Feeding your family without breaking your diet!

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mltdown
mltdown Posts: 311 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Ok, so I have the most difficult time coming up with meals for my family that we can all eat together! I am on the south beach diet which is low cal, low carb, low sugar and fat. I have two young children and it is very hard to cook for them and my husband one meal and something else for myself! Any suggestions ? :)

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  • thenebean9
    thenebean9 Posts: 216
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    As a picky eater, i have this issue with my husband quite a bit. He eats everything, and i don't really like a ton of stuff. Perhaps you can do burritos/fajitas/tacos with soft shells. you can eat the stuff without the tortilla, and they can wrap them up and make their own. set up bowls of all the condiments and let the kids have fun making their own tacos. you serve yourself the bits that you need, and it's good for everyone! we've also done make your own pizzas, and a way to make yours low/no carb is to do what i call a crustless pizza. put all your pizza toppings in layers in a small personal sized casserole dish. layer sauce, cheese, toppings until you get to the top and then bake! hope these help you! :D
  • jrich1
    jrich1 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    Thats why I dont like diets, we just eat normal foods that everyone can eat
  • mltdown
    mltdown Posts: 311 Member
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    Thank you very much the pizzas are a great idea! I have done the tacos before but it gets old after a while. Haha
  • DanOhh
    DanOhh Posts: 1,806 Member
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    Thats why I dont like diets, we just eat normal foods that everyone can eat
    Same here eat, I lost my weight eating the same dinners as my family. Just limit the amount that you eat. You don't want to be on diet for the rest of your life?
  • ambercole
    ambercole Posts: 426
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    I eat the same thing for dinner as the rest of my family. (breakfast and lunch are a different story) I just cook healthier than I used to. I make "regular meals" but I just use healthier ingredients like ground turkey instead of ground beef, more green veggies instead of corn and potatoes, things like that. I also give myself smaller portions. Also, my husband doesn't like any kind of seafood and I don't like anything fried so there are some nights that he fixes Chicken fried steak for him and my son and I eat fish. but we have the same side dishes. there is no reason that the rest of my family can't eat healthy along with me.
  • ArmyWife815
    ArmyWife815 Posts: 50
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    I don't have children so I can't speak to the pickiness of children. But as for my husband he enjoys the healthier meals I am preparing and eats them without complaint. I am so fortunate that any time I have tried to lose weight he was willing to eat whatever I had cooked so I could succeed.
  • sweetn3ss
    sweetn3ss Posts: 341 Member
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    I also fix one meal just healthier. I portion out everyones food. For the kids I start them with a half a serving and if they want more then I give them a quarter of a serving and so on.
  • Melaniegibson
    Melaniegibson Posts: 30
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    I agree about being on a regimented diet like a south beach or something. I just weight and measure everything I put on my plate, or i deconstruct what I am making so I can have something similar but my family can still eat meals they love. My husband and son love creamy chicken enchiladas (so do I) but i keep part of the chicken breasts aside and cook them in all the spices, etc without the cream cheese. I eat the breast with with rice and black beans. Theirs is wrapped in a tortilla and has cream cheese. So we eat the same things, just mine looks a bit different. I also do tacos, but I put mine on a bed of lettuce - no tortilla for me. It is just a taco salad, but again I am eating the same meal it just looks different.

    For me I have found that I was just eating too large of an amount and I look a meal up on here before I decide what I will do with a normal family meal we have eaten. Even for pizza - I let myself have papa john but I knew how much I could eat to stay within the
    limits of my intake.

    I love to cook - and my family loves what I make - this is just a healthier version. Most meals i do not re-do - they are eating what I make, it is just a limit on intake!
  • LoriT129
    LoriT129 Posts: 312 Member
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    I agree with the above statements. I eat what my family eats but I cook healthier things. Homemade turkey burgers (NOT the frozen kind) are very versatile and we love them. We have all cut back on the starchy carbs (pasta, potatoes...etc). We drink fat free milk and use the light version of salad dressing. It is a learning process and if you are having a hard time now, you may give up and revert back to the way you were eating before!! Hang with it and learn how to incorporate what you feed your family into your life style change! It will get easier! And let's face it, it doesn't hurt the family to eat lower fat/cal versions of every day food, plus, you are teaching your kids the right way to eat. It's good for everyone! :happy:
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
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    Thats why I dont like diets, we just eat normal foods that everyone can eat
    Same here eat, I lost my weight eating the same dinners as my family. Just limit the amount that you eat. You don't want to be on diet for the rest of your life?

    This is what we do. We measure everything out. Not only that....the kids need to eat healthy too.
  • LittleSpy
    LittleSpy Posts: 6,754 Member
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    Thats why I dont like diets, we just eat normal foods that everyone can eat
    Same here eat, I lost my weight eating the same dinners as my family. Just limit the amount that you eat. You don't want to be on diet for the rest of your life?

    Yup. I cook. My husband eats. Properly prepared healthy food tastes great and he's lost about 25 pounds (and maintained it for about 9-10 months now) without doing anything at all other than eating the healthier food I'm cooking (he was only about 40lbs overweight to begin with).
  • mltdown
    mltdown Posts: 311 Member
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    Thank you everyone for your post it is all very helpful! I do plan on eating what my family eats after I go through the phases once more. My children are 1 and 2 so I find it hard to make something they can eat without it being high starch. My husband isn't very supportive at all he will eat whatever he wants ( deep fat fried) the whole bit so I found it helpful to follow a regiment that way I don't eat what isn't good for me. I was just wondering what people with young children did to keep healthy! It's so hard!
  • Sara2525
    Sara2525 Posts: 50 Member
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    It really isn't that hard. You can still make burgers, just use low fat ground beef or turkey and eat it without the bun with a side of veggies or a salad. Make spaghetti using a spaghetti squash instead of noodles, grill a pork chop or chicken with a side of veggies. I do these things and add on an extra side for my kids like applesauce or manderin oranges. Tacos are a great idea without the shell, etc. You can all eat the same basic main dish, just change yours up a bit if needed.

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