I've got two short blurbs that might help you feel better about a decision to toss out the junk food. Anecdotes are fun!

First.

My mother has had weight issues since she was a little girl, and by the time she had kids and started a family, she had given up the battle and settled into an obese lifestyle, shopping with an obese mindset, and so growing up none of us kids had any structure or knowledge of what counted as a good meal or portion control. This did not bother me for 20 years, I had a lightning fast metabolism and ate just as much if not more than my little sister, who became obese as a young adolescent.

My metabolism stalled when I was about 20 years old, and now that the playing field has been levelled, neither my sister or I have a practical understanding of building healthy meals, and both of us are struggling with our weight. I am an adult now so I am responsible for my own choices, but each adult is at least in part molded by their parents and environment, because for 18 years kids do not get much of a say in terms of how food is prepared.

I wish my mother had cooked more food healthy and fresh and less out of cans and boxes, because I would probably not be in the situation I am in now considering what a great opportunity I had before my metabolism slowed. When I look at food on a plate, I naturally fill it up like I grew up to expect. When I shop, I pick up a lot of the same canned and boxed convenience foods, like Kraft Dinner, because I had seen my Mom do it a million times.

Whether you are aware of it or not, your children will pick up on these things as they grow up. Even when they are following you in the grocery store texting on their cell phones they are passively observing what foods you are picking up off the shelves, and they will more than likely pick up the same foods when they move out or head off to college. You can't make food choices for them, but you can certainly set a good example!


Second.

My Mom had dieted her whole life, and while there were occasional cupboard clean-outs they did not become permanent until she had a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy last year. She had lost interest in food after that, and her shopping reflected that - it was not so much an active, conscious choice to shop smarter for her family, but she went from buying ice cream to greek yogurt, reading labels, and buying less things in bulk, etc.

My Dad and teenaged brother were chubby because of the food they were eating for years, but after my mom's surgery and her altered shopping habits, both of them have slimmed down over the past year as well. Neither of the boys were willing to shop for themselves, so they made due with the food in the house, and are better for it. Neither of them were dieting, my Dad actually started cooking his own meals (Mom can only eat a half a cup of food at a time so she doesn't), but my Dad can only cook with what my Mom has brought home, so the meals became healthier.

My Dad whined a bit at first, but he and my brother have passively improved their diets as a result of my mother's very calculated, carefully measured shopping methods now.

TLDR: Your shopping habits can send very big messages! For better or worse, you lead by example when you are controlling food and meals.