Living a healthy lifestyle can be a struggle when your children aren’t involved in the process. There’s nothing like opening a cabinet only to find several half eaten bags of mini Goldfish crackers, Double Stuffed Oreo Cookies, Little Debbie’s and a variety of other high-calorie, high-carb, fat-infused snacks.   While it might be a difficult journey, sharing a healthy lifestyle with your kids is vital in guiding them to making healthy choices when they are older.

BAD HABITS START YOUNG

If you want your children to embrace a healthy lifestyle, it’s vital to be a good role model. If your children see you making poor food choices, they will think that it’s okay for them to do the same. Limiting the unhealthy food options at home is a huge step in the right direction. This will ensure that temptations are not around to derail your efforts and will make it easier for you to be consistent in modeling healthy food choices. 

CHOOSE ACTIVITIES THAT EVERYONE ENJOYS 
 

• Having a healthy lifestyle means incorporating exercise into your day.  Focusing on activities the entire family enjoys will make excising fun and less of a chore. 
• Some kid friendly activities include: 
• Going for a walk while little ones ride their bikes. 
• Seeing who can throw a football the furthest. 
• Geocaching at a local park. 
• Exploring a new area where you live. Maybe a beach, park, or trail. 
• Mall walking in cold weather. 
• Throwing Skee-balls and basketballs at the local arcade.

HAVE FUN AND BE REALISTIC 

The most important thing is to have fun when bringing your kids into your healthy lifestyle. If kids view exercise as a punishment or a negative consequence for something, they won’t want to participate. Focusing on activities that they already enjoy helps to keep exercise fun! It’s equally important to be realistic when it comes to healthy eating.  Allowing kids to occasionally eat their favorite cookie or a slice of cheesy pizza keeps them from feeling deprived.  If a kid feels as though their healthy choices are keeping them from doing and/or eating the things they like, resentment will set in and incorporating healthy choices will become something they dislike and avoid.