Keeping Your Family as Healthy as Possible at All Times

When you have a family, one thing tends to constantly top your list of priorities – their health and wellbeing. You want to ensure that everyone is able to live life to the fullest and be as happy and comfortable as possible. Now, there are countless steps you can take to consistently improve your family’s quality of life. But let’s take a moment to look at just a few of the most significant areas you could make changes to for the better!

Provide a Healthy Diet

When we consider health and wellbeing, one of the first things that pops into our minds is food and drink. This is understandable. These are the substances that we use to fuel our bodies, so you want to make sure that your family is getting the right amount of fuel and the right type of fuel. Here are a few suggestions that can help you to take care of this aspect of your family’s health and wellbeing.

Consider Calories

Now, unless anyone in your family is underweight or obese, you don’t need to micromanage calories. Calories are simply a unit of measurement that we use to give ourselves a rough idea of how much of different types of foods we should be eating each day. The amount of calories each individual member of your family consumes through meals and snacks throughout the day will depend on factors such as age, sex and activity levels. The list below should help you to determine how many calories each family member should be getting on a day to day basis!

• Children aged 2 to 8 – 1000 to 1400 calories
• Girls aged 9 to 13 – 1400 to 1600 calories
• Boys aged 9 to 13 – 1600 to 2000 calories
• Active women aged 14 to 30 – 2400 calories
• Sedentary women aged 14 to 30 – 1800 to 2000 calories
• Active men aged 14 to 30 – 2800 to 3200 calories
• Sedentary men aged 14 to 30 – 2000 to 2600 calories
• Active adults over 30 – 2000 to 3000 calories
• Sedentary adults over 30 – 1600 to 2400 calories

Make Sure Diets are Balanced

All too many people cut out entire food groups when preparing their family’s meals in a bid to be “healthier”. But this shouldn’t be the case. While some food groups can pose health risks if eaten in excess, you should make sure that all meals are balanced with the right proportion of each food group on each plate. Make sure that your family is getting the right amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and oils, fruits, vegetables and calcium.

Reduce Junk Foods

Junk foods are so easily accessible that many of us end up eating them in excess. Avoid this for your family. Don’t treat bad food as a treat. Instead, eat it occasionally as and when necessary but try to reduce its consumption on a daily basis. Key culprits include takeaways, fast food, ready meals, other forms of convenience food and snacks. Instead, opt for healthier alternatives.

Ensure Everyone is Well Exercised

Perhaps the second most commonly considered topic associated with health and wellbeing is exercise. It’s recommended that we all get sufficient exercise to maintain strength, stamina, flexibility, balance and various other fitness related skills. Again, this is an area where the amount of physical activity different family members should be getting will fall largely down to age. The following guidelines should help to give you a rough idea of what exercise different members in your family should be aiming for.

• 3-5 years – physical activity every day throughout the day
• 6 – 17 years – 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise a day
• 18 – 64 years – 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week
• 65+ – 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week plus activities to maintain balance

Of course, the different types of exercise that will best suit different members of your family may vary. Here are a few options that could work for different members.

The Gym

For the adults in your home, the gym is likely to be the most convenient form of exercise. At the gym, you will be provided with all the equipment you need to carry out a complete workout as and when you decide to exercise. Plus, you can often opt for personal training services if you want some support with your fitness and goals.

Sports Clubs

While there are sports clubs for adults out there, sports clubs tend to be a firm favourite amongst children. Kids tend to enjoy a social and competitive element attached to their exercise and there are countless clubs out there to meet countless preferences. This could be football, rugby, cricket, baseball, basketball, netball, dance clubs or more.

Family Exercise

There are plenty of fun forms of exercise that you and your children can engage with together. Consider heading to the swimming baths to swim. You might want to head out for a family walk or bike ride. You could simply dance around the house together. Exercise doesn’t always have to be structured or play by rules. It can simply involve getting your hearts pumping and doing anything that makes you sweat!

Manage Air Quality

While food and exercise tend to be two of the first things that spring to our minds when talking about health, there are other less focused on areas that you should take into consideration too! Air quality is just one of these areas. Air pollution is on the rise in our day to day lives – especially if you live in a city or other populated and built up area. While you may not be able to control the air quality outside of your home, unless you consider using a Powered Air Purifying Respirator (papr), of course, you can manage the air quality inside your home. The following steps should help you to achieve this!

• Invest in a quality air purifier – often, we will keep our windows closed to reduce the amount of air pollution actively entering our properties, or to keep our homes at a more consistent temperature. But after a while, it can quickly feel like you’re simply breathing in recycled air. This is where an air purifier can come in handy. Air purifiers actively remove contaminants from the air in the room they’re placed in. This can significantly increase indoor air quality. Molekule Customers have found that Molekule air purifiers work wonders for their indoor air quality!

• Purchase houseplants – plants serve a much more significant purpose than simply brightening your home up. They also work as natural air purifying systems. While they may not purify your air as quickly or as effectively as a specialised air purifier, they can prove to be a nice addition to your space, photosynthesizing carbon dioxide into oxygen and leaving your air easier to breathe. Popular options include Dracaena, Weeping Figs, Peace Lilies, Boston Ferns and Bamboo Plants.

• Clean regularly – of course, air quality can be impacted by contaminants such as dust. So, make sure to clean your home regularly, removing dust particles and any other small scale forms of debris that could be contaminating your property’s air.

Remember Mental Health

Of course, physical health is extremely important. But mental health is extremely important too! When talking about overall health and wellbeing, it’s important to lay some focus on mental health to ensure that every facet of your family’s lives is in good shape. In the past, there may have been some taboo or stigma surrounding the topic of mental health or mental health conditions. But nowadays, scientific and medical research are progressing and many people are becoming more open surrounding their experiences of mental health. We’re becoming increasingly aware that discussions regarding mental health are essential for ensuring that anyone suffering from mental health conditions can seek and receive the help that they may need. Here are some suggestions that you may want to take into consideration if anyone in your family seems to be struggling or reaches out to you for help.

Seek Professional Help

First and foremost, if anyone is concerned for their mental health, it’s important to seek professional help. Speaking to a doctor or therapist can help to diagnose any underlying mental health conditions and ensure that you get the support that you need. This could be medication. It could be therapy. It could be a combination of the two. Your doctor will work with you to determine what will be best overall.

Be Aware of Further Help

There is, of course, further help out there. Nowadays, there are increasing numbers of mental health charities, support groups and helplines. Never feel afraid to reach out for these in times of need.

This may all feel like a lot of information to take in. But once you’ve got a grip of all the areas listed above, the steps will quickly become routine and you’ll carry them out without even thinking twice about it. You and your family will be all the better for it!