Problogger Gina Blitstein offers methods she’s developed that can help you teach your children to embrace a wider variety of foods, and consequently eat more healthily.

By Gina Blitstein

Adults are well aware of the food pyramid. Most of us try to eat with its guidelines in mind so as to stay healthy and at an appropriate weight. While the food pyramid is a helpful guide toward nutritious eating, children know nothing about its principles - unless we adults make certain to teach them, that is. Children start early making judgments on what they like and don’t like to eat. No child is going to eat something just because we tell them that it is “good for you.” When children’s options are limited, their preferences are equally limited. That’s why it is vital that we as adults provide every opportunity for youngsters to experience a variety of foods in a variety of ways.

What can we do as the ones responsible for children’s health and physical development to broaden their food horizons? Having fed hundreds of children at all stages of development as a childcare provider for over 20 years, I’ve accumulated some knowledge and techniques pertaining to children’s nutrition and eating habits. With the right attitude, I know we can make a difference.

Children’s taste buds grow and mature along with the rest of their bodies. Just because a child shuns a particular food today doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy it tomorrow - or next year. Don’t let one dismissal of a food banish it from the child’s realm of existence. Broccoli exists, whether a child wants to eat it or not. Making broccoli disappear only makes the child feel she has more power over food choices than she rightfully should.

Of course you can’t make a child eat broccoli (or any food she chooses to boycott) but it should still be regularly offered in a variety of ways. I’ve found it effective to sometimes ‘camouflage’ a food and other times offer it outright. That way, even if the child chooses not to eat something this time, he is still receiving adequate nutrition.

Here are some methods I’ve developed over the years that have helped me teach children to embrace a wider variety of foods, and consequently eat more healthily:

• Your food processor is your friend. Whether you are a “from scratch” cook or you are opening a jar of spaghetti sauce or a can of soup, add some pureed vegetables to bump up the nutritional content. Adding pureed veggies to homemade meatloaf or meatballs is a great way not only to increase nutrition but flavor and moisture. Puree some peppers, onion and mushrooms and stir them into tomato sauce when making homemade pizza…kids will learn what tastes good on a pizza and not pick off the veggies. Pureed veggies can be mixed into lots of things…sloppy joe filling, taco meat, casseroles…Be sure to match appropriate vegetables with the food…I’m not proposing pureed broccoli in the tacos!

• Sauces and dips are also your friend. Let a child choose what she would like to dip her celery or fish stick in…ketchup on a carrot stick?! - while it may seem revolting to you, your kid is eating a carrot, right?

• Seasoning is your friend, too. A little touch of salt, chicken bouillon, even sugar on cooked veggies will make them much more palatable to children.

Of course it’s not just vegetables children don’t eat enough of. Meatloaf or meatballs is a good place to add some wheat germ or oatmeal for additional whole grains. Try this compromise to get a child to eat whole grain bread…use one slice of whole wheat and one slice of white in a sandwich. If you serve it white side up, he may not even notice, especially if it’s toasted. Cinnamon, peanut butter or jelly also make good camouflage for whole grain bread. If the kids aren’t fans of brown rice, try mixing it half and half with white rice.

As for encouraging children to eat more protein, pair it with something they already like. Try stirring extra cheese, ground beef, chicken, hot dogs or ham into macaroni and cheese.

Children must learn that the word chicken is not automatically followed by the word nugget. I not only cook a variety of foods but familiar foods in different ways. The best way to teach food’s many different incarnations is to allow children to observe the preparation. Giving them “face time” with food de-mystifies it, taking away the mystery of what ends up on their plate and ultimately in their mouth.

Finally, I offer these suggestions for encouraging a pleasant dining experience and a healthy relationship with food for all:

• Cook one meal for everyone. You are not a short order cook! Provide at least one representative from all the food groups, and you have accomplished your mission as the cook. Special orders encourage pickyness for pickyness’ sake.

• For anyone under the age of 5, prepare a plate with a little of everything. Once everything has been at least tasted, more of something may be taken. We don’t want to teach a child to “gorge” on one particular food to the exclusion of everything else.

