words Alexa Wang

You may have noticed that even within your own household, your family members have different eating habits and preferences. They may also have different opinions and approaches when it comes to a healthy lifestyle. Whatever your role is in your home, whether youre the wife, husband, father, mother, son or daughter, you can promote a healthy lifestyle at home.

Promotion by leading and example are good ways to have them try out and practice new healthy habits. There are different areas you can encourage a healthy lifestyle, such as exercise, diet, detoxification, stress reduction or changing unhealthy habits such as drinking and smoking. Once your family gets into the program, you can see all of them leading healthier and happier lives and enjoying a better quality of life.

When speaking of being active, the first thingthat comes to mind is exercise. When itcomes to exercise, one of the most common complaints would be it is a tiringactivity. Others complain that it is often repetitive. Youll have to convinceyour other family members that it is an enjoyable activity. You may have tostart with your exercise regime alone for the first few days or weeks. Be agood and convincing example to them by showing them that you are following yourexercise schedule faithfully and that you are enjoying it. They may get curiousabout your exercise and ask about it, thats a good start. You can then letthem repeat after you or go along with a few reps just to try it out. Alwayswear your best smile when performing your exercise regimen. If exercise is justnot everyones thing, there are other ways that you can make your familymembers stay active. The main purpose of keeping your family active is to avoida sedentary lifestyle.

Sedentary lifestyle, or being a couch potatois one of the problematic and unhealthy habits that affect most families thesedays. A sedentary lifestyle can actually put you and your family at risk formany health problems, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease such ashypertension. Staying sedentary for most of your time at home is also anunproductive and unstimulating activity, which is not beneficial in keepingyourself mentally sharp and active.

There are also otheractivities that you and your whole family can enjoy and are also healthy.Swimming is one good example. Its not only fun, but its also a great form ofexercise. For a safe and supervised swimming experience, you can go to yourlocal public swimming pools or to private resorts with stationed lifeguards.Other fun activities that can make you and your family stay fit are walking,jogging, biking, hiking, and dancing. When you and your family members enjoydoing healthy activities, it is likely that they will continue doing them. Toavoid being repetitive and boring, introduce a new activity or add variationsto the usual ones like instead of your usual biking to the park, try changingthe route to the beach or around the neighborhood.

Preparing a healthymeal will mean starting from scratch. You want to have all-natural and organicingredients for your home-cooked meals. It can be quite a challenge, especiallyif you and your family got used to eating processed foods, takeout meals,fast-food chains, and restaurants. The main concern about these practices isthat although eating is convenient and easy, we dont know what these foods aremade of and whats in them. Personally preparing the food you eat and cookingfrom scratch is the best way of guaranteeing that you know whats in the foodyou are consuming. The preparation and cooking may take time, but you canalways find ways to overcome these setbacks. Preparing healthy food is a goodcomplement to an active lifestyle in order to sustain the health benefits youare achieving, such as healthy and younger-looking skin, well-sculpted body,properly toned muscles and ideal body mass index (BMI).

Stock up on naturalingredients such as animal products, fruits, vegetables, and grains. To dothat, you need to set aside time once a week to make one big shopping trip tobuy your natural ingredients. When it comes to cooking and preparation,schedule your home cooking sessions an hour or more earlier to cover the entireprocess and finish preparing the meal ahead of time. This way, you dont eat upthe time allotted for other important activities and you can still proceed withother activities as scheduled. Buying bulk items and unprepared or unprocessedfood can help you save money by spending less when buying natural ingredients.

Meals do not solelyconstitute your familys diet. A significant portion of their diets comes fromsnacks and after-meal eating. While snacks are becoming our most common way ofrelieving hunger and craving, we can still control the kind of food we want ourfamily to eat as comfort foods. Aside from preparing healthy meals, you canalso set aside time for preparing healthy snacks. Fresh fruits, nuts, and whole-graincookies and crackers can be great snacks to munch on. Yogurt and granola barsmake a flavorful treat and peanut butter, chocolate, and cream cheese makesdelicious dips and additional flavors for your healthy snacks. Exploredifferent recipes and look for a doctor- or nutritionist-recommended websitesthat offer healthy snacks and food recipes and tips. Take the extra effort toprepare and pack healthy snacks for family members who are going to work andschool to make sure they are continually eating healthy food even when awayfrom home. They wont have to get snacks from vending machines or fast foodjoints.

A growing number ofresearch and studies are being conducted on how stress affects your health and well-being.Stress, particularly chronic stress, has been linked to a myriad of healthissues, from simple to complex ones such as headaches, digestive andgastrointestinal problems, and cancer. It doesnt mean that you have to totallyeliminate stress. Stress is our bodys natural reaction to external stressors(social situations, environmental factors, and unexpected life-changing events)and internal stressors (psychological situations, illness, and medicalprocedures), which evokes physical, mental and emotional responses. It isactually essential for survival because it triggers bodily processes andchemical production that help our body prepare to face dangers and threats and helpus cope with difficult situations. However, we should limit the amount ofstress we receive within normal levels. When we experience more than the usuallevels of stress and we get to experience it on a regular basis, we aresubjecting ourselves to chronic stress, which can lead to adverse effects onour health.

