Seven Easy Ways To Help Your Family To Be More Healthy
You can hardly turn on the news without hearing about the preponderance of obesity in children. The good thing is that we can easily inculcate a healthy lifestyle in ourselves and with our families without fancy exercise equipment or costly gym memberships.
Here’s a few quick ideas to get you started:
1). Walk As Much As You Can:
If you’re only going a short way, save some gas and tack more healthy years onto your life by walking. If you look at your day, you’ll be able to find lots of opportunities to use foot or bicycle power instead of driving. Whether it’s to the store, work, or even the gym! Of course, there are always times when this simply won’t work so take some small steps by adding a bit of walking distance- even just parking further away will let you get a little more activity into your day and you won’t have to jockey for a close parking spot either. Try racing with the kids to make it even more fun.
2). Just Move
Make a conscious effort to keep your bodsy in motion. It doesn’t matter how mundane it sounds, small movements during the course of the day, whether it’s playing with your kids, dancing while you cook, or even wiggling your feet while watching t.v. can actually increase calorie consumption by 20%. Strange but true. If your kids are moving throughout the day, it’ll be easier to put them down for naps and bedtime.
3). Be Active On Your Lunch Break
If you eat at the cafeteria at work or school, why not take a walk to a local restaurant or coffee shop, especially when it’s warm out? If you already grab lunch off campus, why not try to cut it short and spend the rest of the time walking? Your focus will be increased when you return to work and productivity will naturally rise- not to mention you’ll feel less stressed and will use up more calories.
4). Spend Time With Your Loved Ones Being Active
It’s so easy to jump online and send emails and IM’s to our friends these days. It might be nice to be able to stay in contact with those you love, but it does encourage a sedentary lifestyle. In fact, most modern smart phones do all of the above functions! That’s fine and dandy if you’re calling your grandmother across the country. Visiting people in your neighborhood by walking to see them is certainly possible, however. If you have kids, it’s even better to bring them along. They can take their bike, skateboard, or rollerblades over to their friends houses. This is a healthy way of getting kids to be more active.
5). Take the Stairs
Simply using the stairs instead of taking the elevator is a quick and easy way to help you to get into better shape- and the benefits are realized immediately in how you feel. In fact, not only are you building muscle and toning your lower body, but using the stairs for 15 minutes can burn a whopping 145 calories! One thing you can do to save time when you’re in a rush is to take the elevator down to reduce the stress on your knees.
6). Get to the Core of Things
Wherever you are, whether it’s your car, the line at the store, or waiting for the bus, one easy way to strengthen your core is to pull in and flex your stomach muscles for 60 seconds at a time.
7). Dance Dance- and Start a Personal Fitness Revolution
If you have kids, you already know how much they love to dance, so why not join them? You’ll burn a lot of calories if you dance- and it’s also a lot of fun particularly when done with a partner. You can even incorporate dancing into mundane tasks like doing house work- there are all kinds of opportunities to be active during what would be an otherwise routine day.
There are plenty of other things you can do from planning (and cooking) healthy meals together to taking up a family sport together, but these tips are simple and manageable for even the most busy families.
Check out my website at www.ExerciseRoutinesBlog.com for even more tips and workout routines reviews.
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