New Year. New You. Right? Isn’t that how it goes? But what about turning the focus to your family this year as well? In my personal opinion, I think it’s just as important to make your family life a health priority. This will look different for each family, however, even small changes can go a long way. In fact, if feasible, perhaps introducing a new change monthly can instill great habits throughout the year. Remember, find a pattern and rhythm that will work for your family and try to avoid comparing your family to other families. Perhaps you want to incorporate more family time, regular game nights, and/or evening or morning walks. Each one of these new additions will better the health of your family in the long run.
Eat Together
This is a great new “health” change you can incorporate into your day to day life, if you haven’t already. Connecting as a family on a daily basis is healthy for everybody and establishes a comfortable and welcoming home atmosphere. In addition, a homecooked meal loaded with the right vitamins, minerals, and nutrients will keep everyone’s bodies at maximum efficiency. It can be difficult to get everyone together, but being intentional and mindful, small changes can go a long way. Maybe start off with the goal of eating one meal together per day so that way there will be control of what everyone is eating. A well balanced meal such as poppy seed chicken casserole with vegetables, ensures that everyone will consume wholesome and nutritional ingredients.
Exercise Together
Family activity is a great way to get everyone together and something that you can do as a family in terms of exercise. Whether this is a family trip to the gym, or going on a hike. There are plenty of group activities that will better everyone’s health in the long term and establish solid family time. I think everyone can agree with the fact that a healthy family is one of the best gifts. Incorporating exercise is a perfect addition to get everyone moving and on the same mindset. This is an excellent way to spend time with your family, while keeping your health goals active. Your children will get used to doing this and help them later on in life.
Talk Together
The last recommendation I will make is that you should talk about everything possible with your family. Open communication is one of the most important aspects of having a family and establishing healthy relationships. This includes how everyone is feeling emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. It is vital to encourage open and honest communication in order to preserve the mental health of the individuals in the family.
Perhaps you have older kids and are now just trying to introduce better communication into the family. It might take time and consistency for this to become a normal and natural habit. Just stick with it without being too overbearing, and let them know that you are there for them to talk to when they are ready. This is the best way to get them to talk without feeling like you are intruding on their lives.
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I hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you should be doing to make the health of your family your number one priority. Getting your children into good habits will maximize the chance of them staying healthy when they are older, so it’s best to get in there early.
