Active families are happy families

Sometimes, 24 hours in a day does not seem to be enough to get the housework done, go to work, teach the kids, cook and socialise. Finding time to exercise seems near impossible. This is one of the primary reasons why more and more people make fitness a family activity. It combines the best of both worlds – you get the chance to take care of your own self and at the same time, spend time with the people who matter the most. It is also the best way to teach your children healthy habits as they will learn from what you do as opposed to what you say.

However, getting fit as a family also means that the excuses for not working out are multi-fold. You need to be prepared and have a three-pronged approach to the situation.

1. Preparation.

2. Exercise.

3. Diet.

PREPARATION

Remember all the excuses we come up with to avoid heading out for that workout or run? Now multiply it by the number of family members in your family. That is how many excuses you are going to come up against! How do you avoid this situation?

1. Have a family meeting where you and your family discuss your reasons for wanting to exercise as a family – motivating each other, family time and loads of fun, besides weight loss and better health.

2. Fix a timetable that is suitable for all – this may take some work as in today’s world, even a 4-year-old has a busy schedule. Family fitness may most probably be a weekend activity for most of you, however try and schedule it into at least one weekday evening, so that you have a total of three family fitness days per week. If your family schedule allow, try and get the exercise done first thing in the morning before the rest of the day’s activities put a spanner in the works.

3. Set some ground rules, rewards and penalties which are non-negotiable. For instance, no television (or any of the other electronic indulgence) on the day you skip exercise due to sheer laziness. However keep the flexibility to allow for ill health or injuries.

4. List out external motivators or rewards for the family member who achieves individual weight goals. Just don’t make the reward food-centric. It could be anything ranging from the latest youth literature to a movie. This will give rise to a healthy sense of competition.

5. Let your fitness program involve activities that the family enjoys. It is hard to stay committed to a program that you don’t find appealing. In case of conflicting likes, take turns – a rule that worked in childhood and still does.

6. Chart out your meal plan with provisions for different tastes and likes on different days. Include your family in the preparation of the meals so that the work is divided but the fun is multiplied. Keep one or two family members in charge of the family diet chart. You will be surprised at how conscientious you become about your diet when a hawk-eyed 10-year-old is following you with a pencil and pad.

7. Be each other’s buddy who encourages, motivates and even nags you into fitness.

8. Celebrate your family fitness milestones (the day the entire family managed to run around the Safa Park track twice without stopping) with a family treat – maybe new track suits for all of you!

EXERCISE

When it comes to exercising with your family, you will have to think out of the box. Heading to the gym and lifting weights is not an option. You will have to get creative and think of outings that are healthy and activity oriented like a game of football, tossing the Frisbee around, a family bike ride or a simple game of what my child calls ‘you are it’… running and catching in other words. Remember, every little bit of movement and activity adds up. Here are a few more ideas;

1. Adapt the activity to something that even the youngest of your child can join in. Of course the very small ones will be strapped in to strollers or baby backpacks, slings or carriers. This allows for walking, trekking and hiking and with strollers jogging.

2. Biking together as a family is a great way to stay fit and this is even doable with very young kids with the help of a kiddie seat.

3. On days when your better half is not able to join you, slide that dance aerobics or yoga DVD in and dance or stretch along with your kids. You will be pleasantly surprised by how earnest most children are about getting it right.

4. In Dubai the easiest way to get some fun family fitness time in is by jumping into the pool. Add an element of competition with contests for who can swim the fastest, or dive better or just have a raucous game of water polo.

5. Surely games are the most fun way to get fit because invariably you are left laughing and completely out-of-breath at the end of the session. Anything from Simon Says, hopscotch, jump rope, Hide and Seek, Tag and running races will do.

6. Head to the neighbourhood park and playground and give the monkey bars and swings a shot.

7. Why should dance classes be limited to couples only? Why not join a dance class with your children and your spouse? Children find it very inspiring to watch their parents being brave and open learning something new no matter what their age… and it is fun.

8. Head to the park and challenge your kids to a race (walking or jogging). You will find that your kids are tougher than they look and you will find out that the fire in you to win still burns bright.

9. Head to the beach and have a game of volleyball, frolic in the water, build sand castles, chase each other, collect shells and build up your Vitamin D deposits and memories.

10. Organise a picnic which incorporates various games according to everyone’s interests followed by a tasty and healthy meal.

11. Pick up a sport like tennis or squash or driveway baseball and just spend an hour or so chasing the ball.

DIET

This should be easy – eat something healthy. However, we all know difficult a task this is and how the difficulty is amped up when kids are involved as generally they consider anything fresh and homemade as poisonous. Then there is the problem of everyone liking different items – your husband likes fried chicken, your kids prefer pasta and you’d rather have Thai. Difficult though it may be to balance all these likes and dislikes, it is not impossible. All it requires is a planning and ultimately, it is a matter of getting through the first few weeks… at which point of time making the healthy nutritional choice will be as automatic an action as breathing is. It is a matter of retraining your taste buds. Here are a few steps that can help ease this transition;

1. Make their favourite dishes but replace the ingredients with healthier options, for instance omelets with only the egg whites and some vegetables or baked sweet potato fries.

2. Take your kids along for grocery shopping. Talk them through the various options available in the aisles and explain your choices. This will serve them well all through their lives.

3. Get the children involved in preparing and serving the meal. With older kids, you can even let them be in charge of deciding the meal and preparing dinner on a particular day with you cast in the role of the able assistant.

4. Use the dining table. Sit at it and eat your meals together (no matter how crazy your schedules are, surely you can manage one meal). Talk, laugh, exchange stories and eat… and oh make sure the television is nowhere in the room.