Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I always say I want to see my kids grow old. I look forward
to being here for them.
My baby is 3. They're 3, 4, and 5--and the oldest is 7.
They make me have ambition and to do other things.
If I can start them off right, then they'll end up right.
My family is a really large family, and they really, really, really love to eat.
When I was little we had a lot of friend chicken, friend pork chops,
even fried steak! And everything had sugar.
So it was a big damper on health.
My mom has diabetes, my grandmother has diabetes, my other grandmother was a diabetic,
my mom's mom--she was not that old at all, maybe 61.
She had just retired, she just went and bought her dream house and got into retirement and she didn't even get a chance to stay in her house.
To see her get sick all of a sudden and to see her just deteriorate all of a sudden--I just never accept that
she was getting sick. I was like, she'll be home soon! She'll be home soon. But she never came back home.
--Mama, why are you crying?
We're talking about Grandma Olivia--I'm okay! Just a story about Nana, and Grandma Olivia.
My kids--I want to try my best to try and change some things with them.
You have the option--you can control what you put into your body.
I would tell mothers to involve their kids in the planning, involve them in shopping,
involve them in the cooking; they will eat what they cook. They'll at least try it!
Try to find other ways to make things; you know, you take something that's bad
and change the way you make it. We have one thing that we make, which is fried rice,
but we use brown rice to do it now, instead of the white rice.
So it's really something that we eat on a regular basis, but we made it a little healthier.
For example, spaghetti. Ground beef or ground turkey?
I also add vegetables to my spaghetti. And you can also hide stuff in food, too!
My oldest daughter does not like peas, but she likes tuna casserole!
Well, guess what? Peas are in tuna casserole!
If they say no the first time, try it again. Try it again.
Try it again in a different way or you could just try it again period. Because kids, they come around.
The things that are preventable--the diabetes, the heart disease--to stop it right now, to just say
no to it; that's a great feeling.
And as sad as it is--when the Lord took my grandmother and grandfather, I think it helped me too. It helped me wake up.
You know, I wish I could see them again, but I'm glad in a way, because it made me say, "You know what?
Uh uh. No." I can identify the problem, and I can prevent the problem.
Be ambition enough to see your own child grow old.