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Teach Your Children To Be Healthy

With obesity levels in children rising annually, it is becoming more important to teach your children to be healthy than ever before. Kids who are obese and overweight are more likely to contract illnesses like diabetes and heart problems. Being overweight or obese is not a healthy condition for a child, and it is extremely difficult for children to overcome this problem on their own. When kids reach adolescence and may already want to do something about the problem, it may be too late as they may already have well-entrenched eating and activity habits that can easily overpower them if they are not disciplined enough, or they will be trying vainly to break free from it for the rest of their lives.

The most important step you as a parent can take to teach your children to be healthy is to set an example for them. Fast foods, cake and candy should be a treat, to be enjoyed occasionally as an exception to the rule of healthy food. Hence, make it a point not to stock them in the house so that they won’t be able to tempt you or the children.

Make sure you encourage your children to eat fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meat and poultry, wholegrain carbohydrates and keep fat to a minimum. If you serve healthy meals to the whole family, it becomes the norm, and anything unhealthy is an exception. A very important part of a healthy lifestyle is physical activity, so go out and have fun with your kids and convince them to be active even if it’s just to play catch in your backyard. Skipping, hopping and running are activities that can be incorporated into play with ease. Re-introduce your kids to ‘old-fashioned’ games like hop-scotch, tag and handball to coax them into engaging in some physical activity. Once they start playgroup or pre-school, there may be organized activities and sports that they can take part in. This is a great age to haul out your old photographs of mom in her cheerleading outfit and dad playing football, while your kids still think their parents know everything.

Just as you should read to, with and front of your child to encourage them to read, you should do the same with physical activity. Support them when they participate in any sport or physical activity, play with them if you need to, and most importantly, set an example for them by engaging in physical activities yourself.

It is important however to always emphasize the importance of being healthy and not just on being thin or losing weight. Your children need to learn that a balanced, healthy lifestyle is better for them, and for you. As parents you will be benefited from being fit and healthy because not only will you be able to live longer, but your quality of life would also be better, allowing you to engage in various fun activities with your children and even the grandchildren.

As parents it is our duty to teach our children as best we can. Even though there is no definitive guide to parenting, keeping your family healthy would be well worth the effort. Don’t give in to your kids when they ask you for the same privilege as their friends who are allowed by their parents to eat whatever they like. Tell them that these kinds of food are full of flavoring in order to make them taste better but are also full of additives and preservatives which make them very unhealthy. Teach your children to be healthy from day one, you won’t regret it.

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