Active lifestyle in the family

CEBU, Philippines - Physical activity is an important component of a healthy lifestyle. Paired together with healthy eating habits, it is an effective way to prevent a variety of diseases, including heart disease, stroke, and cancer, which are the leading causes of death today. It helps control weight, builds lean muscle, reduces fat; promotes strong bones, muscle and joint development, and reduces the risk of obesity.

At home, however, it is so easy to go the opposite way - inactivity. On usual weekends and holidays, family members tend to prefer spending time on the couch watching television or glued to gadgets. This is especially true with children, who would rather isolate themselves with their online friends than have a conversation with other family members.

Interest in active lifestyle seems to have been overtaken by technology. For instance, it has become rare to see entire families engaged in physical activities together. No wonder it has, on the contrary, common for family members to get sick.

The home is a good place to start a healthy lifestyle, not only in terms of healthy diet but in terms of physical activity as well. Parents that actively move about encourage their kids to do the same. In the same way, children are most likely to take after parents that exercise regularly.

The healthful routine and habits that children develop at home will mostly carry through as they grow up. Study shows that children who watch people who are engaged in physical activity are more likely to mimic or join in. This finding all the more confirms the crucial role of parents in plotting a healthy path for their children to follow.

Children need 60 minutes of play with moderate to vigorous activity every day to grow up to a healthy weight. This is not difficult to achieve by children, since they naturally want to play all the time. Adults need 30 minutes of physical activity a day.

Simple activities like morning walks are fun when the whole family is involved. And, with the parents' leadership, the kids are not hard to get going. Walking is known to be a good exercise for the heart.

For added fun, the family may spend walking time at least once or twice a week in places like the beach or a park. The family's pet dog may be taken along in the walk, too. Mornings are a great time for such family exercise, but late afternoons may do as well.

The playground and the swimming pool are also good places for family exercise, of course. Various fun activities are possible here. But, in fact, there are a lot of places where good physical exercises may be done, in the safety of family members' company.

But healthy activities are not limited to the outdoors only. There are many indoor activities that provide good exercise, just the same. The usual, necessary household chores are good opportunities for sweating it out. 

Dividing the various house tasks among the family members does not only make home neat but also helps keep family members in good health. Likewise, it teaches growing children a sense of responsibility. Parents only need to assign to kids the tasks that are fit for the little ones' ages and levels of physical strength and physical maturity.

Doing physical activities together has an equally worthy extra benefit - family bonding. Children that grow in a healthy, secure and happy home are likely to grow to be upright and responsible member of the community.

Reference: letsmove.gov (FREEMAN)