Loosing My Mind

[Oakley710]

I need advice.

My husband (whom is the pickiest eater in the world) decided to do the Whole30 with me. We're only on Day 5.

I meal plan by his request because he doesn't want too. I make the grocery lists. I read the labels. I've read the books. I journal every evening what we ate and how I'm feeling etc.

He doesn't eat template meals and complains when he's hungry. He whines when we're shopping. He eats Larabars like they're going out of style. (No seriously, we've got at least 40 of them coming from Amazon...). I try getting him back on track and using the book for tips for him but he doesnt take my advice.

We did our weekly shopping today. This afternoon I went and took a nap and he went to the kitchen and completely went off path. All of my vegetables I planned on using for different things were on skewers for shish kabobs. He used whatever meat he could find, which was for a different meal. I already have to tweak his meals from mine because he isn't a big veggie eater, he doesn't follow template. 

I honestly feel this would be easier if he weren't doing it with me. I'm almost ready to throw my hands up and walk away.

[ArtFossil]

I take the tough love approach, so you may want to disregard what I'm going to say. 

You're an adult. Your husband is an adult. You get to make your own food choices and eat what you want. So does he.

Stock your pantry and your refrigerator and your freezer with Whole30 options. (Many of us just mix and max proteins, veggies and fats from day to day so that there doesn't have to be a lot of advance planning and one can always improvise).

When you cook, cook a Whole30 meal. You'll eat it and he can eat it if he wishes and supplement it with whatever he wants.

When he cooks, make sure you know EVERY ingredient. If it isn't a Whole30 meal, make your own.

It's only 30 days. You can make it work if you remember your motivation for doing a Whole30.

[Oakley710]

I'm really happy he's taken interest in this with me. And he's a great cook. He's trying, sort of. I've put a lot of time and effort preparing for this and educating myself. We've stocked the pantry and fridge. We dropped $200 at the store today. I find it frustrating because we go in with a plan and now I don't. I'm the type of person who has to have a list and plan and it has to be organized. This week is going to be frazzled and I'm already stressing about it. 

[jmcbn]

I'm from the school of tough love too. I'm also single. I'm not sure if the two are related

I'd sit him down and tell him that you're doing this, your way. Give him a choice - he's either in, or he's out. If he's in great - he has to start working with you. If he's out, then that's great too because it's one less person for you to worry about for 30 days and you can just get on with it.

Either way you need to have prepped food, but as ArtFossil said above it doesn't have to be complicated. Run with the shish kabobs but just check that any marinades/spices are compliant, then think about some basics to keep you going for the rest of the week: boiled eggs, olives, tinned fish, naked rotisserie chicken, salad veg, avocados etc can be thrown to gether to make a quick salads... use eggs to make omelettes/frittatas packed with tomatoes/onions/mushrooms/peppers... bone broth & veg will make a quick soup to which you can add some shredded chicken.... Salvage what you can from your grocery shop & prep what you can for this week, then next week you'll know better where you are.

Keep it super simple and you'll be surprised how easily you'll get by.

 

[kruddock]

If you make things more complicated it is more work for you and probably overwhelms him. Maybe he wants to participate more but finds it too complicated.  You could probably do yourself both a favor and think of simpler food prep as suggested above.  I reserve the more complicated meals for when I have more time to complete. That's what I have done with my husband and now he participates a lot more in getting things ready during the week when I'm not around but its still on plan.  You might want to post the menu for the day on your fridge with the ingredients and then he'll know what you are having, hope that helps!