is in the house, and I start as many dinners as possible with a salad or snacking on fruit, and the cooked food is a little "add on". They still are high-cooked, but being the sole grocery shopper in the house, they pretty much are stuck with what I allow in it ;)

My children have spent their lives on a mostly cooked diet, and I am a good cook which helps. But I increase the quantity of the raw. I'm hoping a few years down the road that our family will be high raw.

I am unsure (speaking for our family) of going 100% overnight for our family as I know it would create resentment and backlash. But they see my example, and always ask for a nibble of this or that. The good thing is that my family does love smoothies (which I should make more often). My family also are not TV watchers (by choice). We do have access to some TV programs, but everything they watch is commercial-free.

These are just a few things we do in our family which I feel is working and making steps toward better eating. Feel free to use whatever you feel will work with your family.

[sweetgoddess]

First, way to go on introducing your family to the possibility of vibrant health. What a gift.

Second~ I have an 11 year old daughter. She eats high raw, and has many days all raw. Here are a few things I did with her, in case they will work for you and your daughter.

I started her raw experience by just latting her taste things as I was making them for me. This helped me figure out what she liked, and many times she wanted that instead of the cooked food my husband was eating at that time.

I made smoothies and froze them in popsicle molds. Lots of raw cookies and showed her how to make them. The raw stir fry posted in the recipe section is a great raw meal because it resembles the cooked version perfectly.
I also got eating without heating by Sergei and Valya Boutenko so she could read their story since they were near to her age. I educated her on health, how your body and digestion works, the common ailments of society and specifically children and what causes them.

I let her go through Alissa's book with me and decide what she would like to try. Then we made those things together.
I made sure to have lots of options around, like banana flax crackers with alomond butter and honey, Alissa's pizza bread, dehydrated veggie nuggets and dip, raw taco rollups,grawnola and almond milk, raw trail mix, raw pies, etc for snacking on. Lots of variety so she didnt feel like it was all fruits and salad. It grew on her quickly. I think the education and variety, and slow build up helped here a lot.

Good luck! Try anything creative and fun you can think of to make this easier for her and to allow her to be involved. Let us know how it goes and great job on gifting your family with the awareness of health.

Many blessings to you and yours~
Carmel

[rawpriestess]

I agree with the others, allow her to pick what she wants to eat, and also to help make tons of wonderful raw foods.

Also, it might be a good idea to get rid of the TV. Rent videos if you wish, but get rid of those commercials.

[Sharon in Colorado]

In 9 years in Long Beach, we didn't have cable. The kids only watched PBS occassionally and therefore didn't see commercials.

Then for our first 2 years in the Springs, we had cable and with it all the horrible commercials aimed at children. If my children watched Nickleodian (sp?) they'd see these horrific commercials for junk or cheesy toys. Even the limited amount of tv they were allowed to watch was mushing up their brains. It is amazing how these commercials call to children to eat and buy so many unnecessary things in life.

Now that we've moved again, we decided not to get cable tv and the kids aren't missing anything. They watch videos or play with the PS2 on the movie screen if they want media entertainment. We have 3 extra televisions that are in storage, lol.

[vegggeeemom]

I made the eggplant bacon over the weekend, she was at Grandmas, by the time she got home it was gone.
I just made 2 fresh batches and she got to try some, she loves it! She wants it with lungh! Yippee!! I am so glad she tried it. When she saw me making it the first time she said ewww, but then this batch tried a piece because she saw my ds eating it!
Oh, now just to get Alissa's book so that I can make her some yummy things!

Thanks you all for your wonderful ideas!

[ReneeSC]

I have to agree with RP ( RawPriestess)..

lose the tele! - or the cable.. or the satellite.. whichever!

It is upsetting to watch them parade this sort of junk before your eyes while you're detoxing and while you're trying to reeducate them on their health.

We only have meager reception with rabbit ears, but by Christmastime we hope to have
Sky Angle installed. This should curb the nonsense down to a serious, very, very dull roar.

http://www.skyangel.com/

[truthseeker]

We bought a TV with a VCR built into it..a small one. That way when my kids do watch it is vido only. I do admit they watch some cartoons, which I hate because of the commercials, but now that we have started our homeschooling there is almost no tv of any sort.

I would also urge you to make direct associations for your daughter. My oldest, who is just 8, was asking me what all the bumps on her cousins face were. I told her how she will be a teenager very soon and that ONE of the things teenagers deal with is bad skin...because of bad diet choices. And how gorgeous skin comes from eating healthy. Her friend was getting her tonsils out last month. She asked why. I told her, she keeps getting infections because her immunity is not very strong. And that building your immune system starts with your food choices....STRONG LIVING FOODS = STRONG LIVING BODIES.....cooked foods are weak and that = weak bodies (I did not tell her that dead foods will cause death because I don't want to scare her into these choices). I asked her when was the last time she remembered being at the doctors...other than a well visit. She couldn't recall...[within the past 2 years none of us have been sick with the exception of light sniffles that 2 of my children got and kicked in 2 days]. I explained how it was because of our family's diet changes. Someone told her how SHINY her hair was and on our way home I explained to her why that was. Her sister doesn't get rashes like she did before, something she witnessed and I reminded her of that. She was given an IQ test from the education department because they thought there may have been a problem with her learning...she was not interested in it AT ALL. As she was going through the different tests they gave her I explained every step of the way, why and where and for how long (she hates tests). Well she tested superior. I told her about her scores and explained to her how a rich healthy diet enhances intelligence.

