Physical fitness, and physically active pastimes, can be remarkably beneficial in all sorts of different ways – ranging from significantly improving health, to boosting mood, increasing resilience, and generating more enthusiasm and zest for life.
For many parents who have been bitten by the fitness bug, finding ways to get their kids interested in physically active pastimes from an early age is very important, not least of all because of the assorted long-term benefits that can come from a physically active lifestyle.
Here are just a few tips for creating a fitness loving household, where the whole family has a healthy appreciation for exercise.
Make regular physical activity a fun thing to do, rather a gruelling chore
First things first: if you want your whole family, and especially your kids, to enjoy regular physical activity, you need to make it a fun and appealing thing to do, rather than a gruelling chore.
Partly what this means, is that you should avoid high intensity and exhausting workouts that take serious willpower and energy to accomplish, and that leave the participants feeling totally drained and wiped out afterwards.
Instead, look for ways to get everyone physically active that are enjoyable in and of themselves. Things like playing catch in the garden, playing different sports or games, jumping around and dancing to music, and so on.
The more you can associate physical activity and exercise with joy and fun, the higher the likelihood that you’ll end up with a fitness-loving household.
Focus on supporting physical fitness and activity with good nutrition
Living a physically active lifestyle inevitably takes up quite a lot of energy, and can be exhausting – especially if you aren’t fueling your lifestyle properly.
Anyone who has ever tried to keep up a vigorous workout routine, while simultaneously dieting and cutting back their calories by a significant margin, can attest to this. Trying to be physically active when you aren’t eating enough, or aren’t eating enough of the right things, can be very draining and can require a lot of effort and willpower.
For this reason, it should be pretty clear that if you want your family to enjoy physical exercise, and a physically active lifestyle, it’s important to focus on supporting that physical activity with good nutrition all around.
Among other things, this means that you should emphasise filling, nutritious, home-cooked meals made from whole food ingredients, in addition to having a good portion of healthy carbohydrates in each meal.
Maintain set mealtimes, too, and try to eat meals together as a family wherever possible. Skipping meals, snacking throughout the day, or “grabbing lunch on the go” can all be very detrimental.
Extend these same principles to all members of your family, animal members included. After all, you can find great, high quality dog food online these days.
Look for regular opportunities to get active in the great outdoors as a family
There are plenty of great benefits associated with regularly spending time outside in nature, ranging from reduced stress, to increased overall health.
It’s no doubt largely for this reason that exercise that’s done in a natural environment seems to be even more beneficial than exercise done in the gym, or at home.
By looking for regular opportunities to get the whole family active in the great outdoors, you can make physical activity an even more uplifting and positive thing.
