Computational Dietitian In Your Home

Being mindful about the process of food consumption and commuting to work

Your little one as a dietitian will collect data of your weight each week to compare whether you lose weight or not. Additionaly, he/she will suggest eating healthy food and commuting to work the healtiest way.

How to Play

This is a game to play as you decide to go on a diet. Let your child be your dietitian! Start by letting your child measure your weights every week. Tell your child: He/she will help you to lose weights, suggest healthy food and commuting for work. Allow your child to think of creative ideas to write, draw, and use a line graph to interpret numbers.

Step 1: Interviewing your parents

Give your child a chance to ask questions what kind of food you eat? Additionally, how do you usually commute?

Encourage them to take notes a piece of paper to remember while interviewing.

The big point: see the current situation of eating foods from the parents' point of view -- not their own! Tell your child, the goal is to see things from the other person's perspective.

Based on your responses, your child will be able to visualize whether you eat healthy foods versus processed foods such as pizza or ready to cook meals. Besides, is commuting by car, bus, bicycle, or walking the healthiest or the least stressful?

Step 2: Brainstorming healthy foods

Before letting your child suggest the dietary and commuting guidelines -- first do some logical reasoning and planning together.

Let's brainstorm: what are all the healthy and unhealthy food what the parents said during their interview? Should parents eat fast food, chocolate, or smoking? And should they eat vegetables or fruits instead?

You can do it in a conversation, or you can even draw. Encourage your child to take the lead: what are all the different ways they could recommend you to eat healthy and commute well?

And after completing the interview: it's time to choose the most promising way and follow the instructions your child came up with the solution.

You are welcome to make conversation more tangible. For example, put food options on the table that you prepared such as soup, dessert, fruit, vegetable, rice, salad, chicken, meat, bread, pizza, or frozen food.

Step 3: Commuting options

Mindful healthy commuting checklist

Brainstorm not only eating food ideas, but commuting as well.

Should you walk, bike, or drive a car? That is a great question. Ask your child this question to follow his/her plan.

After the response, let him/her elaborate why walking, biking, or driving is the best option for losing weight. Additionally, let him/her observe or shadow you everyday when you arrive home. Encourage him/her to take a note or draw your mood. Are you in a better mood biking or walking than driving when you come back home from work?

Let him/her use the line graph to make a conclusion which sort of commuting transportation is the best option for your mood and stress level.

Tell your children: I will be able to commute from home to work by car, train, bus, walking or biking. Let him/her draw the conclusion and analyze pattern recognition after 4 weeks stress level, time of commuting, and your weights.

Step 4: Following the plan

Before you start following the diet, get clear on the plan. Have your child explain out loud how your child will check your diet planning and healthy commuting. As you get started (or perhaps, as the parent does the measuring their weights -- depending on the age of the child), talk through what's happening.

After suggestions of the healthy food and commuting transportation, let your child measure your weight.

Have him/her check each week to see whether you are gaining weight or losing weight.

Continue encouraging your child to suggest you each day what kind of food you should eat and what kind of commuting transportation to use.

Ask some questions to your child as the dietistian experiment going on.

For example, you would ask if you were in a good mood yesterday. Why or why not? Is it because of eating or commuting by bicycle?

Encourage your child to plot the results on the graph. For example, let him/her draw a graph with the x-axis representing the weekdays and the y-axis representing the weight.