During recent times, many of us have understandably fallen into bad habits and been pulled in by the temptation of munching on a bit too much fast food and sugary snacks for convenience at home. So, it’s time for your family to get active again and start following a healthier lifestyle.

We have come up with some suggestions of ways you can make sure your family gets fit and healthy once again this fall.

Why Ensuring You Do Physical Activity and Get Plenty of Exercises is So Important for Your Family

Exercise is essential to your family’s physical and mental wellbeing. Being more physically active helps improve essential organs such as your heart and lungs and means your body is much better equipped to fight off infections and diseases.

Staying physically fit is particularly important if you know your family has a history of a genetic family predisposition to serious health conditions such as heart and lung disease and cancer.

Making sure you’re physically fit is important for your daily family life. Being physically fit will help you to make sure daily tasks around the house get done such as chores, gardening, washing the car (s), and so on.

Make Sure as a Family You Follow a Healthy and Balanced Diet

Eating a healthy and balanced diet is crucial for enabling your family to stay active, keeping the pounds off, and looking after your bodies properly.

Watching what you eat is important to staying healthy and having a good diet. The seven factors essential for a balanced diet are carbs, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and water. Eating plenty of fruit and veg and getting in those vitamins is vital for a healthy diet. The WHO (World Health Organisation) advises people to make sure they have 5 fruit and vegetables a day. Your family getting their 5 fruit and veg a day will make you all less at risk of suffering serious health conditions such as heart problems, cancer, and strokes.

It’s also important that members of your family monitor how much they eat so that you don’t all end up piling on the pounds or suffering from malnutrition if you don’t get enough nutrients from your diet. Daily guidelines recommend consuming around 2500 calories for men and 2000 calories for women.

Undeniably, anyone who has ever lived in the U.S will know that the temptations of eating junk food and drinking sugary drinks are everywhere. Your family may just need a little injection of motivation and self-discipline to follow a healthy and balanced diet.

Activities You Can Do That are Ideal for Getting You Fit as a Family

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults should do around 150 minutes a week or 30 minutes a day Monday-Friday of moderate aerobic activity, this includes exercise such as jogging or quick brisk walking. Children should be even more active and do more exercise as they have more energy.

So, getting off the sofa and tearing your family away from the screens at home, and doing some exercise together is a great way to bond as a family unit and stay healthy.

Cycling

Cycling is a fantastic activity to do as a family. Cycling provides a great workout for your heart, lungs, and blood vessels. If you’re going out on a cycling adventure with your family in a remote rural location that isn’t easy to get to you may find it useful to learn how to fix a flat bicycle tire. Getting bike insurance is a wise idea and choosing the reliable national bike insurance provider Velosurance is a top way of covering your family and your bikes for injuries, theft, damage, and liability if you damage other people’s property whilst riding.

Swimming

Swimming is another activity you can do as a family which is a fantastic exercise for the entire body. So, get your swimming shorts and bathing costumes out of the drawers at home and head on down to your local swimming pool together for some family fun that will also have a positive impact on your family’s health. If you're concerned that chlorine-treated pools may be harmful to your health, you may consider finding the ones with pool salt systems.

Jogging or Running

Running is a form of physical exercise you can do pretty much anywhere and at any time. Running is also fantastic for your cardiac health and getting the blood pumping all around your body. So, get yourself fit and active by going out running as a family and try to keep up with the kids this fall if you possibly can.

Research shows that being physically active can increase your life expectancy by up to 6.9 years. Making sure that you stay active and do physical exercise, so you all stay healthy and in good shape is important for ensuring that as a family you can enjoy plenty more memorable happy moments together long into the future.