When you are the only Clean Eater........
dballantine17751
Posts: 1 Member
Hello I am new Clean Eating, started 2 weeks ago and have never felt better but also finding it to be very challenging. My husband and daughter want no part of my clean eating so making dinners are challenging as I no longer make the traditional meat, starch, veggie meal...then my co workers think I am just going through a phase....Any thoughts or ideas how to deal with the doubters of your new lifestyle? I do have a friend who has been a clean eater for years and to this day she makes 2 separate meals every night for her family, I really don't want to do this as I also struggle with controlling myself with many of the foods..
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Hi! Its amazing what improvements a good diet can make to your energy and your general well being! If they don't want to eat what you eat and you don't want to eat what they eat there is not very much you can do, but there are a few little tricks. I notice you say "traditional meat, starch, veggie meal". You can make something here which will suit everyone. So use sweet potato as your starch, its a great energy food and tastes amazing. Use lean meat such as chicken, turkey or fish and veg.... well if they eat veg and you eat veg, all is good! I try to eat as clean as possible but if my partner makes a lasagna, I will have some, we usually cook from scratch and if it fits my macro's I am OK with it! If your co-workers aren't being supportive, then that's why we are all here! I find bulk prepping some items really helps. Also you could try tempting the family with some nice clean eating desserts! Maybe have a little talk with those around you explaining how important this is and how much you would appreciate their support?0
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Maybe you can slowly introduce more clean foods into their diets. Use organic whole wheat bread, non gmo foods, less processed overall. If you like to cook, you are ahead of the game because there are lots of clean recipes you can try.0
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My household loves takeaways and I wish I could but my tummy just wont allow it and some things just arent worth the agony. As far as hubby's concerned the shopping hasn't been done unless there is bread and jam in the fridge, and for me, the shopping hasn't been done unless there is bowl of fruit and a bowl of salad veges in the fridge. Funnily enough though, he notices when the fruit's gone (because he's the main one eating them). Slow and steady does it0
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I'm a newbie eating clean! I started today and I'm super motivated
I want that lifestyle and hopefully my family will slowly follow 0 -
I cook separately. I usually cook something for myself on Sundays that I can heat up throught the week because honestly I'm okay with a little monotony. I know it's not for everyone. It saves me time since I cook my husband his own meal. Not to mention it keeps me on track. By the time I get home from the gym I want to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible and if I don't have something quick to heat up it can spell disaster.0
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llbennett74 wrote: »I cook separately. I usually cook something for myself on Sundays that I can heat up throught the week because honestly I'm okay with a little monotony. I know it's not for everyone. It saves me time since I cook my husband his own meal. Not to mention it keeps me on track. By the time I get home from the gym I want to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible and if I don't have something quick to heat up it can spell disaster.
I do the same. I also freeze a lot of my meals so, if I get bored of eating the same thing, I have options.0 -
If my SO doesn't want what I'm making, then he'll just make his own dinner and we'll eat different things together. If he doesn't want to cook that night, then he'll have what I'm making. It has really opened him up to new things. His go to dishes used to always be pasta, bread, and SO MUCH CHEESE (we don't eat meat). Last night, he said to me, "We should have a really good dinner tomorrow. Like a filling dinner, not something quick. Maybe that veggie quinoa stir fry stuff we made last week?" If his parents heard him say that, their jaws would be on the floor.
Another thing that has helped is that we've talked a lot about how important it is to me. He knows that I feel pretty crummy about myself when I'm not watching my weight and eating foods that are good for me. For Christmas, he got me a cook book that has high protein vegetarian meals. He numbered each recipe, and now we draw a number once per week so the cook book decides what we make and we can't say "no" to the recipe. There have been some things that we haven't liked at all, but there have been some we thought we'd hate, and ended up loving!
Again, this is coming from someone who would go weeks without eating vegetables just a year or two ago.
