Ep. 80: Family Divided: One Wants to Lose Weight, Another Wants Pizza.

What should you do if your family keeps bringing home pizza, chips, and soda while you’re trying to eat healthier?

In this episode, Dr. Jenny Gourgari shares 10 real-life strategies that teens can use to stay on track—even if their family isn’t on the same page (yet).

✅ How to start a supportive family conversation
 ✅ Grocery shopping swaps that work
 ✅ How to create a healthy snack station just for you
 ✅ Fun ways to get siblings involved

I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach.
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.

Here's what makes this different:
✅ No dieting. No calorie counting. No shame.
✅ No more food fights between parents and teens.
✅ No weight obsession—just healthy habits
✅ Real science behind how puberty hormones affect weight
✅ A safe, supportive approach that prevents eating disorders

Because when teens understand their hormones and get the right support, they don’t just lose weight—they gain strength, energy, confidence, and freedom!

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Transcript

Hi, welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss For Teens podcast. On today's episode, I'm gonna talk what to do if somebody in the family keeps buying junk food. I've heard this from one teenager today when they told me that I wanna do better, but my dad likes to have pizza and I don't know what to do and I don't know how to handle it.

So let's be real. It's hard to have everybody on the same page all the time. So some people may have different journeys and I know in the same family I've seen many times, one sibling may wanna, get to a healthier weight by losing weight. And then another teenager needs to get to a healthier weight by gaining weight.

So what those two siblings need to do are very different. And oftentimes that can create a problem on like how different people manage their everyday life. I also hear that sometimes some kids may have two different houses. Sometimes they spend halftime at the mom's house. Sometimes they spend times at the dad's house. Mom is more devoted into following a healthy lifestyle or dad, it may be and then vice versa, the other parent may not be so involved. Or it could be that their grandparents that are responsible for cooking or for shopping when parents are working and grandparents may have different philosophy on like how much and what teenagers need to eat and what restrictions. So not everybody in the same family can have the same goals at the same time all the time. So how can we approach this and how can you make your journey more successful when there are different points of view.

Number one is to start by having a family meeting about healthy goals. It's all about starting a conversation with everybody in your family. So for example, you can say, Hey, I'm trying to feel better, I'm trying to have more energy. I wanna be able to have healthier choices. Can we talk about ways that we can support each other as family. And I know that's not your goal, or I know that you like to have pizza a lot. I know that french fries or whatever is your favorite food, but that puts me in a difficult situation where I find it hard to resist if I have to choose a healthier option when I have all these unhealthy snacks around me. And then, that is just a starting point. And then you take it from there and you start talking with the family and you try to find common solutions.

Number two is when it's time for grocery shopping, you can make a list that is your healthy swaps and then you can suggest that to whoever goes shopping for example, instead of having sugary cereal, we can try to have oats. Instead of having soda, we can try have sparkling water. Instead of getting chips, we can have popcorn. And if somebody in the family still wants to have soda, you can still have your healthier alternatives and talk with whoever's making the groceries, or you can go with your parent or your grandparent to groceries and buy the things that are good for your meal plan

Number three is you can encourage the family to have a "healthy recipe night". Like it can be something like a homemade stir fry or tacos night with grilled veggies or healthier smoothies night. So even if nobody has thought about it before one person can introduce that idea and make it more like a fun night make it like a thing. So the whole family, even those that are not involved in it, they may wanna participate and they may wanna learn along with you.

Number four is to offer to cook one meal with a veggie. So even if your whole family is not up for healthy meals, you can take the initiative and say, I'm gonna cook something healthy tonight. And who wouldn't love to have dinner with no effort? So you can offer something to your family by creating a healthy meal. And that way you are also offering yourself a healthy meal. And you introduce, again, the whole family to the idea that a healthy meal can still be easy to make can still be tasty and just one person can start this night or lunch or brunch and see if the whole family gets into that. And if it's not like every meal in the week, just start with one meal a week, then build it up to two meals per week.

Number five is maybe you can make arrangements with other family members to make junk food less visible. Like for example, if you have a sibling that they like to eat chips, you can suggest that they keep the chips in their bedroom so that you don't see them. Or you can talk with your parents that if that's what they wanna do, they can have it in a different place that you don't see it. , I don't recommend locking the cabinets 'cause that may create a sense of restriction but if you think that is helping you that is your decision and you can experiment with that and see if that makes it better. But overall, I think it's not the best idea. But definitely keeping the junk food in places that is not visible or in places that is, less easy to reach like for example, you can put it on the top self and if you wanna grab it, then you need to have a ladder or you need to have a chair to grab it. So it takes more effort to grab that then that may be like a solution on how you can make your environment smarter.

Another thing is that you can label the fridge shelves with names and healthy snacks. Like for example, you can say, this is my corner and this is where I keep my healthy snack. And if somebody wants to have unhealthy snacks, they can have their corner. So that way you always know that you have a healthy grab and go station in the fridge. That is for you. And you can have for example, grapes that are already washed and ready to go, you can have yogurt, you can have boiled eggs, you can have veggies and hummus. So make those healthy choices easy is really a game changer.

Tip number seven is to read labels with your parents or with your siblings when you're shopping. And by reading labels before you buy something and you bring it in the house, you can be more aware about how much sugar, how much fiber, how much protein, how much fat, and you can look for example, at two different options of, tomato sauce, and one has way more sugar, the other one is sugar free. So instead of getting one tomato sauce with sugar, you can get the other tomato that doesn't have sugar.

Tip number eight is you can keep your own snack stuff and you can have a small healthy station in a cabinet that is yours. And you can put protein bars, you can put fruits, you can put whole grain crackers. So that gives you some kind of control that when it is your snack time, this is where you go.

Tip number nine is you can teach your younger siblings if you have younger siblings about what is a healthy choice. So for example, you can ask questions like, would you like to help me make a rainbow fruit plate? Then they will ask you, what is a rainbow fruit plate? Then you explain we wanna have fruits from different colors. We wanna have vegetables that are different colors. So that you can have more vitamins. If we have more vitamins that can help us be healthy, they can help us feel more energized, they can help us feel stronger. Or you can say, why don't we prepare our lunch for school tomorrow? So that way you can teach your younger siblings about healthy habits and you also feel that way that you're not alone.

And finally tip number 10. You can play a game. You can have it like a fun activity. Who can find the healthiest item on the grocery store? Who can find the healthiest item to eat for dinner today? Or who's gonna eat more vegetables today? Or who ate more fruits today? You can make funny, challenges like this, you can make healthy competitions and that's just a way to engage the family members and make it a creative night instead of boring. Like being healthy doesn't have to be boring.

So I hope that this was helpful. And you don't absolutely have to wait for the whole family to change. You can be the person that initiates the change. You can start with one healthy meal. You can start with one healthy snack. You can start with having one conversation with a family. You can start by having one healthier choice. Oftentimes people will do what you're doing, if they see that you feel better, you change. And then it is like a snowball, like you get more people involved because they see you as a perfect role model.

If you enjoy this episode, feel free to share it with your friends. Don't forget to like and subscribe if you watch this on YouTube. And I will talk to you next week. Take care.