In a world where everyone is striving to live a better life and live longer no one wants their kids to be couch potatoes. We have to admit not every child is into sports, some kids just have different interests like computers and books. This is not an excuse to let your child spend all their time on the computer and have all their lives pass them by just because your child is a couch potato. There are various ways to get your child to be active bearing in mind that children love physical activities with rewards.

For example, a child would rather jump up and down on a trampoline than do jumping jacks. Here are some ways to motivate your child off the couch for a healthy lifestyle.

A child would rather jump up and down on a trampoline than do jumping jacks.

Be Involved In the Activities

Children love it when their parents get involved in their activities like jump rope or cycling. This will make it more fun since the parents should lead by example. Children subconsciously ape parent’s behaviors, and if you are lazy, your child will see that it is okay to be lazy because that’s the message you will be sending. Going for swimming with your kids is another way to encourage fitness to the children in a fun way, and you will be involved as well. This will not only encourage a healthy lifestyle for the kids but also for you.

Be a Good Role Model to Your Kids

You have to live a healthy lifestyle for your kids to emulate what you do. Make better eating decisions and teach your kids the importance of eating healthy food. Also, make the healthy lifestyle fun by introducing cheat days for you and your family. Your children will be looking forward to the cheat day. Having cheat days is important because it also breaks the monotony.

Be Positive 

All kids like to be told how good and hardworking they are.be positive and highlight their strengths. Do not be negative by calling them names like “lazy bone or couch potato.” This will only lower the self-esteem of your child. Kids love knowing that their parents are proud of them and they always seek acceptance from the parents. Always compliment your child for every little thing they do even if it’s just eating an apple or jumping rope. This will make them do it more often because it pleases you.

Give Rewards

Reward your child for every milestone they make in their journey of healthy leaving. This will encourage them to do it more often. Giving rewards also helps them know that they are appreciated by their parents. Giving them just a pat on the back will go a long way. Nothing motivates a child more that getting rewarded for their deeds, that’s why they have prizes in competitions.

Encourage Their Strong Points

If your child loves one particular outdoor activity like swimming, cycling or just jump rope encourage them to do it as often as possible. This will motivate your child to exercise more often and enjoy the work out since it’s something they enjoy doing.

Limit TV, Computer and Game Time.

Children mostly stay indoors because of electronics, limiting the usage of this electronics. Will help the child seek other ways of self-entertainment and what better way to spend their time than outdoor activities? Activities like going for a walk with the dog or just simply jumping on a trampoline. These a simple ways to help your child be healthy. Sitting down watching TV or use of electronics encourage snacking and this may lead to obesity or other weight related diseases.

Create a Routine for Your Kids

Create a routine for your children and include outdoor activities. If they know, it is part of their daily routine they will defiantly do it. In the routine add fun activities like karate or dancing. This will be a fun way to encourage our children to live healthy lives at the same time learning something new and acquire new skills.

Create Innovative Ways of Exercise

Create the means to exercising that the will not feel like they are exercising like camping and hiking up trails. This will defiantly earn you points as a parent. Kids love adventures and what better way to encourage exercise than through adventures. You can also include treasure hunts and involve the whole family and friends to compete in this treasure hunts. This will be an innovative way to motivate your children off to your child off the couch and e-couch and embrace the outdoor environment.

Create the means to exercising that the will not feel like they are exercising

Let You Child Choose What They Want To Do.

Let your children come up with ways to exercise. Let them do their research and see what they love and what they don’t. This will also create a sense of responsibility and accountability. Let them also choose healthy foods that they also love. Let them also make their salads and smoothies. This will make healthy leaving the fun for you and them.

Assign Chores  

Make a chore chart for your kids to do. This is another way to get your children off the couch. Chores help the child to be active and also be responsible. This will also limit their time with electronics. Reward you child after a chore to encourage them to do more chores and be positive even if they don’t do the chores to your liking.

Involve the Whole Family and Friends

Encourage your spouse and any relative who interacts with the children often to get engage with this activity and healthy eating. The children will play along if they see everyone is doing it. Engage your children’s friends in this activities too. This will encourage them to eat healthily and stay healthy even outside the home environment like a school or visiting friends.

This is just some of the ways you can support your child off the couch for a healthy lifestyle. You can come up with other ways because all kids are different and prefer different activities. But they key stay positive and encourage your child both mentally and physically and this will yield results.