Good luck!0 -
dballantine17751 wrote: »Hello I am new Clean Eating, started 2 weeks ago and have never felt better but also finding it to be very challenging. My husband and daughter want no part of my clean eating so making dinners are challenging as I no longer make the traditional meat, starch, veggie meal...then my co workers think I am just going through a phase....Any thoughts or ideas how to deal with the doubters of your new lifestyle? I do have a friend who has been a clean eater for years and to this day she makes 2 separate meals every night for her family, I really don't want to do this as I also struggle with controlling myself with many of the foods..
In their defence, almost always, this is a phase. Yes, it's annoying to be feeling undermined, but it will pass. As you keep going with this, people will get used to seeing you eat this way.
As for your family not wanting to participate, I'm sorry you have the added challenge of lack of support at home. What I said above, and also, it is still possible to make clean protein, starch and veggie dinners. If it's really important to you, maybe as a family you can strike a deal where one day a week you eat what they want and one day a week they eat what you want?
Lifestyle changes take time for everyone. If it's important to you, you'll figure it out.
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My sister, who likes to cook much more than I, typically makes three dinners-one for herself, one for her husband who is on a no salt diet, and one batch for their three kids. Me? I' learning to cook healthy foods for my self, and my son is going along.0
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I feel your pain!! I'm so worried about my partners eating. But anything that is deemed healthy he won't touch!0
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I cook for myself, my hubbie, and 3 middle aged kids. What really helps me is making a large portion of something and then varying what I put underneath it. Tomorrow I am making a big pot of spaghetti sauce. Organic beef, onions, garlic, seasonings, cans of no sugar added tomato sauce. Then I will make the noodles on the side as well as steam a couple heads of cauliflower. They will eat some of the vegetables, but I will put 1/2 to 1 head of cauliflower under the meat sauce for myself, while they enjoy their noodles.
I made a big batch of chicken noodle soup last week. I took out 1/4 of the veggies and put them separate in the crock pot and made my own version without the egg noodles.
Chili- make a healthy pot of chili and warm up a yam or sweet potato to go under yours, while they can have corn bread, cheese, etc...
Grill, Bake, cook 3-4 pounds of chicken on the weekend and use it for meals.
This way you are only cooking once but it works for everyone.
This is at least what works for me, and my family gets to advantage of having a good portion of their food have a healthy base.
PS. Don't tell them it is super healthy chili, just call if by the regular names and they won't think twice.0 -
For me this is a matter of whose problem is this anyway? If one has been granted the title of family cook, then the recipients should rejoice they are so well loved. Cooking is a lot of work. Parents with dependent children are of course obligated to feed them.
Picky eaters can be rehabilitated and s l o w l y be brought around. Everything you teach them they will remember and you will be laying the foundation for healthier eating perhaps later in their life. Stay the course.
If they make a huge revolt over this ... teach them to cook for each other. We have two older sons who would not eat my clean food, at first. Now that meal that lasted me a week is gone overnight.
As for DH who requires a separate meal ... indentured servitude for women went out in the 60's thanks to Gloria Steinem. Time for them to learn to cook, too. It only takes a few days of no separate meals before they start to fend for themselves. Once they have gratitude for your past service to them, they may become much more open minded ... or not.
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Super post, NOTREADYTOQUIT!
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Have you seen the website 100daysofrealfood.com. She has a lot of great ideas for families and some great recipes too. I love to cook. I'm dating a guy who's not really into the whole food thing and I've been eating this way for almost 2 years. Its getting really annoying trying please both myself and him, so much so that I'm beginning to wonder if dating him is worth it because I'm tired of trying to improvise. To make matters worse, my nephew moved in with me and is all into whole food eating so I know what a joy it is to have someone love my 'food' lifestyle.0
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I am having the same problem...
