6 Ways You Can Teach Your Kids About Living a Healthy Lifestyle

teach your kidsPart of being a parent is helping your children understand the importance of living a full and healthy lifestyle. Starting with leading by example, you can help them make their own choices to nurture their physical health and wellness.  As you start your journey to teach your kids about wellness, consider these tips.

1. Make Healthy Choices for Yourself
Giving your children an example to follow is crucial to their wellness education. If you try to teach them to do what you say and not what you do, you can confuse their understanding of what it means to be healthy. Your children live in your home and participate in your life. When they see you making healthy food choices and practicing self-care, they can make better sense of your verbal instructions.

2. Practice Gratitude and Positivity
Research shows that expressing gratitude can reduce stress and anxiety and improve your physical health. You can actually reduce inflammation in your body just by expressing feelings of thankfulness and positivity. That attitude will also rub off on your children. When you teach them to recognize the things around them that bring them joy and happiness, you help them see the good in a bad situation. That is a skill they will need throughout life.

3. Teach Them to Communicate
Communication is a vital life skill that everyone should learn. For children, this is especially important, as it lays the foundation for healthy relationships throughout their lives. Parents play a crucial role in teaching their children the importance of communication. By modelling effective communication themselves and providing opportunities for their children to practice, parents can help their children develop the skills they need to communicate effectively. In addition to promoting a healthy lifestyle now, this will also benefit them in the future as they navigate adulthood and all of its challenges. When children learn the importance of communication at an early age, they are better equipped to manage their own emotions and maintain healthier relationships with the people in their lives.

4. Encourage Them to Pursue Their Hobbies
When your child expresses an interest in a healthy activity, do your best to nurture it. When a kid feels joy in an activity, they will do it continuously, getting better and better. For example, if your child loves playing basketball, put up a hoop in the driveway and practice with them after school. Encourage them to try out for a school team, and be sure to discuss the importance of staying positive if they don’t make it.

5. Talk About Nutrition
Unfortunately, a shocking number of people go through life without ever learning to read a nutrition label. Teach your kids about eating healthy and taking the right vitamins to support physical health and wellness.,. You can start by allowing them to participate in grocery shopping. Ask them to read the labels on the foods they like and guide them toward healthy choices and a healthy lifestyle.

6. Make Exercise Fun
Making exercise fun for kids is easy. In the summer, take them swimming. Go for bike rides or to the park on beautiful days. Try not to force it. Allow them to try different physical activities, and they will eventually find things they love and want to do.

Once your children have the tools to live a healthy lifestyle they will find it easier to maintain that lifestyle as adults. Trying to adjust to better eating habits and emotional regulation as an adult is significantly more difficult. By teaching them now, you are investing in their future.

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