Childhood Obesity-getting Your Kids Off The Couch

In today's society, childhood obesity is becoming a growing concern. In this age of fast-food dinners and video games your child may be eating foods that are high in fat and calories and then sitting on the couch for hours on end playing video games. It may be time to get your child moving and exercising. There are several steps that you can take to help your child live a healthier life style.

The first thing that you need to do is to teach your child to eat healthier. In the world of working mothers and two-income families, it may seem that fast food is the best way to get everybody fed. In reality, there are many healthy meals that can take the same amount of time to prepare that it takes you to drive to the restaurant, sit in the drive-thru line, order your food, and drive back home. There are also foods that can be fixed the night before and placed in the slow cooker first thing in the morning. The food cooks all day and is ready as soon as you get home from work. There are many microwavable foods available at the grocery store also. Another advantage of having a microwave oven is the ability to defrost foods quickly if you forgot to pull something out for dinner.

To create a healthy meal, you should have a meat, a vegetable, bread, a dairy, and a fruit. While this may sound complicated, a plate of spaghetti with parmesan cheese, a salad, bread, and a can of peaches with a glass of milk would cover all these groups and would take about fifteen minutes to fix. Another way to help your kids eat healthy is to remove all the junk food from your house and replace it with healthy snacks. Replace a bag of potato chips with cheese and crackers. Replace those cheese curls with celery sticks smeared with peanut butter. The children may complain at first about losing their favorite snack foods, but once there is nothing else in the house they will eventually eat these healthier alternatives.

The next step to helping your children to become healthier is to get them active. The first thing that you should do is to limit the amount of time spent in front of the television. The same thing should be done with computer and video games. Once the children no longer have the television and games to occupy their time, they will become bored. You could now suggest that you all go outside for a walk or go for a bicycle ride. If it is cold outside, you could suggest sledding or ice skating. Anything that will give your children some fresh air and exercise would be a good idea.

Children learn good eating and exercise habits from their parents. You should serve as a model for your children by eating right and staying active. By including the whole family in these outdoor events will give everyone some much needed exercise and is also a chance to spend some quality time with your children, something that we could all use a little more of.

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