It is definitely harder when you have a family and especially small kids. Lots of activities that involve eating and not always the best from a low sugar metabolic standpoint.

One way you can do it or help at home is fix the main course so you can eat it (like a suitable meat dish), then one dish for you that the kids will turn their nose up at (like broccoli or Brussels sprouts), then a dish the kids will eat like mac and cheese. Then you just don't eat the dishes that you don't need but eat the dishes appropriate for you. The social aspect is the hardest. One thing that can really help even if a person can't stay on a specific diet is intermittent fasting. That becomes pretty easy if you are fat adapted (I do a 24 hour fast every once in a while) but if you are carb addicted the hunger pains can get pretty intense. De Jason Fung is big on intermittent fasting. I personally just eat two meals a day, breakfast and supper, with rarely any snacks in between. The 16 hours of fasting will do wonders for lowering insulin levels.

My son is kind of in the same boat as you. He read up on and implemented a low carb diet and became really fit several years back. But a big family (kids and adopted kids) and all the stresses of life and he put weight back on. Pretty tough when the family has pizza (that was his downfall). He is getting to a point that he needs to do something though and I suspect he will.

You can put your body through a lot pre-40. As we get older the body starts to balk. I'm 65 and to the point I need to be pretty strict or I will see my toes cut off, my knees replaced, maybe a liver transplant, loss of eyesight, heart disease (my CAC score was under 2 which is amazing for a long term diabetic) or dialysis. All those prospective potential bad things remind me to stay the course.

John