Family Stories

The Post Family, Warren, RI

"As a YMCA employee, I know the importance of healthy choices; leading a healthy lifestyle and modeling these behaviors. Recently my husband was laid off and while, at first a huge stress on our family, it has turned into a blessing in disguise. Now that he is at home being a "full time stay at home Dad" - he and our 5 year old son are able to enjoy significantly more quality time together. Each day they have enjoyed riding their bikes together - it all started with the layoff, and downsizing to being a family with only one car. Dad and son became a topic of conversation as they rode each day on the tag-a-long bike to the Bayside Family YMCA, where my son attended summer day camp. This September my son started Kindergarten - and improved his own biking skills - my husband and son continue to ride their bikes to and from school. It is amazing to me how something so simple - has become a huge interest at the elementary school and within our own neighborhood."

The Harvey Family, , VA

" Every night or every other night my family has 15 minutes where anyone can bring something up from the bible that they want to share. Whether it be a story or a psalm or anything it helps us come together and talk about God, and have a better understanding. What could be better than that?! We learn important skills for healthy Christians and we are reminded a lot of things that would cheer anyone up. It's just a very communicative thing to do as a family. And it helps a lot with life. My family looks forward to this every night. Anyone can lead it and every night we alternate leading the prayer. It helps a lot to bring the family together."

The Holland Family, Union, KY

"We all go around the table and name our favorite thing of the day. It's amazing what they come up with and the conversations that are started around the kitchen table."

The Snell Family, Plainfield, IL

"The Healthy Family Home starter kit has not only provided my family with great ideas to help us think about making adjustments but it has also provided fun activities that we found easy to start doing as well. My family took to heart the information shared about computer “screen time” and made some changes using some of the ideas in the starter kit. Our changes included doing one or two of the family chores together each day instead of doing them all on Saturday. This has reduced time on the computer and increased our interactions with each other everyday, it has also freed our Saturdays up so we can go out and do pottery painting, bowling or a walk."

The Kohlman Family, OFallon, MO

"Hi! My family has found ways to be healthy and to spend quality time together in a life full of crazy schedules. My husband and I both work full time (I am off summers, however, as I am a school teacher.) First, I have always stressed healthy eating with my children. I don't bother to cook vegetables, since my kid's love them better raw with dip, and they retain all their health value this way. For my son, we pretend to be giant dinosaurs at dinnertime, and we eat the "trees" (broccoli). He loves it! In addition, throughout the day I always have a bowl of fruit in the refrigerator (blueberries, strawberries, grapes, etc.) and a bowl of veggies for snack attacks. I allow my kids to have candy and treats, but I limit it to one or two a day and the amount is small. After holidays where they accumulate candy, I wait about two weeks and then offer them a trade to get their candy. I will let them buy a toy or new CD and give me the remainder of the candy to dump. Sometimes, I simply tell them that they may pick 5 pieces from their stash and must dump the rest. And you know what? They DO NOT MISS IT! Finally, I do things to meals that they never notice, such as using whole grains pasta and bread. My daughter and son are both on 2 sport teams, so evenings are too crazy for fancy dinners. Most nights we are lucky if we have something cooked! So I have learned to keep it simple: lots of raw veggies and fruit, dairies (cheese, yogurt), and deli turkey. As for family time, this part has been the hardest with my husband's crazy work hours. He works many nights and some Saturdays. We have a family night during the week when we all go to the Y to work out. The kids are on the swim team and they know their parents are working out during this time, also. It may not be the best scenario, but I feel good knowing we are being roles models for exercising. On the weekends, we try to set one whole day aside for just our family...no friends, no extended family, and no individual activities. We go to the park together, go boating, go bowling, etc. I have come to realize that this world is spinning far too quickly with enticing technology, both parents working in more cases, and the advertisers telling us we NEED more than we actually do. I am trying to keep it as simple as possible. My number one priority is raising my kids to be compassionate, giving, healthy people. Good luck to everyone in this endeavor. I love the other ideas I have read!"

The Walsdorf Family, Sheboygan Falls, WI

"As preschoolers, I got my kids to plan one meal a week. It was easy; they picked one main dish, one veggie and one fruit to complete the meal. (In my view, it was at least one meal a week they'd actually eat.) In the beginning we had a lot of macaroni and cheese; cheese pizza; lots of carrot sticks and apples too. But it gave each child an incentive to participate in food choices!

Gradually, they made new choices, experimenting with food. Meal planning gave them all ingredients to choose themselves when we went grocery shopping and I encouraged them to pick the best choices by reading labels.

Because they planned it, they had more interest in helping me prepare the meals, and we made a big deal out of who chooses our meal that night. Later they started to help cook the meals and now as teenagers, young adults, they know how to plan and prepare meals. Admittedly, their specialties are things like homemade cheesy-vegetarian pizza, and macaroni and cheese from scratch with a little Gouda, but knowing what goes into a meal helped in many ways.

I think my kids are still picky eaters, but they appreciate anyone's efforts to cook for them and they know the best meals come from the effort of choosing and preparing your own main dish+veggie+fruit and sharing it with your family."