• Even babies eat what the family eats…in most cases there is no reason for buying expensive jars of baby food! With very few exceptions, a baby can have a pureed version of what the rest of the family is eating. Before a baby begins eating proteins (around 8 months) you can reserve some vegetables from the family meal and puree or mash them to an appropriate texture. After starting proteins, a baby can eat a pureed version of the same meal. This is a fantastic way to gradually teach their taste buds to get used to flavors and textures.

Hopefully these suggestions will help the children you cook for learn to enjoy eating lots of healthy foods, and enjoy the lovely experience of eating!

What changes can you make toward teaching your children to eat nutritiously?

No matter how efficiently you get things done in the office or at home, when you become a Freelancer, you face a whole different challenge where time management is concerned. Suddenly, the only person breathing down your neck about bringing in clients and looming deadlines is you. On the one hand, it sounds very appealing to be in charge of your own destiny…and job satisfaction. On the other hand however, you are now solely in charge of your destiny and job satisfaction! Your entire work life has undergone an upheaval in location, context and priorities. Everything is different, including the people sharing your work space and the distractions that can keep you from getting and staying down to business. What practices can you adopt early on as a Freelancer to take command of the time that is now all your own? Let’s explore some ideas for keeping you focused and on track as you travel the road to success alone.

Leslie Shreve, Founder and Productivity Expert at Focus Consulting, gives these tips to optimize the Freelancer’s time management:

Keep track of tasks electronically. Capture all you need to do, have to do, want to do, and dream of doing all in one electronic task list that allows you to easily plan, prioritize and be proactive. To do lists are great because they provide a place to get everything out of your head, but if the to-dos are written on paper (and usually they’re on multiple papers), they are easily misplaced or lost. Not only this, but it’s actually impossible to effectively prioritize ALL of your responsibilities (tasks from e-mail, voice mail, snail mail, papers, files, post-it notes, meeting notes and more) every day without using an electronic task list, such as the one in Outlook, where you can quickly capture and reprioritize in a second.

Don’t let your time be lost, stolen or given away. Be sure to use only one calendar, also recommended to be electronic. Keep an eye on your calendar so that you allow enough time to process email, work your task list, work on projects, work on client work and still have time for personal tasks. If you are overcommitted and don’t have time for all you want to do, it’s time to start over and write down the most important things you must do personally and professionally, and then add to the list the things you’d like to do and then after that, those activities which would be nice to do. Compare this list with your calendar and block time for the “must dos” first. Fit in the rest of the list as time permits. Don’t say ‘yes’ to everything you’re invited to do. Something may have to give in order to fit in what you value the most. To determine what goes, you have to be aware of where your time goes now. Document everything and then choose what to cut, either temporarily or permanently.

Be selective and decisive. Watch out for subscribing to too much: magazines, newspapers, blogs, e-zines, newsletters, e-courses… and then there’s social media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Plaxo, LinkedIn, MySpace and the list goes on and on. You could spend your whole day involved in all of these, but you need to budget your time. Be selective. Choose only those pieces of information which will serve you the most in growing you or your business - those things which could impact your bottom line the most - and unsubscribe to the rest. Limit your time to any one or a combination of these and if time permits after a few weeks or months, you can gradually add more into your schedule if there is value and time permits.

Create systems for finding and filing. One of the worst time bandits is disorganization. Make time in your calendar to get organized in paper files, e-files, tasks, and contacts. The more you can create systems you can trust and rely on, the more time you’ll save in the future because you’ll know exactly where to look to find what you need when you need it. Being organized and taking the time to maintain organization truly supports your business and your growth. Nothing hurts a bottom line more than losing paperwork, email, e-documents, follow-ups and contact information. It could translate into lost time and lost opportunities.

