Top Tips for Staying Active as a Family.
When it comes to staying healthy and active, it’s important that we not only consider ourselves, but our children too. Some obese children have been shown to have as much plaque in their little arteries as a 45 year old adult, which then sets them up for all kinds of horrible illnesses like heart disease and other serious health conditions much earlier than their own parents. If you’re a parent, you should want to help your kids become fit and healthy individuals. Here, we’ve got some great tips for helping you to stay active as a family. Enjoy!
Plan Outdoor Activities
You should set aside one day every weekend to do something as a family. You could go swimming, hiking, walking, sledding, biking, or if you’re a little adventurous you could try private expeditions…whatever you like! You could even take a picnic full of healthy snacks along with you to enjoy while you take a break. This will give both you and the kids motivation to go on!
Take Some Classes Together
There are probably loads of fitness classes in your area; ask around to see if you can find any yoga, self defence, or aerobics classes that welcome both adults and children.
Redecorate Together
You don’t have to totally redecorate your home, but you can add in a few essentials that will help to keep the family fit. Dumbbells, a yoga mat, a skipping rope, a hula hoop, and even a Wii fit could encourage the children to work out if they are stashed in a place they can see.
Make Housework Fun
By turning housework into a game that you can all play together, everyone will look forward to their chores rather than dread them. Make it a race to clean the house, play music while you do it, and the kids will have lots of fun helping you! If you have a dog, take him a walk as a family. Get everybody to pitch in with the chores to make things more fun, instead of giving everyone their own separate chore.
Eat Healthier Together
Eating healthier isn’t exactly staying active, but by making sure the family eat the right foods you’ll be able to stay active for longer and feel more energised. If you get the entire family involved in a new healthy lifestyle and eating plan (don’t call it a diet – this implies that it’s a short term solution) you’re all more likely to succeed. Let the kids pick the fruit and veg they want, and allow them to help you cook dinner. This will mean they’re much more likely to enjoy what they’re eating rather than moan about it and ask for pizza and chips.
Obesity is a big problem, but it’s one that can easily be avoided by wanting to change unhealthy habits as a family and become fitter and more active together. There are plenty of things you can do, so follow our advice and have lots of fun while doing it!
Great tips! Some of these we already do
Thank you for the great ideas! We’re actually going to be signing up for a swimming class together this year and maybe a fitness class too!
We try to exercise together.
I try to include my son in everything from housework to redecorating:) He loves to help 🙂 Great Ideas !!!
thanks for the tips.i like to move around the house as much as i can.intil winter is up at least 🙂
I like the idea of doing housework together…we work together in a room using a timer!
We love to go to the “beach” at a nearby lake and swim and picnic together.
These are great tips. My 17 month old loves helping with housework already 🙂
Wonderful tips for staying active with your family. We love to go for walks together.
Always looking for ways to entertain the family during bad weather. We play games together. My daughter and I took a dance & drumming class together and we kept doing it for over 8 years.
All of these tips are great. I try to get my family to take walks together – that way everyone can talk about whats going on with themselves while getting exercise as well.
I agree with your tips and would like to add…. for every hour of tv or video games you need to get outside for every 2 hours
great tips we love geocaching and going for short walk/hikes
I love these tips and will definitely have to try the making housework fun tip 🙂
Geocaching is our favorite outdoor activity. Once it gets warm we plan regular outings. It’s amazing how much walking you can do without getting worn out when you are looking for a treasure.
Man, I need to change some things around here! Very Motivational
these are great ideas we try at least once a month to do something as a family
It’s hard to do activities with my kids since I started having all sorts of hip problems. One thing I do try to do is take them to a pool once a week. Easy on my hip and they have a great time.
I’m looking forward to going on bicycle rides as a family.
Great tips, I enjoy walking with my family 🙂
we walk the dog together a lot and skate in the park
Better than sitting around the television set (or on individual devices) together!
Thanks for the great tips.. I love doing things with my kids
It’s just the two of us now (Honey/Hubby & Me) now -and I can attest to how great your tips are – precisely because we’ve been following a similar path /plan for several years now, and what an enormous difference it has made!
