Yep, Colin. This blog is dedicated to Caleb, but this post is about his brother, Colin, and his love of eating good food. What does this have to do with Caleb and/or diabetes? Well nothing really.
I am of the belief that good eating habits benefit anyone. That sounds rather obvious, I agree. I state this because there seems to be greater pressure on people with diabetes to eat well. “Pooh”, I say. Just because Caleb has type 1 diabetes doesn’t mean he is held to a different standard. I believe we all have a responsibility to eat well. Before he was diagnosed, I cooked mostly from scratch and made healthy meals for my family. Although my awareness of good nutrition is now heightened because I see it in Caleb’s BGs all day every day, for the most part we make the same food choices we would have otherwise.
Back to Colin.
Colin loves food. To hear him say, “I’m full”, is cause for celebration. He eats and he eats a lot. You would not know this to look at him.
He is lean. We refer to him as “spider monkey”. Colin can pack it in, but he doesn’t pack it on. I believe this is in part because of what he chooses to eat. He has a strong preference for fruits and vegetables. What some would consider an ample offering of fruit for their entire family would be what Colin chooses to eat as his serving alone – I’m not exaggerating. When on vacation, Colin gets excited at the prospect of varied choices of salads (no dressing please or there will be a very grumpy Colin, and it’s pretty hard to make Colin grumpy). The snack he brings to school on a daily basis is a fresh apple or pear whose cores are barely recognizable when he is done. Beverage of choice – water or milk. He takes pride in the fact that he’s never had a sip of soda in his life and doesn’t ever intend to.
Pizza, Chinese food, pretzels, cake and even the occasional candy are also part of what Colin enjoys. But for the most part, his palette favors things that are fresh.
To help you understand that this is not all a result of nurture, Caleb and Lila, who both enjoy the healthy foods given them, get giddily excited at the offering of what qualifies as “junk food”. Colin’s reaction is one of tolerance. This is not from pressure that I have put on him. It’s just Colin.
Enter Jamie Oliver.
We watched Jamie’s Food Revolution show as a family and we loved it. I am not fond of school lunches. Not only do I think the options are, um, well, not the most nutritious, but when I allowed Colin to pick one day per week to buy lunch at school, he always came home hungry. Not it’s-time-for-a-snack hungry, but oh-my-gosh-did-you-skip-lunch hungry. If I had to pack something to supplement a school lunch, well then forget the school lunch.
Now here’s Jamie – this hip, fun guy telling my kids all the things I have told them. Thank you sir! Colin didn’t need any convincing, but I’m glad to have these things reinforced with the younger two.
Colin’s excitement about the Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution spilled over to his 10th birthday and he had a Food Revolution themed party.
If you haven’t seen Jamie’s Show, the premise is to teach people to prepare healthy meals from scratch, quickly and easily. One of the ways that Jamie did this in the town featured in his show was through stirring excitement via a Flash Mob at Marshall University. If you didn’t see it, here it is (it’s helpful to watch to fully appreciate the next video):
And this is how Colin, Caleb and Lila surprised our family after most of them arrived to celebrate (it pales in comparison to Jamie’s performance, but we had fun with it):
This is only the beginning of Colin’s Food Revolution.
Up next, Colin does as Jamies asks in his book – he “passes it on”. I promise there is real food in Part 2.
In part 3 he sees what he can do about his own school’s menu.
If you haven’t already, please consider signing Jamie’s petition to improve the food offered in schools in the United States.
This is Caleb... 
I loved this! Way to go Colin! Colin is going to make a difference, I can just see it.
Caleb is one lucky kid to be growing up with your attitude towards food. When I was a kid and first diagnosed, back in the late 80s, my parents were told I was only allowed to eat certain foods and exactly how much of those foods I could eat. No room for cake at birthday parties or stopping to eat because I was full. This left me with a skewed view of food for a very long time. Over the past few years I’ve worked hard at adjusting that skewed view, although it still haunts me (and my parents who feel very guilty.)
I love that video, it’s hilarious! Colin might become the new American Jamie Oliver! 🙂
As a European, I was shocked by how school lunches in the US look like. All that was there was just pizza, fries, hamburgers, chips and cookies. No fruit or vegetables, no healthy alternative to junk food. I was lucky that my wonderful host mom prepared lunches for us to take to school otherwise I would be hungry 🙂 I totally agree with you that it is necessary to improve the food offered in schools. In our schools, students get normal meals like they would in a restaurant or at home, for example chicken with rice, fish, soups, salads and so on…
I absolutely love the video!!!!! All of the kids did a great job! They made me laugh. 🙂 What a great idea… if I tried that with my kids they would just mess around the whole time.
Your kids are wonderful! I can’t wait to see the other parts of the food revolution party 🙂
Great job Colin!!! I love watching Food Revolution too and I love the idea of getting healthier food choices at our schools here in Danbury! You start the revolution and I will be your biggest supporter! Wishing you much success in all that you do! And Happy Birthday too!!!
