A Brief Story Illustrating Why I’m Not Offering Diet Advice

Since I shared with you my pre-diet diet last weekend, I thought I’d share a brief excerpt from my life over the holidays. While we were celebrating Christmas with my family, I had plenty of time to watch my one-year-old nephew eat. And guess what? In large part, because my sister, his mom, is a registered dietitian, he eats exceptionally well. Fortunately, too, he doesn’t appear to be a picky eater. So I sat and watched her feed him countless tiny pieces of various produce and other healthy fare, and at one point, it hit me.

There she was, feeding my nephew an avocado, of all things.

Honestly, I don’t even think I knew you could do that. I’ve had three children move through babyhood and toddlerhood, eating barely respectable amounts of fruits, veggies, lean meats and dairy products, but I don’t think it once dawned on me to feed them avocados.

Then, as my nephew was about halfway through his avocado, looking much like a poster child for the salubrious lifestyle, I looked over, and the small people were all decorating and devouring Christmas cookies, frosting and crumbs smeared all over their faces. Sadly, I’ll admit that this is a pretty fair representation of how they eat on all holidays, all days surrounding holidays, most weekends, and on days their parents come home from the grocery store with clearance candy.

In these moments, it’s hard to believe my sister and I are really from the same gene pool.

In fact, after some consideration, I imagine she doesn’t even have a pre-diet diet.

5 Replies to “A Brief Story Illustrating Why I’m Not Offering Diet Advice”

  1. Love it ..

  2. The real test will be if he’s still eating avocado in a couple of years. I’m sure he’ll be lured by Christmas cookies at Grandma’s house too one day…and that is just fine:-). FYI, His new healthy favorite is edamame!

    1. Oh, stop with the edamame already. I’m so sure. 😉 We should make a list of how many foods you’ve served him that it never even occurred to me to try with any of my kids. Clearly, it’d be a lengthy one.

  3. On the other hand, if mommy and daddy don’t eat avocados, little Mr. or Miss Learning-To-Eat-Table-Foods will never be given the opportunity to eat avocados. (Speaking from experience with an over-ripe avocado (and mango) that I accidentally fed oldest boy thereby making him return it to me in a non-usable form.)

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