Feeding My Kids the Same Food I Lose Weight On

I posted a reel of my son's packed lunches the other week and it got me thinking about something I do not talk about enough. One of the reasons I love eating this way the most is because I get to give it to my kids.

Delicious, healthy food, the same food I have lost 66 lbs eating, on their plates every single day. No separate diet meal for me. No beige plate for them. We all eat the same thing, and I think it is the best gift I can give them.

One meal, the whole family

The trick, if there is one, is that I never cook "diet food." I cook dinner. A big pumpkin and red lentil soup. Marinated roasted kabocha squash that I am not exaggerating when I say is the best thing I have ever eaten. Mashed broccoli with a fat-free mushroom gravy that my two will eat five portions of and then fight over the gravy jug.

Because it is built on potatoes, rice, beans and veg, it is naturally light for me. Because it is delicious, they want it. If anyone wants extra bits on top, that happens at the table. But the base is one pot, one dinner, one washing up.

Get them in the kitchen

My daughter washes the potatoes and the apples. My son has a kid-safe knife and does the cucumber. He typed up recipes for my cookbook on the laptop. It is not busy work to keep them out from under my feet. It is the actual work, and they are learning to love real food by handling it.

The kid who helped chop the courgette is far more likely to eat the courgette. That is not a parenting theory, it is just what I see at my table.

Picky phases are phases

All kids go through them. Mine included. The thing is to keep offering. Keep putting different veg on the plate, keep serving the healthy things they already love, keep it varied within the healthy realm, and do not cave and swap it for beige because one dinner did not land.

I will be honest about something. When my son was two, before I had sorted my own eating, he would have little tastes of ice cream and burgers from wherever we were. It saddens me now to think about it, not because it was some terrible thing, but because I know how much better he eats now and I wish I had started sooner. Every family's journey takes time. Mine did too.

Food does not have to make sense

That morning I made the strangest breakfast bowl. Millet cooked with red lentils, mixed with chickpeas, grated carrot, three chopped apples, a banana, cinnamon and ginger, topped with puffed rice and a splash of soya milk. It sounds mad. It was incredible.

Here is my formula. Any grain you love, plus any legume, plus any fruit, with a splash of plant milk and some cinnamon, is delicious. Sweet or savoury depending on the day. Remember, food does not have to make sense. Whole food plant-based eating does not have to be boring.

Eat the non-starchy stuff first

This is the part that is about the last ten pounds. When I am not ravenous, I eat the non-starchy veg on my plate first. The courgettes, the tomatoes, the squash. It fills me up on the lightest food, and then I move on to the potato or the rice, and I stop when I am satisfied rather than when the plate is empty. Sometimes half the starch goes in a tub for tomorrow.

The kids do not need to do that. They eat what they want in whatever order. But for me, in the final stretch, it is the difference between plateau and progress.

Movement with a baby

Little aside. I used to bounce on a rebounder holding my daughter when she was tiny. Such a good leg workout. Babies are fantastic for movement. If you have got one, you should be getting more movement in than at any point in your life, just from the carrying and the bouncing and the getting up and down.

Watch: The whole day, the millet bowl, the squash, and me out of breath on the forest hill first thing, is in Losing the last 10 pounds, what I eat in a day.

Cook one dinner, lovely. Make it delicious. Let everyone have it. That is family food freedom.

Want to make this work for your whole household?

Cooking once for everyone and still losing weight is a skill, and it is one we build together in coaching. Apply below for a chat.

Apply for coaching

Free to apply. No pressure, just a chat.

Quick answers

Topics

• plant based family meals
• vegan kids meals
• healthy family dinners weight loss
• cooking for family while losing weight
• kids picky eating vegetables
• whole food plant based kids
• one meal for whole family
• losing the last 10 pounds
• family friendly vegan recipes
• Broccoli Mum