Staying motivated when family not on board

JasonJoyHedenskog

Losing weight is hard when everyone else around you is not on board to lose weight/eat healthy. I find myself at fast food joints more often than not and have to pick something halfway healthy. Does anyone else have this struggle?

DivaDreamer77

I do too. What I try to do in those situations is cut the carbs where I can, like order a burger with no bun, or Mexican veggie fajitas without the free sides (rice/beans/chips).

My family loves to eat out all the time.

Shortgirlrunning

Can you choose to just not go to the fast food places and just stay home and make something instead?

rheddmobile

I put my foot down. My family doesn’t go to places I don’t want to eat when I am present. I do run three times a week, and after a run will sometimes go out for a burger, but it’s a good burger at a place I enjoy, not something from a fast food place. I don’t have calories to waste eating something less than delicious, and I sure don’t want to waste calories eating a sad salad from McDonald’s.

Now, I don’t have children, so I have fewer people to argue with. But it seems to me that eating decent home cooked meals is even more critical for families with children, for social reasons as well as health. And that the way to do that is first of all to cook and sit down and eat, and second that people not old enough to pay for their own food don’t get a say in where they eat. I can’t imagine my parents or grandparents doing anything but laughing if I had demanded fast food as a child.

JasonJoyHedenskog

Well I don’t let my kids rule me or the meals I prepare. But we have ate so unhealthy in the past and my husband has a bad habit of fast food and bringing snacks in the house. It takes two to enforce rules if you all live under the same roof.

Shortgirlrunning

I think the best you can do is plan healthy home cooked meals for yourself and whoever else will eat them. If your husband is going to eat unhealthy that’s his choice, but you don’t have to eat the same things.

XLNC1981

Ya darn right we do... lol

Only today, my missus n kids picked up some papa johns 🍕 on the way back from shopping!! I was like hi guys and then ‘WTF guys’..

I mean,my 55hitt literally fell through the ground and I almost got involved in the action but somehow I just didn’t.

The fact is... it’s plain hard and ugly but deep down, I didn’t wanna be in the position where I’m compensating tomorrow plus the slices took up some serious calories.

Moral of the story, you are deffo not aloneis this fight!! We all fighting alongside one another...🤛🏽🤛🏽😮

rheddmobile

JasonJoyHedenskog wrote: »

Well I don’t let my kids rule me or the meals I prepare. But we have ate so unhealthy in the past and my husband has a bad habit of fast food and bringing snacks in the house. It takes two to enforce rules if you all live under the same roof.

Then all you can do is get him on the same page you’re on. I told my husband that eating well and keeping my blood sugar and weight under control was a matter of life and death to me (which it is - I’m a type 2 diabetic) and that anyone who wanted me to die was my enemy and not someone I wanted to keep living with. He agreed, and to give him credit he has acted admirably since that time. His snacks go in his cabinet and I don’t look at them. Only once or twice have I even had to remind him of something, like, “Please don’t eat dessert in front of me when we’re watching TV together.” As a result, not only am I healthy weight and maintaining for two years now, but he also lost 30 lbs.

I don’t know where you are in your own weight loss journey, and your situation may not be as dire as mine, but in the end eating well instead of poorly means a lower risk of all kinds of life-shortening illnesses, and a much higher quality of life in whatever time you have. And I think most people would agree that someone who loves you should want to see you succeed, not fail, whatever you set out to do. You and your husband are the only ones who can work out what you want your relationship to be like. But you don’t have to put your needs second, you have the right to a home which is a place of rest and relaxation, not a place of temptation and stress.

jasamjak67

JasonJoyHedenskog wrote: »

Losing weight is hard when everyone else around you is not on board to lose weight/eat healthy. I find myself at fast food joints more often than not and have to pick something halfway healthy. Does anyone else have this struggle?

I'm on week two of no fast food and I have lost 5 pounds! I dont feel bloated and gassy and I dont miss it. Sorry TMI @JasonJoyHedenskog

Believe me...I love Big Macs and Taco Bell but I'm really serious in getting more healthy food intake.

