If you’ve been following our “Amanda’s Challenge” you know that for most children, including Amanda, the most challenging part of changing dietary habits is getting good information about food, and especially, food choices.

Diane Sawyer does a short but informative interview on Healthy Lunch Choices For Your Child.

(Not to digress, but Diane Sawyer is 64 years old, maybe she needs to tell the rest of us her secrets for maintaining such a youthful look.)

Click Here to see the video and article in its entirety.

For parents who are serious about making good breakfast and lunch choices for your children, here are the three foods your child should try to avoid:

1. Bread and Bagels-Doesn’t matter if it is the “high fiber” type, bread and bagels are very high on the glycemic index, which means they are going to spike blood sugar. This leads to an increase in blood insulin, something you want to avoid.

2. Breakfast cereals: Again, high on the glycemic index. What you always want to remember is the higher on the glycemic index, the more likely it is to produce excess fat.

3. French Fries-Arguably the worse thing. The combination of the high glycemic index from the potatoes, combined with the oil they are fried in, is a recipe for disaster.

If you must have potatoes, opt for a sweet or baked potato, and if you must have a cereal, choose oatmeal, preferably, steel cut.

You best choice is to side with proteins like eggs, omelets or sandwich wraps, all of which are easy to prepare and not that time consuming.

If you would like more information on nutrition or diet, please do not hesitate to email me at DrBooker@CapitolRehab.com and enter “Nutrition” in the subject line.

Well, this was long overdue. I had been encouraging Amanda’s mom to enroll her into a local gym for some time. I am happy to report this has now happened and Amanda + mom have become members of their local Gold’s Gym. Coincidentally, that gym location includes a Capitol Rehab practice managed by S. Wade Rozier, DC and I am told Amanda’s mom will be seeking some treatment for upper back challenges while Amanda works out.

Amanda has already begun her work outs and I am very interested in seeing how adding the element of exercise to her dieting efforts will transform this young woman in the coming weeks.

Updates soon…