I think of it as having different medically necessary dietary needs, which isn’t even inaccurate. I’m at a very different point in my lifecycle than my kid, after all, and our bodies are doing very different things internally. Intellectually recognizing that copying their eating patterns wouldn’t be healthy for me even though it is for them–just like I wouldn’t expect to copy a specialized medical diet–seems to help a lot with reframing the tasks as “preparing the child’s food” versus a broader “preparing food, which could be mine.” (Or similarly, sometimes I think of it as like working in a restaurant: you’re handling food all day but you wouldn’t expect to get to nibble at it or even necessarily sit down and have your own plate. The food takes on kind of a non-food quality.)
Yes and no. IF means there’s no nightly wholesome family dinner, but honestly that was never feasible for us in the first place. I sort of like it that I just worry about the kids’ food and not my own.
I’d just make sure that the food that you’re making for your kids is no different from the food you would give to yourself (ie, we want healthy food all around). That way, there’s reduced temptation and great modeling for all!