I also explain why she feels the way she feels about conventional junk foods. Because of the chemicals and other things that are put in them to make people crave them, need them, become addicted to them and how people don't have those feelings with natural foods because it is not natural to have those feelings about food. And I explain to my children how it's all about the dollar and how all the "food" companies want is to get ours. When we would go to the market we would look on the side panel of cereal boxes and read them together...hhmmm BTH I don't ever recall a food of anysort called BTH, do you sweetie????? Do you know why???? We'd go home and I'd break out my book about "ingredients" and we'd read together what BTH was etc...

And yes motivation is a biggie in our house. "You can have pudding/ice cream/cookies when your finished with your meal" . I know people call it bribery...and maybe it was in the beginning. But now our kids just eat their plate of greens (aka salad) or whatever the meal is without fussing about it. And they don't even ask about dessert anymore even though more than 1/2 of the time they get one (something I grew up without and something our family didn't do before going raw).

I think you just have to find reason within her. No it's NOT easy. But the reward is endless. NEVER give up.

So glad to hear of another high raw family!

[Denise Nicole]

We use our TV as a learning tool for home schooling. PBS, Discovery, Science, Biography, CSPAN (CSPAN also has things you can download online if you have fast line speed) and news to do reports etc.

Some of the subjects can be rented through a video store. Such as, we are studying English Mid-evil Mythology and rented the Biography King Arthur program.

But I have known several home schoolers who do not have cable or satellite and they are doing OK.

[vegggeeemom]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful responses.
We don't have cable either, but sometimes in the evening my dh watches the news and when she comes in from outside, sometimes she seest he commercials, that's when she wanted cooked.
I do admit we do watch tv in the evenings and I really wish there was a way to omit the commercials. I think we might just turn the tv off when commercials come on.
We homeschool as well and the tv is not on at all during the day now. Which I really like.
Since I found some things that she really likes, I am going to go major shopping this weekend and get items to make some of ther favorites!
My food processor bowl broke and it's ordered and hopefully on its way.
Then when I get Alissa's book, I will be really set! I am golng to go through her book with my daughter and see what she wants to try!
She has been doing good as far as saying no to people at church that every single Sunday offer her some form of junk food.
She told me one of her teachers keeps offering it to her, even though Kimberlee says no. I told Kimberlee I was very proud of her for standing up and still saying no thank you.
Anyways, you all gave me some great ideas!

Thanks

[shadymonk]

There is a gadget similar to a vcr called Tivo that records your favorite shows and eliminates the commercials. Its just an idea if you didnt already know about it. I dont know what they cost. Personally, I don't watch television. Everybody has their "things" that may not be on the ideal list, but it's good to be realistic.
-Chris

[sweetgoddess]

Oh, one more thing I remembered that may help, is dont let her leave home without raw snacks! I always stick raw food in our car and in my daughters backpack. Raw trail mix, raw crunch bars, bananas, raw cookies...this helps give her another option when out in the cooked world, because food is everywhere! I also called my daughters teacher about the candy issue at school and donated a big bunch of organic fruit leathers ( store bought because they have to be sealed) to hand out instead of candy. Its funny, i meant them for my daughter, but soon all the other kids wanted them too!

Let us know how she does!
Best wishes~
Carmel

[ReneeSC]

There's also TV Guardian - but that's for filtering out verbal content mostly. It will cut out some offensive scenes, but it has to "learn" :)
I guess you could program it to filter out.. pizza, hamburger, ice cream.. etc.

lol... oh we SURE wish they WOULD!

I know what you mean about just watching the news....I hate it when they begin to bombard us with nothing but food commercials. It IS teaching us a strength and restraint, but.. my kids, like your kids, are young and they need help with this.

We're having people over tomorrow - our first batch of friends since we tore apart the kitchen. They're coming for band practice, but the momma is coming into the kitchen with me. I've warned her already....
I'm a walking infomercial.

Maybe that's it... our infomercials need to be louder, brighter, more positive, grounded, exemplary - and full of good things to eat. Did you see the ice cream cones RawTruth made?

I wanna go to HER house!

I've all of us run to the kitchen when the "overload" occurs. I'm still working on having a lot of things around for them to just grab. It's really not optimum behavior training, but... one thing at a time!