Our society is becoming more and more sedentary. With video games and television being to primary activities for many children (and their parents) it’s no wonder that obesity and depression are rampant in our country and families are growing apart.
Start using some of these ideas to get your family active and out from in front of the television – then start a conversation. Your family will get more fit, healthier, happier, and closer.
How Can a Family Get Fit Together?
Create a culture of making time to exercise.
Too often the excuse people use for not exercising is that they don’t have the time. Make the time and teach your children the importance of finding time to exercise.
Make exercise fun.
Exercise doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, if you make it boring you can pretty much ensure that your kids won’t be interested in it so do some things to make it fun.
Plan family activities to get you moving.
Go to a park, walk around the zoo, hit a bike trail – there are any number of family activities that are fun but don’t necessarily make you think exercise. It creates a culture of being active and bonding as a family.
Bike or walk when you can.
If you live in an area where you can walk or bike to some places, do it. People have become complacent and are quick to take the car to drive down to the corner store or to drive a couple of blocks to a friend’s house. Hang up the car keys and take a walk together.
Go for walks as a family.
After dinner take a walk as a family. It will give you time to talk together while you are promoting a healthy habit. Walk in your neighborhood or find a local track to walk on. It doesn’t matter where you walk, as long as you are doing it.
Crank up the music and dance!
Anything that encourages movement qualifies as exercise and few things are more fun than cranking up your favorite song and dancing. The kids will love it and it is a great way to bond with them, break a sweat, and have a blast.
Create a fit deck.
Get some index cards and write a different activity on each one, making sure that they are age-appropriate for the younger children. That’s your fit deck. Each evening, take turns drawing from the fit deck and do that activity for 10 to 30 minutes.
Select a family sport and play.
Select a sport that the family can all agree on – even if it is something as simple as kickball. Then do it as a family. Make it fun with no pressure to participate or win – just a good way to be active.
Get a dog.
Having a dog teaches responsibility and compassion, it helps ease depression, and it is a great way to get moving. Make it a habit every day to walk the dog. It’s good for the dog as well as the humans. Everybody wins!
Go skating, swimming, climb trees, anything to get moving.
It really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you get moving and get moving together. Go skating, take a swim at the community pool, go to the park and climb trees, just do something.
