Dear Parents:
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~Jim Ryun
That quote sums up exactly what we are accomplishing with our Today I Ate A Rainbow! The goal of this chart is to get kids motivated and excited about eating fruits and vegetables! Then you the parents, can capitalize on that excitement, and use it to establish healthy eating habits! By demonstrating the importance and tastiness of eating fruits and veggies to your young children, you are giving them the knowledge, skills and healthy habits that they will need in order to make healthy choices for the rest of their lives!
We designed this chart to appeal to children and get them excited about eating a variety of fruits and veggies – however this chart is really meant as a tool for YOU! We all have such busy lives these days and even though we have great intentions of providing healthy well balanced meals and nutritious snacks, sometimes our hectic lives get in the way. Our chart is a visual aide that enables you to quickly see how your child is doing and what fruits and veggies are needed to complete the healthy goal of eating a rainbow. It takes away the guess work and clearly shows you your child’s progress.
Whether your child is a good eater or a picky eater this chart will be a helpful. If your child is currently a picky eater, you can use the chart as motivation. Don’t worry about serving sizes, you can start with just one bite in order to get to place a magnet on the chart, remember baby steps lead to big steps! We have several blog articles on dealing with Picky Eaters! If your child is an excellent eater, this chart will be a helpful visual tool for keeping track of their produce intake, in fact you can then challenge them to eat two rainbows a day!
At first, as with anything new, your child will be interested in keeping track of their fruits and veggies. As any parent knows, children are easily excited by something new, however that excitement usually doesn’t last forever. So this chart, just like any toy or gadget you get them, will start off as something fun and engaging and then will probably lose some of its appeal after time. This is a normal thing that you can expect. Their interest will ebb and flow just like it does with anything else in their lives! It will be up to you to continue to ensure that they are eating their rainbows during those times when they aren’t as interested. Remember that this is all about establishing healthy habits! Keep using the chart and you’ll feel good knowing that your child is benefitting from all those healthy vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients! After a while you’ll notice that your kids are back “into” tracking their fruits and veggies again and all the while…you’ve been building up their healthy eating foundation one serving at a time!
We realize that it does take a bit more planning and preparing to ensure that you remember to buy and serve rainbows but the benefits are definitely worth it! Raising healthy eaters means a better world for all of us! Just imagine a generation that instinctively grabs for an apple rather than a bag of chips when they want a snack! The effects of a healthier generation have far reaching benefits, from health care to the environment…this is something that we as parents need to focus our attention and energy on. The gift of health is one of the most important things parents can give to their child. Healthy bodies come one bite at a time, one healthy meal at a time…we are here to help you make the commitment to making a difference in the quality of your child’s life.
The Today I Ate A Rainbow! chart is all about setting a healthy habit of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. Keep in mind that it takes at least 21 days to form a new habit. So, like anything else with parenting, it will involve patience, practice, persistence and lots of praise!
We love hearing from our rainbow families so please send us any comments or questions that you might have as we’d be more than happy to offer helpful tips, solutions and ideas!
Happy Healthy Eating
The Team at Today I Ate A Rainbow!
