No one in my house interested in healthy living

This isn't about making the others around you live the way you live, it's about exercising self-control. Foods aren't bad, they're just food. If they fit into your calorie goals, eat them. If you can't eat them without eating the whole bag and killing your deficit, ignore them.

I've found that willpower is a lot easier when I'm not looking at sweets and thinking "Oh, no, those are forbidden".

I think for starters stop labeling food as bad. I have been doing this for three years and I still eat candy, sugar, etc.. The moment I stopped labeling foods (any foods) as bad the world got less complicated.

Also the moment when I realized that the world around me is not always gonna be on a diet when I am I was able to put a lot of things into perspective.. In short, if my family wants pizza and I do not, I do not have to eat that.

Now dealing with your family on how to get everyone to eat this "healthy way" you are eating, is gonna take some sit down meetings with everyone and work towards where you want to go with your eating habits.

I got all mine on board, but I am the cook in the family, if they want what I cook that's great, if not what I cook they go their own ways..

daniip_la wrote: »

This isn't about making the others around you live the way you live, it's about exercising self-control. Foods aren't bad, they're just food. If they fit into your calorie goals, eat them. If you can't eat them without eating the whole bag and killing your deficit, ignore them.

I've found that willpower is a lot easier when I'm not looking at sweets and thinking "Oh, no, those are forbidden".

This.

You can't make the other people in your house eat a certain way. Sure, lead by example, plan activities that are more active, don't let them try to "pressure" you into eating another helping, etc. But you only have control over yourself.

I second not looking at foods as bad. Right now in my house I have ice cream, beer, chips, homemade Reese cups, a jar of Nutella, and cookies. All of which I'd love to go stuff my face with while standing in the kitchen. But I don't. I plan out my day and fit those things into my calories when I'm able to. I can't eat them all every day, but I usually have enough calories to have one or two of those things each day.

I cook well balanced meals (typically 50% non-starchy vegetable) that taste good. My family hasn't complained. My daughter was raised eating that way, but my husband was happy to eat whatever I made and always raves about it. We host a lot of get-togethers for family and friends and our food is well-received.

I never say - "this is low calorie food." We just cook and it happens to be good for us.

It's very tough to work in a house where you're the only fitness and wellness freak. I've done it all my life. My husband can't/won't eat like me or work out and I was so excited 30 years ago when i had boys and thought about having company for my mountain biking etc... but alas they weren't able to either. I tried my younger brother and he yelled at me about not being able to keep up (I waited ;o(). In any event, what I did was made myself a priority all these years and have taken time to work out every day. I rode my bike to and from work 7 miles each way and did one trail ride on the weekends when my boys were young and the house took too much time with work to get my fitness in. My family would support my efforts to keep myself in shape if I didn't make them come along. My husband had no trouble watching the boys while I did my bike ride or hike if i didn't make him come along. As for food, I cooked what I wanted to eat and I did the groceries (grilled chicken, lean meats, salads, raw vegetables, low fat dips, vinegar based dressings) and didn't cook what they wanted other than an occasional treat of a pasta meal, burgers or yes, occasionally the dreaded kraft dinner. They ate what was cooked but it left me cooking. There was soups for lunch, i had whole grain breads for me and they had white wheat (at least it was extra fiber) for sandwiches of lean meats, tuna, grilled cheese with real cheddar (old) not processed slices, banana (my favorite sandwich) and lots of fruit in the house for snacks. I didn't buy desert stuff when I did groceries so at least when they wanted potato chips, ice cream and desserts they had to go out to the store and buy it, it wasn't sitting in the cupboard. I didn't object when they left to buy it but you need very strong resolve not to join in with the chips and dip. I never bought soda, so if anyone wanted that they had to go out and buy it but I kept water cold in the fridge and lemonade freshie/koolaid made with 1/4 cup of sugar in 64 ounces instead of the cup, so about a teaspon in a glass. Not as bad as most sweetened drinks. They all drank that if i kept it made since it was easy. My boys as teens were always spending their money on soda and chips but they remembered how to cook and eat healthy later when they started gaining weight in college. They would phone and say how did you make that low fat chille or chicken such and such lol.