There are many ways tomanage stress. Yoga is one of the most effective stress management activitiesyou can try. You can enroll in a class or you can practice yoga at home withyour family. The good thing about yoga is it relatively easy to perform and itspositive concept of being non-judgmental to both yourself and others. Sincesome of our major sources of stress come from our unhealthy interaction withother people and being so hard on ourselves, this concept is a very welcomechange of pace for us. Yoga also cultivates the principle of the unity of mindand body, which is highly relevant when it comes to managing stress. Stress ishighly affective to both our mind and body, which makes yoga an effectivepractice for relieving stress. Yoga also trains our bodys parasympatheticnervous system, which our very own stress-countering response system. Withregular practice, it also lowers our chronic daytime stress levels and improvesour rate variability, which are factors that improve our ability to handlestress. You can start with basic yoga breathing and simple yoga poses that thewhole family can follow. You will all notice the difference in a few days.

Meditation is anothermind-body practice that is effective for managing stress. Like yoga, it is easyto perform and can be done by all your family members. While most of us preferto meditate alone, it can also be done as a group, in a relaxed,distraction-free and peaceful environment. No equipment is necessary
and matsare optional for meditating. You dont necessarily have to sit whilemeditating. You can choose any position you find most comfortable, like lyingdown or standing up. You can start with deep, slow and rhythmic breathing andslowly relieve your mind of thoughts as you close your eyes. You dont have anyconscious control over what thoughts come to you, but you can let them progresslike the flow of water and let them take you to another level of peace. Thegist of the practice is to not let stressful thoughts intrude on your mind andfocus on a certain word or significant mental image to screen out negativethoughts and achieve a sense of inner peace. Chants or background music can begreat ways of assisting you in focusing your mind while in meditation. Withregular practice, you experience a sense of calmness and heightened theperception of your surroundings and better awareness of your own self, whichcontributes to a better stress response. There are many variations formeditation that your family can enjoy practicing, such as music meditation,loving-kindness meditation, basic mindfulness meditation, chocolate meditation,bath meditation, and walking meditation.

You can be aneffective promoter or endorser of products that are beneficial to the health ofthe whole family. This is where you can influence their opinions about stayinghealthy, be personally trying out the products and offering convincingtestaments of their effectiveness in promoting health and wellness. One of thefamily-use products that Your Wellness Kingdom recommends is a homesauna. Contrary to popular belief that saunas are exclusively for weight loss,saunas are actually good for improving the overall health of all familymembers, regardless of age. One benefit is it detoxifies the body. Not onlydoes a sauna loosen fat adhesions in our circulatory system, but it alsopromotes sweating, which is a natural way our bodies eliminate waste andharmful elements. Speaking of circulation, saunas improve cardiovascularperformance due to improved blood flow. The ambient heating temperature ofsaunas loosens fat deposits and dilates small blood vessels around the body,which improves the transport of red blood cells and oxygen throughout the body.Improved circulation also helps lessen swelling, inflammation, and aches fromintense physical activities like gym workouts, physical training, and athleticactivities, which makes saunas great for recovering from extreme physicalactivities. Saunas also help relieve stress by relaxing the muscles and easingup the accumulated tension in our bodies. This gives you a relaxed and calmfeeling while soaking up to the saunas temperature. Saunas can help you sleepbetter at night due to its balancing effect of the release of wakefulness andsleep hormones, which as endorphin and melatonin, respectively. It helps in thesmooth transition of endorphin release during wakefulness to melatonin releasefor sleep. With so many benefits a home sauna can offer, it can be a greatproduct to have at home.

Dietary supplementsand vitamins are also products that you can recommend for your family. One ofthe most overlooked vitamins and nutrients are vitamin D and calcium,respectively. There is no age restriction as to who can take supplements ofcalcium and vitamin. Both children and adults need calcium for proper bone andmuscular maintenance. Vitamin D is a great support to the effective absorptionof not just calcium, but also essential minerals such as magnesium, zinc, andphosphate. Another important supplement you can introduce is fiber. Althoughthis is not a vitamin or a mineral, it is still an important substance thatyour body should have, no matter what age bracket you belong. Fiber isimportant for maintaining a healthy digestive system and for the efficientdisposal of waste from the digestive system. Nutrients from the food you eat arebetter absorbed, your blood sugar levels are well regulated and yourcholesterol stays at healthy levels when you have enough fiber in your body.

A healthy lifestylefor the whole family can take considerable effort and involves a large scope.It takes regular exercise, healthy eating, practicing healthy habits and usinghealth-enhancing products to achieve the overall wellness that you aim for yourfamily. It takes, planning, positivity, and determination to get everyoneinvolved and be on the same health goal as yours. Over time, once a healthylifestyle has been integrated into your family life, youll thank yourself thatyou made that wonderful effort to promote a healthy lifestyle for your family.

Read more:
Ways to promote a healthy lifestyle within your home - Flux Magazine