Fitness is essential for a healthy lifestyle, particularly for growing children. Although this is a known fact, and despite all the proven benefits gained from living a healthy lifestyle, the fitness level of our children is increasingly declining at an alarming rate. Many factors attribute to this declination, including our being a society of convenience that condones eating fast foods on a regular basis rather balanced, nutritious meals, and the absence of physical fitness in our schools and home/family environments. In addition, the lack of role models from whom our children can learn about making healthy lifestyle choices, lack of knowledge and access to pertinent information, as well lack of accountability have led to this decline. Yes! Our children need to learn ways to live healthy lifestyles and the values of physical fitness. They need to know the consequences of being sedentary, and they need to be held accountable.
We, adults, need to show that our children’s fitness is important to us by demonstrating through our living healthy lifestyles. What they see and do now is what will be put into action in their adult lives. We need to ensure our children have what they need to make wise fitness choices. This means we need to listen to them. We need to know what interests them so that we can help to ensure that kids have what they need to be physically fit, active, and healthy.
There are simple ways in which our kids can include creative and fun physical fitness activities into their everyday lives. A few examples include, walking or riding a bicycle to school or other places, getting involved with sports that use the large muscle groups such as the legs, arms, and chest, and doing chores such as vacuuming, mopping, dusting, and lawn moving.
The key is to get up, and get moving for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week. Don’t allow boredom to creep in. Instead, be proactive and creative. Enjoy physical fitness with family and friends. Be sure to get clearance from your physician prior to exercising. Be safe, and be sure to have fun!