January is Family Fit Lifestyle Month! This is a great time for you to create healthy lifestyle habits as a family that can last all year long. One healthy lifestyle habit is fitting physical activity into your day. Physical activity can help kids feel better right away by supporting better sleep, a better mood, and even better grades. This month, try to get active together!

The Move Your Way® campaign for the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans suggests trying things like making your morning walks a race, dancing while dinner is in the oven, or showing your kids your favorite ways to move. According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, kids ages 6 to 17 need at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. As part of that daily 60 minutes, they also need muscle-strengthening activity (like swinging on the monkey bars) at least three days a week and bone-strengthening activity (like running and jumping) at least three days a week. Wondering what counts as physical activity for your kids? Anything that gets them moving! You can learn more about ways to help your kids get active every day at bit.ly/Get-Kids-Active.

Nebraska Extension also has some great tips for keeping your family active during these cold winter months, including brainstorming how your favorite family activities during warmer months can be adapted for winter months, enjoying a dance party, making story time active time by having everyone hop on one foot or do a jumping jack every time a certain word is read in a story, and more. They also recommend limiting screen time to no more than two hours per day. You can read all of their tips online at bit.ly/Tips-For-Winter-Activity.

For more information, please contact me at [email protected] or 620-365-2242