With regard to your son - he's the kid, you're the adult. If he doesn't like it, tough. It's a good time to teach him about eating healthily.

With regard to your husband - well, the "tough love" part of me says that he's a big boy and if he wants the other stuff, he can get them on his own, either through grocery shopping, or by eating them for lunch or something and keeping it at work. The other part of me says be patient and keep the paleo stuff in the house. He'll likely come around, at his own pace (at least partially). Encourage him to try new things and look for substitutes to his old standby foods. My husband started out as a "I don't eat no rabbit food, pass the spaghetti" type of person, and now, one of his favorite dishes is spaghetti squash.

That said, quinoa can technically be part of a paleo diet ( http://ultimatepaleoguide.com/is-quinoa-paleo-a-deep-dive/ ), as are white rice and white potatoes, and sweet potatoes aren't the only paleo-friendly carbs around. Squash is a wonderful source of carbs and nutrients galore. The aforementioned spaghetti squash is an awesome replacement for grain spaghetti, and it's pretty much not possible to cook it wrong. Other squashes are also an option. And, of course, lots and lots of fruit.

In other words, Paleo does not necessarily equate to low carb.

Also, since your diary is closed, what kinds of foods are you making for the family? I know very few guys (who aren't veg*n) who don't like a good steak and potatoes meal. Make sure you're making foods that they'd like, and you'll have an easier time with them.

As for your own tendencies - there are a couple of things you can do (ideally, probably both):

1. Realize that temptation is going to be everywhere. When you see a very-much non-Paleo food, tell yourself that you don't really want it, and it's not as good as your brain is saying it should be (because it's probably not). Do not think "I can't have." Instead, think "I don't want." By turning it into a choice, you're more likely to follow through.

2. Ask your family to keep the junk away until you are better equipped to handle having it around and not eating it.

You say you don't have any food sensitivities, but I contend that you do. Your story about the Dots, and about the quinoa, suggests that you're still hooked on carbs. You basically mindlessly ate half a box of Dots and 2 cups or more of quinoa. That pretty clearly shows that something is going on. Could be candida, could be unbalanced gut flora, could be old-fashioned sugar addiction. Either way, the best thing to do is not eat that kind of stuff at all for at least a month, so that you can kick the addiction for good.

My fiance is not a paleo/primal eater, but when I cook, I cook what I can eat. She's found she enjoys it. More and more, she's asking me what and how to cook (she's seeing the change in my body composition). She's about to go into surgery and I'll be doing all of the shopping and cooking for us for the next few weeks. I told her I'd be buying primarily paleo/primal foods (but I'm sure I'll slip in a few treats for her).

The only way this has worked for me is that my wife and I are both eating/cooking Primal. We still cook a starch for the kids, but it is potatoes or rice, not any sort of processed starches with wheat in them. That way we get them off the gluten and processed starch addiction and rice/potatoes is much more neutral than wheat based starches, per Dave Asprey and Mark Sisson. Since are Primal eaters, not Paleo, not as big a deal.

My wife and I keep each other honest. When I see her plate just has meat, veggies and a small portion of fruit on it, I can't easily add rice or potatoes cause then I'm not living up to our agreement to do this together. She is the same way. I don't think either of us could do this if we weren't supported by the other.

The other thing is that we focus on an 80/20 rule. This is very important, in my opinion. If you try to be absolutely perfect, you will end up failing spectacularly, in my opinion. On the other hand, if you hit 80% goodness on a weekly basis, I think you will be very successful in the long haul. And the tendency to have a spectacular wipe out (a la half a bag of gummy dots) is much less likely.

My advice from my own experience can be summed up like this:

- your spouse has to be supportive, even if they don't do it themselves. Get him on board and supporting and helping you.
- you have to allow yourself to be a little less than perfect or you will end up dramatically failing.
- avoid cooking starches from a box.

my fiance does not eat paleo, and i cook our dinners, which is tough. i am doing the whole30 right now, which has a zero tolerance policy for foods not on the program. that mindset and the fact that it is a 30 day challenge really, really helped me put things in perspective and stop stealing bites of my fiance's non-paleo food.

even after my whole30, i plan to continue a zero tolerance policy for tasting non-paleo stuff. once i taste something, it's a slippery slope, especially with refined carbs and chocolate.

maybe something along those lines would help.

100% this. I'm on day 31 (month of July) of my Whole 30 and I only plan on adding raw milk cheese, red wine, dark (I personally prefer 90%) chocolate, and paleo-baked goods into my diet.

There are 4 people living in my household and since I do the majority of the cooking I cook what I can eat, but I will add a extra starch for them from time to time. I will not cook separate meals for them and if they don't like what I'm fixing then they can make something else!!!!

I'm doing this for my health!!!! And I know it's working and even the two 20 y.o. are starting to love eating this way. They are not there yet, but I can definitely see a change in their eating habits.


Good luck,
Anita

I agree with this100% ^ My sons are grown *kitten* men. If their going to eat my food, they're welcome. I started to "conveniently forget" to pop in some Pillsbury biscuits (or buy them even!) Ditto pasta and rice. They know better than to b*tch too much.

