When thinking about creating an overall healthy lifestyle for yourself and family, where does one even begin? If we take a moment and think about choices that we make everyday; what you eat, how much you exercise, what you do in your free time, we may not recognized that all of these decisions come from some type of a role-model source. Personally, I find that most of my diet choices and work out routines come from growing up in a household that promoted these choices. In an article titled “5 Simple Steps to Success” that I found on the website http://www.letsmove.gov, the importance of parents being a beneficial role-model to their families creates a positive, healthy environment that helps kids make good decisions as they continue to grow.
The website provides an easy, interactive way of learning by coming up with the following five ways families can construct healthy living:
- Always keep fruit and vegetables as a primary, available snack over sweets
- Have your kids help plan a meal plan each week, as well as having them participate in cooking the meal
- Engage in some form of family exercise after dinner
- Remove entertainment devices (such as TV’s) during family meals
- Discuss possible healthy environments to bring to your kids school
I found that I was able to click on each step, leading me to another page that went into further detail of each step. Many of these steps seem like common sense, but by navigating and reading through each step I learned quick facts that can actually make huge difference! For instance, I was surprised to read that kids are more likely to spend 1.5 hours or more a day of watching TV if they have one in their room. This is 1.5 hours kids could be exercising or engaging in family activities instead.
Clicking further into each step also includes easy recipes for families to plan and cook together, which is another way to spend more time together as a family instead of off in a room watching TV. By including children in meal preparation, they can learn proper portion sizes, how to choose and prepare a healthy snack or even become more knowledgeable of healthy verse. unhealthy foods. It is the parent’s responsibilities to provide their children with healthy options, as well as encourage them over sweets and sugary foods. Steps as replacing a candy bowl with fruit, replace sugary drinks with water or 100% fruit juice, and using small plates and bowls to serve food, children will adapt to these habits and continue to execute them as they grow.
As a nutrition educator, this would be an effective method to educate parents on maintaining a healthy lifestyle among their families by using multiple methods that all interlink with each other. I think it is important to address every aspect that contributes to personal health, (a nutritious diet, how to substitute healthy foods into your diet, increased exercise with limited TV and computer use, etc.) instead of just focusing on one aspect. It is vital that we start paying closer attention to the health of our rising generations. By teaching kids at a young age healthy habits, they will hopefully continue to practice and apply them for the rest of their life.
Want to check out how to start a healthy family plan yourself? Visit http://www.letsmove.gov/parents to get started!