Don’t fall into the “I’ve got all day” trap. Being en entrepreneur and being in business for yourself can give you the sense of having all kinds of free time. However, be prepared: working from home can pose new challenges in the form of distractions and interruptions which can easily pull you away from your work. You may think you have all day, but it could slip away quickly unless you carefully make a plan for what time of day and days of the week you can focus on your work and when you can focus on your family or home. Consider what time of day you will be sharing the house with other family members, pets and anyone else that may break your focus. Use your quietest times of day and days of the week for your most important tasks. Don’t risk combining priorities with possible interruptions or distractions.

Although as a Freelancer your time is yours to spend as you see fit, armed with these useful suggestions, you can take charge of your schedule. It takes a combination of solid prioritizing, detailed preparation and steely focus. Your time is the most valuable commodity you posses as a Freelancer so it will serve you well to spend it wisely.

What are your time-thieves as a Freelancer?

Here’s something that should be on your radar…

Ernst & Young LLP is calling for nominations for its Entrepreneurial Winning Women competition, a program designed to accelerate the growth of high-potential businesses founded by women entrepreneurs.

Now in its second year, this program will provide 10 female entrepreneurs with personalized one-on-one business insights and insider access to strategic networks of established entrepreneurs, executives, advisors and investors.
Nominations and applications to the program can be submitted online at: www.ey.com/us/winningwomen

To apply for the program, applicants must fit the following criteria:

• Woman business owner who is the founder or founding partner of a US company
• Company must have reported at least one full fiscal year of $1 million in sales within the last 2 years
• Venture must be less than 5 years old
• Must be able to attend orientation/preparation session in New York City in October, and the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum, which takes place on November 11-15, in Palm Springs, CA.

The deadline to receive applications for Entrepreneurial Winning Women is September 4, 2009. All applications for the program will be reviewed by a panel of independent judges and the 10 winning entrepreneurs will be announced the week of October 19.

Each winner will receive an all expense paid trip to the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum 2009, which takes place November 11 -15 in Palm Springs, Calif. The Strategic Growth Forum, dubbed by Forbes.com as one of the “Seven Get-Ahead Executive Retreats,” is a prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.

The Forum presents a one-of-a-kind platform for Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women to introduce their companies and develop their corporate and personal brand within a community of established entrepreneurs, executives, and advisors. For more information on the Forum visit: www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum.

I’ve blogged before about the babysitter and daycare situation in the rural community in Alaska where I live. There is no organized daycare, trusted babysitters are few and far between, and I’m back to square one, looking for a new sitter as the one who said she could work for us through the winter decided to move out of town.

While we have a pretty good lead from our previous childcare provider who we trusted implicitly (she is also moving out of town), there is a window of at least a week where I’m without any viable options. If you work from home, then you have a sense of what I must be feeling. And frankly, I thought I’d be freaking out more than I am. But somehow, I have found this zen space, and I’m just going with the flow, as challenging as it is.

Yes, she was incredibly good yesterday for the entire time I was listening in on an hour and a half conference call prepping for an important client presentation.

But yes, she also began speaking to me when - and only when - I was asked to give input on the call and began speaking into the phone. It seemed to be the signal to her to start talking to me, nonstop, getting louder and louder as I tried to move into another room and ended up practically squashed behind the refrigerator in the kitchen to muffle her “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!”

My business partner said that she heard my daughter in the background. All I could do was apologize, but I couldn’t promise it wouldn’t happen later this week on the actual client call and major presentation. How can I? The only way I could would be locking said talkative daughter in her room, and going to the other side of the house so as not to hear her screams.

Tempting. But that is so un-zen.

So in my total zenness of being, I somehow calmly let my husband know of my predicament. Calmly, so as not to stir up any stress between us. And he called a little while ago to say he thinks he can come home for lunch to help with our daughter while I’m on my call.

That man deserves some sex tonight! He is currently on the top of my Hero list. Of course, if things get crazy at work for him, he might not make it over to the house, but the fact that he offered gives me hope that he is finally understanding how important my company is despite the fact that I run it from home. Score!

