Cooking for family, when they want potatoes
 

What do you do when you are the only person in your house eating locarb? :q:

I have some friends who cook for their families and need help. :help:

Any hints?

Thanks!! :D

It's a choice. If you really want to make the decision to go forward, you adapt to your surroundings.

I have 5 kids (who are all thin), who still eat the same stuff they ate before. I made the choice to say it was time to take care of my situation and I don't expect them to eat the same stuff as I do and vice-versa. I have noticed that their carb intake has decreased, and I think it has alot to do with a new attitude that they see me (and my wife) with. But if they want fries with their burger, or a bowl of spaghetti, we cook it for them. We then proceed to eat the things we're supposed to. If this is for the rest of my life, and not just while I'm dropping some weight, I might as well get used to eating stuff that may differ from those around me. After years of poor dicipline that left me 150 lbs. overweight, it's time to get past the point of using others as a crutch for my own lack of control.

I guess I never really made it an issue. I do let the kids help a lot in the planning though. Instead of saying what do you want .. which ends in bad things half the time I present a choice such as, "what would you guys like to go with our main dish tonight? We have cauliflower with butter and chives, broccoli casserole or salad? (just as an example) Anyway, rarely do they say, "oh but I wish I had potatoes instead"

We also try to make sure that once and a while everyone gets that special thing that they miss like potatoes, mac and cheese or whatever it might be. Sometimes we accomplish it through going to a restraunt where everyone can get what they like, other times I will take the time to make a special dinner. I want my family to make better choices but I don't feel its fair to deny them the little things that they love forever. I wouldn't know how to handle someone that demanded potatoes with every meal though. That would be a tough thing.

I agree w/ Steve. My DH is thin and fit, he does not need to do LC at this point as he has no problems with carb cravings or his health.
At dinner (the only meal we eat together) I always cook lean: chicken breasts, pork loin, lean beef etc. and prepare some sort of grain/carb side for him as well as a big salad and veggie sides for the both of us. That way we can eat and enjoy our meals together while I eat my higher fat foods for breakfast and lunch. (i don't want my WOE to mess up his health by cooking high fat options while he is still eating carbs.)

I cook those potatoes for them. i just dont eat them. A lot of times i cook a regular meal for them, and just add an extra veggie or something for me and i just have the main dish. once in awhile i will slip them a low carb casserole or quiche and they do not know the difference.

My whole family follows a modified low carb menu at home now, but for the first 18 months or so I cooked the same way I did before and just left the carbier side dishes for them to eat.
If those types of foods tempt you, keep those dishes on the opposite side of the table from you and see if you can enlist someone else to pack away any leftovers.

I cook what I want to eat and anyone else can either eat with me or cook their own food. It has worked out well and very seldom does anyone else want to fix something besides a snack. So if your potato eaters want potatoes, let them fix them and, of course, clean up after themselves.

It didn't take long for the non-LCers to decide that eating LC was tasty and nutritious.

The meal that we eat together is supper. That is healthy low carb. The family is subjected to enough carbs when they eat the other 2 meals. Everyone gets plenty to eat and it at least cuts down on the starch for the day.

My kids are 5 & 8. Not quite old enough to prepare anything by themselves. So for lunch they get their carbs in the way of chicken nuggets & such. Supper is low carb. Tonight I fixed Italian Beef & green beans. I set the buns out for those who did not want to eat it off their plates.

Most menus are pretty adaptable I've found.

It only made sense to me that if low-carbing is a healthier way of eating why shouldn't everyone in the household benefit? Four of us follow Atkins and one doesn't (doesn't need to), and what I've done with him is cut out most junk carbs and at the same time increased his fat intake (things like whole milk instead of 2%, etc.).

A lot of times his 'carbs' for dinner is a piece of bread. Other times it varies. Sometimes he gets to missing macaroni and cheese so we could him some, let him eat it and throw the rest out to the animals. Today he wanted french fries so we cooked him a few. The great thing is he's a huge veggie and fruit eater so getting him to eat the good stuff is a snap. One of his favorite dishes is taco salad with which he gets tortilla chips if he wants. Most of the time he even forgoes the tortilla chips.

I really think it's all about choices. Just because a kid is skinny today doesn't mean they will be 10 years from now (I'm a classic example--skinny until age 10). Teach them to eat healthy from the get-go and chances are they won't run into weight problems down the road and if they do by then they should know what to do about it.

I still cook potatoes practically every meal, my husband is a masonry contractor and works his tail off so I figure he deserves to have potatoes if he wants them. I dont even crave them anymore after a year, and I just fix myself the faux cauliflower potatoes they are so good. I fix mine with some cheese and bacon on top, makes me wonder why I never did that before lcing. I also make fried squash and other things I want when Im making them their fries and such. I guess I have tons of willpower because I have chips, ice cream, all kinds of stuff here and never even look at it. And when I get to go to the pool or the beach in my size 5 bikini its all worth skipping.

The only differences between my food and my BF's is that his is vegetarian. He doesn't need potatoes and carby side dishes any more than I do.

If they want the potatoes that badly, bake a few and serve them whole so there's minimal temptation. But I bet they'd learn to get used to mashed cauliflower, spaghetti squash, and other healthier vegetable side dishes.

I've got a slim husband (6'5") and 3 sons (3 skinny teenagers and a 6 year old) so I buy all the things I did before and do what others have said - make extra veggies and I'll have the meat and extra lc veggies and skip the potatoes/rice/pasta. I make carby casseroles for them when I have leftovers for myself and when we have spaghetti I put the sauce over a bed of spinach with cheese. I make sure the seasonings on the meat or the sauces are all LC and nobody minds.

We rarely have desserts but when we do they're usually LC (tonight we had sf jello with whip cream sweetened with da vinci syrup).

Nicole