Eating Clean with a Family

Many of us have been there.  We want to change how we eat, usually a new fad diet.  One of the reasons we fail is that, in addition to making our meals, we have to make a meal for our partner and maybe the family too.  (Of course, the fact that they are fad diets is another matter!)  I recently had a friend ask about how to go about starting clean eating while still making food for the family.

My personal experience with this was that my husband readily ate what I made.  The thing about clean eating is that it's about eating real., whole, natural foods.  So it's not a lot of weird recipes.  As a matter of fact, I think we both started to enjoy cooking and eating more because of the great blends of flavors we were beginning to experience.  My kids are adults, but still seem to live at home from time to time.  #1 Son is 25.  Even though he always asks, "Is this clean?" he still will eat about 90% of what I make.  My daughter doesn't mind if it's clean.  But even if they didn't ask, I'm not sure they would know the difference.

Probably the most notable difference is the switch to whole wheat flour.  There is a difference in taste and consistency, but personally, I can't stand the taste of white flour now.  This may be the toughest hurdle for your family though.  Trader Joe's sells a white whole wheat, so if you can get that, I would recommend it.  Of course the other big difference is that they will know you are now cooking more from scratch.

I am not suggesting you try to trick them, but eating clean is of benefit to everyone.  And, I agree, it's tough to try to cook twice ... once for them and once for you.  Plus it's extremely hard to stay on track when you're doing that, as you probably know.  But just starting cooking differently.  See what they say.  You may be surprised.

A Clean Eating Family!

The person that particularly asked the question about changing to clean eating with a family lives with her parents and her father is ill.  It's hard to get them to change their ways, I'm sure.  I know MR's parents are somewhat resistant, but when we cook they always eat it!  So while they may eat other things, when I am cooking they willingly eat what we eat.  The best suggestion I have here is that you ask to do the grocery shopping and they try to stick with only buying real food and move away from the prepackaged stuff.

Also MR loves his sweets.  His motto has always been, "Life is short, eat dessert first!"  And he still enjoys a treat now and then.  The difference is that he makes an effort to keep it clean.  We have both learned to enjoy food more.  For the real flavor of real food.

I hope this is helpful.  I hope you can be successful with clean eating!