There are certain questions I am frequently asked when people discover I used to be fat. One of them is in regards to cooking for other people. In case you didn’t know, we are a family of nine, and all those people like to eat, including myself. Whereas I used to be a drive thru queen, these days, we rarely eat out due to financial considerations. That leaves two options – either everyone is one their own, which isn’t practical, or someone has to cook. Fortunately, over the years I have moved from being ambivalent about cooking to finding joy in preparing meals for my family. I collect and adapt recipes like other people collect shoes, and often try new recipes, even if we are having company over.

This begs the obvious question. How do you prepare healthy, appealing meals while either losing weight, or maintaining a healthy weight? That this question would even be asked makes me once again feel the need to reiterate that if you are trying to lose weight using a plan that doesn’t encourage you to prepare your own meals then your chances for long term weight maintenance success are slim. (ie: Kristie Alley) There are several strategies you can use to prepare food for other people or for your own family while watching what you eat. Here are some simple ideas that I used while I was in process of losing 150 pounds and still use today.

Plan your meals- By simply planning what you and/or your family will eat for all meals during the week you will have taken your best first step at controlling your food and calorie intake. I got in the most trouble when I didn’t know what we were having for dinner. That is when we would order pizza, run through a drive thru or pick up something quick to prepare from the grocery store, like fried chicken nuggets, etc. (Here’s a meal planning worksheet you can use)

Adapt your recipes – Are there family favorites you don’t want to kick off the menu? In most cases you don’t have to. By looking at each ingredient you use and changing them or adapting them when necessary you can still enjoy your family’s favorites without blowing your weight loss plan. I’ve put together a tip sheet you can print for adapting recipes. If you change all the high fat ingredients to low fat, you have instantly adapted your recipe.  As long as your portion size is appropriate you can eat without guilt.

Involve your family- Family support is one of the greatest gifts. My class participants who have support from family and friends undoubtably have an easier time than those who don’t. Before changing everything you eat, sit down with the people who you are cooking for and discuss the changes you’d like to make. This could involve the cessation of purchasing high calorie/high sugar snacks, etc. By gathering input from everyone, it will make transitioning from fatty foods to healthier foods easier. This is what I did when I started losing weight. I explained my plan and asked for input. We decided together on a plan of action. We gradually changed some of our snacking habits, choosing to attack one thing at a time rather than changing everything at once. This worked well for us.

Believe me, I cook for a lot of people and I don’t always make everyone happy. (Especially the little guys!) By planning meals, adapting recipes and involving the family you will be able to successfully cook meals that everyone appreciates – and usually likes!!  Diane

P.S. My weight loss class tonight is on planning, and in doing some research, I came across this great article, Healthy Eating Begins at the Supermarket.  You know, as I’m sitting here writing this P.S., I just realized I’m not sure if you are supposed to add a postscript to a blog post – hmmm