Our Favorite Healthy Family Habits

The summer months are a great time to focus on developing healthy family habits that are fun and easy to incorporate into your daily schedule! Here are some of our favorite ways to find our family’s “healthy sweet spot,” where making daily healthy habits can be fun and easy to do. Added bonus — be sure to read below for how you can enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card courtesy of BlogHer and a big thank you to L’il Critters for sponsoring today’s healthy family habits. vitamins1a

1. Drink Water

To help us remember to drink more water, I have found it to be helpful to fill a reusable liter-sized water bottle with ice water first thing in the morning for each of us. This way we try to drink all of the water before the end of the day. Setting reminders on my phone has also been very helpful with this!

2. Go for Family Walks

If the weather is cooperating, most nights after dinner, we will go for a family walk at either a nearby park or around our neighborhood. This is such an easy way for us to get in some exercise and plenty of fresh air while spending quality time as a family!

3. Take Our Vitamins

Having a set time of the day to take vitamins makes it easier for us to remember to take them every day. We like to take ours right after eating breakfast every morning, since this may help to fill in any gaps in our nutritional needs throughout the day. I also have a reminder set for giving the kids their L’il Critters vitamins on my phone too! L’il Critters vitamins are chewable and they taste great, plus they are a great alternative to tablets or hard to swallow capsules.

4. Play Together

We try to allow plenty of time for play! During the summer months, we try to take advantage of outdoor play as much as possible: swimming, hiking, biking, playing lots of outdoor games. Even just a simple game of catch, is an easy way to make time for play in a busy family’s schedule!

5. Self-Serve Healthy Snack Tray

To help us with eating healthy, we try to have plenty of fruits and vegetables ready to eat for snacks so they are as convenient as possible. For after school snacks, we have a self-serve lazy susan tray in the refrigerator for the kids that is stocked with pre-cut and washed veggies, cheese cubes, yogurt, applesauce, and other snacks. Having a bowl of apples, oranges, and bananas on the kitchen counter in plain view helps make it easier for us to remember to eat them too!

Now the FUN Part —

One lucky Inner Child Fun reader will win a $100 Visa gift card! To enter for your chance to win, leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite tip to help keep your family healthy. Good luck! * These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to write it. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” Sweepstakes Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

      1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

 

 

    • Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

 

   

    • Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

 

   

    • For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

 

    This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here. This sweepstakes runs from 6/10-7/31. Be sure to visit the vitafusion and L’il Critters brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!  

Comments

  1. We make a summer fun list full of activities to keep us active and pick from the list all summer. Bike rides, water balloon toss, new hikes etc.

  2. drinking lots of water is something that is super important to me. as a result, we are NEVER without our hydroflask water bottles. they keep our water ice cold all day long and helps us to always drink water!

  3. We always pack our own homemade lunches and snacks when we’re out. Cheaper but also helps us avoid having to grab something unhealthy while we’re on the road.

  4. we eat lots of fruits and veggies daily

  5. Mami2jcn says

    We take multivitamins and drink lots of water.

  6. Mami2jcn says

    tweet–https://twitter.com/mami2jcn/status/476509850008965120

  7. We go on regular walks and bike rides to stay active.

  8. We play soccer together after dinner.

  9. Shirley Franklin says

    We cut way down on sodium, try to eat less processed foods, and no extra salt!

  10. Shirley Franklin says
  11. We keep healthy by eating organic veggies and no fast food and drinking a lot of water.

  12. Nicole Dz says

    Stay active as a family. Participate in outdoor sports, or do other activities they keep you motivated as a family.

  13. Nicole Dz says
  14. Lisa Brown says

    We try to eat good and healthy, get outdoor activity as much as we can.

  15. Lisa Brown says
  16. Julie Wood says

    We eat healthy whole grains and eat at home! We eat vegetables and fruits every day and drink plenty of water. Also exercise is very important to us!

  17. Julie Wood says
  18. courtney b says

    get the cute gummy vitamins for your kids! my kids wouldnt take their vitamins so i had to get them the cute flintstone ones!

  19. courtney b says
  20. We eat entirely organic and hike every weekend.

  21. steven weber says

    eat healthy, drink water and be sure to get enough sleep.

