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Going Healthy, Going Strong, Health, Lifestyle, Parenting, Tips

5 Ways to Encourage Your Kids to Spend More Time Outdoors

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Sadly, many kids today would rather sit indoors in front of a television screen or computer screen than go outdoors. Research shows that fresh air and physical movement is vital for children, but getting them outside is sometimes more work than expected. Keep reading for tips on encouraging kids to spend more time outdoors.

1. Focus On Their Interests

Just because parents enjoy hiking and biking doesn’t mean their kids do. Kids will be excited about going outside if it involves something they love. If kids love a sport, get the equipment and go outside to play. This could be a Castle Sports a soccer goal, or a volleyball net.

If kids enjoy reading, find an outdoor location ideal for reading, like a park or a garden. For children who enjoy drawing, consider visiting nature areas for artistic inspiration. Check out parks, zoos, and locations with beautiful landscapes.

Children who love to build can be enticed to go outside and build a fort, bridge, or catapult. These projects can last for days, especially if parents go out with their kids.

2. Spend Time With Kids Outside

Kids are more likely to go outdoors if someone is going with them, especially a parent. Play games, like soccer or cornhole, splash in a creek together, or talk. Ask children what they would like to do outside instead of telling them what they should do.

Consider having a summer bucket list to work through with kids on summer vacation. Brainstorm ideas together and place the list on the wall or refrigerator as a reminder. An alternative might be to have a specific day of the week as a family adventure day. Each week, one family member gets to choose the activity and location.

3. Invite Friends Over

Some kids get very excited about playing with friends. Ask the neighbors or friends to come over for an outdoor play day. Consider organizing outdoor playgroups for the neighborhood. Encourage meet-ups at local parks or recreational areas. Only children especially enjoy having friends over to play outside with them.

4. Make Outdoor Time Routine

Families make time for what is essential. Consider making outdoor time part of the daily routine. Once an activity becomes routine, a habit is formed, and children will continue to do the activity even after it is not required.

Many parents make the hour before dinner time outdoor playtime. This provides children great time to get out their energy from the school day, while moms have time to prepare dinner and pack lunches for the next day.

Another routine many moms enjoy is children playing outside at the school playground after school pickup. This allows mom some adult socializing time and the children a chance to get energy out before coming home to start homework.

5. Use the Outdoors for Everyday Activities

Parents and kids alike can get outside for many everyday activities. Eat dinner on the deck, read books in a hammock, and play games on the patio. If the weather is nice, do crafts and homework outside. Purchase inexpensive patio furniture, throw blankets, and comfortable pillows. Everyone will want to spend time outdoors as a family in this kind of environment.

The great outdoors is calling. Use these tips to encourage everyone in the family to spend more time outside.

Health, Life, Lifestyle, Tips

Top Tips on Making Lifestyle Changes Easier

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Photo by destiawan nur agustra: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-holding-iphone-while-eating-1034940/ 

The way you live on a daily basis will have a big impact on how you feel overall. If you strive for a healthy balance in life, you’ll feel more positive and your mental health will be greater than someone who isn’t looking after themselves. Unfortunately, throughout life, you will have your ups which are great, and your lows which aren’t so great. When you are going through a down period, it’s important you identify this and work on it, in order to help turn things around. 

Making changes to your lifestyle could be a big part of changing the way you feel. If you have been taking drugs, detoxing from drugs could help improve how you feel. So does improving your diet, exercising more, and increasing the number of hours you sleep. The challenge can be sticking to the changes you want to make. 

Making lifestyle changes takes dedication. This is why it’s important to make your changes realistic and you should not change too many behaviors at one time – you don’t want to set yourself up to fail. To help you with making lifestyle changes easier, we have put some tips together below. 

Set realistic goals 

Rule number one when setting up any goals in life is to make them realistic. Do not set yourself up to fail before you’ve even tried making a change. If you are not setting realistic goals, you’ll soon find yourself struggling to motivate yourself as every day you are failing. When setting your goals, set smaller targets within the big target and celebrate when you hit those small milestones. This way you can feel a sense of achievement when reaching those goals and want to continue in order to better yourself to reach your overall target. 

Track your progress 

Don’t set yourself a target and just hope for the best. Imagine saying you were going to run a marathon in six months but never tracked your training and just guessed when to go on your training runs – it would be impossible. When setting your realistic goals, track your progress daily or weekly in order to know you are doing your best. Depending on what your lifestyle change is, there may be an app out there that you can use to track your progress. The simplest apps to use would be your notes on your phone or your calendar as you will always have your phone on you. Then after a few weeks or months of making the changes, you can look back through your notes to see the progress you have made. If you are trying to improve your diet you’ll find plenty of specialist apps out there for example. 

