We say “charity begins at home”. Likewise, begin by developing weight consciousness in your whole family rather than individually. Though each person can take care of himself or herself a collective goal can give great results. We often come across families where either the master of the house or the mistress of the house is duly health conscious than the other. Some men try hard to control and maintain their weight by frequenting gyms or by engaging themselves in regular physical activity after their work. Women generally resort to dieting or skipping meals as part of their weight loss programme.
Rather than treating individually, let us handle this weight loss issue as a family.
- Set goals or make changes which are practical. For instance, the whole of the family engaging in a physical activity every weekend, eating fruits everyday for snacks, limiting high-calorie food to once a month.
- Avoid temptations. It is very likely to fall back into the earlier lifestyle due to reasons like peer pressure or obligations. Stay strong. Even if you are obliged to eat at a friend’s place cut down on the fatty food or forget the dessert.
- Give children healthy snacks to school. Give your child a milk shake with more milk than ice-cream instead of just ice-cream or chocolates.
- Reward them as well as they meet their little goals on weight loss. Allow him or her some extra fun in the pool or in the park.
- Encourage a lot of physical activity. Encourage your children to climb up the stairs instead of using the elevator.
- It will work for both elders and the kids if you avoid buying unhealthy food items like chips or cookies. Buy lots of whole-grain food items, fruits and juices for you to relish.
- Avoid going to the restaurants every week-end. Though you should avoid animal fat, you can cook them at home once in a while. At the same time, be aware of your portion sizes.
- Stop spending long hours in front of the TV or the computer.
Hope that helps!
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