Full Blog:
Fitness is the ultimate family activity. Its something we can do together. Eating healthy meals as a family teaches the kids about the right kinds of foods to eat. The kids see you prepare a healthy balanced meal. They see that healthy is also tasty, leads to relaxing and candid family conversation, and real bonding. The food presented each evening at dinner time teaches them that healthy eating builds energy, and gives them strength to take on every day.
It also teaches them that their parents care enough about them to spend time with them.
But exercising as a family is important too. The great thing about doing it together is that it never needs to look like exercise. A family can bike, hike, or climb mountains together. Every team game out there can be played by the family: tennis, baseball, football, basketball, soccer. Heck, even ping-pong and batminton inspire lots of physical energy, and generate lots of bonding, competition, and laughter. Even taking your kid outside for a quick game of catch after work is also exercise. But do you think he looks at it that way when he lies down in bed that night, happy that he got to spend some one-on-one time with dad?
As the kids get older, they are much more likely to get involved in team sports. This is another great opportunity. It teaches them teamwork, physical skills, mental stamina, and disciplines their emotions to learn how to deal with winning and losing. They learn that when you lose the sun still comes up in the morning, and when you win, you still have to do the dishes when you get home.
The greatest physical gift of family fitness is this: your kids grow up knowing that fitness and physical activity are fun. Kids who are involved in a sport--any sportare likely to keep up that activity as an adult. I know couples who met playing the same sport, got married, and still share their passion for that sport and each other. Talk about bonding.
Physically fit adults probably learned as kids that running around on the basketball court was fun, but it also provided a head-clearing exhilaration. This becomes a critical tool for erasing the cares of the world as an adult. This physical activity helps you relax and sleep better.
Passing on these lessons is so easy. There are no classes required, it can be loads of fun, and it truly is effortless. (If your kids only knew what you were up to).
| 
