How I Feed My Kids: Simple Nutrition Habits From Our House
I've spent the first two articles in this series talking about childhood nutrition from an educational perspective.
We've looked at what poor nutrition can potentially affect and the basic nutritional foundations children need to grow and thrive.
This article is different.
This is just what we do.
I'm not suggesting this is the perfect way to feed children. I'm certainly not suggesting you need to copy our meals or that because I'm a coach, our kids somehow eat perfectly every day.
They don't.
I'm simply a dad who has spent a large portion of his adult life working in health, fitness and nutrition, and I've tried to apply what I've learned to the environment our boys are growing up in.
Our boys aren't even five yet.
I'm not teaching them to count calories.
They don't know their macros.
I'm not interested in creating tiny bodybuilders.
What I want is for them to eventually become in tune with their own eating.
I want them to understand cause and effect.
How do I feel when I've eaten well?
How do I feel when I've eaten poorly?
What foods leave me energised?
What foods leave me feeling sluggish?
What does hunger actually feel like?
What does being comfortably full feel like?
What foods help my body grow, move and recover?
And eventually, when Mum and Dad aren't controlling their food environment anymore, can they make those decisions themselves?
Ultimately, we're trying to set them up to thrive.
And I've realised that most of what we're teaching them isn't coming from what we tell them.
It's coming from what they see us do.
They eat what we eat
Sophors and I sometimes say we're lucky that our boys eat what we eat.
And we probably are.
But I've started wondering how much of that is luck and how much is simply because these are the options they've always been given.
Breakfast and dinner are eaten together as a family most days.
We're not cooking an "adult dinner" and then automatically making separate children's food.
They eat the same meal or components of whatever we're having.
That started incredibly early.
When the boys were teething, we used big pieces of vegetables like broccoli and carrot that they could hold, gnaw and suck on safely under supervision.
Those flavours became familiar.
Now they eat virtually every fruit and vegetable we put in front of them.
I'm not saying that's some magic vegetable hack that will work for every child. Temperament, sensory preferences, development and plenty of other things influence children's eating.
But I do think exposure matters.
If nutritious food has always been normal, there's less reason for a child to think it's unusual.
Breakfast is just breakfast
Most weekday mornings, I eat the same thing.
Anyone who has looked through our TTG Meal Ideas will probably know the Josh Omelette.
Eggs, chicken, vegetables and other ingredients that give me a high-protein, nutrient-dense start to the day.
Louie, who's still very young, will usually have some cut-up fruit and bits of my breakfast - egg, mushroom, chicken and whatever else is appropriate for him.
Ollie did the same, but now chooses a little more.
Sometimes he'll have a smaller version of my omelette.
Sometimes it's a bacon and egg muffin.
Sometimes it's fruit with whatever protein he feels like: chicken, bacon, steak, salmon or something else we have available.
There's no:
"Ollie, today you require 17 grams of protein."
It's much simpler.
Where's the protein?
That's basically my rule for their main meals.
Not because I'm trying to maximise their muscle growth.
Protein is simply an essential part of a growing child's diet, so we've made having a protein source at meals normal.
The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend children consume a variety of protein-containing foods including lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts, seeds and legumes/beans, alongside foods from the other major food groups.
I don't obsess over one particular source either.
Eggs.
Chicken.
Fish.
Steak.
Mince.
Yoghurt.
Milk.
Cheese.
Legumes.
Different foods provide different nutrients, so variety makes more sense to me than feeding them the same protein every day.
To learn more about which foods contain specific nutrients, check out our Micronutrients article.
No, my five-year-old doesn't need a protein shake
This one makes me laugh because Ollie sees Dad with one occasionally.
I'll grab a protein shake from our vending machine at TTG and, naturally:
"Dad, can I have one?"
My answer is no.
I've explained to him that Dad uses one because it's a convenient way for me to get some extra protein when I need it, but he doesn't need it.
I've jokingly told him that when he's 15, and he's much bigger, if he wants one then, we can revisit the conversation.
There's an important distinction here.
Protein itself isn't some dangerous adult substance. Children require protein.
But more isn't automatically better, and a healthy child whose requirements are being met through normal food generally doesn't need Dad adding sports supplements to their diet.
I'd rather his appetite go towards breakfast, lunch and dinner and the enormous variety of nutrients that come alongside whole foods.
