Raising healthy kids is not easy. It requires a lot of effort and sacrifice, both on the part of parents and children. One thing you can do to make it easier is to start teaching your children about healthy eating habits as early as possible. You can start by modeling good behavior yourself and including your kids in some of your healthy habits.
Include ThemIn Some Of Your Healthy Habits
Include your kids in some of your healthy habits, saysLou Hampers. Kids can help with food prep, grocery shopping, meal planning and cooking by making it fun for them to do so. They can also be involved in cleaning up after meals or doing simple chores around the house like setting the table or washing dishes. This way they learn how important eating right is to a person’s health while also having fun doing it!
Avoid Sugary Drinks And Soda
If you want your child to grow up healthy, avoid sugary drinks and soda. Sugary drinks are not a good source of energy. They can also cause tooth decay and weight gain as well as raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels in children.
Sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, fruit juices, sports drinks and iced teas are high in calories but low in nutrients like vitamins A & C or calcium that help keep kids’ bodies working properly. If your child is drinking these types of beverages regularly, he/she may be consuming more empty calories than he needs each day–which means extra pounds!
Make Time For Physical Activity
One of the most important things you can do for your children is make sure they are active. A sedentary lifestyle has been linked to a variety of health problems in children and adults, including weight gain, diabetes and heart disease.
Physical activity also contributes to brain development by stimulating blood flow to the brain, which improves cognitive function and memory, according to Lou Hampers. In addition to these benefits for kids’ brains, regular physical activity helps build strong bones that will last a lifetime — especially if you start early!
So how can you help your child get moving? Here are some simple tips:
- Make it fun! Find activities that appeal personally–for example, my son loves basketball so I signed him up for basketball camp this summer (and he has already started asking when he gets another chance). If there isn’t anything like this available locally then look online or ask friends who might know where else we could go nearby instead; sometimes just asking around can lead us somewhere fun!
Be A Role Model
The most important way you can help your children develop healthy habits is by modeling them yourself. This means eating a balanced diet, getting enough exercise, sleeping well and practicing positive mental health techniques like meditation and mindfulness.
When it comes to food, kids learn by watching their parents’ actions — if a parent never finishes their plate because they’re full from snacking throughout the day (or just not hungry), children will likely follow suit with this behavior. The same goes for physical activity: If you get up every morning at 6am to go on a run while your child stays in bed until 8am every day (or doesn’t go running at all), chances are good that he or she won’t be motivated enough to make time for working out either!