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Teenage years are an interesting chapter: not only do teens learn (with parental help) how to become successfully independent, teenage years are also very important and formative years in terms of setting lifelong habits and defining values. Food, drink, and physical activity are huge components of teenage life. Teens need to create healthy habits such as a balance between healthy foods, sweet treats, soda consumption, and physical exercise; in turn these habits will make their transition into adulthood a smooth and happy journey! A huge emphasis should be on helping the teens become health-conscious and balanced individuals in relation to what they eat, drink, and their physical activities.
Here are 7 tips to help your teens find healthy balance and make smart food and drink choices:
1. Cook at home from scratch, using whole food ingredients! I remember my parents cooking this way when I was growing up, and I know that it was the best way to instill my core food habits. Being a good role model for your teens and being consistent with healthy food choices is the best way to establish healthy eating habits. Kids like to mirror. Lead by example!
2. Always welcome sweets and treats, in moderation! Teenagers love sweet drinks, energy drinks, and other fun treats. Set a personal example by consuming those fun foods in moderate quantities and balancing healthy foods with fun foods.
3. Actually have a conversation about your food philosophy! Whenever it seems appropriate or whenever the subject of food comes up, talk with your teen about how to maintain a balanced, healthy diet, how to balance healthy foods with fun foods, such as desserts and sweet drinks, and how to make sure everything is consumed in moderation. Talking about food is important, and it's usually a fun conversation, too! It's especially important during teenage years when kids are more capable of understanding and making the right food choices.
4. Get plenty of physical activity every day! One of the best ways to keep teenagers out of trouble is to keep them busy with sports. It's very important to keep your teenager busy with healthy activities that benefit both his/her mind and body.
5. Get outside with your teen! In our current world filled with technology and internet, it's important to find balance in that too, and we make sure to spend a lot of time outdoors! We like to be active, but we also like to be out in nature, enjoying the fresh air, being with other active friends and their kids, and appreciating the beauty around us. Only out in nature we can become witnesses to really striking moments:
Experiences like that really have a formative effect on our teens. They learn to appreciate the beauty and the world around us and to see that we are not the only inhabitants on the Planet Earth:
6. Get good sleep! Making the right food choices, active lifestyle, and good sleep will help your teen go through his/her teen years and the hormonal changes in a smooth manner.
7. Help your teen discover his/her passion! Everything will be easier, more fun, and more positive for your teen if you help him/her discover his/her passion and support it! When teenagers have a hobby they are passionate about, it helps them stay balanced emotionally, helps them feel fulfilled and important. What does your teenager enjoy doing? Hiking, biking, photography, science projects? Help them discover things they feel passionate about and support them in pursuing those passions!
We're all busy, including our teens. But amid tons of homework and after-school activities, let's communicate with our teens about healthy eating, having an active lifestyle, occasionally enjoying sweet treats, sodas, and the idea that everything we eat and drink should be in moderation. It will help make their transition through adolescence so much smoother and happier.
Mixify is an on-going effort by Coke, Dr Pepper and Pepsi to educate teens and help them balance their foods, drinks and physical activities. For teens, MyMixify.com offers experts (from nutritionists and dietitians, to coaches and athletes) who are standing by to answer any questions they might have about healthy balance. The website also provides tips and tools, such as healthy recipes, a calorie calculator, tools to discover national parks, trails, and nature in general! Parents can also connect with ABA Delivers on Twitter, or ABA Delivers on Facebook. You can also learn more about America's Beverage Companies' commitments and initiatives to helping achieve a healthier lifestyle, such as removing full-calorie sodas from schools, and their new goal to cut beverage calories consumed per person by 20 percent by 2025 via Delivering Choices for Balance.
"Coke, Dr Pepper and Pepsi understand that getting a balanced mix of foods, drinks and physical activities for your family isn't always easy. That's why they're coming together for the first time ever to talk to teens about balancing what they eat and drink with what they do. With tools to help teens get active and information to help them think about when they've had too much, or maybe when it's time for a treat-America's beverage companies are supporting our efforts to find a balanced mix that works for our families."
We are also giving away a $100 Visa gift card! To enter for a chance to win, please leave a comment telling me: What do you do to keep your family balanced? Any tips or real life examples?
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Tweet Entry
https://twitter.com/JewelWood/status/544961754510278656
Spend Quality and Quantity Time Together is so much more important for me than making the big bucks and neglecting my family! We do fun things together, eat healthy meals, and limit sugar snacks and sugar sodas. We also limit TV time and do things together as a family!
I find it is important to be structured and lots of planning, but don't let it be too obvious that it all seems like work and regimentation. Quality times together, near and far, activities, lessons, sharing and learning together. Remember kids learn by example, whether it is what you eat, do, say, go. Be a good example of balance, with letting them know how important it is to get enough rest to be healthy, have fun cooking healthy meals, plan way ahead together for day trips, etc.
tweet https://twitter.com/yarbr012/status/544942619567341568
I keep my family balanced by limiting tv time, exercising as a family, and going to church regularly.
https://twitter.com/ElenaIstomina/status/544928701016600576
we eat healthy and exercise
tweet--https://twitter.com/mami2jcn/status/544923486670815232
We limit soda and sweets.
tweeted : https://twitter.com/sweepinmomma123/status/544912525415186433
Healthy breakfast to start the day and routine, schedule, and laughs.
Great tips Thanks! I have 4 kids and we make them grow a garden. If it is my garden they don't care. When I started calling it their garden they would weed, worry about watering, race to serif things were big enough to pick. It was crazy to see the difference. I can as much of it and they help. It is a great way to talk about the benefits of foods. We also have a family exercise schedule. My kids love music so none of them are involved in sports. I worried about their physical activity level so we just make them workout. Fun things linke playing basketball early at the church one morning. Some times they just do a video or we play add-on.
what great tips! to keep my family balanced i think it's very important to have planned breakfasts and lunches during the work week. i will make a healthy breakfast casserole or baked oatmeal at night/on the weekends and leave it in the fridge. my husband leaves 2 hours before i do so he can easily heat that up or take some to work with him... he's a teacher and has a weird lunch schedule so having a good breakfast is important. i also know i need to have plenty of healthy lunch fixings like carrots, fruit, yogurt, etc. so we aren't tempted to get junk for lunch because it's convenient. if i have it and pack it, we'll eat it! 🙂 these are great pics btw!!
Make sure to keep a good work/life balance. Always enjoy each others' company!
Hi Julia..I am not entering..I am canadian..but wanted to tell you ... Happy Holidays to you and your family.
I have made some wonderful things because of you this year.Thank you.
To keep our family balanced we eat healthy and try to eat at home a lot. We also exercise and stick to a routine.