Children learn everything from their parents and the role models in their lives. Some people don't give kids enough credit...they're much smarter than you think. They watch your every move and listen to every word that comes out of your mouth. This is why it's very important to watch what you say and do in front of children. They will imitate your action. This is how they learn right from wrong, what to say and what not to say. This is how they learn their manners or lack there of depending on your parenting ways. Whatever you do your children will do. Whoever you hang out with, your children will learn from them as well. You have to be so careful if you want your children to grow up to be good people.
Over the years I gave into horrible habits. I ate awful food all the time. I was never active. I was in a very unhealthy state of life and it was getting worse with each child I was having. Pregnancy was my excuse to do nothing and to eat whatever I wanted. So as you can imagine I gained more and more with each child.
The worst part about it, besides slowly killing myself with junk, was that my kids started to pick up on all these bad habits. My almost 3 year old has the biggest sweet tooth you'll ever find. My eldest only wants to eat chips and ramen noodles. My youngest, well she'll eat anything..she's like a goat. It starts with me though. If all I eat is junk then that's what is in the house and that's what my kids become accustomed to eating. If I'm eating well all that's in the house is good food, fruits, and veggies. Believe it or not my kids enjoy eating the healthy stuff. It's not their preferred food but if the bad stuff isn't even in the house they don't seem to mind. Out of site, out of mind.
Over these past 4 weeks I've been getting into the habit of working out everyday. I'm starting to notice that my children are picking up on this awesome habit. They too want to be active. It all has to do with the fact that they now see that mom makes time to workout. I also explain to them why I'm working out. The eldest is really starting to understand why it's important to be active. She asks me everyday if she can do her workout. That could be anywhere from running around outside, climbing trees, or doing Zumba on the Wii or with me. Whatever my eldest is doing the two younger ones follow. Today all three of them did a pretty solid 20 minute Zumba workout. Grant it they took a lot of breaks but it was still pretty impressive that they stuck to it that long. At one point I even told them lets pause it so we can eat lunch (I wasn't working out it was just them). My eldest told me "not yet, I'm not finished with my workout". This made me proud. Proud that she is starting to understand that being active is healthy. Proud that I'm finally starting to teach them some good habits.
If this kind of lifestyle is introduced to a child at this young of age, the chances of it sticking with them for the rest of their lives are pretty darn good. It's very rewarding to see these changes taking place in their lives and that they are embracing it. Being healthy is so important for myself but also for the people around me. I hope that I can continue to be a good example to my children. They learn from what I do. We are all getting healthy and active.
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