Creating Healthy Family Traditions

Make a regular date to walk after meals with your family. It may not be possible to go for a family walk after every meal, but with some motivation you should be able to squeeze in a short walk following dinner. Take ten to fifteen minutes after finishing your meal to sit and talk to your kids before clearing the table. By the time you've done that and cleaned up, twenty minutes to half an hour will have passed and you will have digested enough to get out and walk together. Don't despair if you can't fit it in seven days a week; do it three or four times a week instead. A little exercise is better than no exercise!

The benefits of light exercise following a meal are numerous and undeniable. In addition to promoting digestion, the low-impact exercise of a walk helps you and your kids begin to utilize some of the calories just consumed. Perhaps more importantly, it gives you yet more time to spend together as a family. The family walk can just as easily be a family bike ride. Many families take the opportunity to involve neighbors in after-dinner walks in the evening.

The bottom line is that kids appreciate your spending the extra time with them, and you are teaching them to not eat and plop themselves in front of the television. The more you involve yourself in your children's lives, the more they will benefit emotionally, academically, and nutritionally.

More on: Family Nutrition

Excerpted from:

From Raising Healthy Eaters: 100 Tips for Parents by Henry Legere, M.D. Copyright © 2004. Used by arrangement with The Perseus Books Group.

To order this book visit perseusbooksgroup.com.