It can be hard to ensure that your teenager is choosing healthy foods and being physically active every day because they spend a great deal of time away from you. Teaching your teen how to live a healthy life is an important part of raising him because it gives him the tools to make the right choices as an adult. A few lifestyle changes will help keep your teen healthy and may also prevent disease as he gets older.
Make Some Health Decisions
Your teen is beginning to gain more independence and allowing her to make some decisions about her eating and exercise habits will encourage her to enter into adulthood with the right tools for managing her health. Allowing your teen some control over her own health decisions will teach her what she needs to know when you are are no longer there to decide what she is and is not going to do and eat. According to KidsHealth, giving your teen some control is particularly important if she has a chronic condition like asthma or diabetes, because it teaches her the importance of caring for herself.
Choose His Own Foods
Include your teen in the food buying decisions and chances are he will eat more healthy foods and less junk. Healthy Children reports that teens need to eat a variety of foods in order to get the right amount of carbohydrates, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals. Encourage your teen to select his own fruits and vegetables, as well as what he would like to eat for snacks and lunch at school. Give him some guidelines, such as whole-wheat bread instead of white and low-fat snacks in place of cookies, candy and soda so he learns how to choose nutritious foods. Keep plenty of skim milk and fresh produce on hand at home and your teen is more likely to eat them when he gets hungry.
Exercise Every Day
Regular physical activity is crucial for your teen to maintain a healthy weight, as well as prevent serious health problems like obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Healthy Children recommends at least 20 to 30 minutes of continuous exercise each day. Allow your teen to choose a sports team to join or purchase her a pass to a local recreation center so she can swim or work out on an elliptical machine. Jump ropes and hula hoops are also good workout equipment that she can use at home. There are many exercise DVDs that your teen may also enjoy doing at home.
Spend Time With Friends
Your teen's friends may help boost his self-confidence, teach him new things and give him a sense of self-worth. It may be hard for you to allow your teen to spend his free time with his friends rather than with you, but allowing him to form solid friendships is key to his upbringing. Spending time with friends may also help prevent mental health disorders, particularly depression, that often accompany feelings of isolation. Get to know your teen's friends and their parents to show your teen that you support his friendships and want them to succeed.
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