We takes classes together: yoga, home repair, bicycle repair, meditation and nutrition classes – so far. We take long walks and go on long bicycle rides, skate, dabble at golf. We’ve discovered sharing chores (and at least working in tandom, saves time and emotional wear and tear – and sometimes can even be fun!)
And at least as important as all those things: we have completely changed our eating habits. We eat healthy and we ENJOY IT. We both love to cook (and to read /learn new things) AND to EAT delicious food! The more you know the easier it is to change your eating habits – which will ultimately lead to a change in what actually tastes good. REALLY. Your taste really will change and you will lose your taste for junky, sugary, overly salty and fatty foods. You lose weight, feel better and it all reinforces the positve choices you are making.
Here we are two years later – feeling 10 years youngers!
Thanks for the excellent post and good advice, I hope everyone who reads it follows it!
Great post and a great reminder of how important it is to instill good health habits in our kids.
Love the tips! My family always eats healthy together. We usually try to eat healthy for our toddler who follows suit. We always go out together and my toddler loves to walk so i think that helps!
I love evening walks – even when the evening is early (gets dark early), cold and usually wet.
love the selection of storage pieces
great opportunity for a awesome piece of furniture
Head to a water park – good exercise with less chance at injury.
Thanks for the tips. I am sad at how out of shape so many children are. As kids, we did so much more actively and outdoors. That is not the norm, now.
We go for walks with our dogs in the evenings. Gives us time to relax and talk.
love that my family the kids almost everyone hunts and we fish and it gives us time together being active and having fun..we try to be out side more then inside and to always spend time with all the family
Good tips may use
Good ideas, it’s just me as I’m a widow, I always try to stay actice.
These truly are great ideas. My kids are very young but I know that if I start doing some of these activities now it’ll be easier to keep doing them than to try starting them when they get older.
I wish I could get my family to help with housework lol! Great tips!
Thanks for the article. I know my family needs to get out doors more,
Love this!! We work together outside…raking, gardening, shoveling etc
Great tips! We play outside all the time its so important to be active!
We do love to plan outdoor trips together, the kids have so much fun and we all get some much needed excessive.
I love the idea of making cleaning fun because it keeps things organized too. The tips are helpful. Thanks!
I think it’s wonderful to take the time to do things together as a family, not just do household chores which usually aren’t very fun but do them together. All these tips are great!
Good tips. Keeping it simple also works – just with walks. Can be good together time too.
All great tips. I!ve got to try the “make housework fun” tip.
love all the tips
These are great ideas. I think at least for me, stretching everyday is also very important.
I think the redecorate together is a different idea. While we have the kids help with their own rooms, we are redoing the basement and having them come along for picking out things is a great way to have everyone spend time together.
Played outside every day with my girls and now with the grands…keep them busy and active!
Great tips! My mom and I are signing up for yoga next week.
Great ideas! I like the idea of taking classes together and decorating. I already try to make cleaning fun by turning on some music & having our own “dance parties” 🙂
These are all great ideas!! We do so much as a family. I can not clean unless I have the music blaring. Music always makes me in a better mood. When I was a kid, I never wanted to come inside and now it seems like that is all the kids want to do today. I do not let my kids play Playstaion all day long. They have set times that they can play and that is it.
I like the idea of redecorating together, letting everyone plan their own room and then working together to get it done. fun times
Homework must be fun and not something to dread.
I think planning outdoor activities as a family is very important. It gets so cold in the winter and we don’t like being outside but it’s important to do some outdoor activities.
Great family time suggestions
I think these are great ideas! To many kids are stagnant these days and do not get enough activity. It is always great to encourage kids to get outside and play or do chores and get moving!
Great ideas! My family stays active (and keeps each other accountable) by walking/running at the park daily. If it is too cold, we make sure to get in a workout with a DVD.
Family team sports
My four year old LOVES helping me with housework. My older two, not so much.
Gives me great ideas what we can do together as a family.
Very nice we walk all the time
I don’t have any human children, but my husband and I do enjoy walking our dogs together. It’s good exercize and wehave the best converstaions.
thanks for the tips!
Great tips, we are always looking for outdoors family activities for the whole family, we try to keep active!
Great ideas!
