Physical Activity: Encouraging Healthy Lifestyles for our Kids!

[00:00:00] From Couch potato to Adventure Seeker, unleash the power of play and movement in your children's lives. In today's fast-paced digital world is all too easy for children to become sedentary and spend excessive time in front of screens and just not moving. But don't worry. We're here to share some fun and effective strategies to get help.

[00:00:22] Get your family up and moving, setting the stage for a lifetime of vitality and wellbeing. So let's get into it. Won't waste another, I won't. Here's the million dollar question. How do men like us reach our full potential, grow into the men we dream of being while taking care of our responsibilities, working, being good husbands, fathers, and still take care of ourselves?

[00:00:49] Well, that's the big question. In this podcast, we'll help you answer those questions and more. My name is Brent and welcome to the Album Man podcast. Mission. With the rise of technology and virtual entertainment, children nowadays are spending more time than ever glued to screens from video games, social media.

[00:01:10] It's become a challenge to tear 'em away from those sedentary habits. But research has shown us that physical activity is crucial for children's, physical, mental, and emotional development. It's time to break the cycle and create a culture of movement, excitement in our homes. Now for parents. This, this really plays in guys cuz for parents, I'm stepping on toes here, especially as dads.

[00:01:33] That means we have to break the cycle in our own lives. Most of us are far too sedentary for our own good and are guilty of spending way too much time in front of screens. I'm pointing back to myself, guys. As my recent guest, guest author Susie Lee said, your role modeling is the most important thing. I can suggest whatever I want, but your kids will learn from what you do rather than what you say.

[00:01:58] And if you miss that episode, you should go back. That was earlier this week. Now, the most effective way that we can com combat this is to intentionally create a culture of movement and activity in our households. Along with making intelligent eating choices and having open conversations about that with our kids.

[00:02:17] By the way, welcome to the Fallible Man podcast. You are home for all things, man. A big shout out to the Fallible Nation. You guys keep us doing these shows and a warm welcome to our first time listeners. My name is Brent and I'm am the Fallible Man. And if you wanna know more about Fallible Nation because you enjoy the podcast, be sure and stick around.

[00:02:35] I'll tell you how to do that. There will be links to the description and all that now. We're gonna step on some toes today, guys. I know I always step on toes when I'm doing this with people because it's an uncomfortable conversation cuz it hits a little too close to us. We're gonna break this into two parts.

[00:02:56] The first part we gotta tackle is nutrition because as a certified personal trainer who has always struggled with my own nutritional habits, and I gonna be the first one to own up to that. You can't out train bad eating habits. I don't wanna say bad, a bad diet, which is the common phrase there, but I'm talking about eating habits.

[00:03:16] I'm not worried about putting kids on diets. I'm worried about helping kids develop good eating habits, period. So how do we make eating better and more fun? Well enter the most powerful tool in your arsenal, guys. I mean, Hands down, the most powerful and effective tool in your arsenal for this is the kitchen.

[00:03:39] No, I'm, I'm serious. I, I know you just laughed a minute, but I'm serious. This is a powerful place where memories are made. I cannot begin to tell you how many memories that I have in the kitchen growing up, cooking with my family, also that I'm creating with my own children. I, I apply these same, these aren't just things I spew at you guys.

[00:04:00] These are just things I do in my own life. Your kitchen is a lab. It's a workshop where you can experiment, where you can create, where you can be creative, where you, there's almost no limit other than the budget you have for ingredients. I've always been a proponent of cooking with your children. Dad, go out, buy some random cookbooks for foods that you've never tried.

[00:04:23] Get to work. Learn and try new things with your kids. Cook with them. Make them part of this, this, this is the critical part. Make them part of this activity, okay? Make it a family thing. Be choosy about how many dessert items you can create, cuz you can certainly buy those cookbooks too. But maybe learn to cook Italian.

[00:04:41] Learn to cook Chinese food or anything else that you've never tried before, and do it together. Okay. Pick the recipes together. Work through it together, experiment. Have fun. Anything that starts you guys cooking is gonna start you on the right path. Then dine together and enjoy the creation. Be honest and laugh when it's terrible.

[00:05:02] When you make something and you eat it and you're like, oh gosh, what do we just make right? Talk about the textures and the flavors and the smells. Celebrate it when it's amazing. Just this one thing will change the dynamic between you and your children. Forever. I mean, forever. Forever. This will impact your lives and relationships for the rest of your lives, I promise, in a positive way.

