Making the Family Outings Serve Two Purposes

Dr. Purushothaman
November 27, 2013

 

Family outings are beneficial for many purposes. They help the family to bond together and to enjoy each other's company. This is very important for a healthy home relationship.
Family outings consist of many things such as a picnic, a trip to the movie theater or even a trip to the zoo. That is just to name a very few of the probably least inexpensive outings that a family can enjoy.
There are many other ways to make the family activities more beneficial from a health point of view. With innovative thinking, you can start to teach your children some healthy lifestyles without them even being aware of the points that you are making.
For example when it comes to eating healthy foods when you are on an outing most often the kids want to go for junk food. Ideally what you could suggest to them is maybe trying cuisine from another country. Many of our ethnic restaurants serve food that is based on vegetables and it has a very healthy substance to it.
Children often find it quite exciting to be able to learn what the cuisine is like from other countries. Therefore, you serve three purposes here. You have a great family outing with the kids; you taught them a little bit about something outside of their own country and as an added bonus, you have gotten them to eat a nutritious meal.
There are ways of getting some exercise into these family events as well. We all know that kids are spending far too much time in front of the television or playing internet games and video games. Try to choose an outing that is going to take a little bit of vigorous activity. You may want to consider suggesting a picnic for the next family excursion. Just plan the destination for this one that you have to get to by doing a bit of hiking. The anticipation of being out and seeing new things and a little bit of an adventure behind it is going to override the concept of your main goal here. Besides spending time with the family, the goal is to make sure the kids are getting their exercise.
Even when it comes to something simple like going to the theater in order to get some exercise make a condition that it's a good idea provided you leave a half an hour earlier and walk to the theater. That way you get to spend some more time together to be able to talk being as there is no talking during the show.
Most places that you go for family entertainment will usually have a whole gambit of junk food available for the kids. One of the reasons behind this is because the more sugar they get the more temporary energy they will have. This is a great way to get the people to stick around longer and spend more money.
Many places now though are starting to offer healthy alternatives so in this case you can do a trade up with the kids. If they are prepared to have one of the healthy juices from a juice bar for example then in the afternoon it can be a treat of their choice.
As you can see, there are many ways that if you really think about it that you can combine a healthy lifestyle in with some great family outings.

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