Make Your Kids Fit and Not Fat
When you look around, you will find a lot of overweight kids around you. One major concern among today’s parents is how to instill good eating dietary habits in their kids so that they grow up to become healthy and fit. It is important nowadays to make the kids understand the importance of fitness and eating right.
Parents have an important role to play when it comes to inculcating proper eating habits and ensuring that kids to do not row up to become obese. There are quite a few things that parents should do to foster the right dietary and lifestyle habits in children so that they remain hale and hearty even when they age. Here is a list of certain things that can be done to make sure that children stay fit and not fat:
Exercise
Chart out an exercise regimen for the entire family and make sure that all members follow a specific routine. If elders take up exercising, kids in the family will also start an exercising program or some sort of physical activity. As parents, you can also start some fun family activity and go for activities with your kids like hiking, skiing, kayaking, biking, or play sports such as tennis, basketball, and skating to burn calories. Exercising together does not imply heading to the gym together but it means taking part in some physical activity that can help in controlling the body weight.
Form Healthy Food Habits
Imbibing healthy food habits in children is necessary and this can be done by exposing them to nutritious foods at a very early age. Eating the right foods can help kids to maintain good body shape and have strong resistance power needed to fight diseases.
Children should be made to realize the significance of having foods that contain vital nutrients. If kids are taught about the dietary essentials at an early age then they are likely to have a balanced diet even when they get older.
Keep a Tab on Children’s Eating Habits
Parents should regulate what their children eat and watch how much they eat to make sure that their child are not exposed to risks of obesity and other diseases that arise due to excessive weight. Ensure that meal your family takes is perfectly balanced and see what children consume in between meals. If your pantry is full of unhealthy food items then it is time to make changes. Kids often eat what they see and therefore it is necessary that parents store their kitchen with foods with high nutritional value than junk snacks that leads to overweight issues. Following are some of the steps that you can take to regulate eating habits in your kids.
- Avoid buying fried, oily stuff and aerated soft drinks that contributes in making your kids obese. In stead, encourage your kids to drink and eat healthy foods. Instill your family members to drink lot of water, fresh fruit juices and herbal tea.
- Store fresh vegetables and fruits in your house and keep it in places where your kids are most likely to search for foods when they are hungry. If the child finds only healthy food being cooked at home, he would habitually take a liking to such foods. Incorporate green, leafy vegetables and fresh fruits and emphasize on the benefits of taking to vegetarianism so that kids can be prevented from suffering from diseases such as cancer or heart disease.
- Kids love munching on unhealthy snacks. However, replace the oily chips with the more nutritious pretzels, cereal, snack mixes, and baked potato or corn chips that are tasty and not fattening.
- If you are trying to inculcate proper eating habits in your children, remember that kids would take to things as they see you doing. Therefore, it is important to not only preach the kids about the significance of healthy, nutritious foods but you too should practice healthy eating. Refrain from junk snacks and have healthy foods at home. This will shape up the mind of younger ones at home and they too will start taking healthy food items.
- Keep a control on your kids’ screen time and make sure that they do not spend too much time watching TV or surfing the Internet. Sitting before TV and being on the computer for longer period daily can increase the risk of being obese in kids.
- Encourage your kids to take up physical activities and involve them in household chores everyday like taking the dog out, running an errand, painting the fence, gardening and so on.
- Motivate your kids to take part in active games in the neighborhood. Provide adequate guidance to kids as they may often gravitate towards harmful indulgences if left undirected.
- Teach your kids about nutrition and help them learn about foods that can make them grow up as healthy individuals. Educate your kids and involve them in meal planning and cooking. Give a logical reason if your kid questions you as to why he is being stopped from having certain kinds of food items.
Proper control being exercised on the way children eat, drink, exercise and play during their growing up years can prevent health and mental problems from occurring in the later stages of their life.