Guidelines

Decide as a family the # of vegetable servings everyone will have every day. The recommended amount varies depending on the organization. According to www.mypyramid.gov the range from children up to adult men is 1 ½ - 3 cups a day. Use this range as a guideline to determine your family's Veggie Challenge goal. This challenge will take menu planning, grocery store planning, and family time to help everyone achieve the goal of eating more veggies. This may mean having veggies at breakfast! Kids be creative and think of what veggies at breakfast might look like.
• Omelet with peppers and onions
• Tomato and cheese on whole wheat toast
• Egg and veggie burrito (tomato, salsa, peppers, onions, squash)
• ¾ cup of low-sodium vegetable juice
• Whole wheat bagel with low-fat cream cheese and cucumbers/tomatoes

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Each Sunday evening, we buy homemade ingredients and make a pizza from scratch. We also have a salad and a healthy dessert like Kraft Jello Fat Free Chocolate pudding. We take turns picking out a family movie that we will watch when we eat pizza.

- Moorhead Family, Atlanta, GA
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Search for a park or trail near your home and plan for a family hike. Pack a healthy sack lunch and make a day out of it.

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Kids ask a grown up to help you. Cut a one-gallon plastic jug (like a milk jug) in half horizontally. Recycle the bottom half of the jug, but save the top half with the handle and keep the cap. Grown-ups cover the cut edge of the jug with duct tape. Cut and decorate a jug for everyone in the family.
Now two or more family members can play together using the jugs to toss a tennis ball or beanbag back and forth. See if you can toss and catch without touching the ball with your hands. In the warmer months try tossing water balloons back and forth. The jug can also be used by one family member, toss the ball in the air and catch it using the jug, see how many successful tosses and catches you can make in a row.

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Turn up the music and do chores together (clean the house, wash windows, laundry, etc.)

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Turn off the TV during family meal time. Give your time and attention to each other instead. Talk about the Healthy Family Home activities you did earlier that day.

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Take a family trip to the mall, but make it a rule that before you can go into a store, you must first walk a lap around the entire mall. Window-shop as you go.

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Have a grocery-store scavenger hunt. As you shop, find some of your favorite foods and check to see which items have 3 or more grams of fiber and less than 5 grams of sugar per serving. Those are the foods to gather in your cart. Challenge each other to find the most family favorites that meet this fiber and sugar amount.

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After family dinners (other meals), turn on music and dance, play musical chairs, or make up a family dance routine/skit that you practice a couple of evenings a week.

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Sit down as a family for breakfast and measure out the cereal poured into each person's bowl. Before measuring, guess how many servings are in your bowl. Remember the recommended amount of cereal flakes (1 serving) is 1 cup - about the size of an average fist.

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