Competing with junk food and video games presents a challenge when it comes to child health and fitness. Kids don't fully understand what is at stake when it comes to a healthy lifestyle. Instead of lecturing or forcing your child into making health choices, take a more relaxed, child-friendly approach to health and wellness.
Find Your Own Groove
A one-size-fits-all approach to encourage healthy choices in your child decreases the chances of success. Each family faces different challenges and has access to different resources. A family with two parents working outside the home has less time for activities like healthy meal preparation. Children vary when it comes to their natural tendency to choose healthy options. One child might love eating his vegetables while another won't go anywhere near a vegetable. By creating your family's own vision of a healthy and fit lifestyle, you remove the pressure of living up to the healthy standards of other families.
Play Hard
Fitness doesn't have to mean endless reps of sit-ups and jumping jacks. While traditional exercise may work for some kids, playing intensely also offers physical activity benefits. The active play time is even more appealing for kids when their parents jump in and play. Kids get the attention they crave from their parents and everyone gets their daily dose of exercise. Strike up a game of tag or soccer in the backyard. Jump on your bikes and cruise around your neighborhood. You can even tackle your errands by biking as a family to the places you need to go. At least an hour of active play per day helps your child on her way to getting fit without any complaints.
Make Food Exciting
Kids often enjoy the opportunity to help out with adult responsibilities like grocery shopping or cooking. By getting your child involved in the process, he becomes more interested in the food that shows up on his plate. Bike to a local farmers market to pick out fresh produce for the week. Many farmers markets also offer entertainment, and the food selection typically includes dairy, meat and baked goods. Kids can also help locate items at the grocery store. Give each child his own list of items for which he is responsible. In the kitchen, suit up your child with his own apron so he feels like an official family chef. Assign your child cooking tasks appropriate for his age. Getting a child involved in the food process teaches him how to make healthy food choices on his own, from the supermarket to the plate.
Chart It
Some kids need a little more motivation to make healthy and fit choices. Charting healthy choices creates a visual reminder and validates a child's efforts. One option is to create a large diagram of the MyPyramid food guide from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Make several markers for each member of the family. Each time your child eats something, she places one of her markers in the corresponding food section of the pyramid. The chart becomes a competition within the family to see who can eat the most healthy foods. You can make a similar chart for exercise to encourage physical activity for all family members.
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