and we cannot afford to double meals ... so i have kinda given up. it's two against me. and they like white everything!! ugh white rice which i hate, white bread, white pasta. I am stuck!! 0 -
I cook 3 separate meals in my household. I don't mind keeps me on my feet and allows me to be in total control of what I'm consuming. My husband is skinny as heck and doesn't clean eat. Initially everyone questioned how long I could eat the way I do, now everyone just accepts thats what I do. It took a long time and me going to dinner parties with my weighing scale for people to realize how committed I was LOL. People often cook me a healthier option when I go to theirs too which I always accept very graciously!!!0
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I am very adamant about what I eat and won't eat. That is hard for some people. But if they want to eat a lot of stuff that I don't eat any more that is fine. I just tell them to hide the tempting things.
One thing for sure is that it is worth it!0 -
Clean eating, usually requires no wrappers or packaging. It's in its own package. My hubby is the typical eater/shopper pushing the shopping cart up and down every aisle. When we first enter the store, I just say, "I'll meet you at the produce."0
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I agree - Super post, NOTREADYTOQUIT! 0
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in time my family started to eat my (whole) food. it happend just when i stopped pushing them.. whole pasta taste good, they dont like whole bread but tortia is ok. fruits taste good.. stopped buying cornflaks so they had to eat something else.
the start is not easy.
good luck:-)0 -
They eat what I cook & what I eat. Lately protein + veggies + salad. I cut out bread, potatoes, rice & pasta. I don't buy it or prepare it. Didn't ask them.....I do the cooking, so tough! Lol0
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It can definitely be hard at first. For my kids, they are younger (5 and 8) so they are welcome to pitch a fit about meals, but they can either choose to eat it, or wait until the next meal. I make sure they like at least one part of the meal, so they can just eat a lot of that if they choose, or choose to pick stuff out. I don't battle them, its very matter of fact: this is what is for dinner, either join us and be polite, or excuse yourself. My H backs me up with lots of "mommy worked hard to make this dinner, lets use our good manners and thank her even if it isn't our favorite". And they can go make themselves peanut butter bread (always whole wheat, lol!) if they want.
Luckily my H is on the same page as me, I think it is much harder to negotiate with spouses, because you are in fact negotiating, not dictating like with kids. With my H, even though we both like to eat clean, we just have some different dietary needs, so we do cook 2 things sometimes. Typically I do what a lot of others have suggested. I either make a big meal for me one day, and eat leftovers the next, and then on that day make a big thing for H, and he eats leftovers the next, etc. Or, I make meals that can have easy inexpensive variations. I make tacos, and people can either have tacos, taco salad, and they can put whatever toppings they want on. I make make stir fry, and people can pick out whatever parts they want, put on rice or not, etc.
We also make big batches of soups and stews, and freeze in freezer safe wide mouth pint canning jars. They are the perfect portion for one person. Either H or I can grab a kind we like and have it as a lunch or dinner, adding a piece of fruit to make a complete meal.0 -
I like that idea suzan06. The jars don't break?0
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My family loves my meals. I make an organic chicken Alfredo and they just gobble it up. I also make organic cheesecake on rare occasions and they love that also. With all of my old recipes I just changed them into organic by using organic ingredients, so the adjustment for them was easy. My husband yesterday made cake (not organic) the kids and him loved it but I didn't eat any of it. We tend to use the slow cooker a lot. My family knows that if they don't eat what I cook then they can make their own meal.0
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I also make 2 or sometimes three meals. A lot of times my SO cooks for himself. He doesn't eat fruit and only a couple vegetables. He works a different shift so we don't eat at the same time most of the time anyways. Sometimes my daughter will eat what I am eating and sometimes not. It's not a big deal to me unless she doesn't eat it after I have gone and made a separate meal. I don't believe in forcing people to eat what they don't like or think they don't like. I was forced when I was a kid and it traumatized me for life. I will never treat anyone like that.0
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Notreadytoquit wrote: »I like that idea suzan06. The jars don't break?
