It is safe to say that most of our generation was not taught the essentials of living a healthy lifestyle during our childhood. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why we find it so difficult to put in the effort to stay healthy and fit. Previous generations HAD to exercise. They walked a lot, played outside, and did a lot of manual work. With the evolution of cars, trains, video games, and fun kid television shows, it was difficult for our parents to get us to exercise.

However, since we have gone through that transition, and we anticipate that even more technological advances will be made that would make the next generation sit on their behinds, we can begin to think of ways to instill that longing for good food and physical activity in our kids. A shocking statistic according to Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s vice president of outreach and educational practices: “This may be the first generation that may actually have a shorter lifespan than their parents, all due to issues around obesity or facts about nutrition and the amount of physical activity.” And our kids are expected to have a shorter lifespan than us if we do not do something about it.

Here are a few simple ways we can introduce the awareness of health and fitness to our children from a young age:

Feed them right
Here’s a scenario. You come home late from work, your kid should be sleeping, but instead he is crying for some ice-cream, and you know you probably shouldn’t because he had some yesterday, but you’re too tired so you go ahead and let him. And when he wants more, you go ahead and let him have some more. Here’s another scenario. Your kid wants to have a Big Mac, and won’t touch dinner. You don’t want her to throw a tantrum or be mad at you all day, so you buy her a Big Mac. The next day, you do the same. Kids don’t need to eat ice-cream everyday just because they ask for it. Once in a while is not a problem, but let’s try to ensure they don’t develop the habit of fussing for unhealthy food and getting it each time. Because our palates develop at a very young age, feeding a child fruits and vegetables instead of burgers and pizza can help a child crave the sweet good stuff before the sweet unhealthy stuff. Make some fruits seem like a delicacy, and don’t keep ‘addictive sweets’ at home. Stock your cabinets with good wholesome snacks that kids need to take permission to eat, and they would want them more. I do realize that as humans we want what we should not have a.k.a ice-cream and cake, but if we make some good food also seem like a luxury from a very young age, kids are naturally drawn to them.

Make them get involved in physical activity
We (okay, maybe the boys) used to tend to want to play football with their friends, and ride bicycles outside, but today, it seems all they want to do is play video games. This may be as a result of parents getting protective of children and wanting them to play inside. But for kids to get physically active, we do need to let them play outside. Not only do we need to let them, we need to make it a habit for them from their toddler years. Take them to the backyard, and roll around in the grass with them. Encourage fathers to teach them to kick a ball around. Have play dates with other children from the neighborhood where they can play outside. Buy them bicycles and let them ride them around. If your child is privileged enough to be in a school with recreational activities, enroll them in sports. Encourage them to build their social network with other children in sports programs. In Nigeria, a lot of families are privileged enough to have some backyard space. If you can afford it, install a football goal net or a basketball rim so they can bounce or kick a ball around when they are bored.

Lead by example
When kids are very young, their parents are their idols. When these same kids grow into adults, they usually find themselves unconsciously mimicking their parents’ actions from when they were younger. It’s an unconscious thing. When a child gets to the age of 3 or 4, they have usually already shaped their attitude towards food, and their eating habits. So if we eat ice-cream a lot, and tell our kids they can’t, they’ll just think eating ice-cream is an adult activity and they’ll wish to grow older so they can do it all the time. Now, if you eat healthy yourself, and allow your kids to see you work out by doing some in-home activities, they’ll start longing to participate, and view exercise as an adult activity that they’ll long to do when they grow up. I think it’s the cutest thing ever when I see father-son teams doing an activity like martial arts or boxing. It shows how much the child wants to be like their father, and how much that father leads by example. So the summary is: Do what you would want to see your kids do when they grow up because they’d probably turn out like you.

Watch what you let them watch
Finally, another major issue that affects our way of thinking is what we grew up watching on the television. Luckily, a lot of kid shows are beginning to bring awareness to health and fitness, and actually making a healthy lifestyle fun for children. The biggest example is Sesame Street. Sesame Street encourages kids to build healthy habits, and they have brought people like Michelle Obama on their show to support the cause ‘Healthy Habits for Life’. Some other shows like Dora the Explorer, Jo-Jo’s Circus, The Wiggles, and Tasty Time with Zefronk also promote healthy food choices and practical physical activity for children. If kids grow up thinking health and fitness is cool, they would most likely carry on this attitude into their teenage years.

If you have any questions about health and fitness for kids, or you have a method you use with your kid that you’d like to share, please leave a comment or catch me on twitter @eightsnweights.

Photo credit: www.babble.com