Hi Everyone
I attended Kathleen's class last night and something hit home. I want to eat better and feed my family healthy meals. My situation is probably similar to most. My spouse and I both work and have busy schedules especially keeping up with our teenage athlete. We eat out atleast 5 times a week sometimes much more. I wear a size 6 and maintain my weight through lots of weights and cardio my husband has a size 38 waist and has the stomach bulge and love handles, he works out very little. He will follow my lead no doubt but I'm ashamed to say my lead so far has been to eat all most of the time. Its time together as a family and theres no mess to clean up afterwards. (hows that for justification) Help me guys! How do I get started? I want to set a better example for my spouse and child but a chef I'm not.

Welcome to the board. I agree with the idea that kit meals would be helpful. Think of ONE extra meal in per week. How can you eat out 4 times per week?
I have to plan, plan and then plan. If I do not have the shopping list or ingredients for dinner, I go out or eat crackers and cheese. Can you plan for just a small step in the right direction?

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Originally posted by hrjunkie:
Guys thank you so much for the helpful hints. Doing good today we both enjoyed oatmeal for breakfast and a salad for lunch, however, dinner is always a challenge for us. We are motivated!!! or trying hard to be. Any and all advice is appreciated.

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Are you headed out for dinner tonight? Try seeing if there is an entree you can share or maybe an appetizer and each have a salad. Also, one thing I make myself do is read the entire menu to identify the healthiest choices on the menu. I used to head straight for the sandwiches, pastas, etc and not even read the salad selections. One of my babysteps is to at least identify the best choices even if I don't necessarily wind up ordering them. I actually usually do pick something at least better if not the best.

Peg

Guys thank you so much for the helpful hints. Doing good today we both enjoyed oatmeal for breakfast and a salad for lunch, however, dinner is always a challenge for us. We are motivated!!! or trying hard to be. Any and all advice is appreciated.

quote:

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Originally posted by hrjunkie:
My spouse and I both work and have busy schedules especially keeping up with our teenage athlete. We eat out atleast 5 times a week sometimes much more.

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Others have given you ideas about cooking in, but I would like to share with you some of the things I do for eating out. I have just the opposite of you, I am single, but am busy as well. Sometimes it is just easier to eat out than cook for one. But I have found, like you, that if you are not careful eating out is a high calorie/fat trap. Here are some of the things I do.

Fast Foods:
Both Mcd's and Wendys (and many others now)have wonderful salads. pass on the toppings and thier dressings and either ask for FF or use your own FF.

You can also order the grilled chicken with out condiments and not eat the bun. Order a side salad and if they offer it a fruit dish (McD's fruit dish is very good)

At more traditional resturants you can talk with the waiter and make sure that things are cooked with your requirements.

• Fish prepared without butter or oil and sauces on the side, meat grilled, not fried with oil.
• Ask how things are prepared.
  
• You can also ask for double veggies instead of a potatoe.
• Pass on the bread and butter.
• Ask for the take home box when the entre comes and immediately put half in the box and only eat half your entre at the resturant
• I have also asked if the chef could create a pasta dish with fresh veggies and not fat or sauce..many times they will.

In more upscale resturants they will also accomodate your wishes, and if you leave room for the chef to be creative, i have received some wonderful low fat healthy entres. If they give you greif, remember that you are paying for it and kindly explain that you have dietary restrictions. But really these days more and more people are making healthy food choices that there is usually something on menues that will accomodate healthy eating.

One last thing is that when I find resturants that offer healthy choices, I tend to patronize them frequently and let them know that is why i come.

One way to kind of combine eating out and eating at home is to do things like picking up a roasted chicken from the deli and adding your own fresh veggies/salad/grain dish, etc to complete the meal. Many grocery stores are now offering both chicken and turkey breast that have been roasted on site. There is one store where I live that even offers italian beef fresh made and sometime will have fish as well, but I find that for fish they use butter to cook it in.

Just some ideas that I have used to eat out healthy. Hope they inspire you to other ideas.

jackie

Welcome, hrjunkie! Heck, you don't have to worry about being a chef. I was never even taught to cook as a kid and I've been eating healthy for a year now. It doesn't HAVE to be complicated at all! It just requires a bit of planning and organization, that's all. Sure, that will take some getting used to if it's not part of your current routine, but it will come easy once you start actually fitting it into your life.

Baby steps are huge, as grrlscout said. It's SO easy to feel overwhelmed when you're trying to change everything at once! Don't! Just pick one thing to get started on...could you try brown and wild rice instead of white one night? Could you steam your veggies rather than cooking them in butter or topping them with cheese sauce? Step by step, you can make your way there.

Bravo to you for wanting to set a healthy example for your whole family!

Welcome to you!
I think one of the things you may want to consider are Kathleen's Kit Meals. These are dinner ideas that you can through together in no time and have a healthy dinner on the table instead of eating out. Some of my kit meals are ww pasta w/shrimp and veggies (I keep frozen shrimp on hand at all times and chopped veggies in the fridge). With a bit of goat cheese and fresh basil - it's delicious. You could also make some ww pizza dough on the weekends and freeze it and have a pizza night one day of the week. We also do alot with black beans - quick and easy tortillas with canned black beans, salsa, tomatoes, lettuce and low fat cheese.

My other thought would be to try to find an organic restaurants/health food restaurant in your area for at least one of your meals out.

Welcome and congratulations on making the committment for a healthier family!

A key ingredient in our philosophy is "baby steps." Trying to do it all at once is a recipe for distaster. So your first task is to figure out your first baby step.

My suggestion would be to set aside one night a week say, Fridays, that is your scheduled eat at home night. Make a big deal out of it! Ask your family about something they've wanted to try (japanese? something spicy? something "homey"?). Or try to re-create a healthier homemade version of a dish you like to order when dining out. Pick a theme, even.

Before dine at home day, plan your menu and make your shopping list. When the day comes, encourage the fam to help out. It can be fun!

If this seems like too much at once, you can ease into it by buying part of your meal out, and making the rest at home. For instance, you can pick up a baked chicken at the grocery store, and make salad and a side at home.

If this works out well, you can add more dine at home days, as well as faster / simpler at home meals on other days.