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Katherine's Diet Tip #5: Kids in the Kitchen For Mom's Day

Follow me in The Georgetown Dish every Monday with proven strategies to lose weight, improve your health or just increase your knowledge about nutrition. Through spring, we'll be losing weight together, so you'll be ready for the warmer days to come!

Asking your family to help you cook meals prepares them for life and gives them quality time with you. This Mothers' Day, ask your kids to help in the kitchen. It could be a lot of fun, and you just may find yourself cooking more often for the sheer enjoyment of it. But will this help you lose weight? Absolutely! Research shows successful weight loss maintainers are more likely to eat meals at home instead of going out to restaurants or buying takeout. So anything you can do to increase home cooking - is good. Asking your children to help or, if they're old enough, giving them the task of fixing a whole meal for the family is a great way to do it, and there's no better time to start than Mothers' Day.

When my client, Lois, asked her son Daniel, ten, what he would like to cook for his first family meal, he chose tacos. Lois was around in case he needed help, but essentially, Daniel did it on his own. Everyone in the family enjoyed it and suggested other meals Daniel could make!

Kids love to make pizza. You can buy pre-cooked or raw dough rounds (try whole wheat). Let the children pick the vegetables, chop and saute them, then spread them around the pizza. Some favorites are mushrooms, peppers, onions, spinach, and zucchini. For meat lovers, look for extra lean meats, poultry, or even seafood, such as shrimp - or even vegetarian cured meats such as "ham" and "sausage." Try a variety of cheeses: Mozzarella, Goat Cheese, Provolone. And you can be assured that your own portion is delicious, nutritious, and calorie-controlled.

Save at least 500 calories by eating at home instead of at a greasy spoon - all else being equal - and lose 50 pounds in a year!

Excerpted from "Diet Simple: 195 Mental Tricks, Substitutions, Habits & Inspirations" by Katherine Tallmadge (LifeLine Press)