Shaun Stafford: How To Stay Healthy In a Family Kitchen

Article by Shaun Stafford

Nothing beats a good old family meal: quality time everyday where you can sit down and share good food and the highlights of your day with your nearest and dearest.

But when you are trying to get in shape, it can also be one of your more stressful times: most people now know that half the battle with being fit and healthy starts with the food you eat, and chances are that when it comes to dinner time, we may all be reading off different menu cards…

But don’t worry, that is ok and it’s perfectly normal.

So with that in mind, here are my top tips for staying in shape, whilst keeping family meals at the heart of your household.

Be Aware of Portion Size

If you are trying to get in shape (or even just stay there), you need to get your head around portion sizes. Most people will come unstuck not because they are eating the “wrong” food, just rather too much of it…

This is where understanding your calorie need is a really important concept: knowing how many calories you need to consume in a day, and therefore how many calories you get to eat each meal, will be more than half the battle when it comes to managing your weight and waist line.

A good estimate to start at is to take your bodyweight in pounds and multiply it by 15. This will give you a rough estimate for how many calories you need to maintain your current weight and size. If you are looking to reduce your weight, simply subtract 350-500 calories from this daily total: the opposite must be done if you are looking to put on a bit of size or increase your weight!

Now that you have this number, split it up into how many meals you want to eat in a day and that will give you a good place to start for your family meal prep!

Get APP Happy

When it comes to staying on top of your eating habits and general health, there are so many really useful tools and apps out there to help you. Take the Samsung Health App for instance: on this platform you can track everything from how many steps you take in a day, to exactly what you are eating…

Getting used to tracking things like your food can take a bit of getting used to, but once you get your head around it, it can revolutionise your results. Most foods you buy in the shops now have pretty accurate nutritional information on the back, and the same for most places where you go to eat out.

Plugging in this information helps build a really accurate picture of what you are consuming in a day and takes out the guess work when it comes to eating for your health and fitness.

It also doesn’t have to be boring: I get my son to help me input the data from the food we eat into the apps… he loves the stimulation of the screen and it’s almost like a game for him, whilst at the same time getting him to engage with food and understand the concepts behind what we are eating.

Not only does it keep you on track and build up a really accurate picture of your dietary habits, but it’s starting to educate and get the next generation more aware about health, fitness and the role that diet has to play.

You Can’t Out Train A Bad Diet…

But you can buy yourself some flexibility when it comes to dinner-time!

The old adage of diet being the most important thing when it comes to your overall health and well-being is definitely something that rings true, but the way and frequency in which you exercise can certainly make it easier to relax at the dinner table.

If you go and hit a great workout, or even just be more active than usual, you can track all these stats on your smart watch or fitness tracker. I use the Gear Fit2 Pro on a daily basis, and whether I’m out walking the dog or up at the gym killing a spin class, it records all of the calories I have burnt in the day and stores them on my profile.

This for me is credit in the bank so when I sit down at dinner time with the family, I know where I am from a “Calories In vs Calories Out” point of view.

If I have credit in the bank from a good days work, that means an extra helping or grabbing a dessert to share with the kiddo. If not, I know to reign it in a bit and not go for a bowl of ice-cream after my main.

Being aware of how daily activity can allow you to relax your eating habits and still stay on track with your health and fitness goals is really useful and can allow you to keep some fun and freedom at your family dinners, without compromising with your results.

Get Support!

One of the best ways to bullet proof your chances of success with any health and fitness goal is to get a great support network around you: fill in your nearest and dearest with what you are up to and what you are trying to achieve.

If those around you are more aware of what you are working towards, they are less likely to encourage you to deviate from your plan… and they might actually think about joining you on your journey.

If everyone at the dinner table is working towards a more healthy and happy lifestyle, it will make cooking, eating and relaxing as a family much easier… and even if they don’t come along for the ride with you, it will be great to get their support and reinforcement every evening as you sit around the table enjoying your time as a family.