Create a Healthy Haven for Your Family

As a family dental practice, we are equally concerned about your oral health as your overall wellness, which is why we choose to share inspiring tips and advice to help keep your family healthy. Healthy habits and choices begin at home. The home is a child’s first school. Instilling healthy habits in the home will only better prepare your children and your family to make healthy choices outside of the home. Here are nine simple habits to teach your family that will help set them up for a healthier future. 

1. Build a rainbow on your plate. A colorful plate is likely a well-balanced and healthy plate. Building a plate that represents the colors of the rainbow is a visually stimulating, nutritious, and delicious way to eat. Make nutrition a fun activity in the family. 
2. If you can’t pronounce it or don’t know what is, don’t consume it. Teaching your family to only eat real food is a life lesson that can drastically impact their futures. You become what you eat and if you are eating processed imitation food you can only imagine what you will become. 
3. Learn to love water. For some people, drinking eight glasses of water a day is no problem. However, other people seem to have an aversion for water and find it very difficult to drink enough. Make water consumption a habit early on. Maybe make a game out of it with your kids, utilize one of the many internet applications, or try infusing water with flavorful fruits and herbs. 
4. Choose your treats wisely. No child should be totally deprived of dessert, but it should be taught that sugary treats are an indulgence and not something that you need to have all the time. Also, if you are going to have dessert, have real dessert and not something processed with a ten-year expiration date that comes out of a plastic wrapping or box. 
5. Brush and floss after every single meal. This habit will help your family avoid cavities and periodontal disease. 
6. Wash your hands. Teaching the habit of washing your hands after every time you go to the restroom and always before you eat will help reduce the risk of contracting or spreading the flu, the common cold, and other sicknesses. 
7. Engage in enjoyable physical activities. Learning to love physical activity and exercise is a lesson that will help your family maintain a healthy weight, as well as prevent a wide array of diseases. Regular exercise also promotes a healthy sleep pattern, lessens anxiety and stress, boost self-confidence, and is key for the release of happy-inducing endorphins. Engaging in physical activities that you actually like doing will make exercise a fun part of your daily life instead of a dreaded chore. 
8. Listen to your body. Learning to listen to your body is a lesson that is beyond valuable. Oftentimes, your body sends you signals, signs, or symptoms when something isn’t right. Adults that didn’t learn this lesson tend to ignore or overlook their body’s important messages and this can result in a number of unfavorable consequences.
9. Be a good role model. A family that is a good role model to each other will likely be a good role model to others outside of the home. This includes making healthy food and drink choices, remaining physically active, having a positive attitude, and being kind to others. 

Health starts in the home. Make your home a healthy haven.