May 6--Maintaining a healthy diet when eating out is tough. When restaurants load their dishes with salt, unhealthy fat and sugar, the calorie counts can go through the roof. Not to mention the inhuman portions many restaurants heap onto each plate.
But you can eat, drink and be merry while still minding your health. That's the message Oklahoma City resident Sheli Reynolds hopes to convey through her new Web video series, "Hip to Be Healthy," which she hosts especially for Mood.newsok.com.
"I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian," Reynolds said. "I just want to help educate people about the bad ingredients out there. ... You can avoid that stuff and still eat foods that you really like if you know how."
Healthy and organic eating has become a lifestyle for Reynolds, her husband and three children. But it took a life-altering event to get her family on board with the organic lifestyle Reynolds had in mind for them.
About five years ago, Reynolds' husband, Joe, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After having two surgeries, his tumor was not considered cancerous and his health is good today. He's never had to endure chemotherapy or radiation. But that scare put him in the frame of mind for a healthier lifestyle.
Since then, the kids have slowly developed a taste for healthful foods.
The key to getting your kids to embrace healthier foods?
"Don't tell them," she said. They don't need to know that many of the foods they eat are organic or healthier than others.
When she's serving up strangely colored organic cheese puffs or lemongrass smoothies, Reynolds said, it's a bit more obvious to her kids that she's trying to slip in an extra-healthy alternative, but they're used to it by now.
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