Health and Fitness Information Center

Healthy You, Healthy Family

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Get Active
Health experts recommend that kids are active for at least an hour every day - walking, cycling, dancing, and kicking a ball around in the back garden all count. Just 20 - 30 minutes a day or regular exercise for adults can have positive benefits on health and fitness levels.

Regular exercise will improve balance and muscular strength helping to make heart and lungs more efficient, and can improve physical and mental health - no matter what your age.

Eat Yourself Healthy
Parents who enjoy a healthy diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetable set a good example for the children. As children grow older they often maintain the eating pattern that has been established at home.

Try and open discussions about which foods are healthy and what their vitamin or nutrients are so they become more aware of what they are eating.

Try to reduce the number of high fat, high sugar snack foods and drinks consumed on a regular basis.

Eat 3 meals a day and turn meal times into an occasion by eating as a family as often as possible (preferably with the TV off!).

Encourage your children to participate in the kitchen by letting them help in food preparation and cooking.

Think Healthy to be Healthy
By parents having a positive attitude to eating and exercise, kids are more likely to have a positive attitude too.

If you or your child does start to fall outside the healthy body fat ranges make small and gradual lifestyle changes such as increasing activity.