Maintaining a healthy lifestyle
Being in the health business I have strong concerns about health issues within families. Owning a personal training facility I get a lot of parents and couples concerned about the health of their children. First of all, a healthy lifestyle should start the moment your child is conceived, good health habits really start with the parent, so I would advise if you are about to have children, to be sure you are ready to have children and make changes which include healthy eating habits. Also you need to consider, how is the health of your cardiovascular system? Do you exercise on a regular basis? These are all things you should be doing before you even decide to have children. The healthier you are, the easier it will be to conceive, the smoother the pregnancy and the better delivery too.
Developing a healthy lifestyle within your family not only takes commitment from the mother, but the whole family; remember it’s a team effort. How are you going to feed your child? I have had mothers tell me that they tried to breast feed but it was to much trouble, or it hurt too much (breast feeding is the best thing for your child nutritionally). There are 400 nutrients known to be in breast milk that are unable to be replicated. Moms don’t fall into the baby food craziness. Baby food alone has become a 1.25 billion-a-year industry, not to mention that it has been determined through recent studies that powdered infant formula is the source of several cases of seizures, and brain abscesses.
Child obesity is also on the rise. Children who are obese at age four have a 20% chance of developing adult obesity. Although genetics plays a small part, child obesity can totally be controlled by the parents. Making healthy decisions for your children is not always easy. The healthier you are, the healthier your children will be, as your children are an extension of you. Many parents are not even aware of what their children are putting in their mouths since our busy lifestyles make eating dinner together a thing of the past.
So what is the answer? It is your job as a parent to guide your children and be the example. A few tips are:
- Have a set time at the end of the day for dinner, where you all eat together, no exceptions!
- The menu for dinner should be not only be good for you, but for your children too.
- Stop the fast food addiction! Make sure your children aren’t hungry before and on their way home from daycare or school. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine recently filed suit against seven major restaurants and fast food chains in the state of California, they include: McDonalds, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Chili’s, Applebee’s, Outback steakhouse, and TGI Fridays. The reason for the suit? These companies are knowingly serving food containing carcinogens without a health warning to the consumer which is not only unhealthy but is a well known Cancer Risk.
Obesity is a major problem in our country and we should treat it as such, in the United States alone childhood obesity has doubled in the past 20 years, it has tripled in Canada. Remember Mom and Dad you chose to have children and therefore you and you alone are responsible for their health and well being.
