We cut down on our groceries and the first one to go was the biscuits, specially those with sweet fillings. Now, I have nothing against biscuits, but I would prefer a healthier snacks for my kids. I realized that whatever I give to them will affect their health not only today but as well as in the future.
And with that in mind, I realized, I am responsible in ensuring that my child will be healthy and will live a healthy lifestyle. I am sharing with you some of the things that we’re trying to adopt in the house and how we are doing it to build healthy habits and in the end develop a healthy lifestyle for the kids.
Eating the right food. Give your kids healthy food, introduce them to vegetables and as much as possible stay away from foods that is not healthy.
How to make it fun: include them in the grocery shopping, let them put the food in the basket. Also let them choose what they want and explaining to them why you will buy it and why you will not. Include them in the preparation of the food, for younger kids, let them do the washing, if you can trust your kid with a knife, let him do the cutting. It is also fun to take a peak of what’s cooking. I do that sometimes specially to my little girl who’s very curios of what’s happening on the kitchen. She loves helping mommy cook!
Let’s get physical! It is very important that you teach your kids the importance of exercising. Introduce them to physical activities, to making muscles be stronger and to activities that will make them move.
How to make it fun: Join Fun Runs together or play basketball with your kid. I do that, once every month. Or you can go to the park and play tag! My kids, they love running with me, so when time permits, we’d go to Rain Forest and run and have breakfast there. It doubles as a healthy activity and as well as bonding activity.
Supply your kid with supplements. While you make it a point to give them healthy food, supplements are still needed. Give them supplements to make sure they get all the nutrients and vitamins requirement they need.
How to make it fun: my kids.. there are times that the do not like taking supplements.. so what I do is alternate their supplements from time to time (will publish an article on how to choose the right supplement for your kid soon) and as much as possible, I make drinking time a super fun time. Take my 3rd and 4th babies, they do not like taking supplements, so what I did is label the supplements according to their favorite activity. There’s a supplement to improve their running and there’s one for jumping higher! And with that, they would drink it with much enthusiasm! and will show how much they improve on running on jumping.
Take a bath daily and of course brush teeth every after meal. A good hygiene is a part of being healthy so you really have to take time instilling to your kid how important good hygiene is. Develop a routine so they would not forget brushing their teeth and taking a bath. Of course good hygiene is not just about bathing and brushing the teeth. Trim their nails regularly, comb their hair, have their hair cut and so on. This activity will teach your kid that these are needed to be done on their body and in the long run they will develop the attitude of making sure they are clean and neat.
How to make it more fun: when taking a bath, I always make it a point that I am in not hurrying mood. We take our time as I bathe them. I sing to them, I play with them and make them feel special through bathing. I always made sure that bathing is fun. Same goes with brushing,we sing and count while brushing and always end it with a kiss from my mommy!
All of these, of course will never be effective if you will not lead by example. Our kids look after us and they love imitation what they do. Instilling a healthy lifestyle with them will be easy if they see you as a good example.
