Healthy Lifestyle for Girls
In today’s era, it’s difficult to get our children away from the television, laptops, video games, tablets, cell phones, and more electronic devices! We don’t want them to have a sedentary lifestyle at a young age and grow up being couch potatoes. For a tween girl, it’s really important to adopt a healthy lifestyle now as she will continue to adopt it throughout her adult life and beyond. She needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle by exercising, eating healthy foods, and having a healthy body image in order to be a well balanced teen; mind, body, and soul!
PinExercise
Regular exercise is key to maintaining a healthy weight. A tween/teen should get at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day. Of course for her keep up with the activities, she will need to find something that she likes and having a friend or two to join also helps to motivate her to do them regularly and are more enjoyable. Activities can be any sports, swimming, running, yoga,etc. She doesn’t have to do it all at once, but as long as she exercises throughout the day, it’s all good! If she also has role model as parents that incorporate exercising or sports into their routine, this will help her see that you preach what you say.
Healthy Eating Habits
It’s so easy to open the cupboards and grab cookies and sweets! Teenagers will eat what is the closest to their reach and what takes the less effort to make. Coming from school, they are often in a rush to finish their homework and get going to their activities or part-time job. Purchase foods that are rich in protein such as almonds, hummus, and Greek yogurt, low in sugar, as well as plenty of veggies and fruits.
PinMake sure they eat a variety of food and not the same food every day, and from all different food groups. Reminding your daughter of which items are in the refrigerator or cupboards that they can eat for snacks help them remember what is good for them to eat. Preparing an appetizing veggies and cheese tray with a low-fat dip will entice her to indulge in healthy food versus a sweeter snack. Also teaching your tween daughter how to cook healthy foods is one way to make good nutrition habits a lot more interesting.
Healthy Body Image
The most important part of your daughter’s self-esteem is for her to feel comfortable with her growing body. Some girls have a quest to have a perfect body and to be physically attractive. If they do not achieve their desired look or weight, they might feel ashamed of their bodies and start skipping meals to lose weight or be depressed. Your daughter needs to understand that gaining weight is normal during puberty. Take some time to talk with her about self-image and reassure her that, as women, we have many different body shapes and they are all beautiful! The key is to encourage your daughter to concentrate on eating a healthy diet and staying physically active, not for her looks, but for her health.
PinAlthough this post has been generously sponsored by Always, the opinions and language are all my own, and in no way do they reflect Always.
Some very good points are discussed here. However, I feel a need to rebut “In today’s era, it’s difficult to get our children away from the television, laptops, video games, tablets, cell phones, and more electronic devices!”
I strongly feel that if you don’t start these devices in the first place, you won’t have issue. Don’t believe the hype how educational devices are. I find it repulsive that there are devices made and marketed for infants. Nothing that runs on batteries or electricity can beat out real human interaction. Kids do not need TV, laptops etc. They need attentive parents/caregivers/teachers/friends.
Or they just need to find fun, learning, relaxing activities on their own accord. They can do it and will. Don’t begin the slippery slope of devices in the first place. Have confidence in yourself as a parent and in your kids in that they will be A-OKAY without devices. Most likely, the will be better off!
Good points Brenda and thanks for sharing!
I think that the most important of these points is to have a Healthy Body Image. If they have that the rest follows really. Exercise is essential and I do know that we, as children many moons ago, did do a lot more we were always outside playing. Now since both parents usually work it’s much more difficult though Day Care does like to get the kids outside too. I do think it’s important for children to learn and get used to the new electronic equipment that’s out there (not all of it of course), a computer being the most important. I know that all of my children didn’t get to use computers until they were much older and of course I was too. Now I look at my grandchildren and see how easily they use computers and am amazed. For most of todays workplaces computer knowledge is a must, so knowing how to use one is a big advantage I believe.
Great advice Elizabeth!
I didn`t see exercise modelled growing up, and am more sedentary than I think is good. I need to improve this area…
Very interesting conversation and I agreed electronic devices are the way of the world today
Children definitely need healthy lifestyles just as much as adults sometimes.
Great tips! It’s never too early to start practicing and teaching healthy lifestyles and diet and exercise are central to this.
Its our job as a parent to teach kids from a young age a healthy eating pattern and an active body!
These are all great tips,shared with my friends