It’s hard isn’t it. You want to revamp your diet and eat nutritious wholesome foods, but your man is happy with what he’s always known and the thought of suddenly eating more veg, switching to brown rice and eating more fish instead of a 300 gram steak is truly horrifying to him.
So, you make dinner according to what he will eat because let’s face it, no one wants to spend all that time in the kitchen to have their other half sit there with a look of disappointment all over their face.
Tips for getting your man on board the healthy eating train:
Tell him WHAT you are doing: If you suddenly switch to healthy nutritious meals and throw out all the tim tams, he’s going to get a shock. No one likes to be surprised that way, so give him notice.
“In a week I’m going to start to try a new style of cooking, I think it will be great.”
Remind him every day, because chances are he wouldn’t have heard you the first time.
Tell him WHY you are doing it: People are always more understanding if they know the reasons and motivations behind certain actions. Tell him why you are changing the meals “My goal is to eat more nutritious meals because I would really like to have more energy and it can only be of benefit to our health.” If you are trying to lose weight, tell him this too.
Involve him in the planning: He’s going to be on board if he feels like he’s a part of it. If you slop your new chicken breast with quinoa and tofu on his plate without involving him first he WILL be disappointed. Instead, ask him to write a list of the foods that he loves and work from there. You might find that broccoli is on the list for example, so this will give you a base to plan your recipes around and it shows you are involving him. If you buy a healthy cookbook, ask him to choose the recipes he thinks sound nice and start with those.
Give him proof: Be able to share real world examples that he can relate to such as friends who have recently started to feel great after revamping their diet. “Sally and Ben recently switched to more healthy food, and Ben is now out surfing every day because he has loads more energy.” This will hit the spot.
Let him have treats: Remember this is YOUR goal not necessarily his so don’t be strict and definitely don’t nark him when he has his beer at night, nor throw all the Doritos in the bin. It’s baby steps that will win him over.
Don’t look at him: So you serve your new healthy meal and are dying to know what he thinks of it right? Have you won him over, does he think it’s terrible?
The worst thing you can do is sit there and watch him like an eagle waiting for him to confess that it’s the most delicious meal he’s ever eaten, because it probably won’t be.
Remove the pressure from both of you and just eat your meal. If he doesn’t say it’s amazing, that’s ok and if he doesn’t say it’s horrible, that’s even better and you might just be in with a chance!
These techniques can also be applied to children, and in particular teenagers who are a little fussy. Hope it helps!
The Nutrition Guru and the Chef 
I’m so lucky my husband is healthy (more so than me) and we have made the transition to organic wholefoods very smoothly (though our budget has suffered). My sister has this challenge though. Her husband is a stand up comic and loves his pizza & beer. There’s always loads of sugary treats in the house for their three boys and she struggles to motivate him to change…when she does it often ends up in his comedy routine. Though in fairness he does cook the best stir frys I’ve ever had.
I leave my healthy recipe books all around the house, curiosity usually gets the better of him and he askes me to cook something he’s read. This weekend I made him up some healthy snacks to take to work: chicken and vegie balls, fresh tomato salsa and protein ANZAC biscuits (he’s a bit of a gym junkie).