I am completely on board with these ideas! It starts with setting the example! 🙂
great ideas
The idea that a child could have as much plaque in their arteries as a 45 yr old is really scary!
Very good ideas for staying fit and staying together as a family. Wonderful.
I appreciate the information on the “healthy lifestyle and eating plan.” I have two granddaughters, Jade (16) and Jordan (11). Jade has gained fifty pounds this past year due to prescribed medication that she is on, which is a significant factor in healthy eating. She could use a healthier diet, and again, where children are concerned, their care-givers bear the biggest burden relative to what they do or do not provide for meals and snacks in the home, and what is sent to school. The parents are the role-models for the children in my estimation.
street hockey or hitting the puck against the garage door as a family….door is beat up, but that is ok!
We have some great nature trails locally so family walks are easy and fun to do.
This is such an important issue. Children and adults are moving less. We need to find fun and interesting ways to move and exercise that can compete with the darn technology that holds everyone’s attention.
I like the idea of playing music to get you going while you do chores. Always works for me!
Children should be involved with family functions, outdoor activities and have fun!!
Very effective ideas!
These are all such wonderful ideas; our family will definitely be working on several of them!
Love these ideas so much I sent them on to my daughter who is a school teacher and is always trying to give ideas to her students parents on ways to bond and work with their special needs children
Love the ideas. Always need more ideas for an active family and more quality time!
Thank you for the advice
We stay active outdoors, but we also play dance games on the Kinect while we’re indoors. All three of us like to play them, so we get exercise and have fun together at the same time.
Excellent ideas! I should implement some of those…
Great article a lot of good ideas
Take walks together or get a simple Frisbee and everyone go outside and toss it around. Not to worry if not everyone is good at throwing it…moving around even if you have to retrieve it is the point.
Eating healthy together is a must, great advice.
lol you told the kids and hubby to stay away from the chair
Great ideas! My family is very active, and it shows.
we are super busy most days of the week but on my days off i like to plan activies that are outdoor!
These are all great ideas that even my 4 year old would enjoy.
We visited a local park to walk the trails and let our son burn off steam on the jungle gym.
Great tips! We dance around the house while we clean 🙂
We have a great time cooking together. It’s an easy way to carve some time out to spend together during the week.
Great tips
Great advice, I’m always looking for ways to keep my family healthy and moving!
I love these ideas.
I drag my kids hiking and bike riding. 🙂
Love being active and always up for new ideas
Great way to be active and spend quality time at once esp for families who normally have very busy schedules.
My family (including 2 of my 3 children) have been blessed with my genes which have the disposition of easily becoming overweight. Without a disciplined diet and exercise we would easily become obese. Fortunately we are living healthy and all have a good grip on it. While most have heard about parking further from the store or shopping, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator but, I was giving a great tip long ago I’ve still use today – take the stairs twice every time you need to go up or down – after a couple weeks make it 3. It doesnt take that long, remembering to do it will prove more difficult. You”ll be surprised at how many calories you can drop with this minor habit change. Especially if you live in a bi or tri level home. This takes discipline and letting yourself feel a little silly once and a while (do it anyway!). Healthy living to all! 🙂
Great tips! It’s important for families to instill good health habits in their children from a young age.
Love your ideas. We try to do fun things outdoor, mostly random, unplanned adventures. Always fun discovering something new!
Great tips! The Yoga classes sounds like it would be fun and good for the body!
I really like the housework idea, it helps keep the family together!
Great tips. I like the idea of making housework fun!
These are all great ideas and we could use all the ideas we can get with my husband owning and operating his own business!
I started Weight Watchers recently and we have been eating more fresh fruits and veggies.
Thanks for the ideas! I really like the suggestion of making household chores into races…I’m thinking a weekend of housecleaning olympics would be a great way to get moving and get the spring cleaning done!
Great tips, I really need to get us motivated to go for walks more as a family or just me and my daughter during the day. 🙂
These are some awesome tips! I really wish my family would have done more together when I was young.
Great ideas! We try to stay active as a family by hiking.
Great ideas for spending time together!
We always go for bikerides in the summer together
I love this post. So many children seem like they would rather play video games than go outside during beautiful weather.