Wide mouth pints and all jelly/jam jars are freezer safe. And since it is glass, you can just microwave in the jar (take the metal lid off first of course!) and eat right out of it. So easy for lunches.
The narrow mouth pints and quarts can be frozen with stuff like berries, green beans, etc- basically stuff with lots of air, but not with liquids.0 -
I started with cutting out processed foods, so if the kids really wanted say, chicken fingers I made them from scratch same with mac and cheese etc, I started to add more veggies and fruits. We also had a toss salad with every dinner, until the kids started eating more veggies. They are not big on salad (I love them) We do not keep, chips, chocolate, cookies etc in the house anymore. If something like that is wanted, they must walk to the store to get it and eat it on the way back. Clean eating can mean different things to different people, for us it means staying away from processed foods, we try to eat whole fresh foods as much a possible. Hope that helps.0
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you say you don't make the traditional meat,starch, veg meal anymore .... am I being dumb or is meat, potato and veg not the perfect 'clean' meal??
My kids grew up eating an almost clean diet, that's not to say they didn't have treats, sweets, fizzy drinks etc but they where a treat and not an every day occurrence.
Turning the family to a 'cleaner' way of life doesn't need to be difficult, most meals can be adapted. Tonight for example I did a spaghetti bolognaise ... the bolognaise portion is all cooked from scratch, veg, meat all clean. The kids/hubby had their portion with Pasta as usual, I had my portion with butternut squash spaghetti.
We all enjoyed the meal, I dare say the kids don't concider it 'mum's crazy health food' and I stuck to my diet. all in all it took 1 extra pan of washing up and a few extra mins to prep the butternut.
Same thing if the kids hubby want ... pie and chips or fishfingers ... most things can all go in the oven at the same temperature. it's not really a hardship to stick a salmon fillet in next to my husbands pie. Then I do oven chips for the family and slice up a sweetpotato for me shove them on the same tray.
The 'trick' is to cook the same things as you would usually, but slowly improve the quality and the family need not notice.
'Clean' doesn't mean freaky you may be over thinking it. if it's hard your doing it wrong.0 -
I can relate. I have just started clean eating. My husband has always been meat, potatoes and processed foods as well as junk food. Well I went shopping today and I did not buy any junk! lol I told him he either joined me and I would modify it some for him so he didn't have to feel completely deprived or he was going to have to go shopping and double our food bill because I was done feeling sick all the time and I have MS. So far today he was cooperative lol. I made a large green leafy salad for dinner (2 c. greens) for each of us. I grilled a 8 oz steak and divided it between us so we each had 4 oz. and I added cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, almonds, feta cheese and a little fresh jalepeno to mine and he added just the cucumbers and feta to his. I only gave him 2 TBS. of low fat dressing (blue cheese for him cause he hates dressings...lol) and I had a balsamic vinegar on mine. He also had 1 c. of low fat cottage cheese. Well he didn't complain and actually said he was full which is surprising because he usually eats enough for 2 people. He was even motivated to get on the treadmill after he saw me doing it. Hopefully he will stay motivated If I am. As for my son, I told him he is on his own for food. He either eats what I am making or he can buy his own since he is 22. I also made some overnight oatmeal that he can grab in the morning and hard boiled eggs if he needed them. I pre planned tomorrows meal which he will like as it is Pork Tenderloin grilled with brown rice and a vegetable. I am having squash, and I am sure I won't be able to get him to eat that so I have green beans for him. Its just a matter of substituting some foods but I refuse to make 2 dinners.0
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My husband is an adventurous eater as well as more than happy to eat anything I put in front of him. He could lose 20 pounds (30?), so he totally sees the benefits of eating the clean, vegetarian meals I make. The few foods he requests are healthy (recently it was mushroom brown rice soup with broccolini). But he will order burgers out at restaurants. One or two of his "junky" meals a week fine with me. I'm so lucky he's such an agreeable mate!0
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