You can do this...do it for that little person in your picture! 🙌🤗💗

Cheers!
Donnie

long_for_me

In the end, no one can force feed you food that you do not want to eat. I used to think that if my husband brings unhealthy food into the house, it tempts me and I have given in a few times. Until I relised that this is an excuse. Food is everyehere. It is my choice what and when to eat.

thinmarjo

You have to find your own sense of self in this. Honestly, it is hard and it takes being in a discomfort at times. Believe me I know but as I have lost weight and kept my solidarity, my husband started to change after several months. He wound up losing 50lbs and is now a skinny dude. I made the bedroom a place where he had to stop snacking at night. It's a fruit and water only zone. It took months but that's what he does now and he likes it.
No more cookies, piles of cheese and crackers etc...he fought it hard but I was unmoved.

JRsLateInLifeMom

So true Hubby has less willpower is on a diet. Open fridge there it is! Got a 2yr old who a picky eater with a sensitive tummy so limited for him for a year now but luckily with age he’s able to handle more so switching stuff slowly on him. Wants a cookie 🍪...here’s a high fiber version.

My Daughter visits from the Navy only gets a short week every time (sometimes you only get 1 visit a year). Those without college age Military personal don’t get it! Trapped on a ship at sea 🌊 then tadaaaa a week of freedom! She said this time mom y her at a spa 🧖‍♀️ 🧖‍♀️ be my first ever. She wants brother time (20yr old y a 2yr old) she’s afraid he won’t remember her so took a military course on how to bond with babies y toddlers when deployed y shore leave. So McDonald’s y Chuckie cheese 🧀 maybe a kids play center. Starbucks to restaurants with family members not too many at a time as not to overwhelm my 2yr old or her. Foods on her diet y restaurants a plenty with a late Christmas 🎄 (January). Shopping to site seeing which means lots of car traffic.

Baby Dieticians put him on a different meal plan than me. Hubby Doctor has him on a different plan they both of us. My plan has to be separate or mingle with theirs time to time (lucky to shave my arm pits to read a email)
,Daughter a Pescatarian who on the move when visiting! (You’d think we’ll your walking a lot of age visits...ummm yeah but some restaurants bam 💥 lots of calories so more evening out or leaning wrong way if don’t pre-plan it all + in a big city that’s health codes DO NOT allow outside foods in restaurants here it’s a health code violation) .

Just do your best from a Walmart sack with foods for you to munch while driving or at a park ect or waiting in a school pickup line before driving to 20 different school events (even Buisness men who travel 🧳 get bossed around less by their employers than kids do with schools!) . Feels like theirs always a class they have to attend or fail half way across town or a bad hour for all! Hubby didn’t understand luckily got pregnant put on bedrest leaving him in charge of teen schedules he found out very quickly after principal y teacher meetings threats of court ,cause he thought she didn’t need to go to something cause it sounded like a pizza party not school. After that dropped her off at Golden Corral for JROTC meetings to a special needs Olympics game to serve drinks then to a huge play arena dressed as the Joker on Halloween day to pass out candy for special needs so no school trouble. After hearing the description you would think pizza party too! Not school but it was that’s school in our city. So he found himself like me no time to go home at a drive through because school kept her an extra hour in classes. Driving to event after event back to school for an event then back to a stadium across town! She was already in the Navy so add those events by then lol punishment jail or a dishonorable discharge.
Learning still myself easier when it’s somewhere I know.

1. Fries 🍟 are the most calories at McDonald’s!!! Skip them!
2. Drinks skip sodas get water or if can unsweetened tea bring sweetnlow packets with you Incase they don’t have any.
3. Research menus
4. Chicken better than the hamburger 🍔 at most skip cheese 🧀 it’s the fake stuff anyways less healthy high sodium 🧂.
5. A bag of stuff on the car if your eating out of a Tupperware full of carrots 🥕 to apples 🍎 or even broccoli 🥦 you need less of its a drive through or by the time you get there (if possible if out all day helps with a meal at least)
6. Exercise a lot I walk indoors so around the kitchen to living room then to the pantry or washing machine. I put up 1 shirt at a time from laundry room to closets so I get more steps in.

