Most people know that diet and exercise play a key role not only in your health, but your mental well-being as well. But keeping up an exercise regiment can often be challenging for people who have kids.
Aside from this, on some level you know that the best way to encourage your kids to stay active is if you yourself also remain active. For busy parents, this can feel like a daunting task. Maybe this is something you’re experiencing now.
If so, take note of the following list of ideas. They’ll teach you how to get your family up and moving, without asking you to completely change your life in order to make it happen.
1. Take the Stairs And Other Simple Stuff
Sometimes, people tend to make exercise more complicated than it should be. But keeping your family active doesn’t have to be that way. According to The American Heart Association adding exercise into your day can be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or parking your car and walking to all your errand destinations.
What would these activities look like if you get your family involved? You could gather up the family to go grocery shopping, opting to park your car as far from the store’s door as possible. Then, you could take a visit to a local museum and instead of taking the elevator up to each floor, you could take the stairs instead.
2. Plan an Outing
Health.com encourages families to plan activity-based outings to keep the blood pumping. During the summer, you can do things like go to the park and have a picnic. During the winter, you could go snowboarding or even head out for a night of caroling during the Christmas holidays.
Bringing along some healthy snacks like dried fruit, sandwiches, and some nuts will keep hunger at bay. The addition of some keto drinks like bulletproof coffee or keto hot chocolate should keep you and yours warm when it’s cold outside. They also help you to keep your family trim. Iced tea or coconut water make good choices when the temperature rises.
3. Get the Neighbors Involved
There is a reason that the saying, “the more, the merrier” has stayed in our collective vocabularies. Human beings are naturally social animals. And while family activities provide you and your kids with plenty of social interaction, sometimes more really is better.
If you’d like to get your wider circle involved in your health kick, Parents offers a fun suggestion: Have a backyard Olympics. Activities could include three-legged races, obstacle courses, or a game of horseshoes to name but a few. The idea is to have fun while you get everyone moving.
As with the family outing, make sure that you supply plenty of drinks to keep everyone hydrated. And if you really want to extend the fun factor, you can suggest that all the neighbors bring a healthy dish to share. An after-event potluck would be one of the best ways to unwind after everything wraps up.
Final Thoughts
Encouraging your family to become more active can actually be quite simple. Many times, it only requires you to be a bit more creative in the way you schedule your day. Taking the stairs or walking to do errands counts as an excellent way to beef up your workout hours.
Or if you want to add a few fun activities to your list of things to do, you might consider planning a family outing or inviting the neighbors over to participate in your backyard Olympics. Anytime you can pair physical activity with fun and good company is always a good thing. The fun and the company makes people forget about the strenuousness of the activity, which means they might ask to do something like that again. This makes encouraging your family to be more active a breeze!
