Health Tips to Pass on to your Children

Many people believe that children are the future. They represent the next generation, include the next batch of world leaders and are the ones who will continue to make the world go round long after we are gone.Therefore, it is our duty to pass down to them the advice and wisdom we have learned, as well as the skills and practices we strongly believe could benefit their lives and maybe even their children’s lives after that. It is also important to pass on health tips to ensure they live a long, healthy life; health is wealth after all and a lot of people often forget that nowadays.

Give Blood

When you give, you receive and giving blood is no exception. Often, people have a misconception that it’s only the one on the receiving end that benefits from blood donations. In fact, donating blood has its benefits for the donor too. It can help people who are trying to lose weight, since donating a pint of blood burns a good 650 calories plus, regular donation also lowers a person’s chances of getting afflicted with heart-related diseases. For women, donating cord blood or the blood still in a baby’s umbilical cord after birth, is exceptionally beneficial. Cord blood is rich in stem cells similar to those found in bone marrow, which can be used for patients with cancer or blood-related illnesses. Pregnant women can ask for their cord blood to be stored publicly for the use of others or privately, if ever the need arises. Either way, joining the cord blood registry could save a life. Whether that is the life of an unknown person from the other side of the country, your neighbor, your child’s or your own, each is equally important.

Eating Breakfast

Doctors and other health specialists have always encouraged people not to skip meals, especially breakfast. Breakfast gets your day off to a good start and gives you a much needed energy source to start the day. It jump-starts your metabolism, helps you wake up and focus your mind and can even helping you maintain or lose weight. By eating a healthy, balanced meal in the morning, you are more likely to feel satisfied which will prevent you from binge eating at lunch or snacking in between meals. Not everyone can face a big breakfast the moment they wake up so if this is you, try taking something to eat on your journey to work such as fruit or yogurt. Watch out for sugary bars and cereals, as these will give you a short-term energy boost before your sugar levels drop again mid-morning resulting in tiredness. Instead, try protein rich foods like eggs or a hearty bowl of porridge to keep you going longer.

Exercise Regularly

This cannot be stressed enough, especially nowadays, where we live such fast-paced lives. When people struggle to make time for a necessity like breakfast, it’s not a surprise that exercising regularly gets thrown out of the window too. When people think of exercise, they usually imagine big heavy weights and machines at the gym or endless running until your legs fall off. But that doesn’t have to be the case. If you enjoy the bulky gym equipment then by all means go ahead but the key is to simply keep your body moving. Instead of driving or getting a taxi to your destination, walk there. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or the escalator. 10-20 minutes after eating, take a slow walk around the block to help with digestion. Take your bike to work instead of the car. All simple changes that will soon become habit and may actually be an enjoyable part of your day. Not only will exercising give you more energy and help you lose weight but it may even lower your fare!

This article was written by freelance writer and mother of three, Kathryn Thompson. Follow her on Twitter: @katht35

Jared Quips

It is never really early for us tots to develop a healthier habit that we will take up to our adult years. It is also one of my mum’s goals to raise me to be not only physically fit but a healthy kid, too. I may not be donating blood anytime soon {but am sure we’ll be doing that one of these days as mum included that in her bucket list}, but a regular exercise is something we can work on now. Maybe I should join mum on the mat when she finds the time to stretch and do her yoga.