I used dvd workouts and still do to workout at home rather than take time to go to a gym, this made it much easier with kids to get in a workout when i couldn't get in a bike ride. Fill your house with healthy food and don't worry about if they eat it, make sure you do. It is helpful when they indulge in something if you can grab a favorite fruit or raw veggies or make a fruit and cheese plate (kiwi, strawberry, black berries, orange slices with a thin slice or pepper jack and chedar). Often my husband would then have what I was having and at least healthy when he wasn't travelling. Bagged no sugar added frozen berries in a dish with a spoon is a great treat in the summer for dessert and healthy.

As far as getting the family to jump on board... My youngest son now 30 raises his kids and lives just like I did. He rides a bike every day, lives on a bike trail, walks to work, makes most food from scratch and went on a healthy low carb regime three years ago when I told him I had tried it out and found it quite healthy and beneficial. He had been working midnights in IT at a Casino with all you can eat free buffets for the staff and gained 20 lbs (he was always slim before that and even with that on was still pretty slim) but felt out of shape. He quit that job for another without the free buffet.. then went low carb and has been doing that for 3 years. He's slim, fit and trim. He skis with me in the winter also. My husband occasionally follows a low carb diet with me but not exactly my healthy version of it, but at least it helps him control his weight in a job that has him on the road and eating out most of the year. It is the only form of any diet he has ever been able to follow, where as I follow it but hate it lol. I just find it tough to stick to but worth the benefits I get. Not here to get in that discussion though. My older son, now 33, encourages out door time for his kids, walks a ton, often to and from work each day when weather allows, takes his kids out on hikes and things on the weekends, and eats out very little, cooks from scratch at home. So though no one liked it as they grew up, or followed it full time, they all live it to some extent now. I'm very happy I put in all the effort to cook and make myself keep going out and hiking and skiing and dragging them along when they would come, as now, I see they do the same.

airforceman1979 wrote: »

I tell them to hide them from me and if they don't I throw it away

That's pretty messed up.

I'm more an abstainer than a moderator, so it would be really difficult for me to have a lot of trigger foods in the house. Fortunately, I am also the food shopper and the cook, so others bringing trigger foods into the house is not an issue for me. I am able to negotiate with my OH about how often and when we have foods that are problematic for me like pizza and Chinese.

http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2012/10/back-by-popular-demand-are-you-an-abstainer-or-a-moderator/

...When dealing with temptation, I often see the advice, “Be moderate. Don’t have ice cream every night, but if you try to deny yourself altogether, you’ll fall off the wagon. Allow yourself to have the occasional treat, it will help you stick to your plan.”

I’ve come to believe that this is good advice for some people: the “moderators.” They do better when they avoid absolutes and strict rules.

For a long time, I kept trying this strategy of moderation–and failing. Then I read a line from Samuel Johnson, who said, when someone offered him wine: “Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.”
Ah ha! Like Dr. Johnson, I’m an “abstainer.”

I find it far easier to give something up altogether than to indulge moderately. When I admitted to myself that I was eating my favorite frozen yogurt treat very often–two and even three times a day–I gave it up cold turkey. That was far easier for me to do than to eat it twice a week. If I try to be moderate, I exhaust myself debating, “Today, tomorrow?” “Does this time ‘count’?” “Don’t I deserve this?” etc. If I never do something, it requires no self-control for me; if I do something sometimes, it requires enormous self-control.

There’s no right way or wrong way–it’s just a matter of knowing which strategy works better for you. If moderators try to abstain, they feel trapped and rebellious. If abstainers try to be moderate, they spend a lot of precious energy justifying why they should go ahead and indulge...

Not everyone has the luxury of being in total control of what food does or doesn't come into their home. Sure, it's a nice thought, but it's just not possible for everyone.
Yes, self-control is the answer, but self-control is like a muscle. If you're not used to using it, then it'll be weak. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.