Resist the urge to shout from the rooftops, “We are changing our eating habits and changing them now!” Kids like to think life just goes along as it should, and adults don't like to feel that they are being forced to change their ways. Instead, quietly find ways to make changes, and make them a few at a time. You may just find that your family barely notices.

Filling the Cabinets Without Balks

Your first step toward better cooking and eating is doing a complete inventory of your cabinets and fridge. What are the staples? Is almost everything premade or packaged? If your answer is yes, consider moving back to the source point of foods, and consider making some smart but acceptable-to-all replacements.

Fill containers in your cabinets with things like whole almonds, Kashi cereal (great for snacking!), brown rice, and wheat pasta. In the fridge, keep a large container of fresh chopped fruit and some low-fat vanilla yogurt for easy access. Fresh veggies like baby carrots and cut bell peppers are a must as well.

But don't throw away all the good stuff. Make batches of low-carb cookies and always have “free foods” on hand. Keep some guilty pleasures for each family member on hand as well. After all, life is about going nuts sometimes.

Enlisting the Family Without Fanfare

Of course, you won't want to do this without your family knowing at all. Finding a way to get them onboard and being sure to keep their feelings (and likes and dislikes) in mind is tricky but worth the effort.

So start like this: Ask each family member to make a list of the meals and foods they love the most, from dinners to snacks to lunch choices. Ask them to also list a few foods they might be hesitant about but would be willing to try at least once. Then, ask them to choose two or three must-have treats that they cannot do without. This list will be your starting point.

Once you have those lists, study this cookbook (and others) and find recipes that match up with what your family tells you they love. Got a fried-chicken aficionado? There are plenty of healthy recipes for a meal that's just like fried chicken out there. Want to make sure your sweet-tooth child has something to fill that craving? Find some free foods that match up to what he loves.

And then, stretch the whole thing out. Find some interesting foods and recipes that may just surprise your family. And shhh! Don't tell them it's healthy. Rather, present it as a special over-the-top meal. What they don't know cannot freak them out.

As you make these changes, take note of what they are attracted to for snacks, and which meals they like the most. From there, you'll be able to make decisions about other snacks and meals that match their taste buds. Sure, it takes time and energy, but in the end, it will be worth it.

Small, Easy, and Quick Fixes

Little things mean a lot. It's an old adage, and certainly one that holds true when it comes to making your family's eating habits healthier. There are little things you can do from the start that will immediately impact your family's healthy habits.

First, forget the butter when it comes to many types of cooking. A can of Pam goes a long way. If you are greasing a pan of any kind with anything else, end that practice today (unless a recipe demands it). Your family will never even notice, and you will easily cut out grams of fat.

Second, if you have not already, move to 1% milk. Milk is made so well today that the 1% really does taste great. Chances are, your family will not even notice and if they do, in time, they'll come to feel that anything more than 1% tastes too thick.

For snacking, while you want to move to whole foods whenever you can, at least move to baked chips instead of the traditional chips. The carb count doesn't vary that much, but what's in them as a whole does, and that makes a difference. Remember, you need to be heart-health conscious with a child with diabetes (and with anyone, really). Baked chips are yummy, too. Most people find they prefer them once they've tried them.

You can also make changes as simple as making sure you're stocking the house with white tuna packed in water rather than white tuna in oil or chunk light tuna. White tuna in oil, even when completely drained, packs a full five additional grams of fat into each serving. And chunk light, even though it has that word “light” in there, tends to have more fat than solid tuna. Solid white also has three times the omega-3 fats (read: good fats) that chunk light has.

And here's another simple shift that can make eating healthy seem more fun and even good for your mind and soul: Go back to eating as a family. Too many families today, because of sports schedules, hectic work days, and life in general, have moved away from sitting down at a traditional table for a traditional family meal.

Make a rule that at least four times a week you will eat together as a family. Enjoy discussions, catch up on each other's lives, and talk about the world. This will make eating a meal about much more than the food, and might just add to your health and happiness. Oh yes, and try to eat breakfast as a family at least twice a month (imagine that!) Sometimes, simple changes around meals can make eating right a pleasure.