Table 3.

Representative quotations from intervention participants describing Learned Strategies to Overcome Barriers to Health Behavior Change.

Theme 2a. Empowered and creative parenting to overcome family members' resistance to change

At my house there were no – you could not find any vegetables before, but now you can. What I have done for them to eat vegetables is that, for example, I'll cook squash filled with meat and cheese and I put colorful vegetables in it, which gets them interested and they want to taste it. And that has worked for me … We didn't know about those things before. (Session 1, Participant #6)

Because I think that natural water is healthier than flavored water with so much sugar. So, just like her, I used to give to my children juice and I still do, the reduced juice … I make half of it water, half of it juice … They drink it as if nothing has changed. (Session 1, Participant #5)

For me, the hardest one has been the one about the phone and the television. Because the kids always want to keep watching and I have to speak strongly to them to obey because they do not want to. They become like addicted and that's why it is so hard … [You have to] turn it off even if they cry. To make the decision oneself, because they are not going to want to. Take them outside. Like, "Let's go to the park." Doing another activity that they like. (Session 1, Participant #3)

Theme 2b. Anticipatory planning to overcome lack of concrete resources

I think that for me, what has been a bit difficult is taking them out for walks when the weather is cold. You know that the temperature is cold outside, but I think that inside the house I can do some other type of activity. Like take them out – I mean, or – or have them do something in the house where they are moving their bodies, so they are not just sitting down. (Session 1, Participant #2)

Because they also ask for [fruits and vegetables], because I went to drop off one of my daughters and then I came back and I didn't have time to go back home, so I carry something healthy in case they get hungry and ask me for something. (Session 7, Participant #43)

Theme 2c. Incorporating healthy ingredients into typical recipes to overcome cultural barriers

I'm from El Salvador. We cook differently than they do here. We would make—so, for instance, to make scrambled eggs, we would add tomatoes, onions, oil, and lots of it. Now I might make scrambled eggs, but I won't make it the same way. We've changed the brand of oil that we use, I mean, we look at the amount of cholesterol that it has, the fat—in what we are going to eat. (Session 4, Participant #25)