Keeping fit can be tricky with all the other responsibilities you have on your plate. However, if you put your mind to it and work on it as a family, the chances are you’ll have an easier time achieving your fitness goals. Everything’s better in good company, and what better company is there than your nearest and dearest?
Some families do a fitness challenge to prepare for a race or another fitness event, others need to tackle a health concern, like obesity or diabetes, and some want to do it just because it’s fun. Whatever your reason may be, this activity will strengthen your family bond and do wonders for your health.
If you’d like to embark on a fun family fitness challenge, there are many ideas to help you. Working out won’t be a chore any longer because you’ll be spending time with your loved ones, creating lasting memories, and having fun together.
How to Do a Family Fitness Challenge?
Before you start, the whole family needs to be on the same page. Have a family meeting to decide what you’d all like to do and how you’re going to do it. Have everyone, including the youngest members of the family, give their suggestions. Children like having a sense of independence and being involved in decision making. Plus, they’ll be more likely to follow through with the challenge if they take part in the planning stage.
You can start by defining your goal, which may be something along the lines of:
- A more balanced diet: If you decide to focus on having a healthier diet, you could cut down on things like fast food, snacks, sugar, and white bread. You can buy a cookbook with healthy recipes and decide what you’d like to prepare together each day. Then you can cook together as a family and get creative with new tastes and ingredients. This may be the way to go for families where someone suffers from food allergies or diabetes.
- A more active lifestyle: Most people, including children, lead a sedentary lifestyle these days. This means everyone could do with more physical activity. You may wish to build up stamina for a specific sport-related event, like a race, or you may just work out because you want to get fitter. Whatever the case, choose any type of activity that you like, as long as it gets you moving. You can also do multiple activities, like walking in the neighborhood during the week and visiting a well-equipped playground on weekends. You can get a little competitive and track your progress over time to see who is doing best.
- A more relaxed attitude: Another important aspect of health is your mental well-being. It’s a given for adults to be stressed, but more and more children are under pressure, too. For example, they may be overwhelmed by the need to perform at school and be successful at after-school activities. This is why it may be important to focus on wellness as a family. You can do aromatherapy, yoga, and meditation to relax and put you in a better mood.
After you’ve defined your goals and the ways to get there, it’s important to stay consistent. The fact that you’re doing it as a family will make it more likely for you to stick to your plan. You’ll have support if you get the urge to give up. And seeing your whole family thrive will be the best motivation for you to keep it up!
