How do you eat healthy when the rest of your family only wants to eat junk?

mtaratoot

When I was growing up, one of my uncles was probably the most nutrition-focused of all the family. He's still practicing dentistry in his 80s, and he's still good at it, and he still is nutrition focused.

I remember being at my grandparents house one time, and one of my cousins said, "I hope uncle xxx doesn't make El Paso." I had no idea what he meant. Cousin said, "You look at it and you say, pass..." It was inevitably a healthy vegetable dish. And it was delicious if you asked me. More like El Diablo - the lost dish of gold!

Tastes change. You can help that happen for the better. Hunger will win; they will get better habits. Feed them well.

Maybe another option is to spread out the cooking; each person gets a night to cook. Then they'll know how hard it is. Oh. Yeah - they have to wash the dishes too because if they are novices, there will be things that get burned on and need lots of elbow grease to clean off. Soon they will appreciate all the healthy repast that magically appears on the table for them to fuel their lives with.

springlering62

If I see snacks, I eat them. So my first step was having my husband keep his snacks elsewhere. They became “his” snacks, his “property”, and because they weren’t in the kitchen or pantry, out of sight, out of mind. Only once did I get into his snacks, when I went to get a hammer and found a bag of Hershey’s minis in the toolbox, lol.

I am also the cook. I realized, he doesn’t really oay attention to what he eats, as long as he gets a lot to eat. So when I began cooking healthier foods, I gave him the lions share.

During this period, I learned to cook without butters or oils, and to make healthier substitutions.

Getting an air fryer made it possibly for us to enjoy virtually fat and oil free French fries together, along with other “grilled” foods.

After three years, and a no so great doctors visit, he began asking me about that “app you use”. I created an account for him and showed him how to copy my meals into his diary, which made his logging easy peasy.

He became invested in the process and now actually likes the healthier meals, and the funky substitutions (red beans over cauliflower rice, “dry” stir fries heavy on veggies with ginger balsamic in leiu of heavy sauces, that kind of thing).

He no longer has to hide snacks from me because he doesn’t keep any in the house now. In fact, I had to gently chide him for buying me some BOGO Christmas candy last week because I knew I would cause me to binge. Which it did. Twice. 🙄

Our youngest was so impressed by our loss, she joined MFP and has also lost weight.

You’ll have the moments, like me, where you go buck wild, but for the most part, if you keep it on an even keel, you might be surprised where the example you create takes the family.