New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions

With a new year comes a new year resolution. One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is adopting a healthier life style. This week I am going to highlight some key points on how to create a healthier life style for you and your child.

Choose my plate is a fantastic resource for learning about nutrition. In order to adopt a healthy life style you need to adopt healthy eating habits. Choose my plate has tons of resources on how to do this. They have tips and tricks for picky eaters and also give ideas for well balanced meals and snacks for kids of all ages. They also have different games, activities, and recipes to help make eating healthier fun and exciting.  Check out the Choose my plate page here and get started on a healthier life style https://www.choosemyplate.gov/children

The second half to adopting a healthier life style is to exercise. It is important to limit a child’s screen time and to encourage a more active life style. If you remember from last week’s blog I talked a lot about gross motor activities. Those are great ways to get kids up and exercising. Walking is another way to get kids moving, and is a great form of exercise.  Here are some other websites with great exercise activities

http://handsonaswegrow.com/gross-motor-activities-preschoolers/

http://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/gross-motor-activities.html

http://www.stillplayingschool.com/2015/01/active-fun-games-indoor-kids-gross-motor.html

Like any other change it is going to take time. Small changes should be made over long periods of time. This helps to build a routine and consistency. Changing everything all at once usually leads to too much of a drastic change and often causes people to become frustrated and give up. With a life style change it is important to take little steps and to stick to them.

-Matthew D’Antonio, PT, DPT