Did you make family goals this year that include a healthier lifestyle?  Do you want them to start eliminating entire food groups, obsessing over every calorie or “macro”, skipping meals, or even replacing them with liquid meals (ie: juices/shakes)? How would you feel if they decided to hit the gym first thing in the morning every morning and made sure to jump on a scale right after to track their results? Of course, if your child is still quite young this may seem funny to imagine them doing anything even close to those things but what you might not realize is that they have been paying close attention to your actions since the day they were born.  As a parent you become your child’s greatest role model in their most formative years, and as the saying goes “monkey see, monkey do” for better or worse. Research proves that a parent who frequently diets creates disordered eating behaviors in their children. In fact, you might even be able to think back to when you were a child and what your parent may have done in regard to their own restrictive intake or perhaps their choice of words about their own body image, and how it helped shape your perspectives about the same things.

So, what should you do instead? Use this new year to create new ways of thinking about food and your relationship with food. Seek out a mental health professional that can help you work through some psychological ties with food, a registered dietitian well versed in the principles of Intuitive Eating, or even a parent coach to help you better understand the impact of your actions on your child’s behaviors via conscious parenting approach.

Whatever you do, dump the diet forever!