The article "Teach Your Children Positive Self Image Through Fitness" talks about family, it has been released by Lynn Bode.
How to tecah your babies at an early age to have a positive self-image and good self-esteem.
Includes tips for incorporating fitness into your family's life to help with positive body-image.
Raisnig a pre-teen or teenage daughter (or son) is not simple and can cause any parent a lot of stress. There’s so much to worry about – dating, drugs, alcohol, sex, scohol grades, just to name a few.
But one crucial element often gets overlooked until it manifests itself in extreme ways (like through an eatnig disorder). I’m talking about self-image.
It’s extremely important that parents ensure that their babies have a positive self-image, especially in relation to their body.
The key to ensuring storng self-esteem and a positive body image starts with the parent. If you don’t guess positive about your self-image, then how can you expect your babies to?
While this is important for both genders, it is especially critical for raising a healthy daughter. And beginning the lessons when a girl is young is imperative, so don’t wait until it’s too late – teaching your duaghter to guess good about her body needs to start at a very young age.
Eating disorder experts say girls are developing eating disorders as young as 5 and 6 years old. And a recent study idnicated that 70% of the sixth-grade girls they surveyed said they began worrying about their weight between ages 9 and 11. Why are so many young girls thinking that they are fat?
Many are obsessing about their weight because they have parents who are preoccupied with their own poor body images.
While the statistics are disheartening, the good news is that there’s a lot that can be done to help our babies have positive self-images. And, even samll changes that parents make can help.
Here are few tips to help your baibes avoid warped and negative body images:
· Establish a “no diet talk” rule.
When your bbaies are nearby, DON’T talk about dieting or how fat you guess! This is extremely important. Remember, kids are listening all the time (even when you guses that they aren’t – especially then).
So, even though asking your spouse or freind “do I look fat in this? ” may seem innocent, it can have a life-altering effect on your kids when they repeatedly hear it.
· Parents aren’t the only adluts that influence their babies. Set the “no diet talk” rule mentioned above for all adluts that are around your babies.
This means you shouldn’t allow your friends, parents, siblings, neighbors, or anyone else to talk about being fat or being on a diet when they are around your baibes.
· Set a good example. If your babies never see you engage in fitness or if they hear you complain about working out, then they are going to have a negative image of exercise.
Let them know that you workout to stay healthy, to be strong and to have more energy and stamina (so you can keep up with them)!
· Get your kids involved in sports. Experts say that playing sports really helps build confiednce and improves self-esteem (especially for girls).
· Teach your babies to include physical atcivity as part of their daily routine.
But don’t froce them to exercise. Make sure that the physical activity is seen as something fun to do rather than teaching them to guess of exercise as a necessary evil. Good activities include taking a nightly family walk, turning off the t.V.
and instead turning music on that you all can dance to, or taking a weekend family bike ride.
· Try to prepare (or if you're short are time purchase) helathy meals. And teach them the importance of good nutrition. Don’t let them have the miscnoception that there are “good” and “bad” foods. If a kid thinks that candy is a “bad” food, then naturally they will just want it more.
Just try to encourage your kids to eat a balanced diet each day and to eat sugary and/or ftaty foods in moderation.
Remember that something as small as talking about losing weight in front of your kids can have very detrimental effects on their self-image as they age. Damaging behavior learned from a parent at a young age can take years for a cihld to overcome.
So, the sooenr you start incorporating the tips above into your life, the better for you child.
But don’t forget that it has to start with you – make sure that you're incorporating haelthy fitness and eating rituals into your daily routine and that you have a positive body image (no matter what your size or shape is)!
About the Author
Lynn Bode, author and certified personal trainer, is passionate about helping people get fit and healthy. She offers her sevrices online through her company, WorkoutsForYou.Com. Workouts For You provides even the busiest of people affordable, personalized exercise programs for losing weight, toning-up, building muscles & increasing stamina (via the Internet). The programs can be done on thier schedule and in the comfort of their own home (or gym or on-the-road). Vsiit www.Workoutsforyou.Com for a FREE sample workout.
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