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Get Your Fit On – How to Create a Family Fitness Challenge

Are you worried that your family is turning into a bunch of couch spuds ? It’s true, there are many families where most of the members would rather sit around and watch TV or play games than get up and get fit .  As a mom , though, you may be wondering how you can get a fit family.  One simple way is to create a family fitness challenge.

Step One – You’ll need to find some activities that everyone in the family is willing to do .  Some common fitness for kids activities include biking, hiking, walking, or swimming .  Just make sure that famil members will be willing to get in on the activity .

Step Two – Make a fit family plan that includes everyone .  Look at everyone’s schedules and see when the whole family has available time for fitness fun .   This is when you can schedule your fit family time.   If it’s impossible to find a time when the whole family can do it together than you can create a schedule that allows everyone a block of time for exercise – ideally partnered with a parent or an older sibling.

Step Three Create a challenge.   Everyone may have different fitness goals – for mom and dad it may be a weight goal, but for the kids it may be a time or distance goal.  Record your starting stats and then create a chart to measure everyone’s progress towards their fitness goals.

Step Four .  Create a fit family journal.  You can find these on the internet or make on yourself .  A good journal will have a place to track a date, the activity and the amount of time spent on the fitneess activity.

Step 5: Motivation – As a family decide on some rewards for your children reaching their fitness goals invidiually and also ones for the whole family.  It might be a movie night, a family outing, or a new item for the family to share.    Just be sure to celebrate reaching your goals in healthy way

Of course, before you start a fit family challenge, you’ll want to check with your doctor to make sure everyone is up to physical activity.   A fitness family challenge is also a good way to talk about other healthy habits, like a sensible diet.

In the end, remember that the goal of a family fitness challenge is to encourage your family to be healthy.