When it comes to raising children one of the best things you can offer your child is the encouragement to live a healthy lifestyle. This includes following a proper diet, routine exercise, weight loss if necessary, and risk factor modification to prevent problems with heart disease, lung disease, strokes, kidney disease, and other chronic medical problems on down the road.
Children learning and making these factors a part of their daily life will play a major role in your child’s longevity and quality of life as they grow older.
Your child’s observation of the example you set will provide the greatest impact on their long term health and wellness. If you have not started an exercise program, then do it for your children.
Kids today are not as active as they were twenty years ago. Video games and television has made them more sedentary. Your children need to be active to maintain or achieve proper fitness and prevent them from becoming obese.
It is a good idea to limit the time that your children are allowed to watch television, play video games or be on the computer.
By placing limits on their sedentary activities, your children will be forced to find other activities to engage in. You may want to get your children video games that require them to move their bodies to play. There are some great games available that will have your child dancing and even exercising.
Find out what interests your child the most. If your child likes soccer or basketball, sign him up for a team. If your daughter has an interest in horseback riding, sign her up for horseback riding lessons. Do not push your child into a sport that he or she does not want to do. This will send a negative message to your child.
If you have very young children, you can still encourage them to be active. Be silly around your little ones. Show them how much fun being active can be. Jump around to music, hop like a bunny or just play musical chairs with them.
A great idea to get your kids more active is to have them do chores. The chores can be made more fun by turning them into a competition. See who can pull the most weeds in the garden or who can get their room clean the fastest. Making the chores fun will encourage the kids to help out around the house and become more active.
When your child has a birthday, schedule a party in which they will be doing something active. You may want to take the kids at the birthday party bowling or swimming at the local YMCA. If you have a large yard, you could have a game of scavenger hunt or even a game of kickball.
Make a family night of activity once a week. Have a different person choose each week what the weekly activity is going to be. Challenge each member of the family to come up with something more creative than the previous week.
Incorporating fitness into your family activities is not difficult if you use a little imagination. The whole family will benefit from becoming more active and living a more optimal healthy lifestyle.
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