Week 7: Meal Planning

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Deciding what to have for dinner is not always an easy task, but in week seven of the Extreme Family Makeover, the Reneaus learned some ways to plan meals as a family to make dinnertime less hectic and more healthy.

Reinforcing the lessons learned about food choices, Nutrition Coach Kathy Wherle had Riley and Chloe divide a pile of food items into two groups: Healthy Lunch and Less Healthy Lunch.

"It will help when school starts again to be able to pack healthier lunches," Chloe said.

While many of the items were obvious, like apples, bananas, potato chips and chocolate chip cookies, some items proved to be tricky. Click here to see how well you do in dividing the foods and find out which food items are "foolers."

Making a MESS

Riley and Chloe also made a MESS, which is not how it first sounds.

"Each letter in MESS stands for a certain type of foods," Chloe said.

M: Muscle-building foods, ie: protein
E: Energy foods, ie: carbohydrates, starch
S: Solid-bone foods, ie: calcium foods
S: Strong-body foods, ie: fruits and vegetables

"It just reinforces basic nutrition for kids and has them create healthy plates," Wherle said.

Riley and Chloe used paper food to glue onto a paper plate to make balance meals. Click here to see what a healthy, balance plate should look like.

"They got creative and had combos I've never seen before. Most of their plates were really good, they hit the mark right on, but broccoli for breakfast? I don't know," Wherle laughed.

What's in the Pantry

Wherle surprised Mark and Amie with a pop quiz of what was in their pantry and refrigerator at home.

"I asked them, 'if you open the pantry right now, what would you see?' and they rattled off great things," Wherle said.

Mark and Amie said timing and a little luck helped with that.

"Thank goodness we went shopping the other day," Amie laughed.

Click here for the list Wherle gave the Reneaus of healthy items every pantry should have.

The Weigh-In

Each family member also had a weight check this week. Chloe lost weight, Mark gained a pound and Riley and Amie both stayed the same.

"I want to bump up my exercise to 60 minutes a day," Amie said. "I feel like I'm doing well with my food, but it's not showing on the scale."

Wherle told the family to not get discouraged.

"They are still in the stage where they are changing so many good things and changes are happening on the inside. It's too bad we can't go inside our bodies to check it out," she said. "They are all frustrated with the results because they want them faster, and if you're trying you best and you don't see big changes right away, I know that's psychologically devastating, but just keep pressing on because it's definitely going to work."

She also reminded the family that as they lose fat and gain muscle, the changes on the scale won't be as large.

Meal Planning

Instead of coming home from work and staring into the cupboard and refrigerator, it's best to plan dinners ahead of time to make evening rituals smooth and stress-free.

The Reneaus learned how to plan meals as a family with Behavior Coach Ann Reidenbach.

"It's okay to determine what the child can do to help if a child is old enough," Reidenbach said.

Reidenbach said parents have the ultimate say is what foods are served for dinner, but allowing children to have input in the meal planning will help them become engaged in the thought process of healthy eating and will result in meals the family will enjoy more.

Riley and Chloe planned their own meals, and then Reidenbach, Mark and Amie tweaked the meals to make them a little more well-rounded.

"I think in the end everyone was happy. It just takes a little effort," Reidenbach said.

The family used a meal planning form to help organize their dinner ideas.

"If you've never been a meal planner before or engaged the kids before, it's going to seem like a lot of effort, but if you keep with it after a few months of planning every week, it will really make you life so much easier for the dinner meal," Reidenbach said.

Amie likes the idea of planning and is looking forward to using new cookbooks from Fort Wayne Cardiology to find fun recipes.

"I learned to plan a healthy meal and to plan ahead. You can't just go home and expect to have all the healthy stuff, you have to plan ahead," Riley said.

Reidenbach also gave the Reneaus a shopping list organizer to help them get what they need for their planned dinners.

Eating Competence

Planning meals is one aspect of working toward eating competence.

"A person with eating competence not only takes the time in planning meals, but truly enjoys eating and eating is not a moral issue. If you have high eating competence, then there are no good foods or bad foods," Reidenbach said.

Eating competence is achieved by mastering four parts: eating attitudes, food acceptance skills, internal regulation (hunger/fullness) and contextual skills, which is taking the time to eat rewarding meals and snacks at regular times.

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