Our family’s plan is in the form of a weekly meal plan,
defined by our combined goal of staying healthy. Now, we each have different nutritional and
fitness goals under that overarching/umbrella goal of staying health, so
creating a meal plan that meets all of our needs is key. I want to point
something out (that I think has been a key to our success)- creating a combined
goal and plan for the entire family.
This helps us all stay on track and provides avenues for discussion. Jessica and I don’t create the plan
independently- every weekend we take time to ask our kids what types of things
they want to have for the week. Requests
can range from actual meal ideas (re: taco salad, baked chicken, pancakes) to
pears, apple sauce, or even homemade chocolate.
It’s a fun way to talk with them about creating a balanced approach to
eating and when dinner is put on the table we can say something like “remember-
you said that sounded yummy?!” if they look less than impressed. We also try
very hard to talk positively about food- all food. We might call out the fact
that it is junk food, but remind our children that (for most people) all kinds
of food is just fine in moderation. There is a lot of fear around food these
days, we don’t want to perpetuate and allow them to internalize it. It also
helps remind us- it is easy to fall into the flock and begin thinking certain
foods are categorically evil (without scientific justification)- this type of
thinking creates disordered eating.
Of course Jessica and I have to gather the suggestions and
try to come up with a variety of options for the week- generally we try to do
one or two vegetarian based meals a week and limit red meat consumption. We plan for dinners to include a protein,
fat, and carb source and to stay with portion sizes that are age appropriate
(our twins usually split a serving, while our 14 year old eats about the same
as we do). Breakfast and lunches are
more flexible in the sense that they aren’t necessarily written out for the
entire week. Go to breakfast items are protein pancakes, quick oats with
raises/fruit and a small amount of agave or smoothie. (We are in the 98th day of a
whole food challenge, which took out cheerios as an option for breakfast. In
hindsight, there is really no reason for cheerios- challenge or not. The depth
of the nutritional content in cheerios isn’t great). Lunch can be as planned as sandwiches on
homemade whole wheat bread, fruit and juice or as thrown together as organic
popcorn (popped in coconut oil), peanut butter and bananas. There have been
times where we have only eaten fruit for dinner! There have been (and will be)
times we have eaten nachos, hamburgers and (gasp) ice cream! Because every once
and a while it sounds good and tastes good.
The point is to foster a good relationship with food while enjoying it
(and life).
How Jessica and I work our individual nutritional goals in
under this larger family umbrella is important.
We decided together that we didn’t want our children to see us on
excessively restrictive diets over and over again (which is a bit reason why we
made an entire lifestyle change). I
typically ensure that what I have eaten for breakfast, snack and lunch will
allow for about 600-800 calories at dinner time (and possibly before bed
snack). We track our food using the
myfitness pal app and will vary portion sizes of dinner foods to help meet our
goals. For example if my goal is to have 160g of protein and by dinner time I
have only had 120g, I will either increase my protein portion or ensure that my
snack is protein based. If I see that I
am almost at my carb goal for the day I will take a smaller portion of the carb
at dinner time. I am a person of habit-
I can eat the same thing for breakfast, snack and lunch every single day. In
the last three years, I have had chicken with rice/sweet potato and veggies for
lunch at least 80% of the time. Jessica, on the other hand, doesn’t and
couldn’t do this; she very much needs variety!
What are your familys' goals and how have you mapped out the path?
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