How to promote healthy lifestyle habits in your family?
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Our current sedentary lifestyles are a far cry from the lifestyles of our ancestors barely a century back. Today, we mostly commute in motorized transport and spend our waking lives sitting in offices and watching TV on the couch. Now the thing is our bodies are not designed this way. We ‘need’ exercise or we fall victim to various illnesses and diseases.
Moreover, this is the era of processed food that is almost always available within arm’s length of desire. High-calorie carbohydrate enriched meals are also wreaking havoc on our diets, not to mention our waistlines. This is why it is of extreme importance to fight back against unhealthy habits with the help of a healthy diet and exercise-enriched lifestyle. Encouraging family fitness activities is just one of the beginning steps!
Mealtimes
Make sure that the family doesn’t eat by ordering fast food at home. All those empty calories are conducive to a very unhealthy lifestyle. If you have specific meal times you will all be able to check up on what the other person is eating and act accordingly. Moreover, eating one’s meals at specific times of the day also helps in training your metabolism to expect food at those specific times only. This way you are less likely to become hungry at odd hours of the day and night.
Eat healthy snacks
Eating balanced meals is all well and good, but its effects can be drained if one resorts to salty or sweet snacks all the time. Potato chips, milkshakes, and the like every few hours are harmful to health in the long run, for both you as well as your family. You can easily swap these unhealthy junk food items with carrots, salt and pepper dipped cucumbers, and the like, to get all the crunchy goodness you like, but at a mere fraction of the calories.
Swap fizzy drinks for healthier alternatives
Instead of soft drinks loaded with sugar, you can go for fresh and wholesome yogurt drinks. You can also opt for freshly squeezed juices full of vitamins and other goodness or even plain chilled drinking water. Of course, water remains one of the healthiest drinks. In order to filter the water, many use Aqua systems to purify the water and drink more nutritious water. All of these things will help you to keep your weight under control and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Just discard the bad stuff from your fridge and substitute it with the good stuff.
Take baby steps
If you are the head of the family, it may be easy for you to assert rank and throw away all the junk food and drinks from your house. While you just might be able to ramrod the changes in your home, it is more than likely that it will simply lead to rebellion. They will start eating junk food items at school, in the workplace, or sneak them in when you are not around. Therefore, you should talk to them first. Try to get them to understand the importance of what you are trying to do and slowly start cutting down on the extra carbs. For instance, you can substitute white bread with multigrain or whole wheat bread. Remove cheese and butter and opt for healthier alternatives. Always remember, slow and steady wins the race.
Build your very own home gym
If you are really serious about living a healthy lifestyle, you should consider building a home gym since it is one of the best possible ways to promote a healthy lifestyle with a daily workout family routine. Since every individual has different needs, you should research together with your family what fitness equipment to buy for your home gym, and what exercise routine you should create. If you are into heavyweights, you should definitely get those.
Exercises & electric biking
On the other hand, if there are elderly members in your family you should consider procuring low impact or zero impact machines to protect their delicate joints and tendons. Elliptical machines are far better than jogging machines (treadmills) in this regard, as are rowing machines and stationary bikes. They could also use motorized bicycles to go out and finish their tasks without wasting much of their energy. The younger members of your family can make do with the more high-impact machines and exercises such as skipping ropes, aerobics, and the like.
Conclusion
A healthier lifestyle is the need of the hour. You and your family can also make the transition from an unhealthy lifestyle to a better one by incorporating a home gym in your home.