About the Author: My name is Laura but I am referred to as Swirl on my blog. I am the mother of four boys and love to find ways to motivate my children and myself to do things we should do.
It’s the beginning of a new year and for many families this means making some resolutions. I would like to offer an idea that is a fun way to jump start your family in healthier habits.
Inspired by action packed reality tv shows, our family enjoys a family activity we call, ‘Fitness Teams’. Usually after the holidays, a vacation or any other time we feel our family is in a fitness slump we divide into two teams and enjoy a friendly competition to see which team can gain more points by drinking water, exercising and eating vegetables. (*You can customize your categories to fit the needs of your individual family.)
How to Start:
Start by setting three or so categories that you would like to highlight during the next month. For our family, the categories are always: water, exercising and vegetables. Make a point chart – this is a fun bit that the kids can
do.
Our Point system:
1 point for an 8 oz glass of water
3 points for a serving size of vegetables, 2 points for eating half a serving size and 1 point for just eating a few bites.
Then a point for every minute of exercising. (20 min bike ride = 20 points.)
Pick two team captains from your family. (Mom and Dad might be good captains to begin with.)
Team captains pick teammates privately (this way no one’s feelings are hurt they were ‘picked last’ – or names can be drawn from a hat), the captain then names the team and designs a sheet of paper for their score card, which is placed on the refrigerator or some other equally accessible location. The team captain must also keep track of points for the week and are responsible for motivating the team members.
By the end of the week – tally up points. The winning team in our family gets to pick what dessert we enjoy (We limit dessert to once a week) or choose another appropriate prize for your family.
Then NEW team captains are picked and NEW teams are made. We do our fitness teams until everyone has had a chance to be a captain at least once (three weeks in a row for our family at least). Sometimes we add a fitness challenge (my boys are really into push-up contests). Sometimes I add a surprise ‘food challenge’ where I introduce something new to the family and they get extra points for trying it. I’ve introduced v8 juice, eggplant, artichokes and brussel sprouts. I’ll never forget our first week trying this new idea, over the usual dinner conversation my oldest son encouraged my husband to ‘step it up’ on his vegetables intake (read another funny anecdote here).
You might be surprised by the fun your family can have and the spirit of team work in your home as children encourage parents and each other to eat their vegetables and get out moving together.
would you like to contribute to whipup? see guidelines here. January is all about new year resolutions and post holiday frugality.
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