Your home should be a healthy place; it should feel comfortable and cozy and like you belong there. But sometimes, when we get really busy and all tied up in our modern, adult responsibilities, we can lose touch with this concept. We’re too focused on ensuring everyone else is OK, especially the kids, and that can mean we’re too tired at the end of the day to make sure the way our homes are run is up to standard.
And everyone has their own standard, of course! We all have our own ideas and traditions, and if you like the way your home is run, don’t feel you have to change anything. But if you do want to do something different in your home, to make it feel a bit healthier from time to time, we’ve got a lot of little ideas for you below. Check them out – they can go a long way to changing your family lifestyle for the better!
Depending on where you live, the water in your area may have a few impurities within it. Whether you prefer soft water over hard water, or you find that your sink tends to spew out a bit of dirt every now and then, you just don’t like drinking water straight from the spout. Of course, the first thing to do is check if you have a plumbing issue, but then it’s time to think about getting a water filter installed.
With a water filter in place, you’ll have clean and ready to drink water on tap at all times. And while that can make the weekly shopping budget a lot cheaper, it also ensures any water your family drinks does the job of keeping them hydrated. A water filter can also help your plumbing systems to live a lot longer, as it does the secondary job of keeping the pipes clean too!
Frying foods can lead to your meals being drenched in salts and fats that weren’t there before. The more you fry and/or eat fried foods, the more you tend to consume processed fats, which are the worst kind of fats for you. They can make you feel grumpy, make your skin look greasy, and they contribute to large amounts of sudden weight gain.
Of course, replacing any cooking oils you use during the process with healthy alternatives such as Olive Oil go a long way to cutting back on this fat content. But to try and cut it out altogether, think about grilling foods instead of frying them.
This is especially true when it comes to meat; grilling can help to even melt the fat content found inside, helping you to better control the nutrition portions you dish out for your family. You should have a grill option on your oven, so this shouldn’t be a hard switch.
Meat free days are great for helping your household to produce less carbon emissions, and it’s a great way to feature more healthy foods in your diet. Sure, you don’t want to follow a Vegan diet 7 days a week, and you don’t need to! Just one day a week without meat can go a long way for your family’s health.
Beginning of the week usually works best for this kind of diet – Meat Free Monday just has a ring to it! You can substitute usual meat products with vegan alternatives, or you could find some recipes for lunch and dinner that are packed with fruits and vegetables.
And remember, meat helps us to pack on pounds, so if you want to lose weight just in time for a special occasion without using something like Orlistat 120mg, a meat free 24 hours over the next few weeks can help you achieve your goal.
Going for a walk as a family is a great way to bond with each other. Being in the great outdoors together can help you to see a side to one another you’ve never seen before, and it’s certainly a lot more fun than just going for a stroll by yourself!
A walk together helps you to waste a bit of energy, work off calories from a big lunch or dinner, have a laugh together, and ultimately ensure you’re spending enough time outside – but more on that later.
And you shouldn’t have an end goal for any of these walks. Don’t try to get anywhere in a certain time, and don’t try to go a certain distance either. Once you’ve all had enough, turn around and head home; this way, the walks remain fun, and something you all want to do, and you prevent family walks from turning into another chore!
Keeping a mood diary is a great way to help both you and your kids to externalize their feelings. A mood diary itself is a neutral party to talk to; there’s no judgement in writing down your feelings to a thoughtless piece of paper, and it prevents anyone from needing to bottle it all up.
Every time someone in your family experiences an extreme emotion, whether it be happiness, sadness, or anger, be sure to write about it. Write when it happened, and what caused it, and then see if you can notice any patterns.
Screen time is something we can lose hours to. Whether you and your kids love to kick back in front of the TV, or your kids have taken to playing a lot of video games over the summer, the day can soon be over once you switch that TV or console on! And this is something we need to think more about within the home.
Sure, playing video games or using a tablet can help to take up the kids’ attention (and it keeps them quiet!), but an excess of screen time can be bad for our health. In comparison, the kids should be able to spend more time outside, for more than just walks, but getting them to want to go out there can be tricky.
To manage this, you’ll have to come up with some more games for them to play – scavenger hunts, mini soccer games, games with made up rules such as ‘don’t let the ball touch the ground’, etc., are all great ways to interest the kids in spending time outside.
We all know that the kids should help out at home, but actually getting them to do so can be a real headache. And that’s why you should think about ways to make chores fun; in doing so, you prevent housework from becoming a punishment, and the kids are much more likely to help out on their own accord.
So, how can you make chores fun? Well, turn them into games or challenges, and make sure there’s a prize waiting for the winner. Maybe at the end of the month the child who’s won the most challenges gets bought something new, or gets to choose a special day out for the family? Whatever you think would motivate them the most, make sure there’s a treat lined up oriented around it!
If your family home needs a few more healthy touches, make sure you keep the points above in mind. After all, moods in the family can dip all the time, and pulling together to do something healthy is crucial.
Photo: Ioana Motoc, Pexels
