How to lose weight with a hungry hubby-to-be hangin' around?!

EmmaBrown972

I’m starting to think that they had the right idea in the old days, about not living with your partner before you got married. This whole pre-wedding weight loss plan would be a lot easier if I didn’t have a 6foot4 hulk to feed every night!

Anyone else struggling with sticking to eating healthy, while you’ve got your partner around, ordering your favourite takeout as a special treat?

CamiSelene

Oh man, I hear ya! My future hubby eats for 3 people some days and next to nothing other days so I always end up making tons. I find it takes a lot of self control and portion monitoring. Most of the time I will end up giving him huge helpings to prevent me from going back for more (lol) or I tell him that he needs to fend for himself on nights where I want to eat something healthier that he doesn't want and he's usually pretty understanding. I absolutely love cleaneatingmag.com for recipes because they have some really great healthy meals that the hubby also enjoys like sausage burgers (yumm!). As for those "special treat" days, I just monitor how often those occur and really watch my portion control. If we have leftovers that night, I'll put them in the hubby's lunch so I don't end up eating it the next day.

AlwaysMrsWrite

Oh my word, story of my life exactly! My fiance is 6'4, 230, and is so sweet to me... but he doesn't realize that piling up my plate for dinner to look just like his is not helping!!

This week I've started a clean eating regimen (I am not using the word "diet" because I'm doing it to make better life choices and get my body healthy) and the meal plan I am following is only about 1600 calories a day (but I'm tweaking it as necessary- I am also on Weight Watchers). When I asked him if he could grill chicken last night for dinner, I told him that I was going to make a big yummy salad but I would make him something else if he wanted. He said, "I would like to be full after dinner for the first time this week!" ha! He ate an entire bag of brown rice and 2 chicken breasts...

The difference is though, I graze all day long at my desk job where he is on his feet active all day so the bulk of his daily calories come from dinner. He doesn't understand that some days, I just dont need/want a big meal after work.

He also has a sweet tooth so while I've been eating clean, I said "look, if you want desert just get it when I'm not around and don't let me know about it so I'm not tempted to join you." That's been all fine and good except for the lingering Hershey Kisses wrappers I found this morning...

I would say just try to stick to a good plan so you know when and what your next meal will be (this helps me like crazy so Im not tempted to eat out or get so hungry that I make a poor decision!), and eat your dinner on a side plate and not a huge dinner plate. This fools your brain into thinking you're eating more since the plate is full, but when you're done with it, you've consumed less and your body is satisfied.

You can do it!

suburbanstepmom

My FI isn't the hulk or anything, but he's a self-employed general contractor & probably burns 12,000 calories a day working. Which he fully makes up for when he eats! I am a very dainty eater myself and sometimes I find myself feeling really yucky after eating a big meal w/ him since I've over done it. Here are a couple things that have helped me a lot -

1. Meal Planning. I make a meal plan for a two-week span. We grocery shop on Sunday, and then each meal is planned (lunch & dinner) for the following 14days. It's hard to get in the habit at first but it's really cut down on quick runs to the store that end up in a $100 receipt, or eating out which adds up fast!

2. Serve yourself. I know this is hard because when you cook your FI dinner, or he cooks for you, you want to plate for the other person... but Don't. That way you can get the portion you think you should have vs. what he thinks looks good.

3. Don't be afraid to eat SLOWER. This is a big thing. For me, if I try to keep up w/ my FI when he eats I would toss my cookies in no-time. We don't have much of a problem with it now that we don't eat out much since I don't feel like I'm under a time constraint, but sometimes when we get busy I eat fast - which results in me over eating and feeling yucky!

Hope this helps! & good luck!

EmmaBrown972

I'm glad I'm not the only one dealing with this! Great pointers on planning and portion control- I don't know why I think I have to keep up with whatever he eats (some sort of self preservation thing- fear that he'll raid the cupboards and I'll have no resources left come the apocalypse? I dunno- maybe I'm just crazy!) Anyway, I decided to show Mr Fiance my diet and exercise plan, and share my goals with him- I'd avoided doing so up til now because I thought he'd try to talk me out of it or think I was being neurotic. But I went for it, explaining that this was something I was doing for myself, not just for the wedding. 

I was blown away by how supportive he was. He says that as long as my focus is being healthy and happy, he’ll support me in it. He’s into his exercise, so he was happy to hear that I’m going to give getting fit a go. He's even excited about us doing some of it together- he suggested that we try to go for a walk together once a week. It’ll be a great way to stay active, and spend time together.  He warned me that I’m already stressed enough about this wedding, and that I should use eating and exercise to give me a sense of positive control, rather than making them another thing to worry about. Pretty good advice, don’t you think?

fleur1870

My FI is a firefighter, so he isn't home half of the week.  He is, however, a very enthusiastic eater!  When he is home, I like to cook for him, so I guess I just need to make healthier stuff for him.  He works out pretty regularly and must have a pretty high metabolism.  I made vegan chili one time but added meat before it was done because he was really skeptical about it.

Maybe I should be sneaky about making healthy food for us?  :-P

EmmaBrown972

Sneaky is the only way! He'll probably love it while eating it- and then you can tell him afterwards!