Posted on 12 Jan 2021 Views 797 Comments 26

Healthy Eating For The Family

Set the wheels in motion to help get everyone on board with your healthy eating plan.

It can be tough to stay on plan when you have family meals to prepare and keep everyone including yourself happy, so it can be simpler to cook up lots of different meals, which is a lot of work, time and energy!

Here are some helpful hints and tips to help you.

Sort your snacks.

Make changes to your fridge and cupboards and plan extras so you don't have to come face to face with snacks like crisps and chocolate, which can cause you to cheat.

We realise that it can be hard to replace all of your kid's snacks with healthy options as they do not see them as essential to their health if you introduce items like veg sticks, Fat-Free yoghurt, fresh fruit, Babybel lights and hummus you are setting them up with good healthy eating habits!

You shouldn't feel guilty about cutting back on your families unhealthy snacks, do it slowly so that they do not feel deprived. Remember, you are not denying them but incorporating a healthy well-balanced diet for them, which will have a beneficial impact on their health.

Portion up foods and snacks

It's too easy to grab a few bits of this and that when cleaning up after your children or making them packed lunches, they may not seem like much but those calories do add up and can affect your weight loss. Why not repackage snacks into single portions as soon as you buy them and storing leftovers into small containers so they can use them for lunches the following day.

Preparation

If you are cooking for your family, you need to plan what you are having and make your shopping list accordingly. Make a weekly menu guide, list what ingredients you require, get the kids to help, would they like broccoli or cauliflower with their meal, what fruit would they like?

I find that a slow cooker is helpful and there are lots of great recipes, and it doesn't have to be just a beef stew! Adapt your family favourites, use lean beef, low-fat sausages, chicken breast, fish and sneak in a vegetable or two, they'll not notice! I have put cauliflower into mashed potatoes, a little turnip and swede in mashed carrots, instead of tomato-based sauces make them from red peppers, rather than deep fry veg try oven-roasted vegetables. You can have roasted swede, carrots, asparagus and your family can have some roasted potatoes.

Get them involved in helping you but make sure not to be rushed as it will take a little longer and be messy! It may be challenging at first but hang in there and take small steps but stick to it as a healthy lifestyle is one of the best gifts you can give your family, and they can then take it forward.

Want to win £10 of points? Tell us how you keep your family healthy whilst on plan! Our favourite three comments will be chosen on Friday 15th January 2021 at 4 pm! All three will receive £10 in points each.

By Joanne Jones, Customer Care Advisor

Comments on Healthy Eating For The Family

Caro Hewitt 17/01/2021 13:57

Having a supportive partner is so useful here!

I try to buy snacks I don't enjoy, and we like fruit and veg anyway (not that I'm eating those, but it helps with the 5 a day for the family). I do all the cooking still, but my partner is 100% in charge of snacks. Instead of keeping them in the kitchen, he keeps them on a shelf in his home office. So for me they're out of sight and out of mind :-)

When cooking, like the blog says, batch-cooking in the slow cooker is brilliant - something like a bolognese for the family can be turned into a few different dishes (lasagne, stuffed courgettes, chilli) without me having to cook every night. I have good days and bad days in terms of how easy it is to stick to plan, so being able to just grab something from the freezer and pop it in the oven without having to be around food for too long is really useful on 'bad' days.

I'm not eating veg yet (I'm new to the Simplicity plan and trying to be strict with just 4 packs a day - I'm not sure how I'll cope having some 'real' food yet so I'm delaying introducing that until I feel more confident in my ability to stick to it) but I'm already looking at the 'allowed' low carb veg and using them in the family meals as much as possible, rather than higher-carb veg. I'm quite looking forward to being able to have a version of what they're having :-)

Joanne, Admin 15/01/2021 16:04

Thank you to everyone who has commented and I hope that my little tips will help make it a little easier for you all on plan!

