Healthy Habits Make Healthy Children!
Growing healthy children requires healthy routines. Health is about consistent lifestyle patterns that build momentum and strengthen the body. Transitioning from summer into fall and the start of a new school year can challenge your time and disrupt your routines. Such challenges can push aside time to maintain good health habits or develop new healthy habits. So to promote awareness and keep you focused, here are 7 important healthy habits to keep you and your kids in the game!
- Stay Active and Do It Together
Get everyone in the family moving, don’t just emphasize the idea of being active to your children without participating in the activities. In addition to making it fun for the whole family, exercising together will allow you to interact with your child and help them stay healthy and active.
- Eat a Variety of Foods.
Don’t just stick to the same food regimen. Make sure you try a variety of different nutrient-rich foods to boost the health of yourself and your children. Eating different colored fruits and veggies will ensure a wider variety of nutrients. There are many different vitamins and minerals out there, and if you just stick to the same old mac n’ cheese menu with the occasional hotdog, you are missing out on an abundance of healthy nutrients for your children!
- Set Limits to Screen-time.
We live in a world constantly absorbed by some type of technology. From work to leisure time, technology is present in our life in one shape or another practically 24/7. Computers, portable devices and such can create irregularities. As examples, bad habits form that disrupt our sleeping and eating patterns. They promote a lifestyle with less movement and activity, it has been shown to lead to increased obesity and cardiovascular disease. So try and limit your child’s time behind the screen and get them moving.
- Breakfast Provides a Healthy Start to Your Day.
Fuel up! Before you send the little ones off to school and bring yourself into your favorite place a.k.a. work, make sure to create a nutritious breakfast. Some say they don’t feel hungry in the morning and skip breakfast. This is a bad habit that needs to be broken. Start off with something small to eat and overtime work up to a more normal size meal. You may also have to wake up a little earlier to make time for breakfast. A balanced breakfast containing a mix of carbs, proteins and healthy fats will provide a healthy supply of energy to start your day.
- Choose Healthy Rewards for Your Kids.
Sometimes parents tend to reward a job well done or the completion of chores with a trip to the ice cream shop, some candy or a new video game. Change the types of rewards and incentives you present to your children. Maybe take them on an excursion to their favorite park, or another outdoor adventure, whatever you decide make sure it is creative and helps to influence healthy habits in your children.
- Eat Fruits and Vegetables with Every Meal!
We have already emphasized the importance of eating healthy, but there should also be a frame of reference for what this means. One way to encourage healthy eating is to increase the intake of fruits and vegetables into your child’s diet. A neat way to do this is to have fruits and vegetables as a snack during every meal period. As a contrary, for some people, fruits don’t mix well with other foods. Fruits digest more rapidly. Mixing them with slower-to-digest foods could lead to digestive discomfort, gas and bloating. If you have this experience it’s best to eat fruits by themselves and don’t mix them with other foods.
- Be the Best Role Model.
Your children tend to emulate and copy the way you behave, so why not exhibit healthy habits that they can catch on to and then practice themselves. Be the best role model possible for your children and work together as the both of you craft and practice healthy habits for the new school year and beyond.
