My husband and my children could care less!

Bump...I'm saving this...my family is the same way and it is soooo irritating!

I have made subtle changes....light butter, light sour cream, using skim milk when cooking, using frozen veges instead of canned....so that the change will not be so drastic for them, but still healthier. I eat what they eat, but watch my portions, and if need be I add a big salad!!!!

if you only make healthy food and tell them that's whats for dinner. If they don't eat it then let them go hungry....after a day or two they will eat it. You have to instill healthy eating habits in your kids or they will end up in the same boat we are all in....struggling to lose weight and keep it off. Sit down and have a heart to heart with your hubby too. His behavior is disgraceful!

I know how you feel. My hubby and I are living with his parents and brother due to the economy, and for the longest time and our rent includes food. We've both decided to eat healthier, but his parents are stuck in their own ways so we ended up buying a mini-fridge to store all of our healthy goodies.

Erzsebet_1560...nice name. Borrowed from the famous Bathory version of Erzsebet?

My mom had the "Peanut butter and jelly" rule when we were growing up. If you didn't like what she made, you got to make yourself a sandwich. Rarely did we ever take her up on that.

I'm pretty lucky in this area too, but this is your family. They eat what you want them to eat, or they don't eat. You're the teacher. You teach them to eat healthy, and they'll eat good foods for life. You poison them with fatty foods, then you have to prepare for the consequences of that. I live in Oklahoma, and there are kids walking around here who've only seen fruit in a picture.

I have had that problem too and it is very frustrating!!! My daughter is now on Weigh Watchers and has started eating healthy and I just tell my husband that he can eat if or go get something he wants. I use to be anorexic and he worries a lot about me too. My husband is about the only one who eats bad foods but when I fix something healthy I tell im in advance. Feel free to check out my profile and see if you would likre to add you. Looking forward to getting to know you better and help you on you


Hugs
Bev

Here is my best friend's attitude and I've adopted it.... she says:

"If I am doing the cooking, I'm going to fix what I want to eat. If my family doesn't like it they can fix their own or go hungry. There's food available, so it's their choice."

I cook what I want.... if they don't like it they can eat it or not. If HE doesn't like it, he's welcome to make his own, but I will not fix more than one meal per mealtime because somebody else wants to be difficult...

AMEN!!!!! I'm not a short-order cook. And you shouldn't have to be either.

You should cook stuff thats good for them. If they dont like it them they dont eat. dont worry when they get hungry there gonna eat. explain that its good for them or give them a treat if they eat it. Just some ideas

Make a different meal for yourself and its ok my mom always wants to make unhealthy meals lol

You know... this has been a big problem for me in the past and a lot of the reason while I have failed in the past two years to lose or even stop the gain. It is not realistic that you can continue to make multiple meals long term and stay on track. You've got to find a way to make one meal and make it work on a calorie budget.

First - I think unrealistic to think you will be able to do 1200 gross calories eating what your family eats but no more unrealistic than thinking cooking 2 meals every meal can be a long term way to live. Plan on eating 1500 a day - this is totally do-able cooking one meal everybody eats. (200 for breakfast, 500 lunch, 500 dinner, 300 to snack or add extra cals to a meal where you need it) If 1200 net is your goal, then you've got 300 calories to burn during hte day.

I do lots of salads on the side. I buy the box of baby field greens at the grocery. That box stays fresh for usually over a week in the fridge because you can reseal it. I fill up on that first, then eat my entree, which is about half the size of my husbands. Makes no different to me if he eats the side salad or not. I also like do a lot of "loaded baked potatoes" with either a salad or soup. I heat up some canned low fat chili, precooked refrigerated bacon, pull some light sour cream (don't by fat free - they will think it tastes like crap), 2% cheese, scallons, etc... My potato will automatically be cut in half with the other half either given to one of the kids, or put in the fridge for tomorrow. The other half I will top with a measured serving of cheese (really important to measure cheese), a measured scoop of chili, and 1 tbsp of sour cream - hubs will be absolutely loaded down. And thats fine. He has a great metabolism and can do that. But we have all eaten and I have only cooked one meal.

I do the same thing with spagetti. I make it with meatballs, but I don't eat the meatballs or I save a little sauce back without ground meat and save back a little meat so I know exactly how many calories I'm getting. I'll pass on the garlic bread if I am close on calories but generally I get to have a slice of pepperidge farm garlic bread too.

Tacos are easy too. 2 hard shells only have around 100 calories, depending on brand. You could have 4 shells for 200 cals. . Put your lettuce on first and fill that baby up. Then put your measured cheese on next, then your measured meat serving. Top with tomatoes, onions, olives - whatever. I even divide up a serving of light sour cream among my tacos. A light swipe is all you really need. Its a really filling meal you should be able to keep aroun 500 calories

Whole roasted chicken. My family goes NUTs over it. (I use the barefoot contessa's recipe from food network). I still make mashed potatoes, but I use light butter, chicken broth, skim milk, light sour cream and I measure my serving. My family really likes rolls. Thats fine. I just started buying the precooked frozen ones. I ask them how many they want and make just that amount +1 for me. I make a salad or veggie to go with it, and if they chose not to eat it, then I have part of lunch taken care of tomorrow.

If you want to see my food journal for more ideas on how to make traditional family meals work in 1500 cals, shoot me a friend request

I remember as a child not bring allowed to leave the table until we demolished whatever was on our plates. The number of times I sat there all evening because my mum cooked fish or ravioli or something I genuinely hated. For years I was adamant that I hated fish, thanks to those memories. I didn't have the courage to try White fish until I was 21, when I realised it wasn't the fish I disliked, it was the sauce my mum cooked it in.
Maybe I would have realised earlier if she'd given me the option to have extra veggies instead of staring at a fish for an hour.