| | | | Five Tips for Fun Family Fitness |
By Deborah Crawford
Exercise can be a great family bonding activity as well as a necessity to keeping everyone healthy and happy. The dangers of living a couch-potato lifestyle are real and scary: obesity, diabetes, heart attack, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Plus, the quality of life for people who are always too tired to do anything more strenuous than watch television is not what we want for ourselves or our kids. So, how can you incorporate family fitness into your schedule and have fun doing so? Try these tips:
1—Get everyone on board. This can be a challenge as nobody likes changing their habits. There is a television show called “Honey We’re Killing the Kids” which shows how traumatic giving up television, sweets and inactivity can be for children (and adults) who have grown used to those things. Watching that show is good motivation, but often kids will be happy just to do activities with their parents, so that is a good place to start.
2—Set a realistic schedule. Start with one or two family activities per week, then a few weeks later add another. Aim for doing some sort of physical activity four or five times a week for everyone. Not all activities have to be together, either, but sticking to one or two regular family activities is a great way to raise your children to value fitness. Plus, it’s great routine family time.
3—Start with a family walk. Walking is a great activity and a wonderful exercise. It is easy, inexpensive and almost anyone can do it. Push little ones in a stroller until they are big enough to walk alone. You can even incorporate other projects or hobbies into your walks. For example, collect the trash in your neighborhood or identify plants and trees, collect rocks or count birds. Keep your walks interesting by doing a different activity each day.
4—Once a month, plan an exciting activity-oriented family outing. Going to the zoo is great because you walk around. However, going to the movies is not a great fitness activity. Some things you may want to try include:
--going to the beach (collect seashells) --entering a local one-mile fun run/walk (later, try a family 5k—it’s only 3.1 miles) --hiking nearby nature trails --visiting a botanic garden – you’ll do quite a bit of walking. Take pictures of the plants. --going to the park and playing kickball, playing tag, flying a kite, or throwing a Frisbee --riding bikes --skating, either roller or ice --taking a martial arts class together
5—Plan for rain- or snow-day activities. One of the most fun indoor fitness activities is dancing. Disney and other children’s movies have some great dancing songs, too. For example, “I Like to Move It” from Madagascar is a brilliant fitness song as is “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid. Make a dancing CD from your music files, or invest $10 to $20 and buy some tunes online, then burn them to CD. Or, do some old-fashioned calisthenics. Jumping jacks, arm circles, squats, sit ups, push ups, leg lifts and the like are still good exercises. Check out a book at the library to learn proper form and for more exercise ideas. Don’t expect your kids to be little soldiers, but try to keep everyone moving for 20 to 30 minutes.
You can have a fit, healthy, happy family. A family fitness plan will help everyone be their best at work, in school and at home. Start today and soon you will all wonder what life was like before fitness.
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