The month of May is celebrated as Family Wellness Month, and this is the perfect time to improve the quality of your family’s life.
Family Wellness Month is dedicated to helping families who find it challenging to stay fit, healthy, and connected in this otherwise disconnected and fast-paced world.
This month allows you to step back, reflect, and assess the state of your family’s health and wellness and make new changes toward improving their physical and mental well-being.
What You Can Do During Family Wellness Month
Making lifestyle changes that will affect the entire family is tough if you don’t know where to start. But you have started already if you know that it is time your family made healthy lifestyle changes. The next step is to take small but definite steps toward a healthier lifestyle. Here are some suggestions to help you get started.
Choose Healthy Eating Habits
We don’t suggest a complete overhaul, but rather small changes that can be incorporated effortlessly.
- Try new foods and cuisines.
- Cook dinner as a family one night a week.
- Instead of hurrying through dinner, take the time to enjoy your meal and bond as a family.
- Replace unhealthy soda (pop) with water or sparkling water.
- Be a good role model for your children and eat your vegetables.
- Go grocery shopping together and let every member pick up one vegetable or healthy food that they like.
- Plan meals as a family at the end of every week for the week ahead and shop accordingly.
- Find healthy alternatives to your family’s favorite recipes.
- Start gardening – you can grow your own vegetables.
Get Active – As a Family
A new activity every weekend and on holidays will keep the fun and excitement alive and encourage physical activity.
- Explore new parks around you. Take pictures that you can stick into a memory book.
- Get the entire family involved in picking new weekend activities like biking, hiking, sailing, or playing outdoor games.
- Choose indoor activities for when the weather prevents you from going outdoors.
- Work on a project as a family. You can choose activities like cleaning the yard, gardening, or cleaning the house.
- Turn walks into fun events – get the kids to count the number of steps they take or count the number of red cars you pass.
Make Family Time Special
In addition to cooking, eating, and taking part in outdoor activities as a family, you can create special times when your family unwinds, relaxes, and is together.
- Have a game night every 2 weeks or monthly.
- Bring out dusty board games or buy some new ones. Even bonding over a game of cards is a fun way to spend family time.
- Create a family project, like a family tree or scrapbook. You can create scrapbooks of different timelines, family holidays, or school years. Each member of the family can be in charge of putting together a couple of pages.
- Volunteer to help those in need – like a shelter or nursing home. Your family connects over a common purpose, and this helps instill a sense of appreciation for blessings and people.
- Spend time with extended family you don’t get to see often.