[frustrated mom]

I found this website about 8 yrs ago, and I am back now. We live in a very small town, that doesn't have WW meetings, and my 2 kids and my husband are very picky eaters. My daughter would eat anything, I think, if my son and husband wouldn't be so picky. If it isn't greasy and fatty, then my husband thinks it is healthy, so it probably tastes terrible. My husband needs to lose at least 50 lbs, and my son needs to have a healthy example set for him, so he doesn't fall into my husbands footsteps of unhealthy eating. I would like to lose 10 lbs. I just need the support and recipes that would be easy for a picky family. I browse through the recipes, and I love all of them, but it makes it hard to just make for me. I feel like my family is holding me back in losing the 10 lbs, that I want to lose, and then I also feel guilty for not keeping my family healthy. Any suggestions from anyone would be greatly appreciated. My husband only likes corn, peas, potatoes, zucchini, and squash. My son only likes green beans. It seems like such a hassle to force my kids to eat their veggies, and it makes meal time so unpleasant. HELP!

[aneleh]

If you want to set a good example for your children then you ALL need to be eating more healthily. You really should have a talk with your husband about it, that you don't eat whatever tastes good even if it's harming you and you certainly don't want your children to follow that way, because kids definitely imitate their parents!
But anyway, I definitely have to disagree that healthy food tastes bad.. it can but it doesn't have to. I find a great place to get recipes are from blogs:
http://www.ashleescooking.blogspot.com/
http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/index.php

Those are some to get you started.
There are also several books on recipes that 'hide' veggies in them so that picky eaters don't know. Such as 'Deceptively delicious'.
Good luck!

[iowamom]

Hi Frustrated Mom! I can sympathize with your situation. I have 4 kids...2 of which are extremely picky. They pretty much hate everything I cook(healthy or otherwise) and even when I make a meal everyone loves, they hardly eat anything. I've never seen kids like mine that just don't eat!

Anyway...I just started WW on my own the first of the year. I don't go to meetings or anything, I just do it at home by counting points. What I do is I let my family eat their normal stuff for breakfast and lunch (and I eat MY stuff) and all of our dinners are "healthy". I don't make anything special for me and then something for them...we all eat the same dinner like it or not. To stay on track w/the points I make only ww recipes for dinner and truthfully, they are really good. I've only made 2 recipes that were not that great. I bought a ww cookbook and have been trying something new almost every night. My entire family loves the chicken cordon bleu recipe from WW (it is on this site). It is so good!! Last night we had cheese stuffed manicotti with french bread (I even made the bread myself!). Everyone liked this also...except for my youngest who does not like tomato based sauces. But he loved the bread!

Healthy food can be prepared to taste yummy! Check out the recipes on this site. That is where I started until I got my cookbook, but I still look around at the recipes here too.

[beerab]

I think as women we always just want to make our families happy. I would eat terribly all the time because my husband didn't like what I made.

Finally I told him one day that I needed to be selfish and think about me. If we had children I'd tell him that we need to think of our children's health and that we can't eat this way anymore.

My husband wasn't too happy with it- we went from things like fried chicken, steak, mashed potatoes, and so on each night. To things like grilled chicken with tomatoes and zuccini- and so on.

At first he wasn't too happy with it- but with time he's found things he likes and things he hasn't liked. But my husband has lost 20 lbs since all the changes and I've lost 8 so far, so it's obviously working.

I would speak with hubby and tell him that things will change for dinner and that you want him to be supportive and tell the kids eat their dinner- and hey if they don't- then go to bed hungry- pick one it's tough love but with time they'll learn to like other things and will just eat it without fuss. I know I always ate what my mother put before me because if I didn't then I didn't get to eat anything else.

[frustrated mom]

I have told my husband that I'm sick of eating not as healthy as I would like, and watching everyone grab a bag of chips when they are hungry and just sit down and start eating away. He said, fine, then make healthy stuff for us. The problem is, it is all on my shoulders, and I feel responsible for myself, plus 3 others people, and I just wish that he would take some initiative and help. Plus, when we go to eat , he makes all the comments, about how it is o.k., and is this is what is supposed to taste like. We have tried the tough love, if you don't like it, go to bed hungry, but my son goes and make a pb and jelly sandwich, and I don't like that. He would sneak other food somehow. I guess I just need to bite the bullet, and go for it.

[chelley123]

frustrated- I know it is hard to keep healthy with a family who isn't on a diet but in your first post you listed several veggies that your hubby would eat. Why don't you try to find recipes that center on those veggies? Also I often make a meal that I can tweak for me and serve normally for my family (i.e. I have whole wheat pasta w/my spaghetti they eat regular pasta). Also, my son is a good eater so Idon't have a lot of insight on picky kid problems but YOU are the parents and if you say to eat dinner or don't eat you need to enforce it and not LET your son have PB&J instead. Also, in your recent post you say they said they would eat healthy but it's a lot of work. I think maybe you have reservations about WW and you want a reason not to do it. It's worth it so MAKE IT WORK!!!! I'm sorry if I sound rude I just wanted to put it in perspective.