What better gift for your children than helping them live a long healthy life? Shady marketing tactics, low prices on heavily processed foods, and misbeliefs about the effects of foods on our bodies have brought our society to a record-high obesity rate, health issues related to bad habits, and so much more. Fortunately, it doesn’t mean your kids will fall into this negative spiral. You can help prevent it if you guide your kids to develop healthy habits from a young age, instead of later trying to change their habits when it might be too late (P.S. – It is never too late, but just will require more willpower and mental strength to overcome).
In this post, we will present you with five simple ways to start instilling healthy habits in your kids at an early age. The benefits? You will help your children lead healthier lifestyles instinctively which will very likely lead to longer and happier lives. Not to mention, these are habits that will stick to them for the rest of their lives and, in turn, likely to be passed on to your grandchildren and so on!
Our team understands that it might be challenging to instill these habits when there are so many temptations around your kids as well as other practices, or lack-thereof, followed by parents of your kids friends. Every time they go to a party, it is full of ‘junk food’. Additionally, this is most of what they see in cafeterias, supermarkets, etc. However, we believe that what you instill at home, stays with them even when they are faced with other options. Let’s find out if you think the following practices are things that will be easy to implement at home, or if you think instilling healthy habits is still hard.
Pay attention to your kids’ portion sizes
People often give little importance to quantities. However, this is the most important habit you can instill in your children. Besides knowing what good options are out there in terms of health and nutrition, they should also understand that too much of anything is not good.
One thing that you should always have in mind, is that parents should not force kids to eat more than what they are hungry for. You can read a related topic about this in our blog post about How you Might be Negatively Affecting Your Kids. On the contrary, you should encourage your kids to listen to their bodies and know when they have had enough food.
Additionally, it is important to know what the correct portion sizes are depending on their age intake needs. Each stage in a kid’s development undergoes through different processes and needs different levels of energy. You want to make sure you are feeding your kids enough food to have the required energy to perform their daily activities as well as fulfill their development process, but you also don’t want to overfeed them. Overfeeding young kids reduces their self-awareness in knowing where their body is satisfied leading, down the road, to much higher chances of being overweight and developing health disorders. You can consult your doctor to know how much your kids should be eating, and based on that, prepare their meals accordingly.
Encourage your kid to some form of physical activity
It is no secret hat exercising leads to a better mental and physical health. Not only does it help with maintaining a healthy weight, but it also helps with things like growth and development, stress, cardiovascular health, balance, coordination, strength, flexibility, and posture.
These are all benefits kids can get from incorporating physical activities in their everyday lives. Fortunately, incorporating some sort of activity or sport in their routine is something that is easily achieved with kids. They see sports like a fun activity to share with friends, so parents should take advantage of that and encourage them to do it consistently.
Kids that get used to exercising from a young age will carry these patterns, and their benefits, for their rest of their lives. Therefore, you should help your kids find a sport that they enjoy and see it as a natural part of their day. This is the best way not to push or force them to do a physical activity, but rather find something that they like #beyourkidshero
Limit processed and sugary foods
Food brands have made it so simple for people to choose processed and sugary foods over healthier, more natural ones. Corporate tactics like marketing and branding, prices, and of course, artificial taste, have slowly made our natural eating habits and instincts fade away. Our society has become used to eating easy-to-grab or easy-to-prepare food options. Even when we are genuinely trying to eat healthier, brands use deceptive marketing and advertising to lie to the public with what we are actually consuming. Furthermore, kids are attracted to unhealthy options because of the color of the packaging, the ads they see on TV with their favorite shows, and even the amount of options they have, which surpasses the healthy options we see on the streets today.
Kids that grow up eating those type of foods are more likely to be unhealthy when they are older. What is worse about these bad habits is that cutting these habits when they are older is much more difficult than if we instill better habits early on. By the time eating junk food causes issues, it might be too hard to change those habits.
