One of the major challenges that many people face when trying to change their eating habits, is getting the family on board.
And it’s not always about trying to get them on board; especially if you and your family have been accustomed to eating less-than-optimally and NOW, all of a sudden, you want to change that.
Yeah okay… your family’s gonna be lookin’ at you like…
“Please… you better get outta here with that.“
And in cases like that, I personally don’t feel it’s fair to FORCE change on them.
Sure, you can begin to incorporate healthy choices when you prepare meals for your family, but sometimes regaining your health is a very personal choice.
So on that note…
Here Are Some Tips On How to Eat a Healthy Diet When Your Family Doesn’t:
(Prefer to watch/listen to the video? Click “Play” on the video below. FYI: Video is NOT as detailed as the article!)
1. Simply ASK For Support – If you are newly starting out and your self-discipline is low, ask your family for support by way of keeping highly-tempting foods away from you, not eating certain things in your presence, etc. at least when you’re first starting out, until those foods no longer phase you to the point of or beyond temptation.
2. Focus On What You Want & Why – Set your goals: your goal weight, how you want to feel, what meds you want to get off of, the size clothes you want to wear, how you want your body to look, etc., and WRITE THEM DOWN! Get pictures where applicable and post them in highly-visible areas.
Not only that, but also be real with WHY you want to reach these goals. Sometimes the reason why isn’t big or important enough to cause you to stay focused… so dig DEEP and again, be real with yourself!
If the reason is pure vanity… so be it… OWN it! Hey, it’s YOUR goal, YOUR reason, and YOUR business. And when times are a little rough, be sure to look at & focus on what you WANT to accomplish and not focus on negative feelings or actions.
3. Avoid Deprivation By Getting Creative – Find and recreate healthier versions of your favorite, not-so-healthy foods and snacks so you don’t feel deprived. The feeling of deprivation is one of the many reasons people tend to fail at their attempts to live a healthier lifestyle or even to diet.
For example: If your family is having pizza night, you can either make it a “cheat meal” and indulge right along with them, or you can simply create a healthy version that you can ENJOY and feel GOOD about eating at the same time. Make it healthy, but also make it DELICIOUS!
4. Eat What You Love – One of the things I hate is when people make the depiction of healthy eating (mainly on television, but real life as well) to be oh so BORING with bland food such as plain steamed broccoli with NOTHING on it.
Please. Honey, eating healthy does NOT have to mean eating bland, flavorless foods! So stop believing that lie and learn the TRUTH!
What truth? For example: How about the truth that, fat is NOT bad! Don’t believe me? Research it!
Then when you find out I was right, ditch the “low-fat crap”, and instead of avoiding fat in various foods; watch out for SUGAR because it’s sugar that causes your body to hold onto fat, not fat itself.
So this basically means that you can have REAL butter or FULL FAT cream/milk/yogurt (if you’re not a dairy-less eater, that is) and you can season your food with salt, as long as it’s unrefined, unbleached, REAL SEA SALT. You can spice up your foods with your favorite seasonings like garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, paprika, etc.
Discover what healthy items you really LOVE, make them taste GOOD (staying as close to the healthy realm as possible) and keep plenty of those foods on hand. If you LOVE yams or sweet potatoes (like I do), keep them on hand. Love cashews? Keep them handy to snack on… things like that.
5. Prepare Your Food & Eat First – Sound selfish? Well, when your family is pigging out on your favorite unhealthy foods and you’re fighting the urge because you’re actually trying to do what’s right for YOUR body, *scoffs* you’d darn well BETTER be selfish… you have a right to be in this case!
Unless you and your family sit down together at dinner time, you can prepare AND EAT your food ahead of time so that once their food is being prepared and/or is done, you’re not hungry and won’t be tempted. If you DO all sit down and eat together, then prior to cooking, have a healthy snack or take a healthy appetite suppressant first. Prepare the meal and have YOUR meal as they’re eating theirs.
6. Plan Ahead – I cannot express enough how important it is to do meal prep. I find that, when my meals are prepared for the week and I have bought ALL the ingredients and snacks I need to have on hand, it is SOOOO much easier than being ill prepared and then not feeling like making my food and ultimately, eating things that don’t line up with my goals.
Can meal prep day be a pain? It’ IS work… but once you put in the work that ONE DAY, you’re all set for the rest of the week! Even if you have to do TWO days of meal prep… on Sunday, prep for Mon-Wed and on Wed, prep for the rest of the week – that’s better than nothing.
Here’s another “pizza night” example for ya: If you know that weekends are typically pizza family time and you’re avoiding pizzeria pizza – get the ingredients ahead of time, make and freeze your crust (if using one) and then on “pizza day”, thaw and top with your favorite ingredients that are inline with your goals and enjoy YOUR pizza while family enjoys theirs.
The important thing to remember is that, people will often do what you DO and not so much what you say; so set the bar, be the example, and watch as your family members slowly, but surely, begin to follow suit in making small strides to healthier eating!
So, hopefully you have found these tips helpful and will take them to heart so that you’re more successful at either dieting or eating healthy, when your family isn’t!
And if you DID find this information helpful, please be sure to give me some social media love by liking, sharing, tweeting and all that other good stuff! 🙂 Thanks so much!
