Healthy together happy together.

Family life is so different these days compared with when most of us were young. Many parents are now so busy and not able to spend as much time with their families as they would like

One survey carried out for the British Heart Foundation suggest more than a quarter of parents are too busy in an average day to spend any time at all with their children.

Finding the time to boost each member of your family‘s health may sound like an impossible task, but making just a few simple lifestyle changes could go along way to improve your family’s

wellbeing. According to the NHS any changes to a Childs diet and lifestyle are much more likely to be accepted if they involve the whole family so here are some ideas to help you become healthier together.

Organise regular activity times, even when you’re all busy doing your own thing, try to find times when everyone can get together to get active.

Try to find periods during the week when you can all walk the dog, go to the local park, or do some house or garden chores together.

Plan an hour of family time on each day of the week for some fun times such as a family games night. Eat at the table as a family, according to the NHS, studies show families who have regular meals together with no distractions such as computers, smart phones,  or TVs are more likely to be a healthier weight. Even if you can’t all be together to eat every night try to make sure you sit around the table as a family as often as you can. It is a good opportunity to discuss whatever is on your minds in an environment which should encourage younger ones to open up about any issues that may be troubling them.

A supportive family can help to grow confidence and self-esteem, which is so important during the different developing stages of life.

Shop and prepare meals together, get the whole family involved in planning meals and shopping for ingredients as it can make everyone more aware of healthy eating.

Teach the kids how to read through ingredient levels, so they become familiar with things like checking how much salt or sugar they are eating. It’s also a good idea to cook together as children who learn to cook at an early age maybe less reliant on ready meals and takeaways when they’re older.

Children are far more likely to adopt healthy behaviours if their parents have healthy lifestyles too, so for instance if you’re a smoker and you want to discourage your child from picking up the habit, the best thing you can do for them as well as yourself is to quit. Similarly if your diet is far from ideal chances are your child will refuse to eat healthy food, or if you spend every night watching TV, from the comfort of your sofa, it is highly likely that the members of your family will avoid opportunities for being active.

Giving your family a good example to follow however can make all the difference.

Charity events are an ideal opportunity to not only do something good for others, but can open up a whole new avenue of friends with different hobbies that you and your family can get involved with.

Our loved ones are the most important people in our lives, let’s look after each other!

Source;

www.careway.co.uk

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