Colin is totally one of a kind! When ALL your kids are famous someday I’m going to be so excited to say I knew them back in the days of Presidential and Food Revolution b-day parties. How exciting that Abby actually got to go to the Fireman party – what was that – like 3 yrs old? I still have the hat and Veggie Tales magnet. JUST got rid of the army figures recently! Keep up the good work Colin, you WILL change the world someday!
SO EXCITING!!!!! Seriously, this was one of the most awesome things ever!!!!! YOU GO KIDS!!!! I hope you send a link to this post to Jamie himself 🙂 And don’t forget to include a pic of that awesome cake!!!!
yeah, you should definitely send Jamie a link!
Great video – talented children!
Nice job, Colin!!
I’m so glad you like to cook from scratch 🙂 Yay!!!! And big ups to Colin 🙂 And amen – T1 or not, you should still eat well.
I think you might enjoy this blog: http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/ – kids aren’t provided with lunches in my country, they bring their own. I think, on the whole (having been a teacher and seeing inside a lunchbox or four), that it works well.
That’s awesome! The kid’s video is fantastic 😀
I agree with Wendy, you should see if you can send the link to Jamie, he’d get a kick out of seeing how his message is getting through 🙂
OK…this is awesome and your kids are HYSTERICAL!!! Love that Colin is such a healthy eater. It sounds like you are doing a great job raising your children to be “food conscious” – I too, HATE hot lunch. Joe and Bridget are only allowed hot lunch once a week. It is usually pizza day –
xoxo
Oh my gosh, your kids are awesome!!!! But you know that already. 🙂
Awesome video!!!! Your kiddo’s rock!
Oh my gosh, that video is awesome! I love that your kids are so into healthy eating!
That was incredible! I love that you even have a sign in the background! I’ve signed the petition and will be following this along the way! We’ve got to start getting healthy food in our schools!
Yay – oh my gosh – that is so great! I have tears in my eyes!! Keep up the healthy habits!!
This video made me cry! I LOVED it! You have amazing kids, and you should be proud of how you’re nurturing them. Way to go!
What a great idea! I love it! Way to go, Lorraine–good job encouraging your kids to DO SOMETHING about creating a Food Revolution. I loved Jamie’s show, too.
The flash mob video is possibly one of the cutest things I have ever seen!! The toy food was FANTASTIC!!! You should be so proud of your awesome kids!
I LOVED this! Your kids made me giggle with delight. In fact, I loved it so much, I included it in my own blog where I write about autoimmunity. http://bit.ly/anlCpg Go Colin! When I see kids like you I feel safer, knowing it will someday be you who is leading our world. 🙂
Wow, how fun! I must categorically disagree with your assessment that your children’s flash mob pales in comparison to Jamie’s. This is the cutest thing ever 🙂
What a beautiful family. Thank you for sharing!
Colin, YOU ROCK, dude!! Keep it up, and eat well!!
From Spain the med food las frontier, we love you all, you aré a great family
Gracias amigos
This is fantastic! I feel much better about the way children in the USA, at least some of them, are thinking about food.
I have worked as a substitute teach in the Long Beach Unified School District and later worked in after school programs. What the students attending Long Beach (CA) schools eat is horrifying to me. The school district provided the snacks for the after school programs, but it was always something packed with sugar and a sugary drink. Right. Then try to make those kids sit down and do their homework.
On top of that, the parents would let their kids bring tons of junk food they used to sneak when they were not supposed to be eating. The parents complained that they kids were hungry again shortly after their snacks and that justified the junk food. I said, okay, then send them some protein and some fruit, but the junk just makes it worse. The parents said oh no, their kids only liked chips, etc. They’re kids! Who’s in charge here, them or the parents?
I did not realize how widespread it was until I saw Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. I was very depressed to see the lack of cooperation he received from some ot the adults. Now I see Colin and his joy of good food. and his whole family, lead by their mom, joining in. it was very, very exciting and elevating to see this blog and watch Colin’s flash mob. Thanks Colin, Caleb, Lila, Lorraine and family.
Just as cool as the original 🙂
Kudos to you all for what you are doing to spread the word about healthy eating. My kids also eat very healthy and enjoyed watching Jamie’s Food Revolution. They loved the flash mob scene. We think your version is very fun too. very creative. I invite you to look at our blog. My 10 yr old son has a few recipes on it that Colin might enjoy cooking too. There is a guacamole recipe that my 6 yr old makes. There are recipes from my healthy kids cooking classes at Whole Foods Markets and the YMCA too. The roll the can ice cream is great with a group of friends. Have fun. http://www.chefsonia.wordpress.com
Just saw Colin’s flash mob. So great! That’s exactly the kind of thing we want to see at our worldwide flash mob event on Halloween this year. I am organizing a worldwide flash mob for healthier kids. Maybe Colin could organize his friends at school? Check out our web site. This is how we change the world…
http://themovement2011.org
Best,
Dave