I have to admit, I lucked out in the healthy food department. While most women have to nag their men to eat healthy, mine actually enjoys it. Even so, I was still a little nervous when I started introducing him to super greens like kale, swiss chard and collard greens and when I started to replace our traditional Dominican rice and beans with brown rice and beans. My initial fear was, would he hate it and start secretly having dinner at his mom's house?
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I'm not a fan of controlling, manipulating or forcing my man to do something he doesn't want to do. It's just not my style. If I was going to get my man to eat healthier, I was going to do it by proving to him that healthy meals can still be delicious. Here are a few easy ways to get your man to eat healthy! You can thank me later!
1. Get him involved: Men don't like being forced into anything (especially not my man). So when I made the conscious decision to start eating a healthier, cleaner diet, I spoke to him about it. I told him how it was important that I make drastic changes in my lifestyle and eating habits in order to improve my health and my ultra-sensitive stomach. I asked him for support. He was immediately on board, but a little worried about how the meals were going to turn out so I made him a part of the process. We do the grocery shopping together and cook a majority of the meals together as well.
2. Sneak greens into EVERYTHING. I never ever make a meal without including some type of green in it–whether it's kale, spinach, string beans, asparagus, swiss chard or a simple mixed green salad. He was sort of blah about kale originally, but I got creative about how I cooked it. I'd either sauté it in olive oil with onions, garlic and fresh rosemary or I'd add it to stews, prepare it as a side dish with sweet potatoes, add it to fresh green salads, and even made pesto sauces out of it for pasta. He LOVES it now!
3. Go shopping together. As I mentioned earlier, one of the things that helped a lot was getting my man to go grocery shopping with me. He always gets excited about buying fruits and veggies, organic meats and healthy cereals. I even got him to trade in our processed adobo and iodized salt for pink Himalayan salt and natural spices. It's great!
4. Make it easy & yummy. I think one of the tricks to making your man eat healthy is letting him know that's it's really not as difficult as he might think. Don't let him feel limited, but instead demonstrate how easy it is to prepare healthy meals. I usually prepare our lunches the night before and make sure it's something we're both excited about eating. I also fill our cupboards with loads of healthy snacks like organic peanut butter, almonds, unsalted cashew nuts, granola and hummus as a dip for our celery and carrots.
5. Keep it Latin. If your man happens to be a Latino who loves himself some Latin food (like mine), let him know he can still eat it. We still make rice and beans at home, we just make sure to use brown rice instead. He's even learned how to master how to make moros with guandules or even black beans using brown rice. It's delicious! Look for healthy alternatives for latin meals like brown rice, quinoa, chicken or turkey meat instead of beef or pork and use fresh and homemade ingredients.
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