Getting Your Family On Keto

Are you anxiously trying to get your family on keto with you?

If that’s something you struggle with, I hope these tips will help. In my previous article, I discussed ways to put your keto lifestyle into auto-pilot. One of them was to get everyone in your house on board with keto.

This won’t just ensure THEIR health and happiness, but will also reinforce you to stick to your way of life.

YOU already know why following the ketogenic diet/way of eating has been healthier for YOU. So, why deprive your loved ones of the same gift?

Ways To Get Your Family On Board With Keto

It’s not easy, but you can do it.

There are a few things you can try, to get your family on board with keto alongside you. If that’s something you struggle with, I hope these tips will help.

Remove the junk

There are probably parents reading this, wondering why on earth I would advise taking foods kids love away from them. If you’re angry reading this, go ahead and be angry.

But guess what? You’re the parent. You get to decide what your family eats, because you buy the food and make sure they eat it. You already know the keto lifestyle is extremely healthy, and that consumption of sugar & refined/processed carbs is linked to chronic illness. So you have to go all-in.

It’s no secret that the decisions that the parents make affect the whole family. “All-in” means sticking to the plan and not caving if things get inconvenient.

Cutting out sugars, starches, grains, and seed oils may be a challenge. This is especially true if anyone your household is already addicted to these foods. Yes, I did say “addicted,” those are not “normal” foods, they are food-like substances. And these substances are not what humans thrived on for thousands of years before mass agriculture introduced them to us.

Purging the home of all the junk is really the best starting point. Limiting access to crapola means your family won’t eat it (at least not at home—a topic for another day).

Stop making a big deal out of keto at home

In these articles, we refer to “keto” or “low carb” but you know it’s real food,

It might already be enough bother to have started doing keto (and if you are, great job!) but whenever you refer to your lifestyle around other people as “keto” or “low carb”, you have the added difficulty of having to talk about it sometimes.

It’s not uncommon for people to get uptight or even preachy about what we should all eat.

If you work/volunteer or go to school outside the home with other people and are around others during meal times, you already know it can be awkward justifying it, or explaining your lifestyle with others in even the simplest of terms (“I avoid sugar and starch for health reasons”).

You may have even just decided to keep it to yourself to avoid the hassle of talking about it. Because, let’s face it. People suck.

However, when at home, you are surrounded by those who love you, and they need to support you (hopefully). If not, well, that’s another topic.

With that in mind, referring to what you eat as “keto” or “dad’s diet” or “mom’s food,” just makes it stand out as odd, weird, or unpleasant. Again, it’s real food. You already believe this way of eating is healthy and normal (it is). So if you stop calling attention to it, that would resolve a lot of resistance in the house once you discontinue placing emphasis on keto as special or different. It shouldn’t be.

Take special requests

People love the thought of something being their idea. As one of the main persons in your household who does the cooking or decides the family meals, get everyone on the same playing field.

You can take requests without becoming a short order cook or personal chef for each household member. Again, you’re the parent. You get to decide.

Try letting family members take turns picking meals. Make it a weekly family event. Start a chart and discuss the rules together.

Example: Each person gets to decide the dish or meal for one dinner that everyone likes to eat, and agrees to. Then get together once weekly to decide the next week’s menu. Afterward, post it up in advance for all to see.

When all the household’s involved in the planning process, everyone knows and can’t complain or ask for something special or separate because they agreed!

This should make it fun AND the meal is enjoyed by all.

Make dishes and meals your family already loves

If you think about it, it’s likely your family has been enjoying meals that are already keto! Start rotating those dishes or meals more frequently, while cutting what you know your family doesn’t nutritionally benefit from.

Find low carb/keto recipes that are versions of your favorite dishes or meals which aren’t low carb. Make the modifications and tweak as needed, and your whole family will still enjoy some of them.  

Let your family help shop for keto groceries

Take family member(s) to the store with you and show them ingredients you buy for meals for yourself. Ask them to pick out some things they’d like to try.

Again, it’s real food. Avoid referring to it as keto or diet food. This will keep you from getting funny looks or arguments from your family members in the store, about what to pick out when shopping.

Involve your household in meal planning & ask for help in the kitchen

Discuss with your family about the kinds of meals you could make with the item(s) they chose at the store.

If you cook together, even the pickiest eaters enjoy meals when they’re part of the creation process.

And they won’t bug you to ask “How soon is dinner?!” every ten minutes, because they’re busy helping make it.

Bonus—there’s no surprise ingredients, because they saw everything that was put into the meal or recipe.  

Encourage tasting while preparing, and show them how to season things for taste.

Feel free to experiment a little bit with new flavors added to things you already enjoy.

To sum up…

The following links are referenced in the above post, that may help you successfully get your family on board with keto…

Good luck, we’re all counting on you!

• Putting Keto on Auto-pilot
• Foods to Avoid on Keto (the “Purge list”)
• Keto Recipes List
• Diabetic to Ketogenic: Reclaim Your Health With Real Food 150 Recipes
• Free Shopping Guide: Shop keto groceries by season & save