How to Stick to Your Diet When You’re Cooking for a Family

We all know how hard it is to stick to a diet under the best of circumstances. Willpower is a vulnerable thing … and without a strong motivation and good support network, it's easy to slip off the diet wagon.

Anyone who has ever tried to diet while cooking for a family knows how hard it is! Preparing good, satisfying meals that your family will eat at the same time you're watching you eat… this scenario can drive you over the edge!

Here are some tips and tricks on how to stay on your diet and eat healthily, while still preparing satisfying "family" meals!

• Chew Gum While Cooking

This sounds crazy, but chewing gum while preparing your meals has two main purposes. First, it gives your taste buds something to focus on (versus those delicious aromas wafting up to your nose!). Secondly, it greatly decreases the sampling that most of us do … that can often add up to a tremendous amount of calories! Keep a pack of sugar-free gum next to the stove, and pop in a piece each time you start to cook.

• Prepare healthier meals for the whole family.

Grilled chicken or fish, with steamed vegetables and rice can be satisfying for the whole family. There are a lot of great dieter's cookbooks as well that offer satisfying and healthy recipes -- your family may never even know you're serving them "diet food!" (And if you don't tell, I won't!)

• Serve your meals at the stove, not on the table.

Serve up each person's plate at the stove (or on the counter) instead of putting the prepared foods on the table. This will limit your opportunity to graze; those who want more can go back and get it!

• Serve up smaller portions for yourself.

You can eat what the family eats, especially if it's relatively healthy -- just in smaller portions. This is great training for changing your overall eating habits!

• Cook a relatively rich starch to go with your healthy meat and vegetable, but serve it only to your family.

You can make a package of fettuccine alfredo, for example to go with your broiled chicken and steamed broccoli, but you skip the rich starch and eat only the meat and vegetables. This is a great tip for those on low-carb diets as well, but it takes the pain out of "your diet" for your family!

• Skip the alcohol and have water (or sparkling water) instead.

Alcohol can decrease your inhibitions (making it harder to resist seconds) and also adds unnecessary calories. Sparkling water is a nice substitute; you can even have it in a wineglass if you want! If you get the sweetened water make sure it's sugar free!

• Use a healthy cookbook like the Weight Watchers ones to make healthy desserts.

Your family will probably never know the difference! Fresh fruit over ice cream (you skip the ice cream and only have the fruit) is another way to serve a satisfying dessert that is still within your diet.

• Enlist the support of your family.

Ask them not to snack around you, and to put away snack foods after they get into them.

The bottom line is that you can stick to your diet while cooking for your family. With some of these easy tricks, you can enjoy your diet and your family won't feel like they're suffering!