Are You Role Modeling Good Health for Your Child? Are you finding this question hard to answer or answering in a yes, but form, then this article may be for you. With today’s busy lifestyle you may find it hard to fit healthy meals and exercise in your routine. By the time you get yourself ready and the children off to school and yourself off to work at home or outside the home there’s no time for breakfast or making meals for lunch. The same routine holds true for the evening and even more. Here’s a few ideas.
Making meals can involve everyone and it can begin with a two week schedule. Have the family sit down as a group and brainstorm their favorite foods, you may even find their ideas to be quick and easy. Use the ideas to write up a schedule of meals and take this list with you to the grocery store in order to not forget any items or better yet shop on line. Then place this schedule on the refrigerator and repeat it every two weeks. Look to see if there are any meals you can make in advance and freeze them, so to save time and energy during the busy week. Another great idea is to make extra food at dinner for tomorrow’s lunch.
Do you find yourself spending as much money at the grocery store as you do giving to the children and yourselves to spend on lunch every week? There could be an incentive for everyone by using food from home. Use the extra money to have a family day!
Only buy healthy food at the grocery store. If you notice, products that are in the center of the store tends to be high in fat and carbohydrates which are not healthy for us. The foods on the outer perimeters are our fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, dairy, and frozen vegetables. Try being conscientious of where you shop in the store and what types of foods your bringing home to the family. If you want your family to eat healthy, what better way then to buy healthy.
Remember hearing from your parents that you need to finish everything on your plate. Teaching your children to listen to their bodies is essential to good health. Obviously, if your child has a pattern of leaving their vegetables for last and then they say their full, it is time to make them eat the vegetables first while their warm! If you make your child eat everything on their plate this may teach them an unhealthy behavior which may add up to excessive amounts of excess calories.
Good health also includes exercise. If you do not have time during the week to go bike riding or walking, the weekends are always good. Make the activities that you do as a family to include walking at a park or forest preserve which could also provide education to the children. Exercise does wonders for our moods by releasing natural chemicals in our bodies like serotonin and endorphin. It may be hard to get yourself motivated at first, although if you implement it in your daily or weekly routine then it will become easier. Habits tend to form if we practice them more times then not, for example 4 days out of 7 rather then 3 out of 7.
Involve the children by asking for their ideas, communication is vital for healthy relationships. Children tend to have a lot of ideas, are spontaneous, and can teach adults how to relax. |
