How to Lose Weight Whilst Feeding Your Family

Providing healthy and tasty food for your family whilst trying to lose weight can feel like a
tall order, but I promise it can be done.

You don’t need to sit at the dinner table, watching everyone stuff themselves whilst you
push a lettuce leaf around your plate.

In fact, you don’t have to go hungry at all. (Unless you’re experimenting with Intermittent
Fasting which is actually super fun and surprisingly easy. Although if you currently have
carb cravings you’ll want to sort them out first.)

Today we are welcoming, Dr. Orlena Kerek, a pediatric doctor turned weight loss coach and blogger. She is sharing some tips on how to lose weight while feeding a family. 

What Sort of Food Are You Going to Eat?

The big question, when you’re planning to lose weight is to decide how you’re going to
change your eating habits.

You do have to change them. (If you’re gaining weight and carry on eating in the same way,
you’ll carry on gaining weight.) But it doesn’t have to be difficult or “depriving”.
I teach my clients to make changes that are easy and fun! (Yes, it’s totally possible.)

Too Many Refined Carbs Increase Your Insulin Levels

Insulin is the hormone that helps us store energy. When it’s high, we’re in “fat storage
mood”. Not great if you want to access that fat and burn it off.

Our insulin levels go up when we eat too much, too frequently and we eat lots of refined
carbohydrates.

Eating less frequently (cutting out snacks) is a good way to reduce the number of times you
have an insulin spike.

Eating whole grains and unrefined carbs in the form of vegetables is another fantastic way to
reduce your insulin levels.If you have kids, you might find that difficult. Many kids don’t like vegetables.

If you have kids who aren’t fussy, you can make lots of fantastic swaps. For example, cauliflower rice is super easy and spikes your insulin levels far less than refined white rice. Also, Cannellini beans make a great mash instead of white potatoes that will spike your insulin.

Editor’s note: We “hid” vegetables in fried rice (which was really a mix of brown rice and cauliflower) when the Gym Craft Laundry kids were little. Eventually it became less rice and more veggies. 

Healthy For You Healthy for Your Kids

If you’re lucky enough to have kids who eat all sorts, you can cook meals that will help you
lose weight and be healthy meals for your kids. Teaching your children to eat vegetables is
one of the best healthy eating habits that you can nurture.

If your kids are picky and you want to lose weight.

Let’s face it, life with picky kids is slightly more tricky whatever you want to do. Unless I
cook Spaghetti Bolognese every single day, someone is sure to complain. (2 out of my 4 are
“officially picky”!)

You still want to cook lots of healthy vegetables. Even if you’re the only one who’ll eat them!
I have found that “deconstructed” or “picnic” meals work best with picky eaters. Separate
different ingredients and present them as separate dishes. For example, I don’t put a mixed
salad on the table. I put out a bowl of lettuce, a bowl of cucumber and a bowl of tomatoes. (It
depends how far you want to go with this.

I’ll do a vegetable curry, I just don’t mix it with rice or cauliflower rice.)

My kids won’t touch cauliflower rice. Sometimes I cook it and my husband and I eat it.
Sometimes I cook plain rice that the kids will eat. I will either have a small portion or skip it.
I don’t ever go hungry. The sauce is full of vegetables and I eat a lot of it! (I’ve made the sauce
myself so I know it doesn’t have added sugar.)

I prefer to not eat refined carbs. So I don’t.

Cut Out Desserts and Refined Sugar

Refined sugar and flour are 2 good ways to push your insulin levels up. We want to avoid
that.

Desserts aren’t essential for nutritional reasons so cutting back on them is a good idea. We
don’t want to teach our kids they have to have dessert and sweet treats all the time.
Healthy desserts are delicious if you have a sweet tooth. (If you’re used to lots of sugar, your
body will find it difficult at first. Our taste buds regenerate every few weeks. To begin with,
they won’t taste the flavours in the lower sugar food. Once they’ve regrown, you’ll be used
to less sugar and will taste the flavours.)

We love fruit desserts. (My general policy is to throw it in the oven which brings out the natural sweetness.)
Yoghurt is another family favourite. Full fat, no added sugar greek style yoghurt. You can
add nuts, dried fruit or fresh fruit. And a teaspoon of honey for your kids if they want. (That
isn’t going to help you lose weight.)

Our all time family favourite is mascarpone, a full fat creamy cheese from Italy. Served with
fresh peaches. So simple and so tasty!

The Second Big Weight Gain Reason

The other big reason that people put on weight is due to a “poor biome”. Your biome is all
the bugs in your intestines. In recent years scientists have found out some amazing things
about our biome. How it affects our behaviour, our health and our weight.

Find out more about the biome on Dr Orlena’s Fit and Fabulous podcast: How to Lose
Weight With Your Biome

If you have a biome that has “unhealthy” bacteria, there’s lots you can do.

Eating vegetables, a large variety of them, is one of the main things you can do to improve your biome. Don’t just stick to the same three.

Healthy Eating for You and Your Family

The best way to lose weight is to eat a healthy diet.

Sometimes you need to do a “reboot” to begin with and you definitely need to give your body a chance to use up the fat.

You can do those things at the same time as feeding your family a healthy diet. In fact,
whilst you’re busy concentrating on your body and nutrition, you’ll find that you naturally
feed your family more healthy food. Win win!

Try Out My Recipe Service

If you’d like some help losing weight, I’d love to offer my services. I’m Dr Orlena Kerek. I’m
a “pediatric doctor turned weight loss coach”. I work with ambitious moms one on one to
lose weight by healthy eating. I have 4 kids, 2 who are very picky so I know all about meal
time stress!

One of my big stresses was meal planning. Am I allowed to say I hated it? I’d spend so long
deciding what to cook, knowing that no one would eat it anyway!

I tried meal planning services but couldn’t find one that suited me. So I created my own. It’s
called “My Kitchen Miracles”.“My Kitchen Miracles”. I invite you to try it for free. Each month I pick 20 (or more) healthy meals. Meals that are quick, easy and tasty. And healthy. Nothing super complicated. Just food that I’m happy to eat and serve to my family.