The Elenbaas Family, Chicago, IL

"With the spring finally arriving, we're taking our pent-up energy out for walks and watching the new flowers and leaves bud."

The Raven Family, Fayettville, GA

"I eat bananas and oranges almost everyday. My favorite healthy food is Granny Smith apples. Those are my favorite kinds of food."

The Shefer Family, Ada, MI

"Less than a year ago, my wife and I found it really tough to feed our family well. We both worked full time and with two kids who were each involved in sports/activities it made it really tough to make good food. We found ourselves eating out a lot. Then we found a local meal assembly facility where they make meals up for you and you just take them home to put in the freezer. I now go home after a long day of work to simply put the meal in the oven and help my kids with homework. We sit down together to enjoy the meal that took 20-30 minutes to cook. No planning, no messy clean up - done! They offer HEART HEALTHY options and give full nutritional values as well. The portions are what they are supposed to be - NOT FAST FOOD PORTIONS.

So time kept us from making good eating choices. We ate spaghetti and pizza a lot. Now we eat restaurant type meals at fast food prices. I saved money and have time to enjoy the meals and not feel the guilt. "

The Saunders Family, Maywood, IL

"We turn on music in the evenings and when my sons (ages 7, 4 and 2) finish a great meal (veggies and all) they pick their favorite tunes to play after the meal. The whole family enjoys it and we inevitably dance, tumble or chase. My husband and I like working off dinner calories and my sons love sharing their tunes with the whole family. Everybody wins!"

The Myers Family, Phoniex, AZ

"My family loves to play soccer!
It is so much fun!"

The Callan Family, Indianapolis, IN

"My family is starting the HFH challenge. We have two kids age 11 and 16. Our family goals include; #1 we need to lose weight #2we need more exercise #3 we need to know more about each other. My 11 year old came to me with a Healthy Family Home Starter Kit she found at the Indiana State Fair. She said to her dad that she will hold the family meetings every other week on Monday's or Tuesdays. We told her this sounded good, so now she is planning. I will give her this website to help with ideas and suggestions on how we can all reach our family goals. Hope it works out."

The Kline Family, Austin, TX

"After growing up eating frozen dinners, overcooked vegetables made with a stick of butter and maple syrup, I was lucky enough to experience something life changing. I learned that until you take care of yourself properly, you cannot expect to take care of others. I learned that what I put in my body has an extraordinary impact on how I felt and how I functioned in the world.

We are meant to eat LIVE foods. For example, anything that has been sprouted (fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, brown rice). These foods have a life force that turns into potential energy to fuel our bodies. I realized that the way I was eating in the past had barely any living elements to it. I felt like a car running on fumes. After switching to a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, sprouted breads, beans, nuts, and eggs and cut out the processed foods, sodas... I felt clearer, lighter, and more present in the world.

I also want to share that food preparation has become something I looked forward to and make a family activity. Don't be confused either, it doesn't need to take hours or even an hour to prep and cook healthy meals. Live and eat simply. For those on an extremely tight budget, we were there too, and learned to eat healthy by consuming brown rice and raw beans that we would soak overnight and make that the base of soups and stews along with frozen organic veggies. Anyone can eat healthy!

I would like to share this story with you so that hopefully other Americans can have the same light bulb go off and begin to lead more engaged lives starting with what they put into their bodies."

The Maldonaldos Family, Hammond, LA

"We love to be healthy and play tennis. "

The Weiss Family, Evanston, IL

"I have two girls ages 9 and 13. I find the challenge is how can they make healthy food choices when most of the day is spent at school?

I start off with a healthy breakfast. My kids love breakfast! We set the table the night before so it's all ready when we come down in the morning. The first act of breakfast is a "water shot." We all drink water - and the nine year old usually chimes in with "first is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the treasure chest." That makes it fun for her - and she's started out hydrating herself for the day. Next we eat whole grain bread or cereals without high fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated oils!

Then the kids are off to school. I have become closely involved with the lunch program at my younger daughters school. I helped implement healthy changes, so that I can feel good about what my daughter is eating at school. She now has lots of fresh fruits and vegetables to choose from and lean, healthy meats.

Finally, it's dinner time. We always have at least two vegetables at dinner. I create a rainbow of colors to choose from. We have cooked broccoli, carrots and/or green beans. We eat fresh snap peas, peppers and cucumbers. I don't buy any prepackaged foods. I use all the money I save to buy lots of fruits and vegetables. The kids are used to it. I always let them choose which vegetables they want to eat and have lots of available.

Thanks for working on healthy eating!"

The Castaneda Family, Buffalo Grove, IL

"I feel one of the keys for success for our family (and me personally) has been the supportive atmosphere towards living a more healthy and active lifestyle both at home and at work. My family and I are fortunate to have access to YMCA programs and facilities. My office has workout facilities onsite in case I miss a workout at home. The HFH materials have provided us with good tips and information to keep our family on track. In particular we placed the children's favorite fruit in a bowl on the table with an open invitation to have one piece as a before/after dinner as a snack. We've had trouble keeping the bowl full and no longer have to “negotiate” what they can have for snacks. Occasionally we'll mix in nuts as a snack alternative to introduce some variety."