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Healthy Food Choices for the Family
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i. Healthier Food Purchases
“We go one night a week for our treat night, but before it was any day of the week.” “I would say the [biggest change is] packaged food. We’re not buying near as many chips anymore.” (Participant 5, female) “I’m particular about what I buy [the] kids…. I’m more aware of what I’m doing to give them a better chance of becoming healthy so, and staying healthy.” (Participant 9, female) “We still have some granola bars, but not nearly the amount of packaged cookies and things like that.” (Participant 1, female)
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ii. Preparing Healthier Meals at Home
“Instead of just whipping up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, because the kids love chocolate chip cookies, I’m looking for healthier choices in a cookie that I can hide. Now I make a quinoa chocolate chip cookie that the kids think is just a regular chocolate chip cookie, but it’s fortified with a whole bunch of stuff that they can’t see.” (Participant 9, female) “Something we took away from this was preparing meals ahead of time, like the day before for the next day so it would be a healthy meal and not a rushed out of the box meal sort of thing.” (Participant 1, female) “I think it made me concentrate more on what I was putting in front of my kids as food like…even if it was something simple or maybe it wasn’t the best things they can be eating, how can I just make this a little more appealing, healthy… like instead of box of craft dinner like make homemade not as much, use skim milk, not as much cheese, just try and make it a little healthier… it just made me think more about what I was actually feeding my kids.” (Participant 8, male)
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Enhanced Family Dynamics
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i. Increased Family Communication
“… so as soon as supper’s ready…[everyone] participates in …. We talk amongst our supper table now and it’s much better” (Participant 5, female) “Every time we leave here [C.H.A.M.P. Families], almost the whole drive back home he’s [my son] talking ‘What’d you learn, Mom?’.” (Participant 5, female) “It’s an interesting conversation…unfolding every day at our dinner table. It’s fun to hear them [my children] …we’re so busy, you don’t get those little bits of pieces … you see all this coming out the dinner table, it’s a good thing.” (Participant 9, female) “It was a good opportunity for us to be more on the same page…. I think that’s a big impact to have both parents on board…and then be able to go back to the kids and say a five-minute synopsis of this is what I learned tonight.” (Participant 1, female)
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ii. Greater Confidence to Engage in Health- and/or Weight-related Conversations with Children
“I think for me it was not a license, but…it’s OK to talk to her [my daughter] about being overweight and about us as a family being overweight, and being healthier. It was almost like it made it feel like it was OK to have those conversations and feel more comfortable with the conversation... it was an elephant in the room amongst the family that was just gone” (Participant 1, female) “… you always want to protect your children, so sometimes you might see an issue or see something but you don’t wanna address it because you’re afraid of their reaction. So you go along your merry way and if you keep doing the same thing nothing changes. So if you bring everything out in the open and start to talk, then once communication opens up you get a lot of feedback and you learn what motivates your children too.” (Participant 10, male) “I think too for us this kind of explains to [my son] that there’s different types of body types. You might always be wider [or] heavier because you’re just built like that….” (Participant 6, male)
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iii. Full Family Engagement in Health Behaviour Change
“… the whole family’s doing it now, where before it was always let the kids go out and play.” (Participant 10, male) “As far as the whole family trying to participate in eating healthier and being more active, while trying to achieve the same goal and trying to help [my son] get where he wants to be and where we want him to be…. we are working together.” (Participant 6, male) “… you’re doing it as a whole family instead of an isolated individual.” (Participant 11, female) “Involving [our son], who is not overweight…. We said it was a family thing, whereas before it has always been [our daughter] do it and not [our son], right? So that’s a big thing the whole family was involved.” (Participant 1, female) “So we are always at the arena, all three of them [my children] play hockey. So if one of them is down there now all of us walk the walking track instead of sitting in the seats.” (Participant 5, female)
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Greater Parental Confidence to Promote Health Behaviours in Children
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i. Confidence to Serve as the Primary “Agent-of-Change”
“I do feel as though I’m more confident. I can tell her [my daughter] why we’re doing what we’re doing now. I have more knowledge, so I can pass that to her.” (Participant 8, male) “I am a lot less likely to make an excuse as to why I can’t go out with her [my daughter]. If she wants to do a dance party in the basement or if she wants to whatever. I have to be there. I have to at least make it possible for her to do it.” (Participant 3, male)
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ii. Enhancing Children’s Responsibility for Their Health (“Letting go”)
“I never realized how big of a deal that letting go is, that’s huge. I wouldn’t know that if they [guest speakers] didn’t say that. Let them [the children] do it, that’s big for them.” (Participant 3, male) “I think I have learned some things that have helped my daughter, or given me the courage to do things a little differently, or let her try things like, let her cook one night and use the sharp knives that I wouldn’t have ever thought she was capable of doing. She is so much more capable than I ever gave her credit for.” (Participant 7, female) “Our kids are doing stuff in the kitchen. Even though it ends up taking longer to make the meal, they’re involved and I’m also making sure to protect that time.” (Participant 3, male) “I am very particular…and I like things to done a certain way, so knowing that it’s OK to let it go and let them be responsible, it’s a huge new thing for me.” (Participant 9, female)
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iii. Perseverance Towards Change
“You need to keep coming back, keep being reminded that in the end things could change if you try and keep trying.” (Participant 4, female) “Just trying to open up and be more mindful … I’m trying different things.” (Participant 1, female) “I found setting goals hard because you’re trying to set the goals to correct the difficult situation … but that is something that’s going to go forward and I’ll use the information we got to help with that.” (Participant 3, male) “It takes time … it’s hard for parents … there is nothing wrong with your kid or the way we do it, it just takes time.” (Participant 11, female)
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