From Walks To Weight Loss and Some Family Values Along The Way

Now that the weather is beautiful, my family and I have been taking long walks around our neighborhood.  We even found a giant playground at the elementary school close to our home that my son now loves to play on.  Granted, he's only 1, so there wasn't much for him to play on, but he loved the slide, the swing and a few other great sections of the playground.  As we were walking, I starting thinking about how the exercise we were doing will impact our son.  It's showing him that getting some form of exercise, whether it be a walk around the neighborhood, or a game of touch football when he gets older, will be what he needs to do to stay healthy.  It wasn't until I had my son that the phrase, "do what I say, not what I do", really proved to be completely false.  Kids do what we DO, and hopefully what we say.  If we eat junk food, our kids will eat junk food because they think it's OK.  If we don't exercise and just sit on the couch watching TV, then our kids will do the same because they think it's OK.  Well, it's not OK.  We're in charge of HOW our kids grow up and what they learn as they grow up.  We need to show them right from wrong.  We need to show them that eating right and exercising is how you stay healthy and fit.  

So, as a person, and now a parent, that has had my share of issues with exercising and eating right, it's my responsibility and my husbands responsibility, to show our son the right way to lead a healthy life.  And not only a healthy life, but a fun life.  I have to say, I had the best childhood growing up.  There was definitely no shortage of fun and laughs and things to do.  We always had our cousins over to play with as well as our neighborhood friends, and we were always outside until we were told to come home for dinner.  We had pool parties, sleepovers, and lots of fun trips.  That is something else that we will definitely be passing onto our son.  Have fun, be outside as much as possible, use your imagination often, and always have play dates with your cousins!  We're lucky enough to still have a very close relationship with our cousins and my sister, brother in-law, niece and nephew only about 5 minutes away, so he'll definitely have plenty of play dates ahead of him.  We also have a bunch of close friends with children so our son will have a lot of friends to hang out with too.  I know that my son will have as wonderful as a childhood as I had.  Great food, great family, great friends, and most of all, unconditional love.  My husbands childhood was a little different than mine, so he is making sure that our son doesn't have to go through what he went through growing up.  He's the best father to our son and our son adores him.  

So here's to more walks around the neighborhood, more healthy eating habits, and lots of play dates with friends and family!  Do you remember some great times from your childhood that you'll be passing onto your kids?  Do you have any great recipes that you make for your children to help them eat right?  I'd love to hear from you.