Parenting is such a hard job for many reasons! One of these reasons is definitely the fact that you have to watch what your child eats and how much they exercise, trying to keep them healthy while instilling in them a love for their healthy body.
1. Healthy Food
A balanced diet is far more important than counting calories, which many younger people are led to believe is the most important thing to monitor. This can lead to an unhealthy obsession with product labels and unbalanced meals, even if the calories add up properly. Make sure your child is familiar with the food pyramid and remind her that as long as she keeps a balanced mixture of the different food groups, her diet is probably fine.
At the same time, be wary that she is aware that healthy eating habits don’t include weight-watching excessively, as young people are particularly prone to eating disorders including anorexia and bulimia. If she is a light eater, encourage her to have several smaller, healthy meals throughout the day, and if she is a heavy eater, encourage her to take the time to digest food — it takes a while for the brain to catch up with the stomach and realize we’re full. If we’re constantly rushing, we can constantly overeat without realizing it.
2. Plenty of Exercise
Encourage your child to take up some form of sport, as this is one of the best ways of staying healthy and fit. Experts’ recommendations vary, but most agree that fifteen to thirty minutes of exercise each day goes a long way towards maintaining healthy body image and habits.
Exercise doesn’t just help her maintain her physical health and ward off sickness and weight problems. It also improves mental and emotional health, a major benefit for kids these days who are often overloaded with school, extracurricular activities, sports leagues, and a social life. This stress can be overwhelming without a good way to manage it. Exercise will let your child burn off any frustration or anger while releasing good chemicals in her brain that cheer her up.
3. Avoid Habits
Young people in this day are surrounded by peer pressure. Some of it can be positive, while other peer pressure is definitely negative. If your child doesn’t know better, it can be easy for her to fall into habits like smoking, drinking, excessive consumption of fatty, sugary or salty foods, and so on. All of these habits impede the struggle to stay healthy in a world filled with temptations for unhealthiness!
Teach her to say “no” to all these habits, preferably leading by example. A young person with a parent who doesn’t smoke or drink, prefers water or juice to soda pop, and exercises every day is much more likely to emulate this behavior… and the reverse is true, too.
Your patience and persistence now will be one of the greatest gifts you can give your child. By following these tips, you can raise a child who is healthy not only now, but throughout the rest of her life!
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- How to Get Your Teen to Eat Healthy
- Teens and Eating Disorders
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- Your Juvenile Diabetic Child
Tags: Healthy Parenting Tips