If a child genuinely has difficulty meeting their nutritional requirements, that's a different conversation and one worth having with an appropriate health professional.
But in our house?
Food does the job.
One of my favourite things happens after daycare
This is such a small thing, but it's probably one of the moments that makes me feel most confident we're doing something right.
Ollie gets home hungry.
Nobody tells him what to eat.
He opens the fridge, grabs an apple and a yoghurt pouch and goes about his afternoon.
There might be popcorn in the cupboard.
There might be chips.
Sometimes he'll choose those instead.
That's fine.
But more often than not, I see him independently grabbing fruit and yoghurt.
To me, that's the win.
Not because an apple is morally superior to a packet of chips.
It's because nutritious food has become his convenient food.
We deliberately keep easy options around:
yoghurt pouches,
granola,
packets of seaweed,
popcorn,
mixed nuts where age-appropriate,
apples,
pears,
bananas,
strawberries,
blueberries,
cut-up melons,
rice cakes,
and frozen fruit.
Healthy eating becomes significantly easier when the easy option is also a decent option.
A five-year-old isn't going to meal prep.
But he can open a fridge.
So what's sitting inside it matters.
Lunch doesn't need to be perfect
When we're together, lunch is generally the more carbohydrate-heavy meal in our house.
We like foods such as lentils, brown rice and potatoes alongside our other foods.
We're an active family. Carbohydrates provide useful energy.
At daycare and kindy, though?
We don't have much control.
And I've learned not to stress about that.
The boys are going to spend increasingly large parts of their lives outside our house.
Eventually they'll go to school.
Then they'll be teenagers.
Then adults.
Trying to control every mouthful isn't the objective.
I'd rather make the nutritional environment at home consistently good and trust that the habits we're establishing will have an influence when we're not there.
The chicken nugget incident
I actually remember feeling embarrassed about this at the time.
When Ollie was younger, one of the educators at daycare said to me:
"He doesn't really like chicken, does he?"
I remember thinking:
"What? Ollie loves chicken."
Then they explained that he never ate the chicken nuggets they served.
Apparently he'd tell them they were "yuck".
I awkwardly explained that at home he'd really only known free-range chicken as actual pieces of chicken, drumsticks, thighs and other cuts we'd cooked.
We get our meat delivered monthly straight from some of Australia's best farmers through Butcher Crowd.
For a moment I genuinely felt a little silly.
Had we somehow made him difficult by buying better-quality meat and giving him actual chicken?
Looking back, I see it completely differently.
That's a win.
We'd exposed him to what chicken actually tastes and feels like.
He hadn't learned that "chicken" automatically means a processed nugget.
That doesn't mean chicken nuggets are banned in our house.
They're not.
No food needs that sort of power.
But given the choice, I'm pretty happy that his baseline understanding of chicken came from chicken.
Dinner revolves around our TTG Plate Method
Dinner is probably where we have the most control over the boys' nutrition.
It's family time.
Most of what we cook follows the same general principles we've taught through the TTG Plate Method and our Meal Ideas article:
a good protein source,
plenty of vegetables,
an appropriate carbohydrate source,
and a mixture of foods across the week.
Nothing particularly exciting.
That's almost the point.
Healthy eating doesn't need to look impressive.
It needs to be repeatable.
What happens when they refuse dinner?
They absolutely do.
Eating vegetables doesn't magically mean our kids sit politely at the table every night thanking us for the nutritionally balanced meal we've prepared.
Sometimes they don't want it.
We don't cook a second dinner.
We reiterate that this is what the family is eating.
But I'm also not interested in sending a genuinely hungry young child to bed to prove a point.
If we're getting nowhere and I know they haven't eaten enough, I'll make sure they're satiated with something simple, generally a protein source and a more useful carbohydrate from the fridge or cupboard.
The objective isn't:
Dad wins.
It's:
The child is adequately fed without teaching them that refusing dinner automatically produces a more exciting second meal.
There's a balance there.
Food preferences change
We've seen this more with Ollie as he's become older and more influenced by other kids.
A food he previously ate suddenly isn't something he likes because one of his friends doesn't like it.
That's normal.
This is where understanding nutrition becomes useful as a parent.
If one food disappears temporarily, I don't panic.
There are multiple ways to obtain protein.
Multiple fruits.
Multiple vegetables.
Multiple sources of iron.
