My husband too thinks I’m a bit extreme. He is accustomed to a SBD, “Standard British Diet”. He looks in the fridge and complains there is nothing for him to eat. It’s packed with fruits and vegetable and nuts and such. I also make some separate meals. However I do make him fruit and almond milk smoothies which he loves.

I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and was taking anti-depressants. I was not over weight, eat reasonably well and exercised. Also had to have a biopsy after a mammogram, (which was negative). My mother died of breast cancer. So decided to research alternative ways besides medication and found the simplest most obvious answer; nutrition, plain and simple whole foods! So since June I lowered my total cholesterol 37 points, just given okay to stop bp medication 2 days ago and completely whined off of anti-depressants, (for almost 2months). I dropped 10 lbs.

Funny thing though, just had laparoscopic surgery for bowel obstruction a few days ago. My husband was sure it was do to all this crazy diet of mine, he all but accused me of being obsessed with it! The surgeons assured him this was not the case, but old scare tissue due a previous splenectomy.

Any way it’s good to read you messages, very supportive. It’s funny how this can cause a rift…getting healthy! Your suggestions and experience for “change”, again thanks.

Well, I’m trying not to be forceful in any way and he is actually enjoying the green smoothies I make for him. Fortunately he is not shying away from them. I am though being VERY careful to give him ones that are sweeter and have more fruits and lots of ice. They really are delicious, and most of the time he will ask “what’s in this” I will tell him all the ingredients and he is ALWAYS surprised to find out what veggies are in there. But when I give him the smoothies, he is complaining of the after effects later in the afternoon – lol. I laugh and explain that it is his bodys way of detoxing from the regular diet he is used to – I usually get a “huh!” :)

So…. baby steps huh? I’m still cooking some of the stuff he likes, but when I do, I find it hard to not eat some of it. (usually much smaller portions than I would have several months ago though, so that’s good) I’d rather not make it at all so I won’t be tempted, but I guess I do feel sort of guilty, plus, I don’t want the huge fights like we were starting to get into. I think it gets easier all the time, but one step at a time :) Thanks for the post though – it made my afernoon.

This past summer I went really gung-ho with whole food/vegetarian/vegan and tried really hard to cut out meat and bad sugars. I think it may have been a bit easier on my hubby if I went gradually, but it was so hard not to do a complete 180 degree change with food once you read how bad the SAD is; once you learn something you can’t un-learn it!
Anyway, it created A LOT!!!!! of stress on our marriage. I finally decided that something along these lines is what would have to work for us (BTW he works full-time, a physical job, and I mostly stay home with the kids, although I have an occasional once-a-week job):

I decided that since he works to bring the money home so that we can actually afford food, that I need to be respectful of that. I will cook his junky food, meat, SAD if that’s what he wants. Even though deep down I feel that it is unhealthy and completely wrong, who am I to decide for him what he should eat. Yes, I will have a hard time if he gets a major illness, but it is his life to choose the path for. He doesn’t enjoy my food and (maybe it’s a man thing??!?) he says why should he eat if he doesn’t enjoy it? I argue that sometimes you have to eat things that are good for you even if you don’t like them, and that they are acquired tastes anyway so you can learn to like different things, but I digress.

Anyway, I cook his food for supper, and for his work lunchbox, and if we have breakfast together on the weekends. But for me and the girls, I serve our food to us for breakfast and lunch. I try to have ‘my’ food for supper available for them as well, emphasis on the veggies and hardly any meat if possible. Even though I would lean toward vegetarian/vegan, they are OUR kids not just mine, and even though I’m the one who’s done all the research it isn’t completely fair to have me make all the rules, as much as I would like it that way.
It ends up that sometimes I cook two meals or two main dishes, which I struggled with at first. I didn’t think it was fair to me. I finally decided that I needed to keep the bread winner happy since it’s because of him that we have food, and that if my way of eating truly was important to me, then I would make the time to prepare those extra dishes as well.

Whew, well that’s my novel :-) Hope it maybe helps you a bit. It may not apply since you both are working, but maybe it’ll give you some things to think about. Good for you for going healthy and teaching your kids. I’ve noticed that my kids do better on good food, of course, and my 3yo is starting to discuss food choices with me, asking what’s good and why, etc. I too think it is so important to start young. I wonder how it will be with baby #3 if it gets a healthy start from day 1. My two now definitely choose junk over healthy, but they at least say yes to healthy and are satisfied 95% of the time.

I’d probably say that one of the keys to converting to healthier if you have hubby resistance is to TAKE IT SLOW! Or at least camouflage it!! As hard as it is to do that, I’d say that was my biggest mistake with my hubby. It scared the crap out of him because all of a sudden there was no cow milk, I was sprouting seeds, we were eating lentils, dehydrating, and then of course the intimidating looking GS, I have to admit that’s a lot to take in in a small time period! It totally started him off on the defensive so of course his instinctive reaction was to reject it. It may not have resulted in much different to go slower, but it would have made a few months of h*ll a bit easier instead.

Okay, that really is it this time! I’m done writing! Hope it helps to share my story. Good luck!