She is 13! Her grumble was "why should YOUR diet effect the family ? Its not fair".
To be more specific she is unhappy that I don't make my homemade lasagna anymore and my new lesser calorie pork paprika " isn't the same as it used to be".
In my defense I haven't actually looked at my lasagna recipe to see if I can lower its calories (or work out a portion size to suit my limits). And she hasn't asked for it so I just plain forget about it.
As for my pork paprika... It used to be over 1000 calories for one portion!!! I got it down to half that. Mainly by halving the rice portion and cutting out 300mls of sour cream I used to use. Cream, I should add, that my daughter used to complain there was too much of!!
Maybe she is just being a moody teen and this is one I can't win! But it is hard dieting or changing eating habits when you live with other family members!!
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CrimsonMama
Restart June 2023
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Having children who are light and healthy is a positive thing don't be feeling guilty for that!!! Being a touch skinny as kids /teens has been shown in studies to set up for healthy slim adulthood
It is just awed how much more weight they lost than me. I.e. I am struggling and they don't want to lose weight but they do. Not too skinny, though, they look good and healthy.
Yes it is very hard I cannot more agree with you. I have been cooking for myself separately for the last 2 weeks and it is hard to resist eating what I cook for them 😂
CrimsonMama, I am the mother of two teenagers, 13 and 16, and they are indeed moody sometimes 🤯 They do criticize some of the food I cook, but mainly the amount of vegetables. At the same time, they are both quite interested in what’s healthy and how to stay fit.
When I cook for the whole family, I make sure that their portions are not calorie restricted. I might opt out of the rice, pasta, bread and potatoes, but they don’t need to. Especially my son who’s 16 and underweight because he grows like a weed! .
I think we are doing them a huge favour by serving wholesome, good, nutritious meals. So many children are overweight, even obese these days.
You are leading by example and she will thank you later!
Thanks for the reply! I do give my daughter bigger portions than my own and she likes more variety of vegetables than I do so I often cook separate portions to add to her meals. Its mainly weekends which are effected as it has traditionally been the days I cook the bigger family meals (like roast dinner!). I thought I was doing pretty OK as I have managed to keep most of everything we had the same but with small adaptions - mainly just to my portion. I sometimes even cook my bit in a separate pan as it has been weighed so if anything it should only impact myself! I still put full fat cheese on her meals but 50% reduced fat cheese on mine.
I do have hopes that my weight loss journey will benefit both my daughters in the future. They are not that interested now but I hope they will remember and learn from me about maintaining their weight and the benefits of exercise but if they DO get overweight/obese in their adult life then they can also follow my example to lose weight too.
I also hope that they benefit from my diet. They don't mind it and there is always option for more. Yet, the little twist in the diet does have an impact on the children.
I am managing this by various tactics. For example, I take the pasta sauce, and add to zoodles for me and regular pasta for the kids.
For lasagne I take smaller portion for me. I also tried making a lasagna with occasional parboiled leek layers (unrolled!!!) to reduce the pasta sheets, and upped the vegetables in the sauce. Then the kids can always have some bread and butter with it.
For the pork paprika meal, maybe you can give them a side of rice or just put the cream on the table with a spoon! I do this with bifidus yogurt for curries etc if it’s too spicy.
Oops sorry courgetti... courgette noodles.... where courgette is called zucchini in US so various recipes refer to zoodles. I bought an attachment for my food processor.
I reckon you can cut that lasagne down to size perhaps use half the amount of sauce and go easy with the cheese, have half a portion yourself and load up with salad and a tasty dressing
Thank you! I am going to look into my lasagna recipe! I think I will have to work out a separate dish for myself (which uses most of the same ingredients) and then the kids can have "the usual" as they are used to!!
Mine is to finely grate one beetroot to the minced meat. It doesn't overpower it, healthy and saving money. Colour blends with tomato sauce.
It's probably just the natural reaction to change that most ppl go through - once she's had her rant and rave she'll get used to the new food and it'll be her new normal. You can only be doing her a favour by a) feeding her healthy, wholesome foods and b) modelling self care and good nutrition. She's just too young to see it now but chances are, if you're consistent and stick with good food forever, she will look back and be grateful for this.
That's what I figured with portion sizes! It seems crazy that my 13 year old has a bigger portion than me!! But I understand growing children need more calories etc. But at the same time I want her to know what a sensible portion is! I mean, its because of portion sizing getting out of hand that our nation overeats in the first place!!
Depending on who else is in your family and kitchen space you could encourage to either cook for herself 1 weekend meal to give her some autonomy over her own food choices and hopefully she’ll have some healthy recipes down before heading out into the big wide world.
That's a good idea! Although she can get pretty lazy over wanting to do ANYthing these days! But she might want to do the lasagna once I figure out my portion so I can just change the bits I need to, like lower fat cheese, on my side.
I do not have any children but you can use cottage cheese for lasagne and carbonara, my other half is a fussy eater and apart from putting extra cheese on his he ate it.
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