An area of my life that I have been working on for many years is my relationship with food and nutrition. I really enjoy the sweeter things in life and at some points this enjoyment has been at the expense of my overall health and wellness.
One of the major goals I had when we started a family was to be able to teach our kids the hard fought lessons that I have embodied in my adult years.
For me, those lessons are based around a good understanding of the sort of foods we need to eat in order to nourish our bodies. But more importantly, that a balanced approach to eating will give you the tools to navigate life and everything it throws at you as you move from having your food choices made for you as a child to making them on your own as an adult.
Food is meant to be enjoyed and should never be demonised or have negative connotations surrounding it.
By teaching our kids about good nutrition when they are young and impressionable and then leading by example on a daily basis in the home, our kids will have a reference point, a grounding or beacon that they can return to over and over again as they begin to make their own food choices outside the home.
In fact, one of the defining moments at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, was when I went to the supermarket in search of a healthy frozen treat that I could share with my family. At this point back in 2010, the ‘better for you’ section in the freezer was virtually non-existent and anything that was available was jammed full of sugar and had absolutely no real nutritional benefits.
This ‘white space’ is what led us to create our 4 Health Star rated Frozen Yoghurt that is now sold in 5,000 school canteens across the country. A product that tastes great, is packed full of goodness and real ingredients that can be enjoyed as an occasional treat by Australian families across the country. Balance.
We have continued in this vein in more recent times by creating our 99% Sugar Free ice cream stick called LICKS. This product has been incredibly well received by the market and the feedback we are getting directly from our customers is that people cannot actually believe how amazing a product can taste without any sugar.
This reaction is absolutely at the heart of what we do here at Twisted and it also speaks to the heart of how I am trying to raise my kids. We must continue to question the status quo and continue to ask ourselves in our personal lives and well as our professional lives if we can do better.
Is it possible to create a better product than what is currently on the market? Is it possible to wake up in the morning and do better than the day before? The answer we have found is usually ‘YES’.