20 Ways To Model a Healthy Lifestyle For Your Children (That Isn't About Dieting)
Show Them Health Is About Living Well, Not Counting Calories
Toxic diet culture is so often passed from parents to kids, instilling in children a sense of body insecurity and harmful eating habits. Break free from this pattern by modeling a healthy lifestyle without dieting, making exercise and eating wholesome foods fun. Here are 20 ways to model a healthy lifestyle for your kids that isn't perpetuating toxic diet culture.
1. Make Movement Fun
Don't make exercise a chore; have fun with it. Dance in the kitchen, play tag, go on bike rides, and model enjoyment from being active.
2. Prioritize Sleep
Sleep is one of your body's most important mechanisms, so make sure your kids are getting enough. Encourage them to prioritize their sleep so they create healthy habits early on.
3. Keep Water As The Go-To Drink
Drinks like soda are packed with sugar and empty calories, and regular consumption of them has been linked to type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Model choosing water over sugary drinks, but don't make soda "forbidden" either.
4. Cook Together
It's almost always healthier to cook meals from scratch than to order from restaurants. What's more, cooking together is a fun activity that makes eating well feel creative while equipping them with an essential life skill.
5. Focus On What Your Body Can Do
Don't focus on what your body looks like, but celebrate what it can do. Talk about how strong, flexible, or capable you are.
6. Enjoy Treats Without Guilt
While eating healthy is important, don't be too restrictive. Indulge in treats without guilt. Try to buy good-quality ones or make them yourself.
7. Try New Activities Together
Model curiosity to try new activities like rock climbing, yoga, and skating. This keeps activities fresh and is another way of making movement fun.
8. Practice Stress Management
Whether by journaling or deep breathing, let them see you practice stress management. Without being pushy, teach them helpful coping strategies in ways that are fun for them too.
9. Model Healthy Eating
Choose to eat a full rainbow of fruits and vegetables, proteins, and whole grains. Don't be restrictive about it, but show your kids that this is how you prefer to eat most of the time.
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10. Encourage Your Kids To Try New Foods
Encourage your kids to try new foods to promote nutritional variety in their diets and develop a healthy relationship with food. It also helps them become more adventurous and build social and cultural awareness.
11. Include Them In Grocery Shopping
Including your kids in grocery shopping will help them feel more in touch with the foods they're consuming. It develops nutritional as well as financial literacy, and it can be fun for them to learn about the various produce they might not have otherwise been exposed to.
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12. Support Their Sports
Even if you don't understand or enjoy the sport that your child loves, still show your support. They're more likely to go out and get moving if it's a sport they enjoy.
13. Model Self-Care
However you practice self-care, let your kids see that you prioritize this. Beyond bubble baths, it's about tending to your emotional, mental, and physical needs.
14. Share Your Goals
Another way to communicate body positivity to your kids is by sharing your fitness goals. Talk about how you want to run faster, lift more, or try a new trek so they can see health is about ability, not looks.
15. Have Your Meals At The Table
Having family dinners at the table together is important for connection and has been associated with higher self-esteem in children. What's more, they've been linked to better nutrition as families who cook dinners tend to eat less fast food and consume more whole foods and fiber.
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16. Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is the practice of paying full attention to the experience of eating. It's been shown to improve digestion and aid in weight management while fostering a more positive relationship with food.
17. Make Eating Healthy Fun
If you're eating healthy but don't seem to enjoy it, all your efforts might have the opposite effect. Make healthy eating fun by trying new recipes and getting creative with new spices and flavors.
18. Promote Balanced Eating
Eating healthy isn't about eating only high fiber buddha bowls and lean protein. To make it sustainable and attractive to your kids, it's all about balance. If you have pizza and chocolate cake one night, have quinoa and salmon the next.
19. Praise Efforts
Encourage healthy choices by celebrating successes. If your kid eats the broccoli on their plate even though they hate it, take a moment to celebrate.
20. Incorporate Movement Throughout The Day
Promoting a healthy lifestyle isn't just about exercising for an hour each day. It's also about choosing to take the stairs instead of the elevator or walking 20 minutes instead of driving. These are habits your kids will carry forward with them for the rest of their lives.
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