Our sedentary lifestyle, our food choices, and lack of physical activities are leading our future generation to suffer from many health issues. The number of obese children is increasing day by day. No doubt, genetics plays an important role in excess weight, but lack of physical activity and overeating are playing a greater role today for making kids fat.
A recent study conducted on US children shows that children between 8 to 16 years watch television more than two hours every day. Too much television watching, playing video games and computer games are a prime cause of lack of physical activity among youngsters.
Parents can do a lot to reduce obesity in their children. They can prevent childhood obesity by making some lifestyle changes in their own life as well as that of their kids. Due to lack of time, many parents are opting for ready to cook foods, tinned food or fast food. Nutritional value of these foods is almost nil. So they are not only spoiling their own health, but their kid’s health too.
So if you want to see your kids grow up to be healthy, try to cook healthy meals at home which include lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grain and dairy products. If you try, it will not be that difficult.
To lead a healthier lifestyle, your kids need to be physically active. Don’t allow your child to watch TV or play video games for long hours. Only telling kids the benefits of being physically active won’t help, you need to show them through your effort, how physical fitness is a priority in your life. Kids like to follow their parents. So to encourage your children to become physically active, the best way will be to come up with different fitness activities that your family can enjoy together.
The idea is to make the family fitness an enjoyable experience. If you make a strict schedule for exercise, your 8 year old son will definitely get bored with it. Make exercise time a lot of fun. Hitting the pool weekly, playing basket ball, cricket, badminton or any other sport will make the whole family active and you will derive joy out of it as well. In the same way, heading to the local park after meal, doing aerobic exercise at home along with your children when the weather doesn’t allow you to go out or even dancing with your children are few ways to keep your family active.
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