  22. We make trying new foods fun by keeping a list of all the healthy foods my son has tried. Each week, he gets so excited to add new foods to the list. To encourage options and participation, I take him to the grocery to choose some of the things he’d be interested in trying. We get creative and plan our meals together as a family. Eating together as a family is so much more rewarding when everyone has a chance to participate!

  23. My family and I are trying to eat less processed food and more good, natural stuff.

    chambanachik(at)gmail(dot)com

  24. We cook together… We like to try new healthy recipes. We like to bake too.

  25. amy pugmire says

    I keep my kids hydrated with lots of water, gatorade and other flavored water. we also do daily vitamins.

  26. Lauren E. says

    Going to bed earlier every night to be sure we get at least 8 hours sleep.

  27. My tips are to stay active, take a daily vitamin, eat whole foods and lots of veggies/fruits and always make sure to wash your hands.

  28. We are eating less processed foods and going out to exercise (walk, bike, swim) together.

  29. Susan Smith says

    We eat healthy meals with a lot of vegetables. We eat exercise daily, take a multivitamin daily and rarely eat fast food.

  30. Susan Smith says
  31. Go outside and stay active!

  32. Jessie C. says

    Working out together is my favorite tip, we love riding bikes, swimming and jogging.

  33. Jessie C. says

    -https://twitter.com/tcarolinep/status/478737140348502016

  34. Tweet: https://twitter.com/OneFrugalGirl/status/479368798949351424

    onefrugalgirl AT gmail DOT com

  35. Have a lot of healthy snacks like fruit on hand.

    onefrugalgirl AT gmail DOT com

  36. D Schmidt says

    We try to maintain a healthy lifestyle by drinking lots of water, taking regular exercise and being careful about what we eat. We also include multi vitamins of course:)

  37. D Schmidt says
  38. Having healthy snacks are a must!!

  39. Ashley H says

    We go for daily walks.

  40. Melissa M says

    I sneak veggies into my families dinners.

  41. Melissa M says
  42. We like to stay active together as a family – going for walks, playing tennis, and swimming.

  43. We drink lots of water and exercise daily.

    Thanks for the chance to win!
    wildorchid985 at gmail dot com

  44. tweet–https://twitter.com/WildOrchid985/status/489958483119575040

  45. shelly peterson says

    I sometimes have to sneak veggies into what I’m cooking or add them to casseroles and stuff, they usually won’t just eat plain vegetables.

    cshell090869 at aol dot com

  46. shelly peterson says

    tweeted
    https://twitter.com/cshell202/status/490000988455981056

    cshell090869 at aol dot com

  47. Drink plenty of water!

  48. LAMusing says

    I make sure we have at LEAST one fresh fruit and fresh veggie every day.

  49. Krista M. says
  50. Krista M. says

    We take walks as a family which helps keep us active!

  51. Everyday that we’re able, my family takes a long walk. Even the baby loves it, laughing and babbling in the carrier. My husband and I always say that it helps keep us healthy emotionally and mentally just as much as physically.

  52. We stay active together, it is so much better to exercise when you are having fun playing with your family

  53. Joseph Marlin says

    If you don’t like exercising, join some sort of casual club sport in your area. That way you can have fun while getting some exercise.

  54. Erica Best says

    in the summer i love going to local fairs to get the family out and moving

  55. Erica Best says
  56. Drink eight glasses of water every day

  57. Debbie B says

    we try to eat healthy meals

  58. Debbie B says
  59. Janice Cooper says

    We drink lots and lots of water daily, eat fruit for dessert and walk daily.

  60. Janice Cooper says
  61. I try to make sure we get leafy greens and lean proteins at most meals.

  62. Growing a garden keeps the children interested in what will be produced and on the table and they learn ways to prepare it.

  63. Thomas Murphy says

    Go for walks together to keep your family healthy.

  64. I swim 3 times a week and love doing it.
    Thanks for the contest.

  65. maria cantu says

    We try to eat healthy and exercise daily and drink lots of water.

  66. Tabathia B says

    I like to keep plenty of fresh fruit on hand for healthy snacks

    tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

  67. Deb Anderson says

    I keep disinfectant wipes all over the place, especially in the car. Germs are everywhere!

  68. We try to stay very active as a family. We make sure to get in some sort of exercise every day.