One of the coolest things about macro dieting is that you can be really creative with food.  If you are in prep, this can be really challenging to do, but for an everyday lifestyle client, these choices are pretty easy.

Many people tell me that they “can’t eat like a rabbit.” You don’t have to.  Another one of my all time favorite crutches is, “I have kids.” I know it’s hard to avoid pizza, tacos, and ice cream when you are surrounded by those little sugar consuming monsters, so..don’t avoid them, hack them. 

Let me preface this by saying, I’m not a parent, but I have close friends that are and I’ve been witness to some bad ass parenting when it comes to nutrition. My best friend works in nutrition, and her children can actually read labels and make healthy choices on their own.  Teaching kids about nutrition is critical because these are real life scenarios they will have to face.  When I went to college, I thought I was making healthy choices, but turns out I wasn’t. These great recipe swaps don’t just give you a chance to educate and engage kids, but enjoy a meal with your family without feeling guilt.

Let’s take tacos as our first example..because Tacos are life.  Say you really want tacos, but need to limit your carb intake…You’ve already switched up your protein from beef to turkey,  but now you’re stuck looking at soft taco shells. The below are both great choices, but the tortilla on the right, is a much better one as it saves you nearly 9 grams of carbs.  Let the kids load their own tacos with fresh veggies  and tomatoes! So fun!

You might be saying, “That’s great, but I don’t care about 9 grams of carbs.” Cool bro.  Let’s try another.  Say you really really want pizza, but its way off of your plan. My personal favorite is BBQ chicken Pizza. Girl, bye. The macros in this would be insane.  In a frozen pizza from CPK, you are going to get AT least 34g of carbs per serving.  Here’s what I did: I bought a low carb thin crust, some low carb BBQ sauce, fat free cheese, and topped with chicken.  Again, I focused on eliminating extra CARBS first (additionally, be careful with those sauces yo).  I saved over 20g of carbs between sauces, toppings, and crust. These are super fun to let your kids make individually.  When you pick out your toppings, show them labels and help them make choices. Or let your husband make his own pizza because he likes everything too spicy 🙂

Ok, so we’ve covered pizza AND tacos…Let’s get really crazy and check out ice cream.  I am a huge fan of Halo Top.  Halo top not only boasts more protein, but utilizes organic stevia instead of sugar.  I actually snipped this from their website and I thought it was so cool.  Not only is the calorie difference jarring, but check out those carbs!

My point here is, not only do you not have to limit yourself, but you can use macro hacking as a tool to teach kids healthy choices, even when faced with unhealthy foods! Everyone wins.  Below are some of my other favorite hacks and swaps. What are yours?

Food	Swap
Ground Beef	Lean Turkey or Chicken
Cheese	Fat Free Cheese
Plain Yogurt	Greek Yogurt
BBQ Sauce	Low Sugar, Carb, or Gluten Free BBQ sauce
Chips	Rice Cakes
Peanut Butter	PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter
Pancake Mix	Kodiak Cakes Protein Pancake Mix
Waffles	Low Fat or Vans Gluten Free Waffles
Syrup	Low Carb or Sugar Free Syrup
Bacon	Turkey Bacon
Sausage	Chicken Sausage

 

Go forth and conquer!