As most of you already know, I am a mom of four. It’s hard to believe that my oldest daughter will be turning 21 on the 22nd of this month. Time sure has flown by! The one thing that I have learned over the past 21 years is that I can tell them how to do things but unless I follow the same rules that I am telling them, they simply don’t listen. It easily goes in one ear and out the other. As a parent, we always have to be aware that our children watch every move we make, be it good or bad and can easily pick up on those habits. In their eyes, it has to be alright if mom and dad do it..right?
Setting examples for our kids
Being a mom I not only want to be healthy for me but for my family as well. By striving to achieve this, my kids pick up on it. I’m not talking about extreme dieting or anything like that. I simply choose to feed my kids healthier foods and I exercise. Do I tell them they have to exercise? No Do I tell them that junk food will make them fat? No However, I live my life the way that I hope my children will one day follow. My daughters are older and while they don’t eat the healthiest, I feel that I have gave them a pretty good foundation growing up. They know the best foods to eat and they know how to prepare these foods. One day I do hope that they decide to choose healthier foods and when that time comes, they know I will be there to help them with anything they need.
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| He thinks he is strong. I tell him he needs to work on his form. 🙂 Usually he rolls those weights around. |
The boys are both younger as you all know. My boys are 5 and 2. My five-year-old is in Kindergarten these days so he misses my workout times, but my two-year-old is more than ready to jump into a workout with me daily (and my five year old does if he is home). Sure they get in the way, but I never tell them that. I simply work around them and praise them for their “hard” work. They exercise with me for a while, go play, and then come back and go at it again. There are times when I want to give up in a workout, but how could I when I see them watching every move I make.
Refueling time
Today I couldn’t resist but grab the camera as my two-year old for some reason feels out of all the push-ups in P90X, that he needs to do the incline ones. He almost gives me a heart attack when he uses our kitchen chairs for this, so yesterday I made sure to pull in one of their little desk chairs which put me at ease. He is always very proud of himself as he does push-ups and pull-ups along with me. Of course, after his workout, he still had to be like mom and enjoy a glass of Shakeology. Ok, well it was originally my Shakeology but he usually helps himself to at least half of it daily. I don’t mind a bit because I know it’s packed full of amazing nutrients that are wonderful for his little body.
All in all I’m saying to always remember that our little ones are watching us and it’s so important to be an awesome role-model to them. Live your life the way you hope your children will live theirs one day!
