Freedom From Picky Eating: Your Bite Sized Adventure

Activity 1: Welcome To Your Bite Sized Adventure

For You To Know:

Hi, I’m Zoe, your guide! I’m not just a grown-up telling you what you should do- I’m a real kid just like you! I used to be the pickiest eater ever. I would only eat bread and one kind of mac and cheese. But, I went on an adventure and learned to enjoy all kinds of yummy, colorful foods like hummus, sushi, garlicky green beans, cheesy ravioli, and more. Now, I’m excited to help you on your food adventure, too!

 This e-book is here to help you travel from boring, No Fun Food Land all the way to exciting, Fun Food Land.

Throughout this food adventure we will have together, I am going to share with you all kinds of tips that worked for me. My first piece of advice for you is this – life gets so much easier and more fun when there are more foods you can eat.   If I was able to coach myself to go from finding most foods so DISGUSTING to learning to enjoy new foods, I know you can do the same! And with these words, it’s time to begin your food adventure!

For You To Do:

Where are you starting your food adventure? Draw pictures of the foods that you feel ok eating. 

Check off all the ways that only being able to eat these foods makes your life less fun:

• I feel left out at parties.
• I feel uncomfortable having playdates at friends’ houses because I don’t know what kind of food they will have.
• It is hard for me to find something to eat at most restaurants.
• Going on vacation or traveling can be stressful because I don’t know if I am going to be able to find food I can eat.
• It can get boring to always eat the same foods over and over again.
• I get into arguments and fight with my parents when they try to get me to try new foods.
• I wish I could eat different foods so I could be healthier. 
• I am embarrassed that I only eat a few foods.
• Other _________________________________________

For You To Discuss:

• Ask your adult partner about times when feeling scared of trying something new or different made things less fun for them.
• Ask them to describe to you their very own Fun Land. What kind of activities would they be doing more of if they were no longer afraid of trying new things and no longer scared of not knowing what to expect.

Activity 2: Meet Your Food Guard Dog

For You To Know:

We all have food guard dogs within us that bark warning messages about how yucky or dangerous certain foods are going to be.  And it’s a good thing we have these food guard dogs! Without them, we might end up eating rocks, poisonous berries, or stinky, rotten food. Life would be one big, icky mess without them. 

The problem is, sometimes a food guard dog can be super-duper sensitive and quick to “bark” and think a food is going to be yucky and disgusting just because it is new or slightly different from the foods you are ok eating.

The good news is that your food guard dog is quite trainable! This food adventure you are on will help train your food guard dog to get better at telling the difference between food that is disgusting and terrible for you to eat vs. food that is simply new and yet to be explored by you.

For You To Do:

1. Place a ✅on the moments when it is a good idea for your food guard dog to bark and warn you not to eat this food.
2. Place and 🆇. on the moments when your food guard dog is barking about something that isn’t actually dangerous.

For You To Discuss:

Ask your adult partner:

• Is there anything you are afraid of,  that you wish you were not afraid of? 
• What kind of false alarm messages does your guard dog bark at you?
• Tell me about a recent time your guard dog warned you of danger when you were actually safe and sound.  

Activity 3: Your Incredible Shrinking Life

For You To Know: 

Imagine your life as a big, fun amusement park, filled with fun things like rides, adventure themed restaurants and shops. But every time your food guard dog barks, you stay away from an experience and every time you choose to not explore an area of the amusement park it gets smaller and smaller.  

When you say “no” to trying new foods or going places where your favorite foods aren’t available, your world can shrink—and that can make things less fun. The good news is, as you work your way through this bite-sized adventure, your world will grow bigger and bigger, and more exciting as you teach your guard dog it is safe, ok, and even fun to try new foods.

For You to Do: 

Part A

Look around the amusement park below. 

1. For all of the areas of the amusement park that you see Safe Food, draw a big ✅.
2. For all of the areas of the amusement park you see New Food, draw a big 🆇.
3. Are there any rides or activities that you drew a 🆇 that you would like to have the opportunity to try out?

Part B: supplies you will need: 2 balloons, cotton squares, marker 

1. Write your “My Life” on both balloons.
2. Take turns saying out loud a food that you have eaten recently.
3. Every time you say a food you have recently eaten, put a cotton ball into your balloon and every time your adult partner says a food, they should put a cotton ball in their balloon.
4. If one of you runs out of new foods to add, the other player can keep saying foods until their balloon is as stuffed as it can be or until they too run out of new food to add.  
5. Compare and contrast the two balloons. Whose balloon is bigger? Is it a little bigger or a lot bigger?

