How To Motivate Your Family To Be Healthier

I don’t know about you, but when I start to adopt new habits that make me feel great, I want to share them with everyone I know. Especially with those that I love the most, my family members. So when I started to eat a healthy diet, aka eat healthier food, I wanted to share these eating habits with my family.

There are so many benefits to adopting healthy eating habits and eating healthier food: more energy, weight management, better sleep, even changes in our gut that mean reduced bloating and gas. It’s natural that you’d want your family to eat healthier food with you and experience all these wonderful things!

The other part of eating healthier is it helps if the people around you are on board as well. As with all healthy habits, having people around you on the same journey will help hold you accountable, give you someone to bounce ideas off, and support you when you’re struggling.

How To Motivate Your Family To Be Healthier

INTRODUCE THEM

No one likes being preached at. Being told how to live our lives, what to cook, or what to eat is a great way to alienate people. Instead, cook for them. Make one of your favorite healthy dishes at your next family gathering, any healthier food will do. Or make them a healthy snack when you’re spending an afternoon together. Think about the way you’d get a child to eat more fresh fruits. This is a much gentler way of showing people that there is another way to eat and they get to try for themselves.

SHARE YOUR RESULTS

Has eating healthy foods helped your health markers in some way? Has it helped you lose weight or gain more energy? Again, you don’t want to be preachy, but sharing how good you feel can be inspiring for people that want to feel or look the same. Letting them know that you’ve seen real results, rather than the artificial ones we all see in the media, can help inspire them to try healthy foods.

DON’T SHARE YOUR RESULTS

I know, I’m contradicting myself. But we all know that with some of our family members we’re better off waiting for them to ask the question than putting our own information out there first. Showing up to family functions with more energy, clearer skin, and looking good will naturally encourage people to ask what you’re doing. Getting them to open the door first like this can be a great way to start a conversation as they are showing interest first.

SHARE EASY CHANGES

You might be at the stage of meal prepping a full week’s worth of low-carb meals every Sunday and have completely given up junk food in favor of fruit and vegetables. That doesn’t mean that your family is ready for that much information. Instead, share some small steps that they can take. Make them really easy to action, like switching to low carb dressings or replacing chips with an apple and peanut butter, or working out for 30 minutes twice a week. Don’t overwhelm them with too much information at the start. Remember you started your healthy lifestyle one step at a time too. You want your family to eat healthier food and to exercise, but if you only let them know about the big changes, you might scare them off.

INVITE THEM

Is part of your healthy routine working out? Inviting your family along with you while you’re exercising is a great way to get them started. Gyms and yoga studios can be intimidating if you don’t know what you’re doing. Getting motivated to go out for a walk or a run by yourself can be challenging, but it’s more fun with a friend or someone to talk to. Involving your family will not only help get them active, but it will help hold you accountable too. You can start by working out for 15 or 30 minutes once or twice a week, and go from there!

ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS

I have members of my family that are super inquisitive. If I say one thing, they’ll follow it up with a hundred questions. Rather than shut down or avoid discussions with them, I always come to these conversations prepared with some answers to questions that I know that they’ll have. I’m also okay with not having answers to everything. It’s okay to say, I don’t know and then research it together. In fact, finding the answers together can be a great way to bond and increase their interest in the subject.