It's not always the easiest task to get your family interested and willing to participate in weight loss and healthy eating. But once you do get them involved, they can be the best support you'll find when you're working on losing weight and getting healthy together.
Before starting any new diet plan for yourself and your family, it's important to talk to your physician. Not only do you need to be sure it's a good choice for you, but that it suits your family's needs as well. Of course your husband will require larger portion sizes than you, and you have to take into consideration the nutritional needs of your children as well.
A good place to start for many people wanting to begin eating a healthier diet is to go through the fridge and pantry. This is a project you might want to do with some extra back-up. Your job is to clear the house of all the "junk" food. No more potato chips, ice cream, chocolate... you get the picture. Once everything is out of the house, take a family trip to the grocery store so you can all stock up on healthier foods and snacks like fruits and vegetables, low-fat desserts, and even baked chips instead of those old fried ones.
This whole process is going to take some getting used to. If your family is used to McDonald's and IHop every week, getting them into the habit of eating foods that are better for them is not likely to happen overnight. However, if you stick with it, you'll notice soon enough they don't mind snacking on carrots, or eating homemade food instead of fast food all the time.
Turn menu planning into a game. You can put healthy meal choices on pieces of paper and have each member pick one out of a hat or box one at a time until all of your choices for the week are filled in. Sit together and have each person choose the healthy main course, while everyone else helps choose side dishes and a dessert which go well with it. You can even try and come up with low calorie versions of your family's high calorie favorites.
It can be a challenge to find healthy foods that the whole family will like. But this is also a great opportunity to teach them about good nutritional habits, and how the food pyramid works. Starting when your children are young will help them to make the right choices in the future. But remember, it's never too late to start a healthy eating plan. Start where you are and keep with it.
And just to add the perfect ending to your new healthy eating plan, why not add family exercise to the whole experience? There's nothing like some quality family time, and this can easily be achieved by taking a walk while the dinner dishes soak. It's a lot better for you, both physically and emotionally as a family unit than fast food and television, that's for sure!
Mubarakah Ibrahim is the owner and head trainer of BALANCE fitness Studio for women in New Haven, CT http://www.balancect.com, where she offers fitness education, personal training and group fitness classes for women.
She is the author of 2 weight loss books, "Fat Loss 10: The 10 Commandments of Fat Loss" and "30 Minute Fat Burn for Busy Women" and has helped thousands of women shed fat and reshape their body using her 30 minute fat burn philosophy. You can get a free video workout by visiting http://www.30minutefatburn.com.
In her fitness career she has gained a reputation as a leader in innovative fitness for women. In addition, she lectures, promotes and conducts workshops on alternative health, fitness and healthy living throughout the United States. In her fitness career she has gained a reputation as a leader in innovative fitness for women. Her notoriety includes multiple appearances on ABC affiliate WTNH News Channel 8, CBS radio Affiliate WELI Morning Show and has recently contributed to Prevention Magazine on an article for fitness for women over 40. In addition she has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show "Thirty-something in America" and is a referring expert for Prevention Magazine on fitness for women over 40.
