Staying Active With Your Family

It’s difficult for parents to stay healthy with a busy schedule running their children around town. As a parent myself, I would like to layout a few simple steps you can take to improve your health by making staying active as a family a daily routine. This will not only improve your health and lifestyle but also your children as well.

The most important part to remember about executing these steps is to do them as a family. Include your children, all of them, do not leave one out - doesn’t matter their age. You can never start early enough educating your children about their health, wellbeing and effect on their behavior by staying active on a daily basis.

Grocery List Makeover

The first step is to redo your shopping list. Do this as a family, plan meals and have everyone think about eating right first and foremost. There’s no point in staying active if you and your family are not eating right. Show your children how eating fruit and vegetables will not only provide their daily nutrition but also boost their energy level for activities.

I’m sure you’ve heard this time and time again, but please avoid processed foods and fast food. You can have one day a month where the family goods to their favorite fast food restaurant, but do not make this a regular event. Try to eat at home, and teach your children how much fun it can be to cook what they want, even if some of their favorite meals may not be on the most nutritious side. Your children will love the time spent being involved in the planning, cooking, and eating as a family.

Family Room Workout

This may mean you need to reorganize you family room or living room. But try to get the whole family together once a day for a daily workout, even if it’s only for 30 minutes. This could be simply stretching, yoga, push-ups, weight lifting, etc. Whatever the workout your family feels more comfortable with, try to do it together as a routine on a daily basis.

It may help to set reminders for you to do this family workout routinely. Don’t hide your yoga mats, or weights, leave them out in the room so that they can remind you, or another member of the family. Yes, you’ll need to turn off your television, you know how easily your children can be distracted. One last thing to point out to your children is how much more energy they’ll have at the end of the week or month. Educate them to be aware of the results in their body so that in the future this becomes second nature.

Weekly Family Activity

Take one day a week to plan a family activity day. As a family plan to go hiking, biking, swimming, etc. A picnic would also make it a special unique experience for the whole family, and take some healthy snacks with you, they’ll go a long way when exhaustion kicks in during the day being active. These experiences will not only make you closer as a family, but also keep you all active and healthier.

Yes, you can do this in the winter, besides just doing it in the summer. In the winter you can go skiing, snowboarding, sledding or simply walking along beautiful sites in the area you live. The summer always offers more opportunity to stay active, but there’s no excuse for not staying active in the winter. One last note to remember, include everyone in choosing what to do, including your children. You want to encourage motivation and positive reinforcement so that in the future this routine becomes natural to them, and assists in reminding you to not miss this weekly activity.

These are just a few basic things you can do to improve your family’s active life. But keep it fun! The more fun you have with these simple steps the more easily it will become a part of your daily and weekly life. Everyone in the family will want to take part in these activities, and everyone will hold each other accountable for not keeping them routinely. The more fun they are made, the more the family will want to take part in them.

Staying active on a daily basis is a difficult thing to keep going, when we have a busy schedule. But we don’t need to have extremely high benchmarks. Start out easy and effortlessly, and especially fun. The more fun and enjoyment you get from these activities the more you will want to do them in the future with your family.