Staying Healthy as a Family
Staying healthy as a family is important – we want to encourage our kids to lead healthy lifestyles and we want to be around long enough to see them grow up and forge their own way in the world. Developing healthy strategies together helps keep you all feeling and looking great.
Play together
Most people should aim to perform at least twenty minutes of exercise each day as a minimum, but that doesn’t mean it has to seem like hard work. Play a game of football or basketball in the garden, skip rope or go for a walk or cycle ride together also, make sure you stay hygienic while exercising, as sweat in the body give rise to bacteria and other skin rashes. Wear cotton clothes, use bacteria detecting towels and stay clean.
. When the weather is bad, take it in turns to choose a favourite song for everyone to dance to, or practice head- or hand-stands. These things help to keep you physically healthy and spending enjoyable time together keeps us strong mentally and emotionally as well.
Keep plenty of healthy snacks to hand
We all need to eat to stay alive and growing bodies need to eat more often to keep their energy levels up. Try not to restrict the amount of food your household eats, but do influence the types of food consumed. Don’t buy sugary or fatty snack foods at all. Kids won’t miss what’s never there, but they will crave items of which they are only allowed a limited amount. Instead keep bowls of washed, sliced vegetables in the fridge with small pots of dip, have a stash of unsalted nuts to hand and always stock up the fruit bowl.
Stick to regular meal times
Having a routine for meals makes it easier for you to recognise the signs of hunger, as your body will know roughly when to expect feeding and when to get a snack. Keep the menu as varied as possible, with plenty of vegetables and protein and choose wholegrain over processed carbohydrates wherever possible. Sitting down to eat together as a family every night is recognised as one of the most important things you can do to keep lines of communication open as children grow into adolescence and adulthood.
In a time when people the world over look to find ways to stay youthful they often overlook some of the more basic principles of being healthy, such as regularly exercise and eating healthily. Andrew Watt, a life insurance expert, has this to say on the issue: “Long term dedication to health and fitness is a sure fire way to live a more fruitful life and will leave your family at less risk of losing someone they love too early. We urge everybody to listen to the sensible and sound advice to help them stay healthy for as long as possible.” Coming from an insurance expert you can be certain that he understands what makes a person more attractive to an insurance company when they try to take out a policy, and that includes leading a healthy lifestyle so you can be sure its sounds advice.
Create strong family bonds
Other tips to stay healthy as a family offered by Mr Watt include being vigilant as to what food you bring into your home, parents as leaders of the household should avoid bringing cookies and chips and so on home as it will be all the kids wants to eat if they know it is there. Another really great tip is to make sure you eat dinner every night as a family, it is easy to tell people about the nutrients in healthy food but when families come together to eat it creates an emotional harmony that is vital to long term health and wellbeing.
A final tip for adults to stay healthy is to have regular sex as it can add an extra three years to your life and twice a week is the minimum to make this happen!