Therefore, you should teach your children to have self-control over these sugary and processed food items. Teach them the benefits healthy foods have over the processed options. Learn to read nutrition labels and ingredients with them, so they are aware of what they will be putting in their bodies. We don’t recommend to completely forbid your kids of any food item, but allow them to understand why these are foods that should not be in your diet on a daily basis.
Plan for snacks
Following a certain food plan always means you have to be prepared. It is completely normal to plan to be back home by snack time, and then get caught up doing something else, and your kids start to get hungry. It is often during these times when they start asking for and wanting whatever they see in a street store, which are usually bad options full of sugar, unhealthy fats, and so-on. Therefore, it is important to always carry around snacks in case something unexpected happens, or know which snack items in convenience stores are the best options.
Easy to carry snacks are things like fruit, veggies with dips like hummus, and greek yogurt. You can also make your own snacks with healthy ingredients: like sugar-free banana muffins, baked sweet potato, energy balls with almond butter.. The options are endless. To find out more options, check this post we found with 26 Easy, Healthy Snacks for Kids.
This is also a great way to get your kids used to eating more homemade natural foods, instead of having the habit to always eat out, or eat processed snacks.
Share the meal prepping process with your kids. Let them know the benefits of each food item
Often times, kids are completely unaware of what they are actually putting on their plate. This is an activity done for them. They don’t get to choose or learn why they eat what they are eating. Furthermore, not really knowing how to cook or prepare meals often result in people eating out, also making poor choices.
This is the reason why you should make cooking and meal prepping a family event! Who doesn’t like a mini helper in the kitchen anyways? Use this time to teach your children not only to make yummy family recipes, but also to explain the benefits of every item you are cooking. Don’t make it hard or super scientific and complicated.
You can share things like ‘we eat these veggies for vitamins’ or ‘we eat sweet potato to have more energy!’. Slowly but surely, your kids will start understanding the benefits of eating healthy and will prefer these items over processed foods that make them feel lethargic and bloated.
Encourage your children to drink more water
A study found that infants who were given sugary beverages more than three times a week were twice as likely to be obese at age 6 than those who weren’t given sugary drinks.
Drinking healthy options is as important as eating healthy options. Everything is processed the same in our bodies. This is the reason why you should be as aware of what your kids are drinking, as you are with what they are eating.
There are so many healthier options to drink out there, that drinking sugary drinks is really unnecessary. Overall, kids should always learn to drink water over all things. Humans need to be hydrated to function correctly, so drinking enough water everyday is essential.
On top of that, there are many other tasteful options like fruit and veggie smoothies, flavored water, sugar free sodas, vegetable milks like almond or cashew milk, and so many more. Guide your kids to choose these options over overly sugar-sweetened drink. Their health will thank you later!
Wrap it up
We have discussed five different and easy ways to start instilling healthy habits in your kids since they are young. It is very important to remember that kids are mostly driven by example. Therefore, all of these things you should teach your kids to do, you have to do it yourself as well. This will be the easiest way for your kids to see this as a lifestyle and something that is easy to implement, instead of thinking them as hard rules to follow.
Remember the basics:
- Portion Control – quantity is as important as quality
- Encourage physical activity – make them see it as something natural
- Limit Processed and Sugary Food – avoid getting your kids addicted to the wrong things
- Plan for Snacks – never leave your house without healthy snacks for unexpected events
- Share the Meal Prepping Process – teach them how easy, yummy, and healthy is to eat at home
- Drink lot of Water – avoid sugary drinks that are as harmful as sugary foods
The more you practice these, the more natural it will become for your and consequently for your children. Give your kids the greatest gift of all by nourishing them with healthy and long-lasting habits that will help them live a long and happy life to share more memories with you!
Sources
“Healthy Eating Habits for Your Child” WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/children/kids-healthy-eating-habits#1
Heather. “Instilling healthy habits in your kids starts… yesterday.” Tickle Water. June 26, 2017. https://www.drinkticklewater.com/instilling-healthy-habits-in-your-kids/