I’m not going to mention the C-word. I’m not going talk about why most of us are staying in our houses and posting #StayHome images on Instagram. We all know why this is such a hot topic at the moment. Whether we follow them or not, adults know which habits are good for them. On the other hand, developing healthy habits for kids can prove to be a lot trickier.

Here are 5 healthy habits you can incorporate into your lifestyle to keep both kids and adults fit and healthy!

I’ve included “a spoonful of sugar” with each healthy habit. This spoonful of sugar is an idea to make the habit fun for kids – it will literally help the medicine go down!

Disclaimer: This blog post is for information purposes ONLY and must not be used in place of medical advice from a healthcare professional.

The power of lemons

The internet is filled with posts on the magical benefits of drinking warm water and lemon in the morning. This post from the Wellness Mama website is pretty extensive.

My main reason drinking lemon water every morning is to get that Vitamin C boost for myself and my kids. I use the following basic recipe for each person:

Juice of 1/2 a lemon added to a mug.
Half fill the mug with room temperature water.
Add 1 tsp of pure, raw honey.
Top up the mug with boiled water.
I then like to add 1/4 tsp of black seeds/nigella sativa/black cumin.

*Spoonful of sugar*

Race time – When I add the black seeds, they tend to float on the top for a while, my kids have to drink them quickly before they sink to the bottom. Due to the mix of room temperature water and boiled water, it’s the perfect temperature!

Quiz – I head over to Pinterest and do a quick quiz with my kids whilst we all drink our lemon concoction. They love the fun questions and enjoy keeping score of how many they get right! This distracts them enough for them to drink the entire mug before they remember they don’t like lemons!

Check out my favourite quizzes here!

The Goldilocks habit

Porridge. A staple in nearly every household, we all have our preferences for how we like our oats. When I was a kid, I loved the microwavable Ready Brek caked in sugar… I’ve since upgraded to a healthier option.

Rolled oats are a great option – healthy and quick to make, needing only around 5 minutes on the stove.

Porridge is versatile, and that’s what makes it so great. You can add fruits, cocoa powder, chia seeds, cinnamon – the list is endless!

Try these Baked Oatmeal Cups for something fun and different!

*Spoonful of sugar*

Get creative – let your child pick the toppings they want on their porridge and make patterns in their bowls. My kids love a cute smiley face made from blueberries!

The Bargain – My kids LOVE sugary cereal. It’s a bad habit we all fell into, and I’m slowly drawing them away from it. But we have a deal. Finish ALL your lemon drink then ALL your porridge, and you can pick any cereal you like. The great part about this? They are usually way too full once they have finished to even think about eating cereal!

Nature’s candy crush

My kids think my kitchen is a 24-7 convenience store. The day consists of a constant stream of “Can I have”s. AFTER they have already raided my cupboards, of course.

So, we have a rule. Eat fruit. They can raid the kitchen as much as they like and eat as much as they want – IF it’s fruit (or veg).

We aim for 5 portions of fruit or veg everyday:
Lemon drink – 1
Fruit on porridge – 2
Some form of vegetables/leafy greens at dinner – 3

That leaves us with two slots for fruit or veg. This is easily filled during any snack time throughout the day.

*Spoonful of sugar*

Raider Bonus – Keep all fruit/kid-friendly veg easily accessible in the fridge. Berries pre-washed and stored in little pots, Carrots and cucumbers washed and sliced into sticks, grapes washed (and sliced in half when my children were smaller). All available so little hands can grab them when they want and feel a sense of accomplishment for raiding the fringe successfully! Because, let’s be honest, they’re going to raid it anyway.

Stickers – Have a little chart for your kids, and each time they have a portion of fruit, they get a little tick. If they get 5 ticks in a day, they get a sticker (superhero stickers work great) for that day. Let them collect their stickers and see how many they have at the end of the month.

Twinkl has some AMAZING reward charts!

Sugar-repellant

I’m hanging my head in shame as I type this bit, because I consume the most sugar in this house. Even more than all my kids combined. Why? Because they have firm rules we TRY to follow:

We don’t start the day with sugar.
They don’t get sugary treats unless they have had their 5 portions of fruit/veg for the day.
They only get sugary treats AFTER dinner.

Staying away from sugar is one of the best ways to avoid getting sick, as bacteria feeds on sugar. You know how kids are when they have too much birthday cake and blue smarties? Well, that’s exactly what bacteria is like when it finds sugar in your system. A pure rush.

*Spoonful of sugar*

Sugar Detectives – At my son’s school, they covered healthy eating as part of their science unit. For homework, he had to go around the house and write down the amount of sugar in certain food items. He got a lot of enjoyment out of this and began policing the rest of the family and monitoring their sugar intake. I was guilted into not eating a bar of chocolate on a number of occasions. Knowledge is power, and kids thrive on it.

Hydration station

Water! Drink it. Lots of it. Just when you think you’ve drank enough, drink some more because you’ve never drunk enough.

Getting my kids to drink water was a HUGE challenge. Until that’s all we had to drink. I removed all the juices and stuck to water (excluding my husband’s private stash, but we won’t talk about that!)

Kids spend half their life running around and getting sweaty, hurting their throats from shouting, and just overall exhausting themselves. Naturally, they look for something to drink.

Having water accessible, just like the fruit, fills children with a sense of independence. Once we got a water dispenser, the amount of water my kids drank increased massively, because they were getting it themselves. We taught them how to use the dispenser and how to responsibly wipe up a mess if they spill (small, dry wash-cloths are also within their reach).

*Spoonful of sugar*

Water Track – To be honest, just being able to access the water for themselves encourages my children to drink lots of water. But for when they need an extra push, I get them to track how many cups they drink by ticking next to their name each time they finish one cup or glass. They each compete to see how many ticks they get by the end of the day!

How many daily healthy habits does your family have?

So, there you have it! Five awesomely healthy habits for your family and super fun ways to get your kids involved.

Comment below and let me know which healthy habits you guys have and how you manage to get your kids to enjoy them!