As I sit here drinking a Diet Coke after a quick drive through meal, I am embarrassed to admit that today’s segments was on Breaking the Habit of Fast Food. Although this afternoon’s weakness was a bit of a set back, I am committed to limiting the amount of fast food from my family’s diet.

However, I know it won’t be easy. You see, trying to prepare healthy meals for my kids is a major issue. I have tried to fix tacos with turkey meat and minced tomatoes – however, my oldest can spot the differences and spits out the minuscule vegetable particles. Insisting he eat vegetables often results in a battle. I have tried bribes, threats, punishment you name it to get my kid to eat a carrot. However, he will gag and throw-up making the experience traumatic for both of us.

Unfortunately, my son’s disgust for vegetables comes naturally. You see, as a baby, my mother’s solution to getting me to eat vegetables was to dip the minced squash into chocolate pudding. Of course today, I love chocolate and still hate most vegetables – including squash.

However, my interview with pediatrician Dr. Deborah Bain was enlightening. She actually went as far as comparing eating fast food to ingesting plastic (YUK!). She stated that the number of children she sees with Type II Diabetes has doubled in the past ten years. In addition, she believes that the increase in childhood obesity can be directly attributed to a fast food diet (that and too much time in front of the boob tube and playing video games).

Later in the show, Jennifer Lee (who is a mom rather than a chef) offered us quick and easy healthy alternatives to fast food. Jennifer is aware of my lack of culinary expertise and dumbed-down the recipes to a level that I could master. (She did, however, manage to mention the blackberry question I asked the poor chef from my last cooking segment.) Both Jennifer and Dr. Bain emphasized the importance of planning ahead and making cooking convenient for your family. Without the convenience factor in place, it is unlikely one can break the habit of the drive-through.

I learned a lot and I hope you did too. You can look at these segments on my website at