Exercise begins at home when they are little. When they are in school, going through those adolescent years and it begins by you doing just a couple of things. First of all recognize that children who grow up to be adults that exercise, primarily come from families who exercise.
That means it is important for you, for me, to model being a family that exercises. I want my children to see that I get out there and walk, that I get out and run, that I get out and hike, I canoe, I ski. Secondly, let's imagine that I am being a little bit lazy. That I am not out there exercising, so how do you get started? We get started by first declaring, making an affirmation, making it clear, ok, it's time to do it. I'm going to go out an exercise.
The key thing is to take action today. Whatever you make a go, whenever you make a statement that I am going to do something, make sure that that day you begin to take action. So first of all, I have to realize my kids are going to be healthier, they are going to have a better life if they are going to exercise, and it starts here.
Dr. Randy Cale discusses the importance of exercising with your children.
Secondly, I'm going to start that goal today and make sure that I get started today. And finally I'm going to do it in a way that everybody is involved. We are going to go out and we are going to take a walk, we are going to go hiking, we are going to go skiing. If I pay attention to those things, then we can go rolling and get some momentum going.
If I were going to give you one final tip that would put the icing on the cake it would be, get some other families involved. Get some people involved who are going to meet you there, who are going to make sure they hold you to that commitment. You put that whole package together and it is much more likely that a month from now, a year from now, 20 years from now your kids will be exercising and you will be a healthier family.