Food, glorious food

ONE of the many headaches of parenthood is food, specifically getting your children to eat healthily.

It's not always easy. Children seem to have an inbuilt aversion to things that are good for them, while at the same time being drawn to food that you would, in an ideal world, prefer them to steer clear of.

Harry isn't too bad on the eating front, although he will no longer drink any milk (unless it's on cereal), and he has recently developed a dislike for most things green (peas and grapes being the notable exceptions).

He will, though, eat carrots, most meat and fish, as well as apples, bananas and pears, not to mention mountains of mashed potato. Then there are yoghurts and cheese – Harry would quite happily eat these all day, every day given half a chance.

When he's poorly, though, food can become a real battleground. In fact, when he was ill a couple of weeks ago, we were trying everything to get him eating – and the only successes were yoghurts and cheese.

The there's chocolate. Now Harry may take after me when it comes to his fondness for cheese, but he's definitely his mum's son when it comes to chocolate. Honestly, his appetite for it is incredible – even when he's not well. As well as being unhealthy, it's also particularly messy; trying to keep Harry presentable when he's given a chocolate bar is a real mission impossible.

Strangely enough, though, he hasn't inherited his mum's love of sweets generally. In fact, he will spit out any type of sweet that's not got chocolate on it. I suppose we should be thankful for small mercies.

Healthy living... you can keep it thanks

Two of my colleagues in work are currently on a healthy living mission. Quite frankly, it's depressing.

Since January 1, the two of them have been engaged in a challenge to lose weight and get fit. What's worse, they've set targets - one is aiming to lose a stone in a month, the other two stone.

As a result, they've eaten nothing but baked potatoes and fruit, and they've talked about nothing but exercise and calories. And they're not alone - almost everybody I talk to seems to be trying to get healthy at the moment.

This is all very worthy and we've all seen those adverts telling us that we're all doomed because we just sit in front of the television and eat takeaways.

But why January? I know it's the beginning of a new year and we're all feeling a little guilty about the number of mince pies we ate over Christmas, but January's already the most miserable month of the year - it's cold and dark, the festivities are behind you for another year and spring is still a long way off.

So why make it even more miserable by tiring yourself out with exercise and cutting down on unhealthy and, let's face it, good food. There's plenty of time for salad when the summer arrives...