Sarah Angelone 15/01/2021 02:17

Lifestyle plan for me, to incorporate my hubby and son in eating healthy. Teaching me to make my own keto friendly sauces. The importance of understanding portion size. Experimenting with recipes using skinny sauces and slim and save products. For me the pancake mix and chocolate brownie, as a night time snacks game changer. While my family eat their munchies I'm joining in!! But with my healthy slim and save snacks as part of my allowance. The slim and save bars fabulous for handbag outings and walks. I'm loving the lifestyle plan. Teaching me healthy eating, portion control and creativity at meal times.

Claire Yvonne 14/01/2021 23:27

As I am on this plan and in a support bubble with my daughter I find it really helpful to plan and talk through with her what our weeks will look like in terms of shakes, bars and veg allowance. We check the list together to make sure we are eating foods approved on the list and discuss the ups and downs of our weeks (victories at staying on track/temptations overcome).
This positive support is invaluable - we also have different tastes so can swap shakes with each other and both have our favourites as well as trying them hot vs cold and frothy vs a bit smoother.

Other ways we have kept on track as a mother daughter family:

- Keeping up to date with the Facebook community and getting inspiration from their meal ideas.
-As mentioned above slow cooker to beat the end of the day cravings with PLANNED food!
-Being open to substitutes eg cauliflower rice and quorn (don’t knock it till you try it!)
- Remind yourself and your family of all the health benefits you will all gain
- Have a clear cut off point for when you won’t eat anymore eg after your portion of food on an evening or last shake. Mentally tell yourself you’ve had enough nutrients and now if your body wants to fill up on anything then fill up on water!
- Smile and know that time will pass either way, so you might as well feel amazing in a week or months time! Visualise your goals
- Celebrate your wins with your family and celebrate their journey to health too!

Chloe hart 14/01/2021 23:21

As a mum of 3 I'm not going to pretend I'm perfect .. I do struggle to feed my family a balanced meal every day I have a child with autism whom will only eat under 10 food groups making meals very difficult and a baby who just turned 9 months so is just beginning to know what food is .. planning is key to every day and I do this by having a storage draw for my food so I easy pick out 1 item from each draw a day and then I follow Facebook groups how to spice it up a little bit my kids all eat diff meals at different times of the day so I make set times for me to manage my meals which helps me not to take a pause to think about when or what I will have keeping me on track and helping me save time for my hectic life ..

Katrina Ferguson-Moffat - Admin 14/01/2021 21:51

I always have my pickles handy in the fridge.
Pickled gherkins, pickled beetroot, pickled eggs and pickled onions. I pickle most of these myself at home and although they feel like a treat in-between meal-times I can enjoy them totally guilt-free! Within reason ;-)

Anisha Meisuria 14/01/2021 15:22

It’s just me & Bella my sweet 7yr old at home to cook for.

Luckily she’s not a fussy eater & as I am on the lifestyle plan we generally eat the same dinner with an additional carb element for Bella. She loves the Quorn nuggets as they are so like the Mc Nuggets so that's always a winning dish for us.

Jenna Dakin-Brown 14/01/2021 15:16

It’s only myself and hubby at home but I find it much easier to stick to plan if I cook my lifestyle meal as something that vaguely resembles what he’s going to have. So roast dinner for him means chicken breast, pancake mix Yorkshire pudding, veg and oxo gravy for me. Or pizza fit him means lo-dough pizza for me etc. I don’t feel I’m missing out then.

Laura L 14/01/2021 14:40

Great blog Jo

We don’t have snacks as a family, we supported George to have 3 balanced meals and dont really snack. A big “treat” is SF jelly. G can help himself to fruit and veg throughout the day

Even though he is only 2 George cooks with me most days, helping with the prep, peeling veg, baking things together

We don’t have things like chicken nuggets or processed foods only fresh foods. Although this had led to George having expensive taste

Angela Matthews 14/01/2021 14:31

I’m currently on Simplicity plan to get rid of my Xmas indulgence! I use a weekly menu planner for my husband so I know what I’m buying when shopping, this helps me. As I love sweets I just don’t buy any snack type items, luckily for me I don’t have any kids at home to satisfy.