Healthy Habits for a Healthy Family
Keeping your family healthy is no easy task. With everything else that pulls our attention during the day, it is a feat to keep things balanced. What happens in our family depends entirely on the choices we make. We are the first example our children have. This is why it is so important that we implement healthy family habits. Here are a few tips you can use to get the ball rolling.
Start Early
When children are young it is important to introduce to them good habits for eating, exercise and character building. The earlier, the easier and more natural the healthy family habits become. It’s simple, you get to introduce the good things before bad habits take root.
Foster a Healthy Relationship With Food
Did you know that according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) website approximately 13.7 million children and teens in America are affected by obesity? That’s a lot. And it’s a reflection on the kind of habits that we have fostered in ourselves and our children. I don’t know about you but that figure is scary to me.
Manage Your Emotions
I know more often than not children live in homes where they are loved by their parents. So clearly we might be unwittingly hurting our children with our own unhealthy habits. We use food to fill emotional gaps. When we feel angry, sad, tired, bored we eat something to fill the space. Our children catch on to the trend and there goes the cycle.
So the question then is, how do we combat this trend and reverse the unhealthy effects? It seems to be a simple case of replacing bad habits with good ones. Many of us have our own bad habits that we have passed on to our children. We need to find other things to relieve our emotions such as exercise, hobbies, etc and teach our children to associate those with their feelings instead.
Use The Satisfied Rule
Some of us grew up with the clean your plate before you leave the table mantra. After all, there were unfortunate children all over the world who didn’t have enough to eat. Sound familiar? I believe this has led us to some weird guilt associated with food.
To this day I have to remind myself that it’s okay not to force it if I’m full. The result is that I have introduced the eat until your satisfied rule in my own home. That means you eat until you feel full enough and then you are free to stop. While I will never be okay with wasting food, I’m totally okay with leftovers so it’s not a problem.
Sit down to a meal together.
With so many activities filling our days it’s hard to have everybody present at the same time. There are endless afterschool activities for the kids and late nights at work. All of which compete for our very precious time. But if your evenings are crazy then maybe try for breakfast together before everybody goes scrambling in a thousand directions. Having a meal together is one of the healthy family habits that allow us to pause for even a few minutes and talk to each other.
Eat At Home
I cannot stress how important eating at home is for fostering healthy family habits. Eating at home is essential if you want to ensure your family is getting the right kinds of food. It allows for bonding, gives you control over your food and saves money. If you want to practice some version of clean eating for yourself or your family then this is one of those healthy family habits you must take as a golden rule.
Meal Prep
If you want to be able to eat together and eat well then meal planning and prep is essential. Meal prep means that you have ready-made meals that you can use in pinch or just as part of your regular day. The point is that when you are short on time a pre-prepped meal will allow you to use your spare minutes to eat with your family rather than spending that time cooking from scratch or ordering in.
When you meal prep you have the luxury of knowing and dictating exactly what your family is eating. All the better to avoid those things which are undesirable to you.
Make Exercise Fun
Play together, random dance-offs, family walks, youtube workouts, bicycle rides, these are some of the activities that you can engage in with your kids. Small children especially are generally gung ho about getting active. My littles have been around fitness since the day they were born. They get to be a part of my home workouts, either copying my movements or “being the weights” that mommy lifts.
Use Respectful Words And Tones
Kids pick up bad habits really quick. It’s like they have a radar that locks on to every oops moment. Good and respectful communication between adults trickles down to kids. We teach our kids what is okay and what is not. I cringe when I here young children speak disrespectfully to adults. We need to teach them early what will and will not be tolerated. And while they are young avoid giving them the idea that bad behavior is funny or cute as this will come back to haunt you.
Talk About Your Bodies In A Healthy Way
Body image is such a huge issue, especially with girls. With the prevalence of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, we can see why this should not be taken for granted. Since we are competing against beauty industries, magazines, and tv stars we know that we have to get ahead of the false image the media puts out about beauty and acceptance.
It starts with how we reference our own bodies and our children’s. We must learn to do so in appreciative ways. Teach self-love and acceptance at any stage. Help them appreciate themselves not just for looks but in all ways. Try using terms that are accepting and not critical so that we do not leave them feeling ashamed of their bodies in any way.
Get Involved In Community Or Group Activities
What kind of activities are your kids involved in? Sports, clubs, groups? If they are involved in something then good for you. Just don’t overdo it. Kids need downtime too. Group activities foster team building, good sportsmanship, and responsibility to others. Even if your child is a bit of a loner don’t allow them to become isolated. This can be really detrimental.
Read Bedtime Stories
Reading bedtime stories is a good way to wind down even for you. You would be hard-pressed to find a child that does not enjoy it immensely. The earlier you start the better. It gets your children reading earlier and encourages imaginative thinking. It’s good for cuddles and getting rambunctious boys to sit still for more than three seconds.
Turn Off Devices And Enjoy Family Time
Family time is very important in my house. It sometimes involves excursions to the beach or the zoo but is usually a simple home activity like movie night. The most beloved activity I have to say is game night. It’s the activity my kids seem to look forward to the most.
On game night my seven-year-old daughter adamantly demands that everyone put down cell phones and focus. The gloves come off and we get into some very vibrant yet healthy competition. They love it and we enjoy it too.
Be Supportive
Find out what interests your children and support it even if you don’t get it. As long as it isn’t something harmful then get on board. Be curious and try to understand. Engage with them so you know what they need to support their goals. Encourage them to explore the possibilities of their interest. You never know how little Johnny’s interest in planes today and lead to him being a rocket scientist in the future.
Go On Dates
Date nights for parents is vital. Everything should not revolve around work, school, and kids. You will burn out and grow apart. Date night gives the opportunity for the adults to bond. A good relationship between parents is the bedrock of a healthy family. Don’t neglect it.
Date nights don’t have to be just between parents but between kids and parents as well. One on one time with Mommy and Daddy will be a delight for young children and keeps your relationship strong as they grow older. I still go on Daddy Daughter Dates with my dad. It’s an opportunity for the two of us to catch up on life and make more meaningful memories.
Have Treats Sometimes
With all this talk about being healthy, we don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t have a treat sometimes. Balance is important. However, treats need to be just that, a treat. Ice cream every day is not something that sits okay with me. It just doesn’t seem healthy to me. How about you? But I do believe that a treat is okay on occasion and it lets your children know that food is not the enemy. It also teaches moderation. And I’m a big believer in moderation.
Relax No One’s Perfect
Know that you are not perfect and you and your kids will slip up sometimes. That’s okay. It’s not the end of the world in fact it’s all part of being human. We’re always learning and trying to improve.
Obviously starting and maintaining healthy family habits can be a challenge. But it can be done. Start early while the kids are young and it will make life that much easier. I know life sometimes feels like a juggling act, believe me, I get it. So take it one day at a time and know that it will all work out in the end.