Here at Breakthrough M2, 85% of our clientele are women, and about 50% of those women have kids at home.  Healthy eating with kids is a challenge but most of our clients have used our suggestions and been able to get real weight loss results while juggling busy family life, career, and extracurricular activities.

The first time I did my weight loss program, I had two older teenage boys and a 13-year-old girl.  I had three different sports schedules to juggle along with my full-time job as a high school math teacher.  The weight loss program I did (very much like the one we’ve created) was/is very structured and as long as I was prepared and my food was prepped, I was able to stay the course and have daily success which helped me achieve losing 50 pounds in 65 days.

I understand for many, meal time prep for the family is work and the idea of having two different meals prepared could be overwhelming.  But healthy eating with kids while you are trying to work on your goal is possible.  My weight loss program’s structure includes eating two fruits a day. If you have a fruit bowl, get one for the kids, too.  Let them know your fruit is specific to what you need, but they are going to get more variety in their bowl. Being on a structured diet could easily help you create healthy eating habits for your kids. 

Healthy eating habits for kids starts with us! Accessible healthy snacks, a routine, and leading by example will help develop life long, great habits.  Photo Credit: https://www.pexels.com/@mccutcheon

You don’t change everything about the way you are cooking for them.  If they are used to having fish sticks, then leave it alone, let them eat those fish sticks, but you will have your meal already prepped.  Meanwhile, you can take the time to show them why your meal is healthy, discussing portion control, balanced meals, and not using processed ingredients.

Here’s How I Did Healthy Eating With Kids

Sometimes I could have the same meal they were having minus the mac-n-cheese, of course. But, I created two shopping lists, one for me, and the usual list I had for my family.   I decided that I needed to take care of myself first and then when I was done with my journey, I would try and implement some of my new healthy eating habits for my kids.  

I chose to do this for a couple of reasons. One, I could not mentally deal with trying to change them and be stressed about whether they were going to comply.  I only wanted to focus on changing me and losing weight.  I was not up for possible arguments about why they had to eat my diet food.  The second reason I chose to do it this way was that I needed to do weekly food prep so I could always be prepared and not scrambling. On a Sunday after grocery shopping, I would put their stuff away and then prep all my food for the week.  Each day, I could pull out my food and easily just up for success and developed great habits after the diet was over.  That was the biggest reason why I was able to keep the weight off!