Family Diet

 It's difficult to establish healthy eating habits that will accommodate all the personalities and tastes for everyone in a family. Use the tips below for prioritizing weight loss goals and supporting the maintenance of a healthy weight for everyone in your family.  One size does not fit all is the first rule of preparing meals for families. Regardless of age, individuals develop preferences for specific foods and a dislike of others. Use alternatives as a way to allow your family to choose from among several choices. You can do this without much extra food preparation time such as offering broccoli and including a can of beans as an alternative to the broccoli during meal times.   Do not snack while you prepare meals to avoid consuming extra calories that will defeat weight-loss goals. One thing you can try is chewing gum while you're preparing meals. While there will be times that you'll want to taste your recipes, confine these tastes to tiny tastes of food that you take once rather than repeatedly while you're cooking.   Do not encourage your family with the take it or leave it approach to your menu choices by allowing children to eat a sandwich instead of the meal you prepare. Instead serve enough alternative items so that they can eat more of a preferred food and less or none of a less desired food.   If not everyone in your family has specific weight loss goals, focus on encouraging healthy eating rather than calorie-counting. The menu is frequently similar for weight loss and healthy eating habits so that you won't have to prepare multiple meals.  Don't focus on the number of times a week you allow a snack but instead focus on portion control to encourage a healthy weight, focus on your family's eating. Limiting the number of times a week your child can have dessert or a treat frequently backfires and encourages the child to overeat when they have the truth because they know they only have it once in a while.  You may not be able to really eat every meal you're serving to your family. Have a salad prepared or cut veggies or fruit so that you can sit with your family but can avoid the calories from eating every full meal you serve.   Do not limit what your family can eat when you go visiting or to a party at someone's home. If you notice that any or all of your family members overeat at social occasions you can limit those occasions, or have them at your own home where you can control the eating.  Discourage your family from advising each other about eating habits by refraining from advising others. Your goal is to have each individual grow into a person who watches his or her own weight and chooses a healthy diet for himself.  You can approach weight loss as a family affair and still accommodate the different tastes and weight loss needs of each family member. Use the tips above to create a family-friendly approach to healthy eating and weight loss.