Often I hear that the hardest obstacle to eating healthy is living with family that doesn’t care to do the same. I’ve heard things from “Oh, you’re eating healthy? That never works for me” to “You’re on another diet?”, or “I don’t like when you cook because you cook healthy food”.
But if you have a family or live with your family, then you aren’t just eating healthy for yourself. You’re eating healthy for your family, too.
And this is a greater purpose to be called to. It’s quite the challenge. Especially when you haven’t been eating healthy with your family but you want to start.
So, then, how do you eat healthy when your family doesn’t? How do you get them to see that eating healthy is important for them too?
Great questions. Here are 5 steps you can do to strategically inspire your family to eat healthy with you.
Step #1: Find an Accountability Partner
As I have talked about in my post on Finding Support and Accountability, you need to find someone who relates to you. Someone who understands the difficulty of trying to eat healthy when your family doesn’t. Someone who also has a desire to get healthy.
This is fundamental in making lasting changes to what you eat. If you want to eat healthy when your family doesn’t get accountability to keep you moving forward.
This is especially the case If your family is negative towards the healthy changes you’re trying to make. You definitely need to find at least one person who has your back. So, find someone you can go to when times get hard or frustrating with your family.
This person should be someone you can be open and honest with. And someone who will encourage and inspire you to keep moving forward.
Once you’ve found an accountability partner, you’re all set for the next step.
Step #2: Set Aside Money to Buy Your Own Healthy Food
If you live with your family and they aren’t interested in eating healthy, then you must start setting aside money to buy your own food. This step is unavoidable.
If money is tight, then put aside a small percentage of the money you make each month. Find some inexpensive healthy side dish recipes you can make to supplement the meat your family eats.
Whether money is tight or not, the key here is to start doing something.
As John F. Kennedy said…
“There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
If you feel convicted about the way you’re eating and choose not to do something about it, you are choosing the long-term risks and costs of unhealthy eating.
I’ve worked in hospitals and have seen the long-term risks and costs. I don’t want that for you.
So, this second step of putting money aside to buy healthy food with is the first step towards taking action.
Step #3: Offer to Share Your Healthy Food
Making healthy side dishes to pair with the food your family is eating is a great way to invite them into eating healthy with you.
You don’t have to make anything fancy (unless you want to). You could just put together a salad or steamed vegetables. (I’ll put together some healthy, inexpensive, and easy side dishes you can make for next week’s post.)
The goal here is to role model the changes you want to make.
If you invite them into eating healthy with you by offering your healthy sides with them, then they will be more likely to try them. If you force it on them, they will feel trapped and will refuse for the sake of rebellion.
You have to let them make the choice to eat healthy on their own. Just as you are making the choice for yourself, they have to make it for themselves.
And offering your healthy sides with them is a great place to start.
Step #4: Offer to Cook
If you want to inspire your family to eat healthy, then offering to cook for them is another great place to start.
Often the meals we eat are unhealthy because of the amount of oil or fat used to cook with, salt added, and/or carbs that are eaten. The amount of added sugar can get a little… much as well.
So, if you offer to cook, you can cut back on the amount of oil, fat, salt, sugar and carbs included in the meal.
The key here is to not cut it all out.
A little bit of oil or fat and carbs are actually healthy for your body. You may think this is crazy, but your body needs a little bit of sugar, too, to function properly. It’s just the overwhelming amounts (like half a stick of butter to saute chicken) that your body doesn’t need.
A great goal would be to use ingredients that have the most nutrients in them.
So, instead of using table salt, use a seasoning that has salt in it. You, then, get the benefits of the other spices with the salt.
Instead of using straight sugar, use fruit, honey, applesauce, or even maple syrup. Yes, these things do have sugar in them. But, you also get nutrients with them other than sugar.
When you strive to get ingredients that have the most nutrients in them, you are transforming your meals to be the healthiest they can be.
And the best part is, if you are using similar ingredients to what your family is used to, then they will probably never know. That is if they don’t watch you cook or ask you what you put in it.
Step #5: Introduce New to Old
This goes with what I was saying above.
If you take the recipes that your family already uses and ask yourself…
“What is one way I can make this healthier?”
Change that one thing, and that one thing only.
See what your family thinks of it. Do they even notice a difference? Do they like it?
If they complain, then you know that the change is not one they are comfortable with. At least, not yet. Try a different change next time.
If they compliment the meal, then you know the change was successful. Add to the change the next time you cook the recipe.
Sidenote: wait until your family members start the conversation about how the meal tastes. If you ask them first, they may realize you did something to change the recipe. Some family members don’t take kindly to changes to how things are normally cooked.
How to Eat Healthy When Your Family Doesn’t?
We just talked about 5 steps you can today to eat healthy when your family doesn’t.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the post:
– Find someone to hold you accountable to the healthy changes you’re trying to make
– Start setting money aside to buy your own (healthy) foods
– Continue to eat with your family but cook healthy sides and offer them to your family
– Don’t force the changes you feel convicted about on your family, invite them into those changes
– Offer to cook to (genuinely) help out
– When cooking, cut back on fat, oil, salt, or carbs in the meal (cut back, not completely remove)
– Use healthier versions of ingredients in the recipe (AKA fruit or honey for sugar, seasonings for salt)
– When making traditional family recipes healthier, change one thing at a time
I would love to hear how you’ve inspired your family to eat healthier! Drop a comment below with ways you’ve done this or things you struggle with.