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Are you a parent doing your best to improve your and your family’s health? Do your kids give you strength or are there challenges with the changes you want to make? What have you tried so far to get them involved in healthy eating – what worked and what didn’t? Do you have a support system at home?
I’m having trouble keeping my diet while at home. I work until 4, and grab a small bite when I get home. But my husband gets home only around 8-9 p.m., and he’s almost always very hungry. Even though I tell him that I’m not hungry, he prepares himself some dinner, and him being such a great cook, I usually break down and eat with him.
How do I avoid these nocturnal dinners? I feel like I don’t really need them, but still have a problem saying no…Eating 6 small meals per day is already preferable over 3 large meals when endeavoring to manage weight. This is where portion size can be used to your benefit. Allowances can indeed be made for a small meal at the end of the day! If temptation is great, prepare only enough for the desired portions, so there are no leftovers calling you from the table.
If there is a dose of exercise (even 20-30 minutes, the length of a sitcom) in-between the evening meals or just before bed, so much the better.I’m not a mom, but I remember the times when my mom was on a diet. She basically found it successful to combine two main strategies:
– One was to cook tasty healthy food that fit in her diet and that the rest of us liked to eat (a certain vegetable soup, for example). This way, we all ate healthier.
– Another was to take the extra effort and cook two meals. That way, she had plenty of low-fat and low-calorie foods to eat, and it made it easier to resist the temptation of foods forbidden by her current diet.Now that I am making an effort to eat better and live healthier that includes my family as well. Especially since I am the primary cook and activities director in our home. When I take my little one to the park to play I try to spend some time playing with him to get my heart rate up and give me some play time as well.
I get my preschool age kids involved with the cooking. Although I do the bulk of our grocery shopping without the kids, we take a special grocery shopping trip together. I have photos of fun healthy foods. Each kid chooses two foods that we’ll have sometime during the week. Under each photo is a list of ingredients. I have a typed list of lots of ingredients and we place a checkmark next to the ones needed for the food. We then go shopping. The kids then help prepare the food. My daughter loves tearing up lettuce, while my son enjoys making foods that look like bugs and such! So we have a lot of fun and it’s healthy eating!
My daughter is lively and energetic, and she doesn’t have weight problems (thank God!). However, she does like desserts like many other kids. So, basically, because of her, we always have a stash of cookies, or ice-cream, or candy bars… etc.
Maybe you guessed already, but this makes it very difficult for me to keep a healthy diet, because there’s always a big temptation somewhere in the kitchen. Argh!
Since my daughter eats reasonably, I can’t really put restrictions on her and throw the desserts out of the house, but it also makes my life very difficult at times.A couple of tidbits here. First, you’re right – too many restrictions cannot be a good thing, including for you. However, sweets are also generally not healthy, and so offering healthy alternatives and exercising moderation — and teaching it it by example — can be wise. I suggest to provide sweets in certain portions, then put away the bags/containers so there is no nibbling or temptation for seconds, thirds, etc. Your portion? Half or less of hers, and only when she wants it AND you’re in the mood AND a piece of fruit just won’t quite do it for you. Eventually (be patient, give it time), sweets may cease to look like food to you and more like toys or office supplies or something. Now when I say “healthy alternative” or “fruit” I mean something that you/her really, really like, and not just something that could never be tempting.
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