I live at home, my dad is very overweight (with type 2 diabetes!) but he continues to cook unhealthy foods. I have asked him before to not bring around certain trigger foods, but he doesn't listen...last week he brought home a dozen krispy kreme doughnuts!

Plus evil advertising has convinced him that he can eat ANY baked good/ice cream/etc that is sugar free!!! These aren't really a problem for me, but they can be if I get into that "eating autopilot" mode.

On the other hand, my brother has the coveted "skinny gene" and eats whatever he wants - so he brings ben and jerrys home!

Living here is one of the main reasons that I haven't been able to lose weight in the past year... too much temptation! Any suggestions on how to handle this??? I know I can't be the only one!

Thanks!

Yes, I face similar challenges. My DH and DS are both slender and muscular and have never had to even think about what they eat. My 15 yr. old DD and 15 yr. old SD could stand to shape up and lose a few lbs., but like most teens they love Junk food. My SD has a part-time job and wastes all her money on eating junk. It drives me nuts to see her drinking 5 bottles of Dr. pepper each evening and eating several candy bars a day.

I'm really not jealous of the junk the kids eat, it's more I don't want them eating it cause it's unhealthy. I'm the cook in our household and I always prepare healthy meals for the family. I try my best to lead by example, but somtimes it just doesn't work. The good news is that now me, the girls and my son all workout at the gym, so at least they are moving their bodies, even though their food choices lack a lot to be desired.

As for your diabetic dad eating lots of SF sweets, I have a Diabetic Aunt that eats tons of regular sweets and just adjusts her insulin. No amount of talking will convince her this is not OK. She is very obese and can't walk 10 feet without getting out of breath.

Hi tofu,

Our lives must be pages from the same book! My dad is also a Type 2 diabetic and keeps loads of junk food in the house and my naturally skinny brother keeps a permanent stash of Pop-Tarts, Oreos, Hot-Pockets and coke in the cupboards. And not just little boxes - the GIGANTO ones from COSCO!!

I don't live with my parents/brother anymore, but I remember how challenging it was. You can try speaking with them - you know, pull on their heartstrings and tell them it's sabotaging your health goals to have all that crap in the house. I tried that, but still the junk kept making it's way in. I finally decided my best strategy was not to eat at home much. Luckily, at the time, I worked in a restaurant that had a number of healthy items on the menu. I generally ate my main meals at work and kept nutrition bars and energy shakes around for the mornings. My mantra when it came to the kitchen was this - "Don't even look!" - because I knew what I would find: temptation, and lots of it!

I'm not saying it was easy or I found the solution, but for what it's worth, that's my 2 cents.

Good luck!

My father and my brother aren't thin- well, my brother might be if he ate differently, but my dad is built the same way I am. The food environment is the same, though. Part of what helps me is having alternative versions of foods- instead of ice cream, I can eat frozen grapes. Instead of pizza, I can have a soy patty (tastier than it sounds). If I'm feeling especially sugar deprived I have diet green tea. That only goes so far, though, when you have a pepperoni pizza staring you in the face. I just have to think of it as not food, so I don't even consider the option of eating it. Really, sometimes you have to just say no, hard as it is.

Hey! I'd agree with ImpalaHoarder--you need to have your own food supply, just for you, that you can eat when faced with those tempting things they bring in. It sounds like they would probably stay away from your healthier choices, but if not, see if you can store your foods separately so they don't eat those, too. Then it's just (ha! "just"! not easy!) a matter of eating your foods and ignoring theirs. You'll be more successful if you have alternatives available.

It's unlikely you'll be able to change their habits, so you have to learn to work around them until you can get your own place.

I also agree that eating away from home, if you can find the right foods in restaurants, might also be a solution. But you gotta go home sometime... be prepared.

Jay

it is hard to diet when someone is bringing in things you don't want, shouldn't, eat. But, there are always going to be situtations where there is food like that. Where I work, someone is always bringing in "junk". Homemade goodies, donuts, those huge bagels....the list goes on. It's especially bad at Christmas, when all the doctors are bringing in their anual gifts too. All the good stuff, godiva chocolates, chocolate pretzels, cookies. You just have to learn to say no. It's always going to be there. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Just say "no". We know it's not easy, but it's the only way.

If you can't convince them not to bring the junk into the house, and you can't resist the temptation, why not install a combination padlock on a dedicated junk food cupboard? Yeah, it's not the usual kitchen decor, but whatever works!

This doesn't solve the problem of unhealthy cooking. Here you're going to have to exercise willpower and learn to say "no." But, I'd guess that your dad will start changing his cooking to accommodate your desire for healthy foods. No cook likes it when people don't eat the food s/he makes. If he doesn't, then offer to be the cook one or two nights a week, and make enough that you can eat the leftovers on the nights you don't cook.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Kim

Your father is a grown man and has the right to eat crap in his own home. You cannot control what he buys, cooks or eats, but you can control what you put in your mouth. Maybe when he sees your discipline and progress, he will begin to make small changes, but you cannot let your self-control be so fragile that it depends on his....especially when his is so lacking even in the face of a serious health problem.

Do you have a job? If so, buy food that fits your plan. If not (and you are over 16), get one, and buy food that fits your plan. It is your body, your life, your health. Make it work.

Good luck!

It's a difficult situation to be in when you're attempting to make substantial changes in your life in a less-than-supportive environment. When I was living at home and started changing my diet, the only way to ensure that I wouldn't dive into the cupboard for some cookies when hunger struck was to have my own food on hand, and plan my meals. There's really no way around that temptation other than to say "no" when it's staring you in the face, but that's a lot easier to do when you have alternatives on hand.

After moving out of my parents house and into a room rented from my friend, I'm finding it harder to avoid temptation - my friend's family do all they can to tempt me on a regular basis, including shoving freshly baked peanut butter cookies into my face (literally, I'll walk into the kitchen and suddenly have a cookie half an inch from my nose - and his wife bakes cookies 2 or 3 times per week). He actually takes joy in seeing me falter and encourages it if he sees me slip. It's interesting, considering the both of them have well over 100 lbs to lose each, so you would think they'd be more sensitive to the struggle.

In short, my advice is to just have your own food on hand and get in a mindset where the unhealthy foods are off limits. The bright side is that if you can survive and stick to your plan in that kind of environment, you can do it anywhere.

nothin's ever easy, is it. impala's idea of thinking of things as 'not food' has worked for me! in fact, i consider donuts to be 'bird food,' and have been known to crumble them and toss them outdoors!

the only thing that YOU can do is to take care of YOURSELF - as previous posters have said. and that means, for example, stress management so you don't go into eating autopilot, making sure that you PLAN what you're going to eat, and that you always ALWAYS have what you need on hand.

you're not going to be able to change your father, and certainly not your brother. you can only change yourself.

and you can do it! honest!

I think it helps to log and count the calories you eat There are a few online sites where you can do this for free. Right now I'm using http://caloriecount.com/, and Fitday is very popular as well.

Log things before you eat them. It's easier to resist cramming that 400 calorie donut into your mouth if you actually have to see what it will do to your calorie count for the day. It's tedious, but it's been helping me cope.