Broccoli muscles vs Chicken muscles

Bite This: Toddlers and preschoolers are notoriously picky eaters. 

This post is inspired by last night's dinner conversation. 

Every night at dinner we have the same battle with our kids - trying to get them to eat vegetables and protein. So we came up with a game - you need to eat vegetables and protein to gain muscle. Do you want broccoli muscles or chicken muscles? 

“Broccoli muscles” are lean, mean, fighting machine muscles, but “chicken (or meat) muscles” are big, bulky, powerful muscles. So we let the kids choose. Usually they’ll pick broccoli muscles first. They will eat a piece of broccoli and then flex. We will feel their muscles and say “wow, ouch!” (Although, I am not sure why we say ouch like their muscles hurt when we touch them. Maybe because they’re rock-hard?) Then we’ll say, “that feels pretty strong, but now you probably need some chicken muscles to get big like me.” And then they’ll eat some chicken and flex again. This time we say, “Oh man, you’re strong. But now we need to lean them out with more broccoli.” And this is pretty much the entire dinner conversation. It works now, but I think they’re going to be thoroughly confused when they really learn what builds muscle. At least for now, it gets them to eat their veggies and protein. This even works for the youngest munchkin. 

Also, side note: for some reason, they think when they flex their muscles we are wanting to see their forearm muscles. They will also be confused about where their biceps are located. 

How do you get your kids to eat? Or maybe they aren’t picky like mine.

Sound bite: If you have a difficult time getting your kids to eat, try this game. Unless they're too smart for it.