By: Teresa Higgins

If you are known as the "Healthy Aunt," embrace the title. Nieces and nephews can learn much from you. You know the value of health, and the cost of illness. You know how good it feels to feel good, and how bad it feels to feel poorly.

When attempting to influence kids toward health and wellness lifestyle choices, be careful not to create a picture for healthy living that seems too strict, or without time and place to indulge once in a while. Small changes can yield big results. Here are five ways you can influence a healthy lifestyle for the kids you love:

1. Practice what you preach: As the “Healthy Aunt,” you can talk to her nieces and nephews about the activities that keep you in shape, like a new exercise that you tried that really works, and have the kids try it out with you. Talk about why being active and eating well is so important in everyone’s life. Check out these tips from ACE Fitness, for example. And remind them that unless they are severely overweight, weight should never be the goal. Instead, the conversations should be about better health, more energy, less illness, and more productivity.

2. Teach children the "value" of health: While healthy food and dance classes can be expensive, chronic illness costs more than any prophylactic measure. Some children need someone to push the start button to get them going down the right road to lifelong good health.. The world is a gym. No fancy equipment necessary: the playground, dancing, and walking are all available to everyone!

3. Focus on what they can add into their lives, not what they cannot, or should not, do: While living a healthy life can include denying oneself some of life’s culinary pleasures, it’s best to not focus on what the child should not eat, or should not do too often. It is a far more positive approach to mention what they can and should strive for to attain better health and more energy.
Adequate hydration and a good night’s sleep are good places for them to start. Encourage them to find veggies that they like and work with them, or their parents, to try different ways to prepare vegetables so that they are more palatable to them. The earlier a child is introduced to eating veggies as snacks, and whole fruits as dessert, the more likely they will embrace eating them as they get older.

4. Teach the notions of self-discipline and moderation: Peer pressure and social media can bombard children with ideas about how they should live and look. At an early age, a child has to recognize that she or he has a choice in matters regarding their own body and their health. If children know, for example, that too much sugar is unhealthy, they also have to be equipped with the tools to say no to the temptations. Self-discipline is a tough thing to master. However, like a muscle, the more often you exercise your self-control, the stronger you will be.

5. Educate them about food labeling: Visual references are a real eye opener. If you and your niece and nephew measured a serving size of your favorite foods, you might be surprised. Teaching children how to understand food labeling can pique their interest to read the nutritional facts of the foods that they consume. They will be empowered with the knowledge that comes with appropriate serving sizes and foods that are hugely disproportional between nutrition and calories. When they see how much is in one serving of ice cream, they will be very surprised (and maybe a little disappointed).

Whether your nieces and nephews are age two or 22, the “Healthy Aunt” has an opportunity to inspire them to take control of their health destiny. Positive ideas and knowledge can make a world of difference in the life of a child. To know that they can have discipline to cultivate good eating and active habits is inspiring. To feel good, full of energy, and in control of your health is priceless. And that’s a gift that you can give to the children you love that will keep on giving their entire life through.

Teresa Higgins is a personal trainer and lifestyle coach in Weston, FL.

Photo: Mr. Alliance
Published: July 1, 2015