Multiple carbohydrate foods.
Understanding the purpose of foods means you don't become dependent on one particular food.
We don't hide the vegetables
I've never really needed to.
The boys know they're eating vegetables.
They know we value them.
They see Mum and Dad eating them.
And we talk about why.
Even before five years old, Ollie understood the basic concepts.
Protein helps his body grow.
Vegetables provide his body with useful nutrition.
Food provides energy.
Water hydrates him.
Obviously, he doesn't understand the physiology behind any of that.
He doesn't need to.
I just want him beginning to connect:
What I put into my body affects how my body feels and functions.
That awareness can become more sophisticated as he gets older.
Water is just what we drink
Our boys primarily drink water and milk.
That's it.
Ollie will occasionally have juice, particularly if he's somewhere with friends who are having it.
We've talked with him about noticing how he feels afterwards.
He'll now notice himself as feeling "hyper" or behaving differently after certain sweet foods or drinks.
I think there's an important distinction here.
I'm not telling parents that juice or sugar has been proven to cause hyperactivity in their child.
Behaviour is complicated, and controlled research hasn't supported the simplistic idea that sugar universally makes children hyperactive.
What I do like is that he's already learning to pay attention to his own experience.
How did I feel before?
How did I feel afterwards?
Was I thirsty?
Am I hungry?
Did that food satisfy me?
That's the skill I want to nurture.
Water doesn't need marketing in our house.
It's simply what we drink when we're thirsty.
We don't celebrate junk food
This is another principle I've thought about quite a bit.
Chocolate isn't forbidden.
Ice cream isn't forbidden.
Lollies aren't forbidden.
McDonald's isn't forbidden.
Pizza isn't forbidden.
But we also don't put those foods on a pedestal.
If we want ice cream, we'll have ice cream.
If McDonald's is the convenient option, we'll get McDonald's.
Sometimes we'll go to Yo-Chi as a family. Ollie's frozen yoghurt will inevitably end up covered in lollies while ours might have fruit and nuts.
That's life.
I have a sweet tooth myself.
Sometimes I'll eat the same dessert as the boys and deliberately talk about how I feel afterwards.
"That was delicious, but I feel pretty slow and heavy now."
Not:
"I was bad."
Not:
"I need to burn this off tomorrow."
Just:
"That food tasted good. Here's how my body feels after eating it."
Those are two different pieces of information.
Food doesn't need morality attached to it.
I've actually started making fruit the exciting food
This happened almost accidentally.
Sophors and I love fruit.
So instead of presenting dessert as the ultimate prize, we genuinely get excited about good fruit.
And I've watched the boys start copying that behaviour.
At the moment, Ollie loves frozen mango after dinner.
To him, I think it's basically ice cream.
We keep bags of frozen mango and berries in the freezer, and he'll happily sit there with a bowl of frozen fruit.
But there's an interesting boundary here too.
Sometimes we'll hear:
"I'm full. Can I have frozen mango?"
No.
If you're genuinely full, that's okay.
But we're not going to stop eating the nutritious family meal because we've decided we'd rather fill the remaining space with the more exciting food.
That's not using dessert as a reward.
It's teaching what fullness means.
Sometimes dinner is Domino's
Here's the reality check.
Sometimes it's late.
The fridge is empty.
The supermarkets are closed.
Mum and Dad cannot be bothered.
My emergency option is Domino's.
When I announce we're getting pizza, Ollie yells:
"YAY!"
Although I think half the excitement is because he knows he's coming with me.
We don't get delivery.
If we're getting takeaway, we walk or go and collect it.
That's become part of the experience.
Is Domino's the nutritionally optimal dinner?
Obviously not.
Does eating pizza occasionally concern me?
Not remotely.
Because I'm not judging our family's nutrition from Thursday night's pizza.
I'm looking at what these boys experience across hundreds of meals.
That's what matters.
No food is inherently the problem
This probably summarises our approach to "junk food".
I'm not particularly interested in creating a list of forbidden foods.
I'm interested in displacement.
If lollies occasionally exist alongside a diet containing meat, fish, eggs, dairy, fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, legumes and other nutritious foods, I'm not concerned.
If highly processed discretionary foods begin replacing those foods throughout the day, that's a different situation.
That's why "everything in moderation" works reasonably well as a family philosophy for us.
The nutritional foundation comes first.
