The Balanced MomCast | For Overwhelmed Christian Moms Seeking Time Management, Work Life Balance, and Focus

My kids are just like your kids. If I give them the choice between cookies and fruit for dessert, they will choose the cookies. That's why I am deliberate and strategic to train them to choose healthy food when faced with a choice. Today, as part of my Summer Series Replay, I'm replaying an episode that originally aired in May 2019, where I offered 22 strategies I use in my own home to teach my kids to love healthy food. Mix and match as you see fit.  

1. Do it yourself: The best way to teach your kids how to choose healthy food is to live by example.
2. Don’t keep junk in the house, including soda—if you don’t buy it, it won’t be there to eat. Period.
3. If your child asks for a snack, tell them they need to eat a fruit or veggie first. If it’s close to dinner, serve the fruit or veggie portion of the dinner as the snack.
4. Make dessert something special—not something you do nightly. Take them out for ice cream after their baseball game. Bake cookies on Saturday. Go out for a shake when grade cards come out.
5. Let them choose between soda or dessert at a restaurant, but not both.
6. Pack school lunches most days.
7. When offering new healthy food, tell them “You don’t need to taste it, just let it sit on your plate.”  
8. Offer money to taste a new food. Yep. I have paid my kids a quarter or a dollar to taste something and I'm not ashamed.
9. Serve a variety of fruits and vegetables at every meal and make them pick two.
10. Buy the healthy food they like.
11. Never say no to seconds on veggies.
12. Don’t push meat and dairy.
13. Teach your kids to read labels.  
14. Teach them to be wise about advertising.
15. Serve smoothies. 
16. Let them order off the adult menu. 
17. Don’t let them order the fries as their side—make them get a fruit or veggie instead.
18. Make it your goal in life to get your kid to love salad.
19. Serve water with every meal.  
20. Reserve special junk food for birthdays, vacations, and holidays.
21. Make your home a healthy food zone.  
22. Connect the dots for them for how healthy food and junk affects how they feel.  

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/116

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

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Depression affects 300 million people worldwide, and I am one of them. The good news is, depression is entirely treatable and almost always, preventable. If you have mild depression and anxiety and want to explore some options outside of prescription medication, I'm giving you the exact things I do on a daily basis that keep depression and anxiety at bay.

This is part of my Summer Series Replay and originally aired September 2019 as part of a 6-part series on depression and anxiety. (EP15-EP20)

EP 16: This is where I tell my story of depression  

The DSM-5 outlines the following criterion to make a diagnosis of depression. The individual must be experiencing five or more symptoms during the same 2-week period and at least one of the symptoms should be either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure.

1. Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day.
2. Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day.
3. Significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain, or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day.
4. A slowing down of thought and a reduction of physical movement (observable by others, not merely subjective feelings of restlessness or being slowed down).
5. Fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day.
6. Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day.
7. Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day.
8. Recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/115

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

Substack Newsletter: Behind the Balance 

Website: The Scoop on Balance

If you're a mom drowning in your responsibilities, I'm here to throw you a lifeline. As part of my Summer Series Replay, I'm going back to August 2019 (EP15) where I offered 7 things that will give you immediate relief from the pressure of "too much." 

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/114

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

Substack Newsletter: Behind the Balance 

Website: The Scoop on Balance

Jesus said 8 times (!) in John 15 that He wants us to bear fruit. But what does that even mean? In EP112 we said that abiding is all the stuff that no one sees. Well, fruit is the stuff EVERYONE sees (and feels, and tastes, and smells) coming from you.

Welcome to my Summer Replay Series! I'm rerunning a series that first aired in Feb-March 2020 on Abiding in Christ (John 15). This replay series begins with EP108 and this is Part 6--the final episode in the Abide series. Be sure to go back and listen from the beginning. 

The main point: Real fruit is the natural and inevitable outgrowth of a branch that is abiding in the Vine and is regularly and properly pruned by The Vinedresser.

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/113

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

Substack Newsletter: Behind the Balance 

Website: The Scoop on Balance

Welcome to a very frank yet loving discussion about what it really means to abide in Christ. At the risk of sounding completely over the top, studying, understanding, and then applying these truths has impacted every single area of my life. My heart is to encourage and equip you to live a fruitful life. So, if you’re ready for some tough love on how to become a branch in Christ that bears much fruit, then listen in.

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/112

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

Substack Newsletter: Behind the Balance 

Website: The Scoop on Balance

What does it mean when Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing"?

• Who are these people?
• Are they really doing nothing?
• Am I one of these people?
• Are you one of these people? 

Welcome to my Summer Replay Series! I'm rerunning a series that first aired in Feb-March 2020 on Abiding in Christ (John 15). This replay series begins with EP108 and this is Part 4. Be sure to go back and listen from the beginning. 

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/111

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

Substack Newsletter: Behind the Balance 

Website: The Scoop on Balance

Motherhood often feels like loss: Loss of your schedule, loss of control, loss of yourself. This can be very confusing because, as a Christian, you KNOW God has called you to live an abundant life! So, what's up with this? Are you doing something wrong? Or are you doing something right?

(spoiler: you're doing something right!)

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/110

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

Substack Newsletter: Behind the Balance 

Website: The Scoop on Balance

Welcome to my Summer Replay Series! I'm rerunning a series that first aired in Feb-March 2020 on Abiding in Christ (John 15). In EP108 I introduced you to the series If you haven't listened to that episode yet, do that first! Today I will introduce you to the Cast of Characters and the 5 Branches, but we will discuss in detail the branch in Christ that does not bear fruit. What is it? How does it get that way? What happens to it?

John 15:1-6

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/110

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

Substack Newsletter: Behind the Balance 

Website: The Scoop on Balance

It’s summer! And I’m stepping away from the podcast for a few weeks to rest and enjoy my family. But while I’m gone, I’m replaying some of my favorite episodes that you may have missed or you may want to hear again.

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/108

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

Substack Newsletter: Behind the Balance 

Website: The Scoop on Balance

Your family eats every day, several times a day, whether you like it or not. Today I share my philosophy on cooking and a simple 4-step process for easy meal-planning. This is the last episode in our series on organization. Listen in. 

For show notes, please visit thescooponbalance.com/107

While the Balanced MomCast is on hiatus, you can find me at Behind the Balance on Substack, Writing Off Social, or The Scoop on Balance. 

Substack Newsletter: Behind the Balance 

Website: The Scoop on Balance