No, you don’t have to completely revamp or reinvent your family’s lifestyle to raise healthy kids. It’s really a matter of planning ahead and deliberately choosing how you handle meals, movement, and other matters. Here are a variety of healthy switches that are fairly easy to introduce.
Instead of: Grabbing fast food or take-out when you’re rushed and don’t have time to cook dinner.
Try: Picking up a rotisserie chicken and cooking frozen veggies you’ve been keeping on hand
Instead of: Going to the movies, a puppet show, or another form of passive entertainment every weekend
Try: Planning a family bike ride or an outing to a park where you can play tag, kick a ball, or find another way to be active
Instead of: Snacking while your family watches TV
Try: Keeping your hands busy—with coloring, doing a puzzle, or knitting—or letting everyone chew sugarless gum if they feel the need to have something in their mouths
Instead of: Feeding your kids or yourself and your spouse whenever each person gets home from work and after-school activities
Try: Appointing a family dinner hour and exercising control over when you stop working or playing so that you can have the evening meal together
Instead of: Indulging the munchies when your child is frustrated, upset, or otherwise out of sorts
Try: Suggesting that you go out and toss a ball or play croquet or badminton to blow off steam
Instead of: Rewarding your child for good behavior or an accomplishment with a sweet treat or another form of food
Try: Letting him pick a special activity to do together or even a movie to watch together
Instead of: Skipping breakfast because you’re in a hurry in the morning or grabbing something on the fly
Try: Having everyone get up 20 minutes earlier so you can all start the day with a healthy morning meal
Instead of: Having your kids clamor for your attention and something to eat while you scramble to pull dinner together in the early evening
Try: Reconnecting with a fun activity such as dancing or coloring together, then serve them some veggies and dip or apple slices and ask them to keep you company while you get dinner ready
Instead of: Letting bedtime arrive when it’s convenient for everyone or your kids are simply too exhausted to keep going
Try: Establishing a clear bedtime and introducing a consistent sleepytime routine with a bath, reading a story, or listening to calming music together
You can find more useful tips like this int he Weight Watchers Eat! Move! Play! book available through Amazon.
Reprinted from the book Weight Watchers Eat! Move! Play! With permission from John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Disclosure: I received no monetary compensation for this post. The opinions are my own. I am on a journey of weight loss and merely passing along information that I found beneficial.