5 Tips for Fathers to Get Your Family Active and Moving
An active, healthy lifestyle is an essential part of parenting that you should ensure every family member enjoys. You’ve got to ensure everyone is moving, and not just any movement. At least a few minutes of strenuous activity that makes you sweat and run short of breath. Your joints, muscles, and bones depend on regular exercise to stay healthy, and besides, active and moving family members are less likely to suffer from heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes later on. So, encourage everyone living under your roof to get active and moving with the following tips.
1. Make It Fun
Nothing makes a family more active than the prospect of fun activities. To encourage people to get moving and keep them engaged, develop activities that appeal to everyone. Accommodate various interests and fitness levels so everyone can feel included.
Running is a great activity to start with. According to Statista.com, between the spring of 2008 and 2014, 66 million Americans went on a run. The environment in which they’ll engage in the activities must also be clean, hygienic, and fun. Make things more enjoyable by creating a visually interesting exercise space.
2. Introduce Variety
Doing the same activity every week makes it unexciting and bordering on boredom. To avoid falling into this trap, get every member of your family to choose an activity they’re likely to be excited about. This is a great way to ensure everyone explores their favorite activities while at the same time giving all a chance to discover new and exciting activities. One such activity is hiking. You get three main benefits from hiking, according to the National Park Service: improved relational, mental, and physical health.
3. Make It Regular
The benefits of an active lifestyle are not in erratic, once-in-a-while exercises. They’re accrued cumulatively over time. An effective exercise regimen must be consistent.
Set aside time for weekly family exercise and stick to it. Let everyone know that this is a lifestyle-enhancing activity that they should be part of. By making it a regular weekly appointment, it becomes part of their routine, promoting healthy habits that stick.
4. Adopt Healthy Habits
Besides ensuring every family member is active and moving, parenting demands that you not only feed them with a balanced diet but also ensure they observe the highest levels of cleanliness and hygiene. For instance, ensure they observe good oral health. Besides the fact that teeth need to be strong and your breath should smell good, a beautiful smile is a great incentive to get outdoors and stay active. Good oral care is possible. Healthline recommends brushing after meals at least twice daily.
5. Model An Active Lifestyle
This tip comes last for a reason, although it should have been first. Modeling behavior is the best way of teaching, so you don’t want to forget it. You see, everyone can tell their family to get up and exercise. However, if you don’t model this habit, there will be very little, if any, weight behind it.
Lessons that last are taught through being a role model. Be as active and physically mobile as possible before whipping or encouraging everyone else to follow suit. At first, the motivation may not be as intense as you’d love it to be. However, with time, family members will see and feel your commitment and respond similarly.
Besides the fact that physical exercise has great benefits for the body, it also boosts your family’s behavioral and mental health. It bolsters their self-esteem, enthusiasm, and performance at all levels, among other benefits. Your family will have fewer visits to the doctor as physical fitness is a great way to keep diseases at bay. Let’s not forget that being active as a family promotes the family bond, teamwork, and friendship. Problems such as depression, tension, and anxiety will not affect your family.