How do you enforce dietary restrictions without a fight?

I don't really have an answer to this but I am dealing with the same problem with my spouse.  I use the Dash seasoning but he sneaks salt into it.  There always seems to be anger there whenever I even suggest he follow his doctor's advice.  He also has visiting nurses that go over the guidelines with him and that doesn't help.  I hope somene else will have more useful advice for you.

What a hard question.

If a person really wants to adhere to the diet, they will.

It's hard. My grandmother never wanted to change cooking habits after my grandfathers heart attack. She tried, but he did not like the food........

I am the caretaker of my 94 year old mother who has dementia.  I make her pretty much what she likes. At 94 if she wants a sandwich and chips (her fave.) then she can have it.

My husband and myself however find it very difficult to follow how we should be eating.  We both are diabetics and just crave the stuff we should be limiting.  *sighs*

I have the same problem with my father. We are supposed to limit his salt intake but i have heard that the Mrs Dash isnt the way to go either. Something about potassium intake. If i dont put sodium in then he won't eat and he ends up being malnurished and dehydrated. I started using the protein bars and he loves those. Too much really because he will eat a couple of those and nothing else, so I have ended up hiding them. I have come to the conclusion that he is 85 years old, has never eaten right and is not about to now. Sometimes you cannot win.  I am just working on maintaining right now. I hope someone has an answer.

Since I do not live with Mom, I want to know how to get her to EAT period and take her meds and vitamins.  She is 88 and is down to 120 lbs now.  All she wants When she eats is a sandwich.

I go thru her fridge when I get there and have to throw food away because she never ate it.

When I am there, she eats what I bring to fix.  She won't come here to live and I cannot live under her roof.   I stayed there over New Years Eve to celebrate and keep her company and orders orders orders.  I felt like getting up at 1:30am and coming home.

When Mom was still living at home and just not wanting to cook, she too loves sandwiches, I ordered Senior Nutrition Meals to be delivered.  They were less costly than "meals on wheels" and very nutritiouos.  She ate those and was glad to have them.  They come with bread and butter, juice or fruit cup, dried milk, and a cookie or two.  She got them 5 days a week.  They were loaded with veggies too.  She did good with them.

Then i transferred them to my house so I would not always have to fuss, I am no spring chicken myself!.   When I called I found out I was eligible and so was my husband.  We ordered some and found out we can get by with one or two orders. 

I found out too that if I had wanted, I could have gotten the sat and sun meals too which were mostly canned things.  Canned stew, canned peaches, a drink, crackers.  It was still better than Mom had been eating. 

When Mom got to the point that she was not refrigerating things, and she had to have been eating spoiled food. She did good hiding a lot from me till she had a mild heart attack.  From there I found our her dementia was just too far along to live alone any more.

All this to get to the point maybe you could get some Senior Nutrition meals for her.  It is a sliding scale and the most they cost is 2 dollars a day to free.  They tell you if it is a choice between paying for their food or your medicine, skip paying them.  So very nice.  Could you do that for your mom?

Are there sandwiches that could be made more healthier?  Is there delivery in town so that you can call and order so many sandwiches to be delivered but you have control over what is in them? A sandwich could be nutritious.  Does your Mom like fruit?  Mine loves applesauce.  That might help too though with you far away, it make things all the more harder doesnt it?

What is it with the magic of a sandwich, I wonder? My mom is a widow and in good health, living alone.  Every time I ask what she had for dinner...you guessed it...a sandwich!  I've tried to encourage her to maybe grill a big amount of chicken or whatever and use it for different purposes throughout the week.  I've also tried to get her to freeze food, but she won't bother to thaw and heat it up.  She will heat leftovers up, but who wants to eat spaghetti for four days, you know?

I don't know what the miracle of a sandwich is but it sure is more wanted in older age groups.  When I was at rehabl with Mom.. many many people would ask for a sandwich instead fo the supper they brought in etc.  Now that I am older *cough*, I find i love sandwiches more than I used to also.  Hubby who is 10 years older than me loves them too.  For me, they are easy adn quick.  I do try to not have chips with them but something that is better in nutrition.  Mom however wants chips.  I opt for fruit, salads, yogurt etc.  I try to get juice in for the vitamin C to sometime during the day.  It is bad on my sugar so I limit me to 4oz. But I love my sandwiches.  So i dont know know why.. they just taste very good.  Subway sandwiches can be very nutritional and i try to make some sandwiches like them also.

Every week we go to the Dollar Tree and get turkey and ham and then to Pathmark and she gets ends at low cost and we buy chicken thighs or legs (she likes dark meat) but I have to remind her to cook them.  She wants them.  Her freezer is Full, you can't fit a half gallon of ice cream in there but she won't open it and cook anything.  She used to.  And the chicken once cooked; she takes apart and makes a sandwich of with cranberry sauce and sour cream and chives chips. When she EATS.   She also sleeps later and later. Today she got up around 1 and realized I had not called her.  I was knee deep in projects at work.  She also loves her raison bread.  She has forgotten how to use the microwave, buried her toaster oven in the corner of kitchen.  So cold food is the answer. Most of the time she tells me she isn't hungry. 

So many times we try to change things so dramatically and all at once. No matter who we are dealing with, including ourselves there is shell shock. No one likes being told they have to do something or change a habit (good or bad) that has been done for years. We need to think in reference to dealing with certain things as we would with a child (weening from the bottle or binky). The sad truth is we go out the same way we came in but what people seem to forget in difficult times is that the person we are caring for has lead their life and had their families and is still in need of our respect and understanding. Our parents/grandparents have had their families and most likely helped raise their grandchildren. At any stage of illness or non-illness we tend, as people to do things to protect ourselves from pain whether it be physical or emotional. That includes nutrition. Reverse the rolls and think about how we would feel if at any point others started telling us what we could and could not do. When to eat what to eat, when to sleep, when to wake, then we loose our cars, homes. Not fun any of it and at some point the only thing that we can control, this is one thing that is in our full control. We can choose to eat or not. Its the one thing no one can really force us to do.

I have been a in home caregiver for a few years now and, as with my motherwho has passed and my aunt, her favorites are sandwiches or pot pies. My mom got meals on wheels for both herself and my dad, when he was living, but againthe food, at best is affordable if not often unidentafiable. Half the time my clients don't know what they're eating unless the monthly list is posted on the frig. It's good to know that there is an alternative(Senior Nutrition Meals) and as soon as I finish writing this I am going to see if there is one in the immediate area(s) that I work in. Like meals-on-wheels the cost is depending on what you can afford, which is great, because I know that some people wouldn't eat if that didn't show up at their door step every day. I got into this work to help the people I work with live the best lives they can in their elder years, and like the person commented earlier to this story, it's all about taste to get them to eat. My mom wouldn't eat without using salt(no taste to her without it) so it's important to do what you can, any way you can, to please and comfort your elder patients/parents.

When I was told to cut out or at lest cut down drastically on salt I took it off the table, but added a little more in the cooking. I soon found myself using the same amount of salt in cooking that I had previously used (habits are hard to break). But the salt shaker was still not on the table. In making a gradual change, it was easier to adjust. Once in a while I will put salt on my eggs or potatoes at the table, but usually I am too "lazy" to get up and get it because the food is still tolerable without it.

However, Campbell's low sodium soups are nasty! It's a shame they didn't lower the sodium gradually. Their low sodium soups would be much easier to swallow!