My problem is one of the members of my household isn't family - an au pair. and she can't live without potatoes. Crazy as this sounds she has been with us for nigh on 3 months and I have had to give her notice as I just can't keep buying her the junk I so desperately want out of my own house.

I occationally cook rice for the kids but until she arrived we hadn't had potatoes for months and now if I cook them everyone wants them. And I am no angel and sometimes have a few. Its a slippery slope. I need to be all or nothing and I realise things are creeping in and I just don't want that so for all our sakes she is leaving.

Such a shame as the kids love her.

Oh well.

This time we will definitely be looking for a primal/paleo au pair... anyone know one?

Just wanted to add nd say, I know your pain! Part of the reason why I finally left my son's dad was because I was tired of dealing with eating issues. My son's dad would get fast food every @#(*$&( day and bring it back home. Needless to say it made it pretty hard to get my kid to eat healthy stuff. His dad would give him fries and such since he had a hard time saying no to him then. Before that mess my son would eat anything I cooked. After that, nope. He is very strong willed (runs in the family on both sides.. ha) and he would starve himself if I did the, "eat dinner only," thing. That or he'd eat so little I'd worry about malnutrition (he can go a while without food even when it's stuff he likes). So, he has finger food options. Some nights I do make two different things. Our tastes in food differ a lot. There is only two of us though, so it's not like I'll end up cooking a buffet to keep 4 kids happy.

I decided to skip the food battles, but to help me get, "my way," I don't buy very much snack food. So his choices are cheese, carrots, olives, fruit, yogurt, stuff like that. He's not eating durritos or anything of that nature. I do make him taste stuff he's never had before and I make sure he eats some protien, vegi, etc.

My family is non primal. I don't have too much trouble They will eat the meat I cook. They're not much into veggies so I will fix them a starch and myself the veggies and/or salad I like. When I add yummy things like blue cheese and bacon to my salad and butter to my veggies I really don't miss the starch. I also make meat sauce they eat over noodles and I eat over spaghetti squash or chili and separate out some for me before I add the beans to theirs. When they have tacos I put all the taco stuff on salad. It really works pretty well. Again I add guacamole and some sour cream to my salad to make it extra yummy. In fact I'm making enchiladas for them this week but I will cook the filling in a zucchini boat for me and have it with broccoli slaw which my husband also likes and some kind of beans for them.

Nice adaptations!

I did cook a separate meal one day this week, but only because my family can eat chili and loves it, and I can't do tomatoes at present. It kept them fed for two days (chili always tastes better the second day so I always make a double batch) and I just made something else fairly simple for myself.

My family is hard to cook for, but we manage to almost always have just one meal. Everyone just eats the parts that they like/can have. Between the 5 of us there are intolerances/allergies to: gluten, corn, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, dairy and shellfish. Between my 3 kids there is refusal to eat veggies, rice, potatoes and meat. (They all accept different things. Only 1 won't eat veggies) and I have both celiac and Crohn's disease, which means no matter what I eat, it hurts, and there are lots of "trigger foods" Oats and gluten never ever enter my body. And my son, 3, has major digestive issues.

Luckily everyone is pretty happy with meat, a veggie and a fruit. Sometimes we add rice crackers to the kids plates. My husband will eat anything and the kids always eat at least part of the meal. The only night I really cook 2 meals is pasta night because I just can't do it. I make both regular pasta for my husband and daughter that can have it, rice pasta for the other two kids, and I find myself something else, rice kills my stomach.

My family is hard to cook for, but we manage to almost always have just one meal. Everyone just eats the parts that they like/can have. Between the 5 of us there are intolerances/allergies to: gluten, corn, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, dairy and shellfish. Between my 3 kids there is refusal to eat veggies, rice, potatoes and meat. (They all accept different things. Only 1 won't eat veggies) and I have both celiac and Crohn's disease, which means no matter what I eat, it hurts, and there are lots of "trigger foods" Oats and gluten never ever enter my body. And my son, 3, has major digestive issues.

Luckily everyone is pretty happy with meat, a veggie and a fruit. Sometimes we add rice crackers to the kids plates. My husband will eat anything and the kids always eat at least part of the meal. The only night I really cook 2 meals is pasta night because I just can't do it. I make both regular pasta for my husband and daughter that can have it, rice pasta for the other two kids, and I find myself something else, rice kills my stomach.

Yes, on pasta night I often make two meals. My gluten-free fussy eater will eat Trader Joe's corn pasta (but not any other kind), our gluten-free eldest does better when she avoids corn and doesn't mind rice pasta, youngest doesn't care for GF pasta, and gluten-free dh will eat just about anything I cook for him. The best I can do to get everyone eating the same thing is to make spaghetti squash, and even then, I'm usually doing a separate meal for myself because I'm avoiding nightshades, and most of the time, cheese. So on pasta night, I make corn pasta for those who will eat it, and something else for eldest and myself. Or I'll make spaghetti squash for everyone, and top mine with sauteed meat instead of spaghetti sauce.

(Oh, and I meant to say, everyone except dh makes their own breakfast and lunch, so that's when one might make rice pasta and another might make corn pasta, etc.)