These are great ideas to implement in our home. I have two boys and always have to find new ways. Thank you for sharing.
I’m always looking for things we can do as a family. I like to get the kids away from the electronics as much as possible.
Great article. I was just talking with my mom about this. Not only are these great tips, but also shows your kids how important exercise is to your daily lives. Kids will follow our examples much more readily then our “coaching”.
I love the eating healthy together! If you’re all in it together, there’s no temptation for anyone!
Making housework fun is good. It’s stuff you are all doing anyway so may as well make it fun. 🙂
It’s great for families to do fun activities together.
My family and I go hunting together every weekend!
We walk on the beach and eat a lot more salads nowadays. Cool tips!
we love spending time outdoors! playing sports or going on hikes! we’re always looking for more activites to do to keep active!
Awesome ideas and so timely. Families that do things together also talk more!
We go for walks as a family, and play wii fit games together
So Many Great Ideas, I Love The Make Housework Fun, A Great Way To Have Fun With The Entire Family, Plus Get Things Accomplished.
What great tips. We have always liked to take hikes together around our home.
I like the idea of making housework fun. Playing loud music (not too loud…I don’t want to be that kind of neighbor!) has usually been a good motivator in our household!
Great tips. We stay active due to the farm chores and activities.
These are all great tips. My favorite is planning outdoor activities. Thanks.
thanks for the info
These are great tips. It is so important to stay active and healthy and many families just don’t.
I am 30 lbs. overweight, 5’11”, & need to be healthier.
great ideas – I need to do some different activities
Good tips i wish my family would be more closer
Great tips!
These days we’ve been staying active together by digging us out of the snow here in the Poconos PA LOL
sibabe64 at ptd dot net
These are some great idea’s. I have no problem staying active, but my grandchildren need help. I try to involve them but they never want to do anything. I do eat clean and when they are around me they do the same, so that’s a good thing.
I can’t wait until winter is over so that my family can enjoy exercising outside again!
I like the indoor tips, such as redecorating, since right now it’s so cold and snowy, we haven’t been able to get out much.
Love these tips for keeping the family active. We are pretty active especially in warmer weather.
These are great ideas. Eating healthy meals together would be something that brings families together in good ways everyday.
i love your report/review. it was very concise, easy to read, and full of great ideas. i think we need to declutter the electronic age that is a big factor on keeping our young one immobile. thank you for the great tips. babscorbitt@gmail.com
We are fortunate to live in an area that is very bicycle friendly, which enables us to take family bike rides in the spring and summer.
You did a great job with the report. Your ideas are awesome and I hope they help people who are in need.
we look doing outside activities
These are great tips. I always figured if we had to do chores we might as well have fun, so we all work together while we blast music.
I feel like we do a good job as a family staying active together! I really like the take some classes together tip! We are going to have to try that! Thank you!
Great ideas, the wii fit my grandchildren already do, and I always have healthy snacks for them when they are here.
These are some really great ideas! I never would have thought of taking classes together as a family!
Fantastic tips, all of them. The outdoor activities plans have to be scrapped to this bizarre weather lately – but the re-decorating together is a lot of fun! I actually just did get a Hula Hoop!
Awesome tips! We spend most of our time outdoors when the weather is warm. Not only is it healthier for us but it’s also very enjoyable!
great tips–love to be out and about with the family 🙂
This weather we have lately is totally not conducive to any activity which is unfortunate, but I love the tips. I can’t wait to get into more when my kids are older.
Great tips. We started doing Geo Caching this summer and it was a lot of fun.
We do Sunday drives, I get to relax and enjoy the scenery!
I try to do most of this with my family. Great tips!
I think being active as a family is a great idea. Especially enjoying nature as a whole. Teaching kids to interact with nature as well as building their healthy respect for it is a often neglected thing. I don’t have kids but if I did it would be one of the most important things as a family to do.
love the ideas . and we are always trying to be active togehter
Thanks for the great ideas I really do need to make some changes around my house.
Our family always works together to get the daily chores done & the weekly chores too, Thanks for some more ideas to get moving together.
These are great ideas. My children and grandchildren are always active outside. All are healthy and non are overweight. They also eat healthy. This is good from a mom of 4 and Mimi of 8.