Change one behavior at a time 

Don’t go guns blazing and try to change everything at once. This isn’t realistic and although you may set a realistic goal for each change, you will ultimately fail as you are trying to make too many changes at once. Instead, change one behavior at a time. By doing this you can really track it and realistically make good progress on changing this lifestyle trait. Once you’ve been working on it for a few months, you can then slowly start to add another change that you would like to make. Once a change has been done for long enough, it will become a habit instead of you trying to actively change it. 

Create a plan 

As the saying goes “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”. When setting your realistic goal, create a plan that follows. Depending on what lifestyle changes you are trying to make, this plan can include daily, weekly and monthly targets for you to achieve. When making your plan, think about how much time you can dedicate to this change, the cost of it, any research that you will need to carry out, and the commitment it’s going to need. This plan will help you in deciding if your goal is realistic. It may be that it’s harder than anticipated – that said, you should never give up. 

Find a lifestyle partner 

Whenever you are making any sort of changes in life, it’s always easier if you have someone there who will do it with you. Whether it’s your partner, your friend, or a family member, try to find someone who is going to make the same lifestyle change as you. This way you can both motivate each other to achieve it and hold each other accountable when you are starting to slip. It always means you have someone else to talk to when going through the journey who will understand how you are feeling and be able to support you as you can support them. 

Ask for support 

Never feel afraid to ask for support if you need it. When making your lifestyle changes, tell your friends and family members so that they can help and support you through the process. If you are trying to drink less, they can help by not offering you a drink when you are around for dinner. If you are trying to lose weight, they may cook a healthier meal instead of ordering a takeaway, etc. They may also know others who are going through the same process and be able to give you some good advice. As well as asking your family and friends, reaching out to a professional may also help. If the changes you are trying to make are more in-depth than imagined, they will have helped others through the changes and be able to assist you. 

We hope the tips give you some insight into making lifestyle changes easier and more achievable for you. Whatever change you are wanting to make, know you can do it and believe in yourself. 

What tips do you have for making a lifestyle change easier? Are there any tips that we haven’t included that you think we should add? Which of the above tips did you find most useful? Is there anything you would like to share that will benefit our readers? Let us know in the comment box below.

Going Healthy, Life, Parenting, Tips

What To Do When Recovering From An Unexpected Accident As A Parent

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Many people become more safety conscious upon becoming a parent. However, no matter how cautious you may be in your daily life, accidents can and do happen. As a result, it’s important that you’re aware of the steps you should follow in the aftermath of an incident, in order to ensure the best outcome moving forward.

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Photo by Lucian Alexe on Unsplash

This remains crucial regardless of whether or not your children were with you at the time, as your own health, well-being, and safety are paramount to theirs – meaning that if you don’t take care of yourself, you’ll find it harder to take care of them. 

With that in mind, here are some steps you should follow in the wake of an unexpected accident. 

Prioritize recovery. Whether you were involved in a car accident or are suffering from a workplace injury, it’s crucial that you give yourself the time you need to recover. Follow all medical advice that is given to you by your doctor, and don’t try to get up on your feet again before you are ready. If this means that you’ll need a little help with looking after your children for a while, call in for reinforcements from friends and family. While you may not want to burden them, they all want what is best for you and will be happy to step in when needed. The more time you give yourself to rest up and recover, the easier the next few months will be. 

Reach out to a lawyer. Unexpected accidents can lead to catastrophic injuries that are hard to recover from. If you require a lot of medical care and support, or to take time off work, they can also cost you considerably. As such searching for legal representation by searching War For Hou (or elsewhere if another location is more suitable) is a great way to ensure you receive the compensation you deserve in the wake of your incident. This reduces the amount of pressure you’ll face staying on top of mounting bills, meaning it can be a great way to lower stress that could otherwise prolong recovery. Furthermore you can have peace of mind that they are experienced in dealing with such matters, regardless of the kind of injury, you can find a specialist out there that can take charge of the case. Say you slipped on wet ground at work; offices like an Anidjar Levine slip and fall injury lawyer are only a phone call away.

Take care of your mental health too. The aftermath of an accident (or the recovery period) can also take its toll on your mental health. As a result, it’s important that you take care of yourself emotionally (as well as physically) during this time. This could mean that you need to work on your own mental health stigmas that you may have developed, by accepting that it’s okay not to be okay, and that you can ask for help no matter what situation you have found yourself in. Whether you choose to reach out to friends and family, or to a licensed professional, do not suffer in silence. There is always somebody ready and willing to listen, to provide you with the advice you need to get back on track and feel more like yourself again. Much like physical recovery, emotional healing can take time – but it’s an important one, and you’ll feel much better by working on it than by attempting to ignore your emotions.