A Hubby Who Loves to Eat!

So, what do you do with a hubby who loves to eat? That is the question that I have had front and center in my life since I got married just over four years ago.

My hubby loves food! He loves to eat out! He loves to snack at home! He just plain loves to eat, eat, eat!

When we moved across the country a couple of years ago, the things he missed and talked about the most were his favorite fast food joints and his favorite ice cream that he had to leave behind. (Those particular brands weren't available in our new area.) In fact, this spring when we planned a vacation back to his old stomping ground for July, all he could think about was being able to eat all of his favorites again. Let me tell you, he was in hog heaven on our trip! He loved every meal and bite of food he had. I, on the other hand, was just miserable as I could feel my clothes getting tighter and tighter.

Now if hubby and I didn't both have major weight/health issues, then I wouldn't be concerned. But, the fact is we both have well over one hundred pounds to lose.

When we first got together, I had just lost 165 pounds and was in the best shape of my life. That is one of the things that attracted me to my hubby. He wanted my success to rub off on him. I wanted nothing more than to be his inspiration and to teach him how to have a healthy lifestyle by becoming physically active and controlling what he ate. As things turned out, though, the reverse happened. All of my old, bad, unhealthy habits came back into my life, and I gained all of the weight plus some back! And, here I am again trying to be a good example and inspire both of us to start taking better care of our bodies.

Now the biggest roadblock I face besides having my head back in the game is my own hubby. He supports me in my efforts and wants desperately to lose weight himself, but he doesn't want to give up the love of his life - food! If I say I can't have certain food in the house that he himself also loves, then he says that isn't fair to him and he often brings those items home and eats them in front of me. When we go out to eat he will often times want dessert even when I don't, and he almost always asks for extra rolls or chips to munch on before the meal even arrives. I know I can't force him to follow the same program or plan that I want to follow - believe me I have tried. But, I'm at a loss as to what to do.

For nine to ten months last year I was mentally strong enough to forget about what hubby was doing and just worry about myself and my own health. It wasn't easy and there were many arguments about what I thought he should be doing to support me and to take better care of himself. I was successful and felt great losing 98 of those 165+ pounds I had gained back previously. Hubby even had some success losing some weight by eating the dinners I prepared and going to the gym sporadically.

So that brings us to today where we both still want to get healthy. Do we have what it takes to do it as a team or if needs be to do it individually on our own? And, what do I do when I'm ready to commit fully to taking care of myself, but I still have a hubby who loves to eat?