Rohit: “I am starving already. Can you please order a Farmhouse Pan Pizza for me and a Choco Lava Cake and Coke. I will come back and eat after my tuitions.
Ria: Ok sure, I will order for myself as well. What are you going to be doing after that?
Rohit: After getting back home and eating I am going to play some games on my computer.”
It is not uncommon to overhear such a conversation. It has become a quite a habit for all to have a quick bite. Thanks to meal ordering services. On top of it, children have stopped playing outdoors with the advent of Ipads, tablets, mobile and video games.
However unhealthy lifestyle choices and decisions that your children make can have a hazardous impact on their future health.
Building Health Reserve from a Younger Age
In a recently published research conducted in America, out of 3538 Americans aged 18 to 30, it was found that those who adopted healthy habits from a young age were far less likely to have cardiovascular ailments 20 years later. Those who don’t change their habits had a 20% risk of chronic diseases.
This shows that as you build a health reserve right from a young age, you will likely be rewarded with many more years of feeling young and looking it too! In this article, learn about how you can build a healthy lifestyle from a young age:
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Practice Healthy Eating as Children
If you want your children to be healthy, then you should start teaching them and mold their eating habits before they even learn to walk. Our taste preferences predominantly take shape right during infancy.
A study found that when infants had little and infrequent consumption of fruits and vegetables they were likely to have little and infrequent consumption of fruits and vegetables at age 6, and then throughout the rest of their lives.
What your feed to your children, when they are younger, is what will develop into their eating habits as adults. So, pay attention and make your children eat healthy. Expose infants to a variety of fruits and vegetables as they make the transition to table food.
2.Staying Physically Active
Keep your children physically active at least for an hour every day. In between school, tuitions, and home, they need to set aside time. This will improve their cardiovascular fitness, strength, flexibility, help them feel, think and learn better.
Getting them involved in a sport is not enough as they would be practicing once or twice a week. It’s important to incorporate physical activity as part of their routine. Also, impose a time limit on activities like watching TV, going online and playing video games.
3.Emotional Wellness
Children get stressed out too at times. It is alright to have good stress to help them motivate in finishing an activity. This will help them to handle stress and cope with tough situations. But prolonged stress due to trauma or too much pressure is not so good.
Be good parents, listen to them and spend quality time with them to ensure that they are emotionally well. How you handle stress at a young age is a large contributing factor to how you do it when you grow old.
Keep in mind that mental health and physical health are intertwined so pay attention to the mental wellbeing. Do meditation, yoga, and pranayama to enhance the mental prowess.
Lay a Good Foundation
As parents the best gift you can give your children is health. The benefits of practicing a healthy lifestyle from a younger age directly translate to a healthy, long and prosperous life as they age. So, take health habits seriously at a young age and be in the pink of your health!
20s is the New 40s as Chronic Diseases Strike at an Younger Age