Studies show that when your kids keep track of what they eat, they have better cholesterol levels and lose weight too.
Ever tried to lose weight by going to the gym regularly? You may wind up going to the gym 2 days in a row. Maybe a full 5 days if you’re lucky. But then something happens (like not knowing where any clean socks are) and you wind up staying home and skipping the gym. For a whole month.
One of the reasons this happens is because most people aren’t tracking (on paper) whether they’re going to the gym or not. And when we’re not tracking it visually, it’s much easier to stop doing our new activity before it becomes a habit.
That’s why a new study about kids keeping track of what they eat is so cool. The simple act of tracking our behaviors can help us improve them. And it works for kids too.
“Those who participated in the intervention program showed greater improvements in body composition and benefits with respect to total cholesterol than those in the control group. Students in the intervention program showed improvements in their body mass index after year one and year two,” stated the researchers.
So the kids who did the intervention (tracking what they ate as well as reading food labels) improved. And the kids who didn’t track what they ate (which is how most kids do it) didn’t improve.
The more we track things, the better chances we have of creating a new behavior. Check out this book about behavior charts for more information about tracking new behaviors to create new positive habits in your kids.
Can you think of some fun ways to help your child keep track of what he or she is eating and to encourage label reading?
Foods For Kids: Read More, Weigh Less [Food Navigator]
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