Are your kids hooked to screens in today’s digital age, and you feel they don’t get out and about enough to do physical activities? Be a proactive parent and try to do your best to get your kids engaged in being more active this year.
Childhood and adolescent obesity rates are too prevalent in Chicago and the U.S as a whole. In fact, a study in 2019-2020 showed around 16.2% of 10-to-17-year olds in the nation are obese. So, it’s up to you to do what you can to motivate your kiddies to stay fighting fit and turn into healthy, lovely adults. To help you out a little, we’ve come up with this piece on ways to encourage your kids to be healthier and more active this year. To discover more, carry on reading.
Table of Contents
Put Forward New Hobbies Which Involve Exercising
Chicago is a vibrant city with lots to do. Try and suggest new physically demanding activities for your children that you think they could enjoy doing. For instance, popular sports, horse riding, jogging, rowing, and hiking. Your child may prefer team or solo sports, and it depends on their personality and how they gel with other people. Your kid’s fitness capabilities and general health will shoot up in no time if you can get them interested in doing physical activity as a hobby they are invested in and enjoy.
Dancing is also a fantastic pastime for your kids to take up and is excellent for their strength and fitness levels. There’s plenty of variety available to your children when it comes to dancing since they can choose to do dances from across the globe. Dancing also definitely isn’t something that’s only for girls. Interested in finding somewhere your child can practice dance? Check out the PIRATE Chicago dance studio. Watching your child go through the motions and learn how to dance is bundles of fun and joy. Remember to support them and giggle too much as they’re learning the ropes and getting grips to things near the beginning.
Apart from inroducing new hobbies, you should also integrate regular medical check-ups into their routine. Dental checkups can be scary for them though, so it will be helpful if you can find an expert like this gentle dentist in Melbourne.
Don’t Always Be Their Taxi Driver
In the city of Chicago, we tend to use our cars and drive to places much more than we really need to. Not only is driving your kids everywhere all the time bad for their health, but it’s also not good for our planet since it means you’re contributing more to pumping out harmful emissions into the atmosphere and exacerbating global warming.
Try walking to local amenities instead of taking the car if you can or taking the bus or train with your kids. Little things like this add up and contribute to implementing a healthy lifestyle into your children’s lives. So, try not to be your children’s taxi driver all the time if you can help it. Cheer them on to be more active.
Get In Some Tasty Healthy Food For The House
Providing your kids with a nutrient-rich diet at home will go a long way in helping to keep them fit and healthy this year. Try to encourage your kids to eat healthily by picking up some tasty vitamin-filled snacks that they can enjoy digging into. Fruits, vegetable-filled dishes, healthy yummy yogurts, and smoothies are some ideas for ways you can attract your kids to eat healthier snacks. You also need to try and reduce the level of junk foods you consume in your household every week.
Your kids will struggle to lead a healthier and more active lifestyle if they’re constantly tucking into food that’s unhealthy and void of nutrients. A healthy lifestyle starts in the home and is primarily influenced by what you eat, so try and crack any bad diet habits in your household to benefit your kids in the long term.
Get A Pedometer To Count Their Daily Steps
Living a more active lifestyle can be simplified down to your kids needing to move around more, so they can burn off more energy. Pedometers allow you to count the number of steps taken in a day. Why not try and get your kids to wear a cool watch fitted with a pedometer so they can keep track of their daily step count?
Step-counters are an easy way for you to get a good idea of how active your kid has been during the day. Alright, your child may take a little convincing at first, but try and ignite their competitive side and see if they can rise to the challenge and stay motivated to work towards increasing their daily step count as much as possible.
In the future, your child may even thank you for encouraging them to be healthier and more active when they were younger. We all love our kids dearly, and being a great parent at times requires you to demonstrate a bit of tough love.