This article is about how to do Keto with a family.
There are basically three options when it comes to doing keto with a family. You can:
- Do keto as a whole family, where everyone is 100% on board and supportive of each other.
- Do keto by yourself, where you’re keto but your family isn’t.
- Do keto with your partner, while your kids eat a modified version.
I don’t think any way is easier or harder than the other, because everyone has individual dietary needs already so switching the whole family to keto will be a huge adjustment. At the same time, doing keto alone while having tons of non-keto temptations in the house is going to be tough as well.
Doing keto successfully as a family starts much like it does if you do it alone: lots of planning. Planning meals and snacks for every day of the week is vital to your family’s success with keto.
Have you seen our Free Keto Friendly Meal Plan? You can download it here!
Having kid-friendly snacks on hand is another important key to being successful with keto as a family. Avocados, nuts, and veggie sticks are all healthy, low carb snack options that are easy to carry around in your purse or diaper bag.
Plan for more “mistakes” to be made when others are involved. This may require being a little less strict or at least setting expectations that aren’t so high they’re impossible to achieve.
Kids aren’t going to do an actual keto diet, but feeding them keto-friendly meals is absolutely fine. I don’t recommend restricting their carbs to the point of putting them in ketosis.
In most situations, kids do not need a strict diet to follow. Check with your pediatrician for more info.
Doing Keto When Your Family Isn’t
Many times, we are doing keto alone while the rest of our family is eating bread, pasta, and all the high-carb foods our regular diets are unfortunately known for. This can cause lots of temptations.
If you’re in charge of cooking most meals, you can easily make them keto-friendly for everyone. They don’t even have to know they’re eating keto meals. If your partner insists on adding carbs, offer some rolls or bread if you can avoid the temptation yourself.
Keto Dinners For Family
If you aren’t in charge of cooking meals, pick and choose which items on your plate can be keto and add some extra fats. Avoid the potatoes, bread, pasta, etc.
For example, if your partner cooks chicken alfredo for dinner, ask them to keep the pasta separate from the chicken so you can make your plate before it’s mixed. Then, cook yourself some zoodles and add the chicken and alfredo (assuming it’s keto-friendly).
You now have a keto meal, while your family has their “regular” meal. It’s not a whole lot of difference but it’s enough to keep you on your keto path without too much extra work.
Doing Keto With a Partner
It’s so much easier to do keto when your partner is on board, even if you aren’t doing keto as an entire family. Just like with the above options, you can prepare keto-friendly meals for the entire family.
Just because your kids are eating a “keto” dinner doesn’t mean they’re going to end up in ketosis, right? Right. So, they may have eggs and bacon for breakfast – you can have the same.
They can eat whatever at school for lunch, then come home and have hamburgers for dinner. They eat theirs with buns, you don’t; you add avocado and cook them in your favourite fat.
Don’t overcomplicate it! Keto can be super simple and can even be fun to plan meals together as a family.
Having your partner on board is awesome because they aren’t going to try and tempt you to eat non-keto foods, and you can push each other to stay on track.
Motivate each other with friendly competitions and cook together to get that quality time in.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that at the end of the day, you have to do what works best for you and your family. There will be some trial and error involved.
What you try the first time may not be what you end up sticking with. If your family isn’t on board with keto, it’s still important to set healthy boundaries.
There’s no need for junk food in the house in the first place, so if the kids or your partner want some Oreos, they can eat them at school or work or at Grandma’s house. 😉
Even if everyone isn’t on board with eating the keto way, they need to get on board with supporting your keto journey. Setting boundaries about what’s allowed in the house and what’s not is a great way to start.
