Still cooking for your family?

How do you manage to stay on your plan and also cook for your family (husband and son age 15)?

I work at an elementary school and plan on having VSG in June when school lets out. I will be home all day so it's not very fair to make my husband cook dinner when he gets home, even though he gladly would.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I have never changed how i cook for my family - I just eat the protein and a healthy veg and I'm pretty much full - then I sit with them til they finish, lol

I made my family fend for themselves when I was on liquids. However, I did a lot of bulk cooking prior to surgery, so the freezer was very well stocked.

After that? I just cooked meals and I still do. My healthy eating is healthy for everyone else in my family. Crap food isn't good for them either, so I'm not going to prepare it for them. I'm feeding myself and two adult men who have not had WLS.

What this actually looks like is this:

I only cook dinner. Lunches and breakfasts are leftovers or fend for yourself.

I cook dinner 5 nights a week because 2 nights are leftover nights due to scheduling.

2 nights of the week I only cook a protein. This is because if I made full meals every night, we'd end up with way too many side dishes leftover that weren't getting eaten.

3 nights of the week I cook a full meal. This is either an integrated dish (like a stir fry or casserole) or a protein with a separate side. I will often do something like roasted potatoes. If it's a sauce for pasta, I'll make pasta for the guys and just have the sauce for myself. Ditto if it's something like a curry. The guys get rice, I just eat the curry.

In addition, there is always rice in the fridge. (I've got a rice cooker, so it's easy to replenish the supply as necessary.) There are often tortillas as well.

So it's super easy. I started cooking again when I got to pureed foods - I'd just puree whatever it was that I cooked for the family. Yum. On the protein only nights I do tend to cook way more than we need because of the leftover needs of the family. So, for example, I might grill up 4-5 skirt steaks and make chimichurri to go with them. Then I can have that for dinner and lunch, the guys can add in rice for lunches, etc.

My regular meal plan looks like:

protein shake for breakfast (I don't like solid food in the morning)

leftovers for lunch (or deli meat or baked seasoned tofu - I tend to keep these things around for my lunches)

home cooked meal for dinner

I've been doing this for three years now and it works out super well :D If the guys want food other than what I'm cooking, they can order it when we go out to eat (which is infrequently) or they can stop by a store while out. Occasionally they do make requests that aren't VSG-friendly, but these are infrequent so I'm happy enough to comply. I'll eat a me-sized portion of the thing for dinner, and then they're responsible for demolishing the leftovers.

I haven't changed the way I cook either. Cook a main protein and veggie about 4-5 nights per week. If the meal requires pasta, potatoes or rice I just skip that part. I do sip tea while making dinner so I don't pick at any food while preparing it...seems to help me:-)

I have always just cooked for my family like normal and when the time comes for you to eat solids then you will choose the protein and veg from what you offer the family!

yep, my vsg was two years before DH. So I would cook a protein main dish, veggies, and make a baked potato or have some bread items for him. With a teenage boy you may need snack foods around but get ones that don't tempt you and keep them out of sight. Soup makes a good meal and can be high protein low carb too. You can do this. Diane S

My son's wrestling coach was elated with what I cooked for the family, and all I did was trade the starch of the meal for another vegetable, so the 3 courses was meat and 2 veggies. They got their carb fixes when we went out to eat. You won't be eating much of it, but other than that, everyone will benefit. They don't need those daily carbs, either.

My 15 and 17yo have adjusted to anything I may have changed... I will still make regular pasta dishes ON OCCASION (and I eat it either just the sauce, or over a piece of chicken or cottage cheese)...

When I do make something totally low carb, I make mashed cauliflower, riced cauliflower, zoodles, etc... and they all love them. The KEY is using spices, and learning how to get the water out of these veggies before trying to make them into something like mashed potatoes... takes practice, but honestly, they all love it

Then there are fend for yourself nights, and nights that I make their favorite carb to go with the meat/veggie I'm making and I just don't eat it.

I still have things that usually don't tempt me around for them... tortillas, bagels, popcorn, etc...

My daughter actually is gravitating more and more towards high protein all on her own (Her Easter basket was filled with various 'healthier' protein bars instead of any candy... she LOVED it).

Why is it "unfair" to have him cook for himself for a bit while you prepare for and recover from a major surgery? ... and while we're on the subject the 15 year old could stand to learn to cook and he's going to be home all day too. My son is also 15 and I have a 21 year old daughter as well. Everyone in the house is old enough to feed themselves. I have introduced both the kids to cooking things for themselves over the years and they even seem to enjoy it.

But I digress ... yes, I still cook for the family about 5 days a week - dinner only. I don't really have a problem staying on plan .. because I simply cannot eat that much. The truth is that they now eat "on plan" too. I stopped buying ALL snack foods completely ... too bad for them .. I told both the kids if they wanted snack foods they can get a job and buy it themselves (HA!). My husband is diabetic and doesn't need the snack foods either. I guess the biggest challenge I faced was on my daughters birthday .. I DID buy a nice chocolate cake and ice cream .. the single biggest temptation there is for me ... I ended up having a sliver of cake about the size of a pack of cards and a tablespoon of ice cream. After that I didn't touch the stuff and I didn't really want it. (that is kind of an eye opener ... the fact that I don't WANT the junk food anymore)

I DID have a problem with other people eating around me during the pre-op diet though, and made myself very clear that I was not cooking anything for anybody. I continued to not cook while I recovered for 2-3 weeks after surgery. I COULD have cooked mind you, I was fully capable of doing it .. I just didn't want to at the time.

The point is ... you take care of YOU ... the men in your life can take care of themselves in the mean time.