Fueling a Healthy Life {and a Giveaway!}

So, for the last post in my three-part series with the folks at Milk Life, we’re going to talk about how to fuel a healthy life.

Seems pretty apropos after a weekend Halloween binge, right?

I think my guidelines on how we try to fuel a healthy life in our own home come down to four things:

1 – Be active. Whether it’s sports (soccer, track, dance, and cheer these days) or pursuing other interests (Girl Scouts for Madeline, and a Leaders group for Nick), being active is an integral part of our day to day life. In tandem with their own organized activities, we also do a lot of active things as a family – regular hikes and walks together are a part of our weekly routine. Because it stands to reason, that, hopefully, the more active you are, the healthier you are. And that goes hand in hand with item 2.

2 – Be still. As much as it’s important to be active, it’s perhaps equally important to have downtime. Whether it’s a family movie night, an afternoon where we have purposely said no to anything and everything, or adhering to an earlier bedtime, rest fuels your body just as much as activity and healthy eats do.

3 – All things in moderation. And for this point, I’m referring to food. Chocolate is a part of our life, pure and simple. But it’s a small part. The day starts with oatmeal, yogurt, smoothies, banana chocolate chip muffins, or egg white omelets (depending on time or lack thereof), and it’s punctuated by healthy snacks, and a well-balanced dinner. Which means the occasional piece of chocolate or dessert is a-ok. A fact that even the nutrition class that I’m currently taking backs up.

4 – Family time. As Nick gets older, this last item becomes both harder, but more important. He definitely heads off to spend time with his friends, or in his room, but that just means the family time that we DO have is non-negotiable. Dinner as a family is a given. Unless we have plans elsewhere, we eat dinner together at home every single night. We plan activities that the three of us enjoy and connect over (game night, movie night, outdoor activities, and more), and I make a concerted effort to also plan one-on-one time with each of the kids. As Nick entering high school and college looms on the not-too-distant horizon, this has been a huge pull on my heartstrings the past year, so the family time is more important than ever. I’m not going to lie, the thought of him moving out makes me crazy emotional, so I have been really just trying to focus on the every day with him, with both of them.

Now as we wrap up our Milk Life series (you can read parts 1 and 2 here, if you missed them), we have one last giveaway. Once again, two lucky winners will receive a gift card for a month’s worth of free milk. To enter, answer the below question:

How do you provide a healthy lifestyle for your family?

Your comment on this post will count as an entry. Also if you tweet this post, share it on facebook, or send me a snap (cateomalley), you can earn bonus entries. Contest closes this Friday night (11/6) at midnight, EST. Good luck!

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