How Do You Teach Healthy?

My kids (nieces) are gone. Safely back with Grandma (my mom) until their own mom (my sister) returns from a mini-vacation tomorrow.

We had a blast. We shopped. We mini golfed. We rode go-karts. We chased chickens. We skee-balled. We Monster Universitied. It was fun and exhausting.

And we ate. Buffet. Hot dogs. Corn dogs. Chips. Popcorn. Sour Patch Kids. Licorice. Hubba Bubba. FroYo. Dunkin Donuts. Not all at once, but still. Oy vey.

I went for a walk this morning and thought through it. The girls didn't eat a single vegetable yesterday. They did have mandarin oranges, but that clearly was not enough to save the day.

It got me wondering ...

How do you talk to your kids about nutrition? About food? About exercise? About health? About how you feel when you look in the mirror, your own struggles or your own insecurities? My nieces are 11 and 9. They're entering those dangerous years where body image and self esteem can run amok and it's scary.

It seems like such a minefield.

I try not to talk about skinny and fat. Or good and bad foods. Or use food as reward. I try very hard to make sure I talk about getting healthy instead of losing weight, but I don't hide anything from them either. They remember me bigger. They are aware of the change. And they are old enough to understand that I spend a fair amount of time exercising or talking about exercise. They also clearly hear me talking about food, what I choose to eat, what I don't eat, and why.

And then I buy them Dunkin Donuts because they beg me to. (But I limit it to two each, one time per visit, dear sister. I swear.)

Do kids get information about nutrition in school? Do they learn how to eat? Do you spend time talking about it at your own dinner table? Tell me how you do this.