You can have kids and lose weight at the same time!
Losing weight while navigating family life is totally possible for you. After years of making sure everyone else was taken care of in terms of food, I started shifting my mindset to... "how can I take care of myself while taking care of everyone else? How can I make it easy on myself to be sure I am set up for success with the foods I enjoy and help me lose weight, while taking care of my family as well."
If you haven't listened to my first two podcasts on Dinner Drama and Helpful Dinner Tips definitely check them out for more guidance and how to reframe thoughts you might have about dinner with your kids.
Here are some of my favorite recipes that are family friendly and on protocol. As always, I want your meals to primarily include vegetables, fat, protein and fruit. I think the biggest key is this... find 10-15 recipes you like and your family likes, then rotate them. It makes prep easier, shopping easier and your life and weight loss EASIER.
In my family we have a sheet pan, sweet potatoes with nut butter and banana, broccoli parmesan, roasted vegetables with pesto, and refried beans on repeat with the occasional homemade pizza as a joy eat.
The number one thing I want you do is make sure you have something that YOU enjoy and will help move you closer to your weight loss goals. If that means roasting a tray of vegetables and have it available to eat in a pinch, that's perfect.
Below I've included a few videos on how I approach the protocol with my kid as well as childhood eating patterns and how they've translated into adulthood...patterns you might be looking to change for yourself and not pass on to your kids.
Breakfast weight loss options include:
frozen fruit smoothie with nut butter
hard boiled eggs and fruit
bacon and fruit
cheesy eggs and fruit
full fat yogurt with fruit and nut butter
apple or banana and nut butter
occasional oat waffle (*joy*)
Check out this post for my Smoothie and Oat Waffle Recipe
Some of my favorite family friendly recipes include:
Buffalo chicken stuffed peppers You can simplify this by getting a rotisserie chicken or throwing some in the Instant Pot
Instant Pot Garlicky Cuban Pork Serve with refried beans or Air fried Shoshito Pepper's if your kids can handle the spice.
Pasta night with Broccoli Parmesan. Try substituting sliced eggplant for Broccoli. You can simplify using no sugar added marinara and mozzarella cheese.
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes with Nut Butter and Banana
Throw a few sweet potatoes in the instant pot and use them as double duty for these Sweet Potato Quesadillas (Try one low carb tortilla on your protocol a week and see how it goes, plenty of my clients have lost weight keeping this their protocol)
French Onion Chicken on my blog post here.
Edamame and Spicy Fried Rice (watch for no added sugar)
Grilled Corn on the Cob with Butter and a Grilled Protein.
Other things I love to feed my kid to help make your life and lunch prep easier!
Avocado toast
overnight oats (in my blog post here)
These Zucchini Muffins
Note- *These things are not on protocol.* The Oat Balls can be made ahead of time and go great in a packed lunch. The Overnight oats are also easy to make ahead and serve a few days in a row. The Green Muffins, Flourless Banana and PB muffins, and Zucchini muffins can be made ahead of time and FROZEN so you can pop them into a lunch box in a pinch.
The Protocol and Kids
How Childhood Eating Habits are Showing Up in Adulthood
Want even more?