10 Ideas For Easy Exercise

Most adults have some sort of “lose weight” or “health” oriented goals with the New Year. The truth is that most American’s (kids included) could use a jump start in their activity levels. The problem is who has time to go to the gym for an hour a day? If you do, that’s awesome; I’m jealous. Carving out exercise time is tricky. The key is looking for simple opportunities to be active with your children throughout the day. Not only will the few mins here and there all add up and get you the exercise that you need, but it sets a great example of integrating exercise into your day for your children.  Here are a few things we have incorporated into our routines (just for ideas):

1. Take a family walk after dinner.
2. Ride bikes with your kids.
3. Go sledding with your kids (I did this recently. Climbing up the hill carrying a 2 year old and the sleigh was serious exercise).
4. Hand wash and dry the car with your kids (the car gets cleaned, everyone gets excise, and you teach your kids to work).
5. Have a spontaneous dance party (Let each child choose a song and dance away. We did this after dinner tonight while cleaning up).
6. Try a “just dance” style video game and participate with your kids (you’ll soon find everyone is sweating and laughing hysterically).
7. Play airplane with your little ones (lift them up by your feet, your legs will be burning after a while).
8. Jump on the trampoline with your kids (If you dare J. Women, you know what I mean).
9. Shoot some hoops with your kids.
10. Play soccer with your kids (We played a million hours of indoor soccer during the winter in our unfurnished basement. I never walked away without sweating).

Whatever it is, just do it, start moving. It doesn’t have to be a big commitment. You can do it!