familyfitness

Sure you want to be healthy, but you don’t know where to start? Interested in fitness but not sure what to do?  Need a diet overhaul?  Small steps are the way to get there.  Grand, life-altering style changes are the least likely to stick and the hardest to do.  They often end in frustration and a lack of success–leading you to feel like you’ll never reach your goals.  Speaking of goals–that should be your first small step. 

Our health and wellness are affected by several variables–some we can control and some we can’t.  Focusing on things we can control will lead you to make changes in your exercise (fitness) habits, dietary and sleep habits.  Make a small step goal today that will impact one of those three areas–make a commitment to get your required hours of sleep while making sure your kids do the same.  While fitness and dietary concerns are obvious, the need for sleep and good sleep habits may seem like a wimpy way to start making changes to your health and wellness choices.  Here’s why they’re important–the less sleep you get the more fatigued you become, the more fatigued you become the less energy and focus you will have, and your body will be running less efficiently as well.  When our bodies are out of balance it can be very difficult to correct those imbalances all at once.  Start where you feel the most out of control and begin to regin it in.

Anybody can commit to getting more sleep–I’m willing to bet there aren’t many people out there that that doesn’t sound good to.  Once you’ve made your commitment–set a specific goal.  Get more information.  How much sleep do you and your children need to function in a way that is optimal for you?  Kids have different requirements for different ages–check out this link to find out more http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/sleep.html.  Once you have a number unique to your family (or several numbers) find ways to make the goal a reality.  What time do you and your kids need to be in bed for optimum sleep?  Have a family meeting and discuss the new bedtimes, present information as to why it’s important and what you’re trying to accomplish.  Once you start seeing results, revisit the meeting and discuss how everyone is feeling–reinforce the good health habits you’re choosing and give yourselves a reward for continuing to meet your goals! 

Certainly, not everyone will want to start with improving sleep.  Wherever you begin, make the goal doable.  Success in small doses is important. 

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