Easter can be more then candy.

With the holiday coming up soon, I started to put my daughter’s Easter basket together this week. I thought I would share what we usually do.

Angelgirl will be 11 in May, so the variety of what I can put in her basket gets bigger every year. From the beginning we have always tried to fill her basket with mostly fun items and only a sprinkling of candy.

Last year her basket was almost all scrap booking items (stickers, decorative hole-punches, markers) and a nice scrapbook. This year we got a Nintendo DS game she wanted – since that is a rather expensive item the rest of the items will be smaller (nail polish, hair bows and other things, lip balm, etc.). Sometimes we get books, craft kits, bath items, bubbles, videos, small games — the ideas are endless. We also use plastic eggs to hide costume jewelry, a couple dollar bills, stickers, funny erasers and other small items.

Dollar Stores are great places to get a lot of colorful fun things without spending a lot of money. We have three in our area that are very close to our house (within a 10 minute car ride). We do the same thing for Xmas stocking too, rather then fill it with a lot of candy.

She doesn’t miss having a ton of candy because she has never gotten a basket that was just all candy. Plus she still has Halloween and Xmas candy left (which will be tossed out this weekend) so to buy a lot for Easter candy would be just a waste in the long run.

We keep lots of healthy snacks around for her (i.e. yogurts, fruits) and let her eat when she is hungry, and not eat when she isn’t. We never ever made her finish a plate of food! So 9 times out of 10 she will pick something healthy, and not even think about the candy. Hopefully she has learned to trust her body and recognize real hunger and we hope it will carry over to her adult life too.

I have seen kids come visit at our house and gorge on candy or a snack before I realized what was happening and they would be throwing up. Or others who ate so fast when we took them out to a restaurant they were done before we even finished a third of our food. Unfortunately these kids come from homes where the parents are constantly restricting their food, or constantly telling to eat fast, or clean their plate, or lecturing them on the evils of hard boiled eggs yet giving them boxed cereal for breakfast every day. I worry about what will happen when these children become adults when they have the freedom to eat what ever they want will they gorge and not know when they are really full or will they purge and\or starve themselves because they are worried about a tiny little roundness to their tummy because instead of getting in the habit of playing, walking or exercising they have learned that even a small bit of roundness means fat and they have to starve.

Well this post started out being about Easter, not a soap box ranting on raising children – so I’ll leave it at that.

I already have my Easter brunch menu planned – 2 hard boiled eggs, a slice of diet whole grain bread and coffee (total calories 250ish). I think hubby will be making a ham, but that is too easy for me to overindulge in, plus high in sodium (which I need to be careful of since I still have high blood pressure). I will probably get myself a Stouffer’s lasagna (only 350 calories) which is something I have a special treat from time to time – it is portion control, tastes great (better then other brands of frozen lasagna and only a few more calories more then diet versions). That way I have a nice dinner without the fuss of having to cook something separate. Add a big salad and we will all have a nice Easter dinner together too – it doesn’t matter that the same food isn’t on our plates.

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Currently Diet Pulpit is rarely updated. Lady Rose is now blogging at Blissful Moon, where she is staying healthy and continuing to have adventures, please stop by and visit.

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