Life Style

Raising Fit Kids: Healthy Exercise and Fitness Tips

Every parent wants their kids to be healthy and happy. Through exercise and proper nutrition from an early age, you can help your little ones adopt healthier habits and lifestyles and stick to them.

Exercise is vital for the whole family. Not only will it help you blow off steam, but it will support weight management and contribute to the overall wellbeing of your family members.

Work toward healthy goals together in a relaxed and fun atmosphere.

Be a Positive Role Model to Your Child

Exposing kids to positive messages about exercise and nutrition will help develop active habits. The earlier, the better. If you want to support a lifelong habit of physical activity in your youngsters, then find creative ways to encourage them to be active from an early age.

Giving them a personal example is the most effective way.

Incorporate physical activity into your everyday life and practice what you preach. If both parents are physically active, the kids are three to six times more likely to be active too.

Get the Whole Family Moving Together

Plan fun family activities at least once every weekend. Hit the outdoors whenever you can. The options are endless! Camping, swimming, hiking and exploring nature, shooting the hoop or just tossing a ball – take your pick.

Even cold weather doesn’t have to prevent you from exercising, as you can enjoy fun winter-time activities.

Combine indoor activities with outdoor ones like skiing, sledding, and ice-skating.

Make a Sunday bike ride a regular thing. When you are out of ideas, just walk your dog – he will be tremendously thankful.

If you are looking to buy sports toys to encourage your children to start with sports, you can find more info here.

Get Your Kids Involved in Planning the Activities

Let your kids take part in choosing the weekend activity. Putting your children in charge will give them a sense of control over the situation. It also encourages them to explore interesting ways to be active.

Inviting your kid’s friends is a great way to encourage fitness activities since youngsters enjoy hanging out with their peers.

If you are wondering how much time your little ones should spend being active, or what’s appropriate for a child with chronic illness visit CaringforKids.

Make Fitness Fun

Use your imagination (and Google) to make exercise look and feel like a game. Your little ones are more likely to engage in amusing and enjoyable activities, so try to give a twist to the old and boring ones.

Go to the park or any other open field and create an obstacle race. Or use animals to jazz things up. Suggest your smaller kids jump like a kangaroo, stretch like a cat or run like a leopard.

Doing their portion of the exercise will surely crack them up laughing.

Teenagers might be tough cookies, but suggest an action-oriented dance video game and you will be surprised with how easy it is to get them off the couch.

Limit Juice Consumption

Sugary drinks, concentrated fruit juices, and flavored drinks are loaded with empty calories and fill up your kid’s little stomach with sugar. They also reduce the need to drink water and eat whole foods.

Instead of that, have pure, filtered water available to your children all day.

Introduce Healthy Snacks to Your Little Ones

Store-bought, highly-processed snacks are filled with things you don’t want near your child. We all reach out to cookies and chips from time to time as it is so easy and kids love them. Unfortunately, they enormously contribute to childhood obesity.

To prevent this, introduce more fruit and veggies. Start with tasty healthy snacks like apple slices with almond butter or veggie chips and build up from there.

Setting healthy patterns for your children early on is the best investment you can make for their future. They will adopt these habits and practice them for life.

Atif Mallo

Atif Mallo is a freelance blogger with huge interest in technology, science, life hacks and health. He loves coffee, cheesecake and chess. Drop a line in comments to leave feedback for him.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button