Creating An Active Culture For Your Family’s Long Term Health

f you want to have a healthy, happy family that can coexist together for years to come, creating an active culture that you all enjoy is a must. Not only will this keep you all healthy and happy, it’ll help you to bond, and it’ll teach your children super healthy habits that they can carry with them into adulthood.

If you want to make sure you’re creating an active culture for your family’s long term health, read on for some suggestions.

Get Started While Your Kids Are Young

Make sure you start implementing this while your kids are young. You can go on walks with them while they are in their stroller, and as soon as they can walk you can get them outside and encourage them to run and play. It’s as simple as that. Of course there will be times they need to nap and watch TV, but you should get out as often as you can.

You may also want to pick a class for your child to join when they are old enough. Children who start classes when they are younger tend to be able to socialize better, learn amazing skills, and perfect a skill. They also tend to have more self esteem and confidence. See if you can sign them up to a dance class, football club, or even a gymnastics team.

It’s important to remember that your kids shouldn’t feel under pressure. Sometimes they need gentle encouragement and reassurance, and other times, you need to be understanding and maybe change the class or activity. Don’t be the parent that forces their child to fill out all of their unmet goals. Even if they enjoy and love what you sign them up to do, make sure they get to rest. Overextending your kids can be just as damaging to them as it would to you!

Become More Aware of the Examples You’re Setting

Remember, you’re always setting examples to your kids. Whether you’re doing a class yourself, whether you’re eating a healthy meal, or whether you’re practicing positive self talk – you’re always setting an example. It really is a case of ‘monkey see, monkey do.’ They learn a lot about how they should act from you.

This means that if you tell them to exercise but sit around watching TV all day, they will do that. If you’re always on a diet and talk about food in a negative way, they will do the same and could develop a complex. If you speak negatively to and about yourself, they will do the same to themselves. These behaviors can seriously damage them in the long run, and many parents don’t realize it.

Becoming more mindful of the things you say and do takes long term commitment, but you’ll be doing your children the world of good. Let them know that it’s okay for them to love and accept themselves as they are. Let them know that staying active is good for mental and physical health, which is why we do it – not because of the way we look. Remember that there are no ‘bad’ foods, just food with more nutrients than others. Everything in moderation.

Teach Them Healthy Habits

Teaching your children healthy habits only happens partly when you use your voice. It happens mostly when you go about your day to day life, as we have discussed. This means that you should work on your own habits and lifestyle if you want to show your kids how it’s done. Going to the gym and taking healthy supplements from Steelsupplements.com is a good start, but you should also:

• Avoid comparing yourself to others.
• Avoid expressing disgust or dislike of your appearance.
• Practice moderation and balance – have a cookie or some cake, but don’t binge on it.
• Eat balanced, healthy meals three times a day.
• Eat meals together as a family – this has many proven benefits for kids.
• Don’t criticize your kids bodies or eating habits.
• Don’t talk about your body or their body at all – don’t talk about anybody’s body. Taking a focus away from the body and how it looks can help you all to put a bigger focus on how it performs instead. Oftentimes, how one’s body looks has little to do with their health.

Helping your children to avoid toxic diet culture and misinformation means you should also be on your guard. Teaching them these habits before they have access to social media platforms and lots of toxic posts can be very useful.