5 Tips to Keep Your Kids Active, Healthy and Happy

Heavy breathing, warmth, shortness of breath, and sweat are typical of physical activity. Kids need physical activity and exercise to improve their health and general wellbeing.

Physical activity can help your kids develop and maintain healthy muscles, bones and joints. It reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic conditions such as heart disease. Other benefits of keeping your kids active include:

Maintaining a healthy body mass index
Improving sleep quality and helping kids fall asleep faster
Better behavioral and mental health
Improving school performance
Increasing optimism and enthusiasm
Boosting self-esteem, behavior and attention
Reducing tension, anxiety, stress and depression

According to a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 in 5 kids in the United States of America is living with obesity. And, the figure keeps growing. The report shows that obesity epidemic is a major threat to kids’ ability to attain their maximum potential as productive and healthy adults later in life.

With the range of benefits of physical activity, it’s important to keep your kids active and give them nutritious meals. Here’re 5 ways you can help your kids to live active, healthy and happy lives as a family:

5 Ways Your Family Can Bring Up Active, Healthy and Happy Kids

Engage in exercises and physical activities to keep your kids active

Workout and indulge in physical activities together to keep your kids interested. This is also a great way to lead by example.

Kids love organized sports, but this may change as they grow up due to varying interests and tastes. As a result, some kids lose interest in organized sports as they become older. This makes it difficult to ensure that your kids participate in at least an hour of physical activity daily.

Get the entire family involved in exercise and physical activity. Do sit-ups, jumps and skipping, or take a walk together to shed off excess body fats.

Develop a workout plan or exercise regime for the entire family. Make sure the plan has enough physical activities to keep both young and adult members of the family active.

Family games and outdoor activities encourage physical activity and prevent childhood obesity. Healthy eating can also prevent obesity in kids. Consider YMCA Fun Co after-school programs known as CATCH to keep your kids active.

Introduce healthy eating and make it fun

When making healthy food choices for your kids, engage them in the process and encourage your little ones to embrace healthy living. Develop a grocery store scavenger hunt to make this fun for your kids.

Categorize the different food groups with pictures or by color to make healthy food choices fun. Discuss the benefits of eating healthy foods and work as a team to discover new foods your kids will enjoy to eat. The food groups include:

Fruits and vegetables
Proteins
Fats
Carbohydrates
Vitamins and minerals

You’ll also find healthy food supplements in today’s market to nourish your kids for better health. With benefits ranging from suppressed appetite to weight loss, a supplement like Pruvit Keto OS gives increased energy.

Limit screen time

Technology has redefined how things are done and grabbed the attention of many people. Kids and adults spend more time using tablets, phones, televisions and other tech devices instead of spending time outdoors.

Increase family time and reduce your kids’ screen time. Spend more time away from screens to help your kids limit their screen time. Failure to limit your kids’ screen time can result in unhealthy habits such as:

Mental breaks
Lack of exercising
Failure to meditate in quiet setups

You can cut your young ones’ screen time in many ways as follows:

Create a family game night or hour to stay away from using tech devices.
Eat meals around the dining table with phones kept away from the eating space.
Engage in after-school physical activities such as going to the gym, taking your dog for walks, or riding bikes as a family.
Volunteering at a local community project

Encourage emotional and mental wellbeing

Building your kids’ self-esteem and confidence for emotional health is as important as engaging in exercise and eating healthy foods daily.

Good emotional health is key in coping with failure and stress in life. High confidence and esteem are qualities your kids need to willingly try new things and develop independence.

Give your kids the chance to make good choices and overcome new challenges daily to help them develop self-esteem and boost their confidence levels.

Encourage and inspire emotional and mental health as follows:

Plant and water flower gardens as a family
Allow your kids to help out with fixes around the house
Let them pick the clothes they’d like to wear
Teach your young ones how to prepare a healthy sandwich to bring to school in their lunchboxes.

Set goals for your family

All members of a family work towards achieving family goals. And, unlike individual goals, family goals are easier to achieve because each member is an accountability partner of the other.

Setup effective and healthy family goals to achieve on a weekly, monthly or per semester basis. This is a great way to adopt a healthier lifestyle, atop experiencing better collaboration and communication. Focus on improving your entire family’s mental, physical, and spiritual health.

Conclusion

Health is about your kids’ fitness, nutrition and media use habits. Eat a minimum of 5 fruits and vegetables servings daily, create a plan for using media (balances offline and online activities), and avoid sugary drinks. Drink lots of milk or water to keep your kids hydrated.

Let your kids engage in at least an hour of physical activity daily to stay healthy. Moderate to vigorous exercise, including muscle- and bone-strengthening activities are recommended.

However, kids need at least 3 hours of physical activity daily. Together with healthy nutrition, you’ll bring up active, healthy and active kids.