3 Things A Family Program Needs for Growth
This article outlines the 3 things a family program needs to create the most growth and development for not just the kids but the whole family.
A program for family health that encompasses a healthy diet, an exercise regime and of course a sense of happiness and togetherness is crucial for family and child growth and development.
There is one thing to get a Personal Trainer to do the job for an individual but how effective is that individual at transferring all that knowledge to the next.
When your Personal Trainer says something like “you need to cut calories to lose weight”, how do you think the child is going to respond to that?
Most likely with something unrelated about their day at school…
Health is both personal and community based. Kids of all ages need to understand that health is something that will carry on throughout their whole life. It just needs to be explained at different and varying degrees.
It’s more of a slow transformation than a strict and radical change.
The benefit of having someone who is very close to them explain the knowledge in the best way that they understand is going to be the most effective.
A study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that children need to learn how to talk about healthy eating habits and how to functionally apply them to a real world setting with their parents.
A family program focusing on family health is going to help develop healthy lifestyles, improve skills and create a positive environment for the family.
An article out of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association indicates that encouragement “small victories” sustain involvement in getting more fit were critical to success. Children also need direct messages to motivate them to change their exercise and eating habits.
“Parents and children need positive, realistic approaches to getting fit, such as answers to questions about healthful lifestyles; ideas for physical games and activities the family can enjoy together; attainable goals and small steps to healthful eating…”
https://www.sciencedirect.com
It’s all about working together to address overweight prevention issues and the need for effective tools to work together and cooperate.
Here are the 3 essentials you need to a family health program;
Eat Better
Family nutrition in a family program is crucial for family health. It’s about ensuring that you are eating high quality food from a range of sources.
Family health is not about being tied up in the nitty gritty of complicated recipes and foods. It’s about ensuring that there is a range of colours and flavours that will test and challenge your kids’ tastebuds and also integrate in healthy habits.
It’s one thing to tell them what to eat, but to teach them so that they remember is something else.
The healthy school canteen options aren’t going to do it for you so it’s up to us to drive the positive change.
A question I always ask is; “what happens if XYZ is taken away from you?”. In this circumstance, it’s the restriction.
Move More
Also known as ‘movement’ or ‘being active’. There is no secret that being sedentary is going to create an unhealthy lifestyle. We need to create more movement especially when you’re referring to a family program.
We need to be able to create purposeful and non-purposeful exercise. Purposeful exercise is when you are planning it, for example, playing sport or going to the park and doing a bodyweight program and kicking a ball.
Non-purposeful exercise is going for a stroll, walking up the stairs rather than the escalator.
Both purposeful and non-purposeful are essential.
Being Together is a family program
There is a reason I don’t like the term Personal Trainer, which is essentially my job title.
I like to think of myself as more of a Full Tribe Health Coach that drives healthy change in a family program. We live as an individual but we work together as a tribe. We are only as strong as the weakest link and I believe that we should always be looking after each other. There are definitely times we need to have our “alone time” and also our personal goals, but our personal goals are always going to be most effective when we align them with those around us.
Our family program is based around building close connections with one another. The best lessons and the most memorable memories are always when we are together. So why shouldn’t a program account for that.
A great example of this and one of the best parts of the family program I run are getting the family into the kitchen and using simple and fun recipes. Read about it here.
A program for family health should support one another and also account for individual goals. A family program should teach and educate at all levels and knowledge bases to build a healthy relationship with food, exercise and each other.