For You To Discuss:

Ask your adult partner:

• What is something new that you were afraid to try but ended up liking?
• Did you ever avoid going somewhere because you weren’t sure about the food or what it would be like?
• Tell me about something you ended up missing out on because you listened to your guard dog’s warning that you would not be able to handle the new situation. 
• If you had a “do over”, what in your life would you do differently, if you were no longer afraid of trying something new?

Activity 4: Your Body In Stress Mode

For You To Know:

As we discussed, your food guard dog is always on high alert, ready to protect you from eating anything it thinks might be yucky or unsafe to eat. When your food guard dog barks “DANGER, DON’T EAT THAT!”, this warning message triggers your body’s fight, flight, freeze (Triple F) response!

When your body goes into Triple F mode, something interesting happens: energy (like blood and oxygen) gets directed away from your stomach and toward your arms and legs. This way, your big muscles are ready to help you fight off danger, run away, or even freeze in place. Your heart rate speeds up to pump more blood to those muscles, and your breathing becomes faster to take in more oxygen. At the same time, your digestive system slows down because your body is focused on keeping you safe from what it thinks is a threat, making it not a good time for your energy to be spent on digesting food. 

So, if your food guard dog is barking “DANGER, DON’T EAT THAT!” when you’re trying to eat a new or different (but safe) food, you might notice some of these feelings swirling around throughout your body:

For You To Do:

What does your body feel like when your food guard dog is barking at you, telling you not to eat something? 

1. Put a new food as close to your mouth as possible.
   •  Food Adventurer Bonus Point Challenge: You can earn 1 bonus point if you take a little nibble. 
2. What feelings do you notice in your body? Where do you feel fear of trying a new food in your body?
3. Check off the feelings you notice in your body when your food guard dog is barking “Don’t Eat That!”:
   • Faster heart rate
   • Difficult time swallowing 
   • Faster breathing
   • Increase in sweating
   • Upset stomach
   • Nauseous
   • Shaking
   • Difficult time thinking clearly
   • Other: ____________________
4. Color in the areas in the figure below where you feel uncomfortable feelings when your food guard dog barks at you and tells you not to eat something.

For You To Discuss:

Ask your adult partner:

• What feelings do you notice in your body when you are feeling afraid of doing or trying something? 
• Do you find these feelings uncomfortable? Which of these feelings bother you the most?

Activity 5: Food Detective 

For You To Know:

Trying new things can feel scary because you don’t know what to expect. It can be really helpful to remind yourself of what is similar between something you know well and something new you’re about to explore. By doing this, you can see that you’re not starting from scratch; while there may be new parts, there are also many similarities to experiences you’ve had in the past.

For example, imagine you’re starting a new school and you are feeling scared because you don’t know what it is going to be like to be a student there.  You can either think about all of the ways it is going to be different and how scary it is going to be.

Or you can remind yourself about what will be similar about your old school and your new school. 

This idea works great for food, too! Let’s say you are ok eating apples but are not ok eating carrots, it is natural for your guard dog to point at all of the ways carrots are going to be different from apples and therefore why you should not take this yucky risk and explore carrots.

Instead of believing your over protective guard dogs messages about how different they are going to be and how terrible it will be to try a carrot, you can challenge yourself to think of ways carrots and apples are similar. 

By focusing on what foods have in common vs. how they are different, you will feel more comfortable taking that next step forward and starting to explore new foods.

For You To Do:

Pretend you are a detective looking to solve a food mystery.  

1. Pick a food you are comfortable eating and a new food you have never tried. 
2. Draw a picture below of the food you are comfortable eating and a new food.
3. List 3 qualities that both the food you are comfortable eating and the new food have in common.  Hint: You can ask your adult partner to describe to you what the new food tastes like or you can even sample it to find out for yourself how these two foods are similar.  

For You To Discuss:

Ask your adult partner:

• How similar do you think these foods are?
• Would you be willing to eat a food that had nothing in common with any food you have ever eaten before?
• What food have you tried that was the most different from anything else you have ever eaten?