If the possible childcare arrangement doesn’t pan out, I am not sure how long my attitude will remain zen-like. We’re waiting to see if she gets into Head Start for the Fall (our community is considered rural and under-resourced so usually all the children in the area can go to Head Start). She’s currently on the waiting list. That will be about 3 hours a day. At least it’s something.

In the meanwhile, I’m getting very creative with art projects and outdoor activities while the weather still permits. Today was paint the toilet paper rolls, glue pasta and leaves on paper, and hopscotch and count up to the number 50. Tomorrow, I’m thinking papier-mache.

What are some of your indoor and outdoor creative activity ideas you use to keep the kids busy while you’re trying to work at home? I’m all ears!

Guest blogger Gina Blitstein continues her exploration of nourishment and food.

Food is a complicated issue. While much of the world starves, we in our first world of plenty seem to be constantly controlling and limiting our intake of food to control our weight and alter our mood. Think about how crazy that sounds to our adult minds. Then consider how that information could affect a child’s concept of food. It should come as no surprise that children miss nothing that we do or don’t do; say or don’t say. We wield enormous influence over children’s attitudes about everything and that is especially true of the subject of food.

That’s true because, as I mentioned, food is a complicated issue. We gorge on it, restrict it, delight in it, demonize it. Food not only nourishes our body but it touches us emotionally. There is little else in life that is as important to us both physically and emotionally as the food we eat.

Yet I believe that we do ourselves and especially our children an injustice every single day where food is concerned. Somewhere along the line in our hectic lives, eating has become a hurried gorge-a-thon rather than a celebration of food and the people we love. I especially find fault with the all-too-prevalent child-themed restaurants where children are entertained and bombarded with stimuli and yet are expected to eat. We need to show how much we cherish them not by indulging their every advertising-fueled fast food whim but by helping them recognize the true power of food.

I’d like to share some wisdom I’ve acquired over the past twenty years as a childcare provider about instilling healthy attitudes about food and eating. As the adults in their lives it is our job to teach children that playing is playing and eating is eating. Both are enjoyable yet totally different activities and are not to be done simultaneously. Make sure that children are allowed the time to shift focus from play time to meal time because if they don’t learn that eating is important in and of itself, they will never give food and nutrition the importance it should have in their lives.

Preschoolers in my daycare learn the right thing to do for your body is to eat good food, sit still, chew carefully, and fill up their stomachs so they can grow and be healthy and strong. It is a lesson in self-care and self-respect. It is never too early to start taking responsibility for your own body, and eating is a tangible way to begin teaching that important lesson.

Food should nourish both the body and the soul.

Is that an impossible dream? Can we really reclaim mealtime as a time to care for ourselves and our families? I do believe we can but it will take some attitude adjustment and action. Here’s what I propose:

• * Limit meals eaten away from home as much as possible - especially fast food.
• * Include children in planning of meals so they learn that food is an important issue worth our consideration.
• Include children in shopping for food so they can learn about different types of food and what it looks like before it is processed into a ‘nugget.’
• Encourage children to help in the kitchen - in age appropriate ways, of course - so they can experience the preparation of food.
• Teach children that eating is an important and enjoyable activity - it is a chance to enjoy flavors and aromas and to fill their empty stomachs.
• Remind children that every food you eat doesn’t have to be your ‘favorite’ and that variety is important.
• Make meals a pleasant social time for togetherness and sharing.

Remember to offer a wide selection of food to children. Exposing children to only those foods with which they may be familiar limits the types of foods they will learn to love. Children’s taste buds are growing and developing right along with the rest of them, so it is vital that they experience a wide array of tastes and textures from an early age.

I believe that food is a powerful influence throughout our lives. We all have pleasant and indelible memories associated with food. Let’s vow to make some lifelong food memories with our kids so that the issue of food won’t be complicated for them.

What are we telling kids about our food values with our words and actions?

Image via Wikipedia

I love my new business partner. She works out of Denver, I work in Alaska. She loves to do the things that I don’t - such as crunching numbers and making spreadsheets and analyzing statistics. We are so different in so many ways. If we were a married couple, I’m not sure which of us would be the wife and which one of us would be the husband, but we are clearly different enough that like in any marriage, we have to be cognizant of our relationship.

