Changing habbits for the entire family.....

[mortiz]

I struggled with posting this to the health and fittness area or the cooking and entertaining area and decided it was more health related. Anyway, I need as many strategies and/or recipes for heathy meals as I can get. Dh and I have been trying to change our lifestyles and constantly struggle with meals. I always seem to go back to unhealthy meals because that is what my family will eat. My children (six and three) are particularly hard to switch. At one time I was cooking with whole wheat pastas, lowfat products, and very little oils....but it gets boring after a while and I need ideas that are easy and good. I work full time so I need quick prep, healthy meals that will hopefully please the whole family so we can stay on track. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Kellijo14]

We have problems with this as well. But I have to remind myself that I can be the biggest cheerleader and I have [total] control over what is bought and what I bring into the house. I never buy something unless it is no- low-fat, low calories, whole wheat, high fiber or protein, etc. Right there I am helping my family. I spend a lot of $$ in the vegetable aisle at the grocery store. A salad with dinner [almost] every night. And now it's starting to rub off on my husband. He knows that I'm not going to allow his beloved Lime Chips into our house because they are not a healthy choice. He also knows that I'm not going to make a gourmet meal (I work full time too) and we are going to have Healthy Choice TV dinners instead of ordering pizza. (Get your DH involved!!! When I work late, he always knows what to fix.) Once you have someone else on board, it's so much easier. Talk to your husband and make sure he understands that you do this because you want you & him [and your entire family] to be together for a long time. Remind him of this often.

I've been buying Prevention & Fitness magazines for the past couple of months and anytime I find something that I can use as encouragement, I tear out the page. I have them posted all over the place in the house. Next to the tv, I have one that says "People who spend over 1 hour a night watching tv are more likely to develop diabetes". That sure does motivate me to get off my butt and clean house or do something else (read, e.g.) On the fridge, I have quotes about eating vegetables and nuts (we have tons of nuts in our house for snacks). I keep ones in the bathroom about flossing and the benefits of taking a multi-vitamin. When I find another good one in a magazine, I replace the ones that have been there for a while. It's great motivation.

As for food, keep in mind that some of your favorite (easy) meals may be able to be turned into healthy meals. Substitute all that you can. When we make spaghetti, we use whole wheat pasta and the healthy choice spaghetti sauce. We cut out tons of worthless stuff. I also make this simple spaghetti bake that I have substituted a whole bunch of good things in the recipe. I try to encourage us to have a bigger serving of vegetables than 'meat' or the 'main course'. (Frozen vegetables are your best friends - but get the ones without any kind of sauce. We go through frozen sugar snap peas faster than anything.) Also, look at the serving sizes. Eat only a serving. Let DH know what a serving is (I say this all the time now - "A serving is x pieces. How many pieces do you want?"). Sometimes we eat much more than an actual serving. Maybe you have bad stuff every once in a while, but only a serving!

If you stay dedicated and positive, then your family will make the changes. And don't forget, you have the CC family as your support for when you get unmotivated! PM me if you need any of my help!!

You can do it! We're here to help!!

[looch]

Plan meal kits! Sounds like a chore, but it can actually save a lot of time during the week. My biggest issue is with veggies. I am not cooking for kids, but what usually happens is that I overload in the grocery store. So I spend about 45 minutes when I get home from the store prepping, steaming and vac sealing so that I have partially cooked veggies in the freezer. These can then be microwaved again during the week to round out dinner.

The other thing I did, and this seems OCD, is to take a spiral bound journal, and cut all the pages into thirds across, so i have a flip book if you will. I then made labels for the following categories: Main, Vegetable and Pasta/Rice/Potatoes. So in "Main" i have things like Marsala with mushroom medley. That can apply to pork, chicken, veal, etc. so if i choose that, i then flip through the next category vegetables, which has things like broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc. Then last but not least, say yolkless egg noodles for pasta/rice/potatoes. Viola, a meal!

[mortiz]

Thank you both for the good ideas. Right now I am taking baby steps. Last night I made a great chicken stir fry (with very minimal canola oil) with brown rice. DH ate it and really enjoyed it but the girls were a harder sell. My oldest ate it but only a little of the stir fry and a couple helpings of the brown rice. My youngest only ate the chicken and the rice.....no veggies :( I am going to start them back on the multivitamin routine. I worry they don't get enough of the good stuff. They both love milk though, so that is a bonus. Plus we only use skim, no sense in adding fat....they get enough of that else where. Tonight I am making meat loaf with very lean beef, oats instead of bread crumbs, and minced veggies.......they won't even know it's good for them. :) Plus we are having a nice salad and some whole wheat cous cous (the one thing the girls do love). Plus I got DH to have a fat free smoothie for breakfast.....I just hope he didn't sneak any pop tarts. :)

[lil_geek]

We are big meat eaters..... and while that is likely bad... we always grill, add 2 sides of veggies and it's a EASY healthy meal!

I'm working on FH and the veggies.... but if that's all I offer, he generally picks (last night he had 3 stems of asperagus, it was a HUGE breakthrough!!)

[mrsdrummer]

My husband is a hunter. When he killed this deer we had it processed instead of doing it ourselves. I haven't bought hamburger since. Deer meat is very lean and they add only enough beef to it to make it stick together since it is so lean it cooks without making any grease which is why they put the beef in it. My cholesterol is pretty high right now and we're working on getting that under control with just diet. I'll go back in another month to have it checked again and see if the diet and exercise are helping. Now getting DH to change his ways and put down the candy and soda is a challenge but if his acid reflux doesn't change on it's own I'm cracking down in a big big way. Off to take a walk now, hope this helps.