For college and high school students, food is thier friend and enemy. Between fun stuff (like football games, parties, and dances, I know I have a fifteen year old daughter) and difficult tasks (like midterms and research papers), it may seem like your kids don’t have a lot of time left to exercise and eat right. It is not uncommon for students to let their health slide and choose the TV instead of the health club. Before you know it, they are overweight and your young adult is trying to figure out how to lose 20 pounds!
There is a better way to do this. By establishing some simple, healthy nutrition and fitness habits, you can help your older children avoid gaining weight and have more energy for school and everything else.
On the nutrition side, encourage your kids to make the right choices, such as:
- Enjoying a good breakfast for all-day energy and fewer cravings later.
- Eating fruit or nuts (instead of pizza or potato chips) for late-night study snacks. If you or your teen can prepare snacks ahead of time, they’ll be less likely to resort to unhealthy fast food when in a pinch. Choosing healthier foods will stabilize their energy levels throughout the day (and night).
- Drinking plenty of water to help the body remove waste and reduce hunger. Encourage your student/child to keep a water bottle with her all day and drink that in class instead of high-calorie drinks like soda.
- If your children practice healthy habits more often, they’ll have plenty of energy and less of the stress that comes with school. High school and college are times when healthy habits are made, so encourage them to put forth effort now and reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle for the rest of their lives! They only get one body!!!! Help them treat it like a temple.
- Lets Rescue our children!!!!
-LK36
I’m very interested in this topic. I have a 16 year old who is overweight. My fitness career seems to have turned him away from healthy habits. I just got him a great bike, though and he is enjoying it. Who knows if he will make progress. Maybe we can link to each others blogs. Visit me at NancyGriffin.wordpress.com/About