There's plenty of room left for enjoyment.
Our kids see the entire lifestyle, not just the food
Nutrition doesn't happen in isolation in our house.
The boys come to TTG almost every day.
They see me coaching.
They see me train.
They see Sophors and me eating nutritious food.
They see us drinking water.
They come walking with us.
They come grocery shopping.
They watch us cook.
They even overhear me doing food feedback with clients.
Sometimes Ollie asks questions that make me realise he's been listening to conversations I didn't even know he was paying attention to.
But I'm also conscious of something else.
I don't want to pressure them into becoming "fitness kids".
People sometimes see them at TTG and say:
"Those boys are going to be so fit."
Maybe.
Maybe not.
That's ultimately going to be their decision.
I'd love to exercise with my sons when they're older.
I'd love them to value being strong, capable and healthy.
But I don't want their childhood to feel like an audition for becoming Dad.
My responsibility is to show them what a healthy parent looks like.
What they eventually decide to do with that example is theirs.
Ollie's starting to cook with us too
This has been another great development.
We've got children's knives designed so he can safely help with food preparation.
He'll cut fruit and vegetables.
He wants to help when we're cooking steak.
Fish.
Chicken.
Whatever we're making.
We don't force it.
If he wants to help, he's welcome.
Again, food becomes something normal.
He sees where it comes from.
He touches it.
Cuts it.
Watches it cook.
Eats it with us.
I think that's much more powerful than lecturing him about eating healthily.
Body image is something I think about too
This is probably a slightly different conversation because of the environment our kids are growing up in.
Sophors and I are fit parents.
Ollie sees my body and asks questions.
He knows what abs are.
He understands at a very basic level what body fat is.
But he also spends an enormous amount of time at TTG around people with completely different bodies.
Very fit people.
People trying to lose weight.
People trying to gain muscle.
People starting exercise for the first time.
People who are already extremely strong.
And what I hope he notices more than anything is:
They're all just people.
I've worked with people wanting to change their body composition for most of my career.
Understanding nutrition and energy balance can absolutely help someone change their physique if that's their goal.
But someone's current body tells you remarkably little about whether they're kind, funny, intelligent, hardworking or worth spending time with.
I want my boys to aspire to look after their bodies.
I don't want them believing that makes them better than someone who doesn't.
Health without humility isn't something I'm interested in teaching.
What am I actually trying to achieve?
When I strip all of this back, I'm not trying to raise children who have perfect diets.
I want the same thing I strive for with all my clients.
I'm trying to raise children who eventually don't need me to tell them how to eat.
I want Ollie to become a teenager who can recognise:
"I've been eating pretty poorly this week, and I don't feel great."
And know what to do about it.
I want him to crave real food because real food has always been part of his normal environment.
I want both boys to understand protein, vegetables, carbohydrates and hydration without needing MyFitnessPal to tell them whether they've been "good".
I want them to enjoy pizza without guilt.
I want them to enjoy fruit without feeling like they're being healthy.
I want them to understand that their choices have consequences without becoming frightened of those choices.
And I'd like them to reach adulthood with habits that reduce their risk of the chronic diseases that good nutrition and an active lifestyle can help prevent.
Will we get everything right?
Of course not.
They're not even five.
We've got a long way to go.
But there's one piece of advice I'd give another parent who told me they knew nothing about nutrition and just wanted their kids to grow up healthy.
Learn, then do.
Learn the basics.
You don't need a nutrition degree.
Understand what protein does.
Understand why kids need carbohydrates.
Learn why fruit and vegetables matter.
Understand energy balance.
Learn enough to distinguish good nutrition information from whatever diet trend is dominating social media this month.
Then comes the more important part.
Do it.
Don't teach your child to drink water while you never do.
Don't tell them to eat vegetables they never see on your plate.
Don't tell them movement matters when they never see you move.
Don't tell them to have a healthy relationship with food while they hear you calling yourself "bad" for eating dessert.
Be the example you hope for them to become.
They may follow it.
They may not.
That's eventually their choice.
But at least you've shown them what thriving can look like.
This article reflects our family's approach alongside general nutrition principles and isn't intended as individual dietary or medical advice. Children's nutritional needs vary with age, development, activity, allergies, medical conditions and other factors. Speak with your GP, paediatrician or an Accredited Practising Dietitian if you're concerned about your child's nutrition, growth or development.
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