Help Your Kids Stay Healthy With These Tips
By Genevieve Cunningham
Healthy kids is a total end goal. For some reason, keeping our kids healthy sometimes feels like such a challenge. Because they're kids (and perfectly normal kids!), all they want to do is eat chicken nuggets, french fries, and candy bars. As parents, we're constantly bombarded with ideas about how terrible we are. We're terrible if we let them eat processed food. We're terrible if we let them drink juice. We're terrible if we let them play a video game. Enough is enough! Believe it or not, it's possible to teach your kids how to be healthy without going overboard. If you want to help your kids lean toward better health, take a look at these simple ways to promote health in your family starting today.
Teach Them About Movement
Kids like to move. They have so much energy that needs to come out. But they're just like the rest of us. If given the opportunity to sit in front of the TV, they'll choose that instead. So don't give them the option -- or at least not all day long. Teach your kids to go for walks and pick flowers. Teach them to dance in the kitchen. Teach them to go outside and play and picnic. Just teach them to move! The more you move, the more they'll move, and the healthier and happier everyone in your home will be.
Teach Them How to Cook
You don't have to cook a gourmet meal every night. But it's a good idea to cook most nights of the week, and an even better idea to let your kids help. Pick out a few healthy but kid-friendly recipes, and cook together as a family. This gives you the opportunity to talk about nutrition, but not in an overwhelming way for your kids. Kids habits are set by example. Help them create a cooking habit by creating one for yourself.
Help Them Find a Hobby
Hobbies are key to long-term happiness. We all need an escape. We need something to wrap our minds around and get lost in from time to time. Help your kids discover hobbies right now. Will their interests change over the years? Yes. Will they have a hobby now that they don't have in a few years? Absolutely. But if they know how to discover hobbies and how to become engaged in an activity, they'll be able to carry that skill with them into the future for better health -- both physical and mental.
Don't let parent shamers get you down. You're doing a great job! And rest assured that you can teach your kids healthy habits without going vegan, avoiding sugar, or throwing out your screens. Find a little balance. Use these tips to help improve the health of everyone in your family, kids included, for years to come.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Charlotte, N.C.