Baby steps, right?

Anyone who has ever decided that they want to lose weight has done it...you get excited about getting healthier, losing weight, looking hot, and you go out that day and buy a whole lot of healthy food.  You get it home with the greatest of intentions, only to find the next morning when you wake up that you aren't happy with your breakfast...and the lunch isn't as tasty as you hoped it would be...and then supper comes and you are absolutely famished, but you still manage to push through the good-for-you-meal and you end your day unsatisfied yet proud that you made it through day one.

Then you wake up on day 2 and dread getting up because you know your breakfast isn't going to be satisfying, and you're pretty sure that lunch and supper are going to be the same way, and before you know it, you have your nose stuck in the refrigerator looking for the leftover takeout fajitas that you had last weekend. 

If you have kids, this is increased about three million fold.  My husband and I are both overweight.  Two of my children are starting to show signs of following us.  The third would be but a medication he takes curbs his appetite.  So as you see, the food that I prepare must meet the agreement of 4 mouths other than just mine, otherwise four mouths other than just mine are unsatisfied and complaining about how hungry they are and that they want "real" food.

I've tried to change the way we eat more times than I can count.  But I've always tried to do it cold turkey.  I did a lot of thinking on it today and I have a few ideas that I am going to try.

• First of all, we are going to start out with one "healthy" day a week.  This will be a day that I plan ahead with some of the more health conscious recipes that I have been "pinning"for months and never getting around to trying.  We will not do processed snacks or desserts on our "healthy" day, nor will we drink cokes. 
• Because I am a baker at heart, my children are used to me baking desserts several times a week.   I am going to cut back on how often I bake and when I do, I am going to start experimenting with the lower fat/calorie desserts that I have seen. 
• I have a list of healthy snacks and I am going to start buying one or two of them a week and offering them to the kids when they are hungry.

My hope is that after a few weeks of one "healthy" day a week, I can add an additional day...then later add another, and another.  This will give me time to figure out what recipes work and which ones don't, and it will help the kids to know I'm not throwing all the "good" stuff out at once. 

As everyone knows, it's not a "diet" it's a lifestyle change.  It has to last the rest of our lives, and if it takes six months to a year to get us comfortable with it, then so be it.  That time is going to pass regardless, so we might as well be working on our goals while it does.