Spouse's poor eating habbits

does anyone have suggestoins on motivating your wife to eat right? she does not need to loose weight, but she needs to eat better than she does due to possible complications further down the road. she basicly eats to little i think and eats things that aren't great for her.
it's hard for me to tell her to eat more when i'm eating less and losing weight. she feels she needs to also. though she is not over weight by a normal persons standards she feels she needs to be like other women which are like sticks. (also i think some of the weights they publish as healthy for your hieght are BS)

As a woman, I can say that you can't really make her eat right. You can tell her you love her the way she is and you like her shape, but that you just have concerns about her health. However, I think the best way might be to lead by example. Eat healthy. Get excited about trying new healthy recipes together. Tell her about interesting articles you read about sugar and trans fats, etc. Make it about sharing your enthusiasm instead of trying to control her. You can do it!

The only thing you can really do is lead by example.

Whether she has the same WL goals as you or not has nothing to do with the quality of food both of you eat. Both of you can benefit from clean eating, i.e. trying to make your diet consist of as many natural, whole/unprocessed foods as possible. The only difference as far as WL is concerned would be that someone trying to gain would go heavier on healthy fats like olive oil, nuts/seeds, avocado, etc. Apart from that you both could eat the same stuff.

Not sure how often you cook for her, but you might try doing it more often. Experiment with healthy recipes where those higher calorie items can be add-ons. Salads are a great way to do this, adding cheese & nuts are easy ways to add cals. Another idea is fajitas or tacos, cheese & avocado are easy adds too.

Get creative & find healthy foods you enjoy. By seeing how you benefit from eating better, she may choose to follow your lead on her own. No need to push if she doesn't seem to agree with your opinions, we are all entitled to make decisions about our own weight management.

I've been very committed to not making my weight issues anyone's but my own. Also that old adage, "Don't fix something that's not broken."

A blood panel would show whether she's tolerating her diet/lifestyle well. Also what do you mean by not eat well? There's tons of disagreement as to what eating well even means.

I think the most important thing is that she eats things that are healthy for her. I think communication is key, tricking her into eating healthy food will not work in the long run. I have found watching documentaries about food and the importance of health have helped my boyfriend and I make the switch to eating a healthy diet. Netflix has a whole bunch. I think if you start cooking healthy meals, you will be able to get her to start eating in a healthy lifestyle.

But again, communication is key and people have to want to change their eating habits. Usually when people are skinny they don't see a need to eat healthy until something bad happens. Myself as an example, I use to eat whatever I wanted and never gain any weight, all of a sudden I was working an 8 hour desk job and the weight piled on. That's when I moved to healthy eating. I got my boyfriend on the bandwagon because I asked him to please eat healthy with me so that I could be successful. The more research he did and the more information he gathered, he realized it was better for him in the long run. Have a heart to heart with your wife, the worst she can say is no. But keep in mind you have to give her tools to educate herself. Eating healthy is hard when you don't know how. It is all about experimenting to find out what works for you.

I have a similar problem helping my husband eat healthier. His metabolism is insanely fast and he works in a physically taxing job.

The only way he manages to keep any weight on at all is by eating a lot of potato chips and drinking a lot of beer. Now, this is not IN PLACE of the healthy food I make for myself - it is IN ADDITION to it. When I cook a healthy dinner he tends to eat 2/3 to 3/4 of whatever I make, and I eat the remaining portion.

So it's not that he is eating too few veggies or fruits or whatever, I just worry about his salt/fat/alcohol intake being so high. But if he were to stop eating those things, he would lose weight that he can't afford to lose (he's about 5' 9" and maybe 135 lbs after a big meal).

Anyone have any suggestions for replacing the potato chips etc with something healthier yet equally caloric?

Put thinly sliced potatoes on a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil and whatever spices you like, put in the oven ~425 for 10 minutes or until golden brown. If he still needs more calories, whole milk and nut butters are a staple in any bulk up.

thank you all for your replies. my main concern is that she eats too little overall. some days she maybe eats breakfast and then maybe dinnner if i can get her to eat. lunch gets skipped due to her very active job many times.

I think it all depends on how many calories shes taking in. It is okay to eat a few meals instead of six. Many follow IF which you only eat in an 8 hour window. If you think she has an eating disorder, then I would look into talking to her about it. If you start noticing signs that she is malnutritioned like her hair falling out, then you may have to be more assertive. But in the end you have to follow your own goal and let her follow hers. She most likely does not need as many calories as you do and her limited food may seem like its nothing.