It's a constant battle to eat well and get those around you eating well. but if you follow these tasty morsels of advice for parents, you'll not only improve your family's diet, you'll make fantastic improvements to your family fitness levels as well.

The great thing is that once you learn and have the habit of preparing food, eating correctly is not a burden at all. When you're used to a particular diet plan, and are following it successfully, your taste preferences change very quickly. This means that you'll reap the benefits of the improved fuel choices in your plan: you'll have bags of energy with which to do more exercise, and you'll really enjoy every meal you have. Once your family notices these benefits too - health, fat loss, improved energy, no drowsy periods of the day, and so on - there will be no going back!

Protein

Try to get it little and often: overdoing it is counter-productive, but it is essential. Eating too much meat will overload your system and build up your cholesterol, while not eating enough protein will drain you of energy. For vegetarians, figure out a few favourite sources of protein and put a small amount with every lunch and dinner you have. Meat-eaters can very their meats according to their taste, while remembering to only have small doses.

Timing

Timing is crucial fo fitter eating, especially with starchy carbohydrates. The only times that these are really put to good use is in the morning or after training, and many health-aware people wouldn't eat them even in the morning. Likewise, avoid carbohydrate-based snacks when you're at work or at school, and before you go to bed. The energy in such snacks is slow burning and muscular: it won't activate your brain. And, when not used, it'll be converted into fat.

Plan and prepare

This applies to cooking, shopping and even dining out. There is almost no way to consistently succeed in eating the right thing if you don't prepare. Often, situations that you're not expecting arise, and interfere with your eating plan for the day. You might pass a fast-food joint at the wrong time of day, or feel so sad that comfort food seems to be your only choice. But if you've thought about these situations and decided not to give in to temptation, you'll be far less likely to. This is what's called 'being serious about losing weight'!

Dining out

When dining out don't be afraid to ask for modified meals from the menu. You could ask for more vegetables instead of potatoes, for example.

You don't need to be perfect...

... but you do need to be good! Perfection is impossible and also unnecessary. Plan a few imperfect meals each week, time with family, friends and even a scoop of ice cream. No need to be a social outcast just because you want to be healthy.

Cut out non-water drinks

One of the easiest and most powerful habits to implement. Calories in drinks come mostly from high fructose corn syrup or plain white sugar. Both of these make the damage caused by the drink scarily high. Allow yourself black coffee in the morning, and some unsweetened herbal drinks/teas, but try to consider them indulgences.

If you are hungry, eat something!

This means eating often: on average, every 2 to 3 hours. Don't fall into the "I'll get fit by starving" fallacy, or the "I'm busy, food doesn't matter" misconception. The former is just malnutrition waiting to happen, and the latter can be "planned away" so it doesn't occur. A missed meal is as bad for you as an unhealthy meal. Your many meals each day don't need to be fancy affairs. A cup of low fat yogurt and a handful of nuts is a good "meal" that can take you from mid-morning till lunch in a healthy way.

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