Tips for a healthy family meal time

When changing your diet and lifestyle to improve your own health, it can be easy to fall into a routine of cooking separate meals for each member of the family. However, integrating your new habits to fit in with your existing lifestyle and family is the key to making sustainable change, rather than adding extra steps on top of your already busy lives.

Please note – The Fast 800 is designed only for adults over 18 years-old only. However, our recipes can be adapted to be family-friendly, so you can fit this way of life around your regular routine. This means that when you want to have a healthy family meal time, everyone can enjoy delicious Mediterranean-style food together.

Five top tips for a healthy family meal time

1. Make simple recipe changes: Whether you’re following The Fast 800 5:2 Diet or The Very Fast 800, and whichever tasty recipe you choose to prepare, you make it family-friendly with a few simple swaps. While The Fast 800 typically encourages a lower carbohydrate Mediterranean-style approach, complex carbohydrates play a crucial role in both children’s nutrition and overall health for the whole family. This can be as easy as adding some brown rice, wholemeal or pulse pasta, beans or chickpeas, wholemeal sourdough bread, sweet potato or potato to the meal you’re already making.

2. Get the children cooking: Nothing says ‘healthy family meal time’ quite like getting stuck in together. Getting the kids involved in the preparation of a meal will have them engaged and invested in enjoying the meal from the beginning. Studies have even proven that the more involvement children have in food preparation, the higher their fruit and vegetable intake.^{1 2}

3. Choose family meals together: While you may be focusing on what you’re eating to improve your health, that doesn’t mean it has to be a solitary activity. Plan healthy family meal times together to share in the decision-making, and share in the fun. Our Programme has hundreds of delicious recipes to choose from, so sit down and browse with your loved ones to discover some new family favourites. Be sure to add complex carbohydrates for children or family members who are not following a low calorie and calorie plan.

4. Eat around the table together: Not only does eating together mean more quality family time, it may also encourage healthier eating as you model good habits in front of your children. Plus, studies have found that frequent family meals are associated with healthier eating habits and increased self-esteem, so it’s a win-win.³

5. Unplug from screens: Eating mindfully is something you can practice at any age, so this goes for both parents and children. Mindfulness encourages healthier choices like portion control and reduces temptation to snack later on.⁴ It’s also a great time to chat together around the table and build stronger relationships. So switch off those devices and stay in the present moment to maximise enjoyment of your healthy family meal time.

Favourite family-friendly recipes

Inspired by Dr Clare Bailey Mosley’s book, Eating Together, we’ve added some new family friendly recipes to The Fast 800 Programme library to give you ideas for your next healthy family meal time. They’re designed to feed everyone around the table with nourishing, tasty, Mediterranean-style foods in a variety of cuisines from around the world.

For a taste of what you’ll find there, here’s a couple of our favourites:

Pea Pesto Pasta:
Prepared from scratch in less than 10 minutes, this Pea Pesto Pasta is quick to throw together and sure to satisfy the whole family. It’s packed full of flavour, protein, and fibre to keep everyone going until their next meal and, better yet, it’s ideal for prepping a big batch in advance, ready for leftovers on a busy day.

Tuna Sweetcorn Tarts:
This is the ultimate healthy family meal time dish. It makes for a mindful activity that the kids can get involved in, using cookie cutters and getting creative with rolling out the dough. This recipe provides plenty of protein and omega-3 fatty acids and is low carb, so it’s suitable for both growing bodies and weight loss!

Other recipes available on the Programme include our Easy Tortilla Pizza, Parmesan Fish bites, Chicken with Bacon and Peas, Turkey Meatballs with Pasta and so much more. So, if these sound like the kinds of dishes you think would go down well for your healthy family meal times, simply head to The Fast 800 Programme.

Sign up for your 7-day free trial of the Programme here to discover our full range of meal plans, mindfulness resources, exercise videos and, of course, our recipes which can all be adapted to suit the whole family. Your health, and your loved ones, are sure to thank you!