Stubborn husband refuses to eat healthy!

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  • Scubdup
    Scubdup Posts: 104 Member
    Managing the behaviour of others is tricky!

    What are his motivators?

    Could it be that the numbers of the page of the health check are too abstract and remote to galvanise him?

    If he's not overweight, then it seems like exercise would be a better alternative to massive changes in diet, perhaps. Is there a sport or fitness activity he could get (back?) into?

    It's sooooo much easier if you have support, so I can imagine how tough it is for you without him helping. Have you told him that?



  • Debmal77
    Debmal77 Posts: 4,770 Member
    My husband was the same way a few years ago. Now he is at the lowest weight he has been in 40 years. You can only fix you. Hopefully, he will come around.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    That's sad, I'm sorry. Only thing you can really do is tell him you love him and don't want him to die prematurely and will help him get healthier if he wants, and lead by example.
  • kristingjertsen
    kristingjertsen Posts: 239 Member
    My mom told me that "people change when the consequences of staying the same becomes too painful to bear." The reality is that you are not going to be able to change another person's eating or exercise habits. Take care of yourself. Cook healthy food and exercise and ignore any negative feedback about being a controlling health nut. Let him eat what he wants to eat and set his own activity level. I feel your frustration--spouse with BMI of 44, many health issues, family history of diabetes, stroke, cancer, and heart disease, eating a very poor diet, and sedentary. Even his doctors cannot influence his decisions because "they don't know what they are talking about." When your husband is ready, all you will have to do is get out of his way and let him fix it himself.
  • Suzanne_the_foot_lady
    Suzanne_the_foot_lady Posts: 222 Member
    2baninja wrote: »
    I agree with most of these postings, you can lead a horse to water, but.... the only other thing I can suggest is, if you are a good cook, you can try making healthy tasty dishes, (without him know it's healthy) and if he likes it, tell him after how healthy it was. Lots of time people don't want to try eating healthy because the junk tastes better.

    I agree, except don't tell him it's healthy. Cook the foods he likes but slip in healthy ingredients, grill the steak, fry the eggs in 1 cal spray oil, then add veg. No food is totally off the menu, but gradually add healthier foods to the ones he likes.
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,594 Member
    You do you.

    That said, if there are any healthy options he likes, keep them on hand in abundance. Mine does not like many healthy foods but he happens to really like cucumbers. So I serve them as a salad often. He also likes salmon. So I make sure to have it on hand often. Over time I have noticed that he tries my low-fat low carb yogurt and I have increased the quantity I have on hand. Grapes are another item he snacks on when available. Mine likely will always eat poorly overall but at least it’s easy for him to make a few better choices.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    You have to let him make his own choices. Sure, it's hard watching him make the wrong ones, but chances are the more you try to get him to change, the more he'll dig in his heels and refuse to do so.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I’m the cook. We’re almost a decade older than you two, but we have to pay attention to blood work too. Like your hubby, mine is particular in his eating habits.

    The one factor I have going for me is that he does care about his health and wants to eat healthy. As long as it doesn’t include chickpeas, lentils, tofu, couscous, ginger, or fish.

    Over the years I’ve reformed our eating habits, making notes on which recipes were winners and those are repeated.

    Here are some things to try:
    - make a fresh attractive salad daily that you include at lunch and dinner. He takes as little or as much as he likes. The same for you. You eat more salad and less spam.
    - Invest in an Actifry and make his fried favourites with a fraction of the oil.
    - He doesn’t like bare naked chicken breasts? Meet him half way and bread them before baking them.
    - If there is a vegetable he likes, serve it often. I have a large bag of corn in my freezer.
    - We now have our Sunday pancakes with fruit and yogurt instead of bacon.
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