How to Cook for Your Family when You Are the Only One Dieting

Dieting is tough enough as it is without having to balance your food with everyone else's. In a perfect world, your decision to diet would encourage your family to follow your lead, but realistically that's not always going to happen. You can choose to run your house like a dictatorship but you don't want to do that. You will need to learn how to cook for your family and yourself without having to cook completely different meals.

There are certain changes that you should make in your cooking for the sake of your family's health. These changes are not for the sake of cutting calories, but for the sake of managing their cholesterol.

Always skin your chicken.

Always feed your family at least one fresh or frozen vegetable with dinner. Canned vegetables are void of any benefits.

Cook with as little animal grease as possible.

It is possible to cook one meal for everyone that will satisfy your caloric range while allowing your family to indulge in the added flavor that comes along with. The name of the game is toppings. For example, let's say you make BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and biscuits. You can leave your chicken naked without the BBQ sauce which will save you between 60 and 120 calories depending on how much BBQ sauce you usually use on your chicken. For the corn on the cob and biscuits, substitute the butter with a no calorie, butter substitute spray. This will save you at least 300 calories. So far, if you have taken this advice, you have managed to leave up to 400 calories on the table and we haven't even mentioned the biggest opportunity to save calories, the baked potato.

Baked Potatoes are all about toppings: Sour cream, butter, bacon bits, cheese, and the list goes on. By passing on the toppings and dipping your potato into 1 tablespoon of BBQ sauce, you will save around 400 calories, depending on your usual portions, bringing the total calories saved in your meal to a whopping 820 calories and even possibly more.

Source: Personal Experience as a Personal Trainer and Fitness Expert.