When can home cook lean meals! Substitute bbq sauce with 10cal G Hughes. Waldens dressing (Ranch flavor failed a few others are great so far taste test till you find yours),Gatorade zero, sugar free fudge pops to ice cream phase out the buckets of what they use. Special K even got dark chocolate one phase out kid cereals where you can... if you can if not good for you!, more veggies to lower calorie baked chips Ect slowly without them realizing it phase it out so partner slowly slides into your court since he sounds like mine a bucking bronco! My Hubby has lost a lot y me 43lbs gone so far but finding ways researching everything watching measurements to scales if it’s not going in the right direction remove what Isn’t working do something else! I found eating certain foods I go up others down even when it makes no sense so I stick to chicken grilled at restaurants to veggies y healthiest low cal y half the plate (doggie bag time take rest home for another meal or kids or hubby to munch on).

Do your best it’s all we got. Hubby has come along way we eat out less y he comes home with less calories healthier stuff now than before. So still more to go but getting there . Toddler cookies being replaced with teddy grahams now so a lot will be gone! Chips replaced with Cheetos y baked Cheetos y lowest cal tortilla chips (go by serving size y calories to determine the actual calories per chip! Or cookie! Or piece of chicken! Or fish!) , Sugarfree jellos you puddings to almond y cashew mills!, even got hubby on Decaf coffee now his idea I backed it before he could change his mind.

seltzermint555

JasonJoyHedenskog wrote: »

Well I don’t let my kids rule me or the meals I prepare. But we have ate so unhealthy in the past and my husband has a bad habit of fast food and bringing snacks in the house. It takes two to enforce rules if you all live under the same roof.

I haven't experienced this myself because I don't have kids but from watching a lot of my friends (who are moms) I think it sounds like you are on the right track. Either skip the fast food or order something small like a taco, small burger, etc, and then eat veggies and other healthy stuff later on at home to fill out your calories as needed.

In the past I was married to a guy who ate very unhealthy and our main activity was going out to eat at all types of restaurants (fast food to nicer places). I'm now remarried to a man who is much more focused on healthy eating and I won't lie, it's a LOT easier. But I think one thing that really helps both my diet and budget is limiting the amount of times I eat out. Is it possible that even with your family/kids you could do this somewhat? For example, only grab fast food on Saturdays and/or when you have an event that is not close to home...and other days start making it your priority and habit to eat meals made at home? I know this might not work depending on logistics and how chaotic your schedule may be! But it helps me a lot.

ClearNotCloudyMind

I’m in a similar position OP. My family are all slim, healthy and active which means they ravenously eat anything anytime. Having been rather sedentary since a health thing a few years back, I feel weird not joining in (so gained a load of weight). Plus I like food!

My recent brainwave has been to log my day’s eating in advance. Somehow it’s easier to stick to a plan if I know I’d have to open MFP up again and add extra calories in to my day. Still in the early days of watching my food but seems to be working so far...

Best of luck to you!

JRsLateInLifeMom

Hubby y me take turns grocery shopping 🛒. Toddler with gigantism (for those who are unaware what that is picture Shaq or Andre the Giant or Guinness book of world records tallest man alive) so he doesn’t fit in the front of the basket leg holes or buckles, strollers can’t hold his weight or size disability ones are $1,000 US dollars 💵 ranges, front of the basket yikes 😬 😱 😳 with a 2yr old???? Nope 👎 so Hubby y me take turns going mainly Hubby goes. So if what’s on the list isn’t available he doesn’t know what to grab you get what you get try struggle you work it out! Sometimes he gets something better