Getting kids to eat healthy and work out

[Lueretius]

I'm hoping that someone out there can give me some ideas when it comes to getting family, in particular young kids in on your fitness journey.

 

Unfortunately the 3 other people in my house (Partner, and 2 girls 4 and 6 years old) Have very little interest in making changes to the way that we live. My partner tries but gives up easily mostly because our girls make it difficult to make healthier lifestyle changes. This is made worse by the girls biological father who has them every second weekend allowing them to eat nothing by crap food (2 minute noodles with tomato sauce for breakfast because hey thats what they want to eat), and encouraging them not to eat "mummy and other daddies icky food".

When it comes to exercise the older one gets in on it and generally enjoys everything from PT sessions doing body weight and weight workouts to cardio, but the younger one chucks a fit because we won't let her watch tv or pay attention to her, so she either gets in the way or makes a pest of herself until my partner caves (which she then uses as an excuse to give up exercising) or I get so annoyed that I put her into time out. We have tried everything we can think of to get her involved with our workouts, even trying to entice her by making it a "dance" session where we try and do a home style zumba class to work up a sweat, but that only last 1 song before she gets bored and wanders off but then comes back when we try and finish off our workout.

The thing is both girls do ballet every Saturday and swimming on Sundays, and my partner tries to get them to ride to school, but our youngest makes it so difficult for another other then that, and I don't want her to despise a healthy lifestyle, I also don't want to just let her watch tv while the rest of us are exercising.

I want to turn it into family time so that maybe we can all get a little healthier together, and maybe create a fun family tradition while we're at it.

 

Any help on food or exercise would be greatly appreciated.

[james452]

Have you looked into getting Vivofit Jrs for your girls? From what I know, it tracks whether they are engaging in physical activity, and even when they do their chores. You as the parent can then set rewards such as 30 minutes of television or they get to have a friend come over to play. 

 

If you don't want to fork out the money for them, why not look at it anyway, and try to implement the principles of it. 

[Hammlin]

Take this for what it’s worth because my son is only 2... when he helps with the cooking he is way more interested in eating. I’m excited for when he can do more than load the toaster and push the microwave buttons hahah. I also don’t buy anything I’m not ok with him eating but that doesn’t help if your partner is not partnering well. Good luck!

[Lueretius]

On 07/01/2018 at 4:50 PM, james452 said:

Have you looked into getting Vivofit Jrs for your girls? From what I know, it tracks whether they are engaging in physical activity, and even when they do their chores. You as the parent can then set rewards such as 30 minutes of television or they get to have a friend come over to play. 

 

If you don't want to fork out the money for them, why not look at it anyway, and try to implement the principles of it. 

 

Hi James

 

I'd love to get them something like this even the cheap ones just so the novelty might get them to want to join in on working out with me in the gym. I'm lucky in that for the most part they are very active, it's more about trying to get them to join in when my partner and I exercise to try and remove a major roadblock that we have to exercise.

[Lueretius]

7 hours ago, Hammlin said:

Take this for what it’s worth because my son is only 2... when he helps with the cooking he is way more interested in eating. I’m excited for when he can do more than load the toaster and push the microwave buttons hahah. I also don’t buy anything I’m not ok with him eating but that doesn’t help if your partner is not partnering well. Good luck!

 

This works an absolute treat, it was how I got the oldest to try mushrooms and bell peppers. Our youngest unfortunately can't be encouraged to help with the cooking "because other daddy says it's icky so I don't want to see it" unfortunately for us she's as stubborn as her mother can be sometimes

[DaBlonde]

There is a website called GoNoodle.com that you can use. It is designed to get very young children moving.

I used it with a computer and projector when I taught kindergarten, but you may be able to use a smart tv.

Each session is fairly short, but the kids love it and will happily dance, jump and run in place for 20-30 minutes.