[00:05:25] Now, let's get active. Okay? Movement is crucial to health. It doesn't have to be insane workout routines. I know that's a lot of people's fears. I'm not saying you have to start a massive five day a week gym routine with your kids. Please don't do that. If they like to work out great, but. Routines don't have to be this crazy thing, okay?

[00:05:46] It needs to be plentiful. It needs to be regular, and me needs to be consistent, but it doesn't have to be these weird, far out workouts. Okay? So don't freak out about that if you're not a gym person. Most of the people in my age groups, but most of our time outside playing and exploring, I'm honestly not sure our parents were truly aware of some of the distances we covered sometimes, and we did it all without the safety net of a cell phone.

[00:06:14] But I mean, I, I'd rack up miles and miles and miles on my bike during the day. It wasn't uncommon for me to ride six to 10 miles on my bicycle just to go hang out with a friend for a little while. And then we rode around on our bicycles. Once I got there, we were just more physical. I'm not saying we're better or anything like that, I'm just saying that was our childhood.

[00:06:34] Unfortunately, we moved with technology towards childhood being much more sedentary and as the world's become a little more disturbing in some ways, or at least we become more. Visible into that, we've become more afraid of our kid for our kids. So when my wife and I were talking about our backyard, After we had kids, and they were still really little, we decided we wanted to put in a play toy or a swing set, whatever you wanna call it for the kids.

[00:07:00] Now, my requirement was that it had to have the most options possible for different kinds of activities. I wanted ladders, I wanted slings swings, I wanted climbing walls. I wanted rope ladders. I want a monkey bars and all kinds of stuff. So we overextended ourselves. I'm not gonna lie, we spent more money on than we had bought on a credit card.

[00:07:22] And got a swing set that had, uh, swings, that had a climbing wall, that had a rope ladder on it that had two different kinds of ladders on it. And then on top of that, I went and I added a set of monkey bars that I built onto it, and a cargo net that you can climb on and a tree swing and tires and a bunch of other stuff.

[00:07:46] Because I wanted my backyard to be a place where my kids could run and play. I wanted 'em to jump and move and climb and run and, and I highly encourage you to do the same, right? That's what backyards should really be. Now, I know not everybody has yards, so I have a lot of ideas for you, and not all of them are backyard based, because I understand that some of you, that's just not a possibility.

[00:08:07] You live in an apartment or you live in a more. Uh, city oriented area where that's just not a possibility. That's fine. I got stuff for all of you guys, but the important goal here is getting the nutritional conversation started and working and then getting more active. So here's some fun family-based activities to stay active with your family.

[00:08:27] Ninja Warrior Challenge. Now, we all like our tv, so why not transform your life into a Ninja Warrior option? Of course, right? Transform your backyard into an option course and washes your kids. Unleash their inner warriors from crawling under things to leaping over things. Makeshift hurdles. This will venture will bring out the determination, the determination and agility in everyone.

[00:08:50] Now, if you don't have yard, that's cool. I told you I got options. Okay. There are a lot of portable LI Slack line setups. If you're not familiar with that, you can Google that. Or better yet, just Amazon that, okay? There are a lot of portable Slack line setups. But you can tie between trees at local parks and they come with rings and ladders and balance and stuff.

[00:09:11] It's, it is, they're very cool. I may actually buy one. I've actually got one of my wishlist for my kids. Uh, we can take to the park with us just as something different to change the scene. So there are options to do this even if you don't have a backyard. Number two is a natural scavenger hunt. Now that's a really cool way of saying, going on a hiking and looking at stuff.

[00:09:33] Okay. Combine the thrill of exploration with the wonders of the great outdoors guys. Create a scavenger hunt that encouraged your children to discover hi. Discover hidden treasures and parks and forests, wherever you can go. Let their curiosity run wild as they search for unique rocks, leaves, or even rare bird sidings.

[00:09:51] And you can tailor it depending on where you're going, right? If you know you're going hiking, it doesn't have to be. The same every time. I have a lot of variances in the places I can take my kids hiking, so I would tailor each list to where we were going hiking, but it's a fun day outside. Number three is a line for cause.

[00:10:11] Now, Susie talks about in her book, she has a mission to raise kids that care. And you know what? I agree with that to a big extent. I want my kids to care about their community. I want my kids to care about things in the world. Not necessarily to be afraid or worry, but I want them to actually care about other people and bigger ideas.

[00:10:31] Right? So right now my oldest and I are doing a 50 mile ruck March challenge. We signed up through Facebook, or I signed up through Facebook cuz she does am an account and it's to raise awareness and funds for the charity Stop Soldier suicide. Now this really rings in as important for my oldest daughter, Abby.

