8 Simple Ways to Exercise as a Family
We spend a lot of time sitting still. It’s not that we don’t like moving, but our entertainment options usually keep us in one place. For kids, exercise is more than strengthening their heart and muscles. It’s about teaching them motor control, agility and balance. For us parents, it’s about keeping slim and staying healthy so we’re around for a long time to see our kids grow.
Here are some simple ways you can exercise with your family.
1. Post-dinner walks – Most of us schedule after-dinner time for relaxing, so it’s usually open. Use this as an opportunity to take a stroll around your neighborhood. Increase the walk slightly each week. (This is also good for quality bonding time.)
2. Play music throughout the house – We all instinctually pick up the pace when fast music is playing. Put on something with a beat and play it loudly through the house when you want everyone to move.
3. Sneak it in – Find ways to get your kids moving when they wouldn’t otherwise notice, like by choosing the stairs for everyone in a building or having your toddler walk instead of riding the cart.
4. TV commercial fitness breaks – During commercials, have everyone do a quick workout to get their hearts going. You could do a full routine of sit ups, pushups and jumping jacks, or have them run in place until the commercial is over.
5. Enter charity walk/runs – This is a great way to spend time as a family, get some exercise, and support a cause. You might have to poke around for sponsors, but it’s worth it, especially if one event becomes two, becomes three…
6. Get gardening – Gardening is surprisingly tiring. You spend a lot of time digging, hauling, pulling, and bending. Once you finish for the day you’ll be amazed at how tired you’ll feel. Plus, this will give you a healthy project to work on as a family. You’ll get to see the products of your labor together.
7. Weekly park outing – A new tradition is hard to start, but easy to maintain. Pick a day of the week and go to the park every week. It’s part of your regular routine now, like going to work, food shopping and filling up on gas.
8. Make them “buy” their WiFi passwords – This is a drastic measure, but sometimes you have to go to great lengths for health. Create a workout ritual each morning for each person. Once they complete your exercises, they get the day’s WiFi password. Change it each night.
Also read: 5 Positive Things All Happy Families Do
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Written by Stephanie Parker from Sleepingbaby.com, inventors of the Zipadee-Zip
The motto for Sleeping Baby, makers of the Zipadee-Zip, is: "Inspiring Dreams One Night at A time," and that, in a nutshell, is how it all started…with one little dream that has since become the Parker family's reality. When Brett and Stephanie Parker's daughter, Charlotte, was born, the feeling that welled up inside of them was indescribable; they never realized until first looking into those baby blues of hers that they were even capable of that kind of love.
When it was time to transition baby from swaddling, the Parkers tried every sleep sack on the market and every swaddle weaning trick they could find for nearly two weeks and nothing worked to get baby Charlotte to fall and stay asleep.
Stephanie became determined to restore sleep and sanity to their household and set out to find a solution that would soothe Charlotte's startle reflex and provide her the cozy womb-like environment she loved so much but still give her the freedom to roll over and wiggle around in her crib safely. Out of sheer desperation and exhaustion, the Zipadee-Zip was born. The first Zipadee-Zip(R) Stephanie put together on her little sewing machine worked like magic!
To date tens of thousands of Zipadee-Zips have been sold and all from word-of-mouth marketing. It is so rewarding for the Parkers to see other parents and babies getting the sleep they both need and deserve!
Interested in writing a guest blog for Sleeping Baby? Send your topic idea to pr@sleepingbaby.com.
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