Keeping your kids fit and healthy can become quite a tough task. What with all the things out there to tempt them, like video games and sweets, it’s easy for them to slip into a sedentary and unhealthy way of living. For their own good, however, they need to be encouraged to break this cycle. They need to be encouraged to get and remain fit, and they should be tasked with consuming a nutritious diet that includes healthy foods as well as their favorite treats. As a caregiver, it’s your job to do this in an encouraging and healthy manner.
Here’s what you need to do to get started with this task:
Do your research
Before you go all in with all your force and energy in your attempt to encourage your children to be fitter and healthier, you should conduct some research on the matter. Only when you do this will your arm yourself with the information needed to circumvent this very fragile yet all-important situation with the utmost delicacy — one wrong move or saying the wrong thing could put your children off from getting fit and healthy altogether, so you need to know what to do and say.
Also, it’s important to know what kind of tactics you should be deploying based on your child’s current age and state of health. By forcing them to do things that push them too hard, it’s highly likely that you’ll put them off in your attempts to help them stay fit and healthy.
Find activities that they find fun
If your children find particular activities or sports fun, then that’s half the battle won. This is because, as you can probably attest to yourself, exercising is a lot less strenuous when it’s not boring and a bit of enjoyment and excitement comes attached to it. If you want to make it far more likely that your children will stick to their fitness regimen and make your task a lot easier as a result, you should seek to find and then encourage them towards physical activities that they enjoy.
In this instance, you might have to go through a bit of trial and error. You’re only going to know what each of your children like by trying them out with new things — remember; you should only try them out with age-appropriate activities. As soon as you find that one activity or sport that they truly enjoy, you should stick with it. If you can, try and get the whole family involved.
Make exercising a ritual
Chances are, your children enjoy playing video games upon occasion. It’s okay if this is the case, but only is it is on occasion. By allowing them to indulge in this habit too often, they won’t get the physical stimulation needed to remain fit.
To counteract the time your children spend at their video game consoles, you should set up specific times of the day in which they have to exercise. You should then ensure that these exercising periods are made a family ritual. By getting into some sort of a routine with their fitness, your children will find it far easier to remain active — in the end, remaining active will just become second nature to them. A good piece of advice in this instance is to go on family walks at a set time every day. If you stick to this walk, come rain or shine, your children will soon begin to realize that staying fit is both an important and normal part of life.
Kit them out correctly
To make the time your children spend exercising as comfortable for them as possible, you have to kit them out in the right clothes and gear.
Having the right clothes to wear is an often understated yet essential aspect of sticking to a fitness regimen, for both kids and adults alike. By going on a walk dressed in gear that is going to hinder their ability to move and breathe freely, the whole venture will soon become too uncomfortable for your children – as a result, the likelihood of them giving up will be far greater. For this reason, you should get them a set of exercising clothes that won’t rub them and will let them sweat and breath comfortably.
Get them eating more fruits and vegetables
Encouraging your children to be fit and healthy isn’t just about getting them active, it’s also about getting them to eat well. As you have probably readily discovered, getting kids to eat fruits and vegetables is not always a straightforward task. A few things that you can do to ensure your children are getting enough healthy snacks, frequently include:
- Providing little fruit bites as a snack, as opposed to full-blown pieces.
- Serving fresh salads at dinnertime more often.
- Incorporating at least one piece of leafy green veggies, such as broccoli, onto the plate at dinnertime.
- Becoming a role model — make sure you eat your fair share of healthy snacks while in sight of your kids.
Offer them incentives
Children like rewards, there’s no denying that, and you can tap into this natural desire on your children’s part by offering them incentives to stay fit and healthy. This could mean allowing them to spend some time playing their video game of choice if they eat a certain amount of fruit in a day, or this could mean ironing a custom patch onto their Cub Scout uniform if they exercise for a specific amount of time over a week — you can discover more about that particular incentive at Patches4Less.com. Whatever incentives you decide to offer up to your kids, make sure they are worthwhile in the sense that they will encourage them to stay fit and healthy.
If you want your children to grow up to become adults that value their health and fitness, you have to start them off early. Take the advice above, and do all you can to encourage your children to keep fit and eat healthy at all times.