[00:10:49] She's 11, but she's surrounded by men who are former military in her life. So for her, this hits close to home as something that she can identify with and care about because she knows a lot of former soldiers. She knows some of them have not had the easiest time transitioning home and some of 'em not had the easiest time transitioning outta the military.

[00:11:10] This is a cause that's really important to me and it's important to my 11 year old, to the point where she is up every morning at four o'clock in the morning going out r marching with me, with her little ruck pack. Uh, you know, we, you scale the weight, but help your kids. Make a difference and be active with, cuz fundraisers can be really active, right?

[00:11:29] We used to have Jogathon or jump rope aons, right? You can flying causes and be involved with fundraising activities without selling a bunch of crap. And it's a great way to start moving. Next one I wanna throw out for you is train for an event. Now you may enjoy five Ks or 10 Ks, right? You might be a runner.

[00:11:51] That's cool. You might enjoy hiking or trail running. You might enjoy biking. All those are good things, right? Maybe you're in something more intensive, like I, I like do OCR events, obstacle course racing, if you're not familiar with that term. But kids can do all those things too. Both my daughters have done multiple Spartan kids events, so actually training for them to do these because these are very active obstacle course events where you have not only the movement of running and stuff like that, but you're crawling over and under and through things and climbing things and Right, doing very physical stuff.

[00:12:27] So actually training for something like this, whether that's a 5K or an OCR r, it doesn't matter. It can be a lot of fun to do together and build these incredible bonds. They're not an old enough to run the races with me, the adult races, but they run the kids races, so they cheer on me on, I'll do an early morning wave and then book them for afternoon events.

[00:12:47] That way I can finish my race and then I go ch cheer them on. Or the younger one, I'll go run beside her. The older one, I used to run beside her when she first started. Family OCRs are an awesome bonding experience, by the way. And training together for anything like that is gonna be fun. Take your kid. I, I, my kids have been on a 5K with me, so you can do it.

[00:13:06] It's fun. Try maybe bike discovery if you like bicycles, right? Bicycles are a great thing. So explore your neighborhood or your local trails on a bicycle. Challenge your family to discover new pass, beautiful sight wall, getting some exercise and hey. Pack a picnic and enjoy a well deserved break once you get to a great spot.

[00:13:26] Okay? Trail bikes are great. Our city bikes bike over to a park and have lunch there. Now maybe you're not ready for something very high impact and neither are they. And you know what? That's okay. So try family walks our evening in the evening or the mornings, okay? A family walk after dinner before they go to bed or first thing in the morning.

[00:13:50] Get out and take advantage of the better spring summer weather as we're in that season of the year right now. You may not be listening to this. If you're listening to this in the winter, go snowshoe together. No, just kidding. You know? But when it starts getting warm, try going out for just eat walks together early morning or evenings are great, and just observe and discuss what you see around your neighborhood.

[00:14:10] No headphones, no music. Just talk. One of the most fun things for me doing this challenge, this 50 mile ruck challenge with Abby has been the multiple miles of daily talks that we are logging every single day with just my daughter and no distractions. We're not like getting crazy, but we're just out walking at a pace that she can keep up with me with.

[00:14:32] Without overtaxing her, but we're having these incredible conversations because it's just us and there's nothing else happening. We're just carrying weight and moving. So it's a great time to connect for us and to have these incredible conversations. Now guys, remember as parents, we hold the key to inspiring our children's healthy habits by studying an example and creating opportunities for them to be active.

[00:14:56] We empower them to thrive physically, mentally, and emotionally. So let's embark on this adventure together and make some physical activity a cherish part of our family's lifestyle, as well as quality time in the kitchen, building that high nutritional lifestyle, and establishing great life skills. Now start by choosing one of the fun activities we've talked about today are maybe one that come to mind since we started talking and schedule it for this weekend.

[00:15:22] Share your experience with us on social media with using the hashtag, hashtag the fallible man. I see all those. Let's inspire each other to keep our families moving together. We can create a generation of act, active, vibrant, healthy, and fulfilled individuals, and it will be absolutely incredible. And as a parent, you have the power to make this happen now be sure and check out our interview with Susie Lee.

[00:15:49] For more on better communicating with your kids. If you miss that show and if you are looking for someone to walk with you on your journey, we're actually getting to. About to release a group coaching event on building relationships called relationship builders. Uh, that will be coming in the next week or two guys.

[00:16:08] So be sure to look for that on my website, and it's always be better tomorrow because of what you do today, and we'll see you on the next one. This has been the Fellow Man podcast. Your home for everything, man, husband, and father. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a show. Head over to www.thefallibleman.com for more content and get your own fallible man here.