Health & Wellness for Families: Improve Your Family’s Health

Everyone wants to keep their families happy and healthy, but that’s not always easy. It’s easy to lose track of where each member of your family is  in terms of their well-being, and the chaos of daily life can sometimes get in the way of exercise, healthy eating, and quality time. That said, it’s more than possible to improve your family’s health with a few simple steps.

Benefits of Keeping Your Family Happy and Healthy

Keeping your family happy and healthy is important for many reasons. Some of the benefits healthy living can provide for your family include:

• • • Better physical and mental health
    • Greater emotional stability
    • Higher confidence and self esteem
    • Decreased risk of preventable chronic conditions such as heart disease
    • Set the foundation for a lifelong healthy lifestyle for children

The ramifications for your children can extend to their emotional lives as well as physical well-being. For example, research indicates that a high-quality relationship between parents and kids is a strong predictor of overall well-being later in life. Many of the tips given below help reinforce that relationship while also facilitating healthy living in the home.

4 Health and Wellness Tips for Families

The following four tips represent areas where you can improve the emotional, physical, and mental well-being of your family while building important lifelong relationships.

1. Manage Quality Family Time

After about age 15, the time people spend with family begins to decrease dramatically, so it’s important to make the most of that time. Fortunately, there are many simple ways to spend time with family, including:

• • • Movie nights
    • Game nights
    • Meals together
    • Playing outside
    • Preparing meals together
    • Helping kids with homework (or attempting to)

If it feels like you’re doing too much and don’t have time for your family, simplify. Plan ahead, prioritize important activities, and focus on what matters most. Family time doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be intentional. It can be easy to lose track of time with everything going on, so family time usually needs to be specifically set apart.

2. Get Involved in the Community

Community involvement is important to helping children (and adults) build relationships and find a sense of belonging and purpose. Some ways to get involved in the community together include:

• • • Attending worship services and other religious events
    • Volunteering with nonprofits and important causes
    • Attending local community events
    • Participating in school events
    • Performing service in the community, such as cleaning parks, reading to the elderly, etc.

Regardless of how you go about it, helping others and engaging with friends and neighbors as a family can strengthen familial relationships and improve everyone’s emotional—and in turn, physical—well-being.

3. Cultivate Family Experiences

Strong bonds between family members comes from the memories you create together. Cultivating family experiences doesn’t have to be complicated—you just have to enjoy what you’re doing together! Some fun ideas include:

• • • Going on vacation somewhere neat
    • Alternatively, having a “staycation” with activities close to home
    • Attending concerts or plays
    • Hosting an annual family sports tournament
    • Go on trips to local museums or zoos
    • Create fun holiday traditions

Again, these don’t have to be complex, nor should you feel like you need to outdo yourself with each new event. You simply need to have a great time together.

4. Be Active Together

Of course, physical activity is crucial to overall health, including when it comes to preventing obesity and supporting emotional health. The CDC recommends that kids get a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity per day. These activities can help you meet that number:

• • • Family walks around the neighborhood or through nearby parks
    • Going on hikes together
    • Playing sports
    • Enrolling in martial arts classes as a family
    • Biking, swimming, or running

Regular physical activity can help improve cardiovascular health, strengthen bones, prevent weight gain, and—perhaps most importantly—set the stage for lifelong healthy habits.

Learn More About Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

Family health is key to preventing chronic health conditions, including obesity. In addition, establishing healthy habits and routines with the family can also help those who are trying to lose weight. In fact, family support is often key to successful weight loss for bariatric surgery patients.

Professional medical support can also help in certain cases, such as that provided by practices such as Dr. Malladi Bariatrics & Advanced Surgery. Contact Dr. Malladi, or visit the blog for more health tips.