Some of the things I think we do well include

1. Praising each other. We both make sincere efforts to give kudos to one another. “That budget was great!” I say. “You really came up with some awesome ideas!” she’ll say.

2. Appreciating each other. Besides the genuine praise, I also state how much I appreciate her. I just get this incredible urge sometimes to blurt out “I really appreciate you!” and she replies “I appreciate you, too. Group hug!” And I chuckle as I imagine we do a quick virtual hug across the miles.
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Image by lumaxart via Flickr

When I had my first company, we ran on a shoestring budget for everything, including hiring others. Worried about running out of money, we always went the cheap route and hired people right out of college or even still in college. We offered internships and not just to students but to professionals who were in career transition and wanted to learn on the job. Their pay was hands-on experience with a high profile Internet company as well as projects they could reference on their resume or in their portfolio.

The downside of “cheap labor” was not immediately apparent, but as we began to grow - and grow quickly - we suddenly found ourselves with a dozen doers and no managers. As we tried to step away from day-to-day management, there was no one to hand over the reins to with the skills needed to do the job. Suddenly we were bottom heavy in personnel, and it dragged down our growth until we were able to bring on more management-quality staff. Sure, they cost a pretty penny, but we had to stop pinching those pennies hoping to save on the front end and realize that we needed to invest in our company longer term.
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Are you still aspiring to go out on your own in business? What about a freelance business? Blogger Maia Nolan spoke with Michelle Goodman about diving into a freelancer’s life.

Nearly two decades ago, Michelle Goodman dove headfirst into full-time freelance writing. Although there were bumps along the way, Goodman has managed to come out on top, and in her new book, My So-Called Freelance Life, she has assembled her hard-earned knowledge into a step-by-step guide for fledgling freelancers in all fields. Goodman (who is also the author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide) graciously carved some time out of her hectic schedule this week to share some of her insight with Entrepreneur Mom:

What keeps smart, talented women from taking the plunge into full-time freelancing? And how do we get over it?

Fear of not having enough work. Fear of having to sell yourself. Fear of making mistakes. Fear of having to buy your own health insurance, set up your own retirement fund, and deal with all the legal and tax aspects yourself.
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by guest blogger Emily Bass.

Trying to find a financially viable arrangement for my future feels like trying to find the best method of treatment for some rare disease. There are so many options and so many opinions to assess out there. Since I am not a professional financial planner, it is daunting to try and understand my options.

I really appreciate finding Get a Financial Life - Personal Finance In Your Twenties and Thirties by Beth Kobliner. The writing style respects my brain while still using very basic language and explanations when referring to my financial dis-ease.

A former writer for Money magazine and columnist for Glamour, Beth has appeared repeatedly on Oprah, Today, CNN, MSNBC, and ABC’s World News This Morning, as well as public Radio’s Talk of the Nation and Marketplace.

Beth said she wrote this book because financial advice tends to be targeted towards older and better-established people while people in their 20s and 30s lacked advice that spoke directly to them and their concerns such as: paying off student loans, getting their careers on track, and thinking about buying a house some day.
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I met Carrie Bell recently on the phone while I was giving a teleseminar about using Facebook for business. I told her that I profiled women for this blog and asked if I could interview her.

That is often how these things happen - being at the right place at the right time and embracing an opportunity. Seems like embracing opportunities is something Carrie does well. Here’s our interview.

Entrepreneur Mom: Why did you decide to start your company? What was the inspiration?

Carrie Bell: My company, Madcapz, was created out of a need. About 5 years ago, I was diagnosed with Grave’s Disease (an autoimmune disorder). The only exercise I could handle was going for walks and I always reached for one of my husband’s baseball caps because I was losing my hair (another symptom of Grave’s Disease). But wearing a man’s baseball cap with a sports team or company logo just didn’t do it for me. So, I began my search for a fun feminine baseball cap that I could enjoy wearing, would make me look great, and feel fabulous!

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