11 Pledges to Create a “Health Culture” in Your Family

I thought I’d share with you all the Health Culture we have fostered with the boys over the years…

Here are some of the pledges we have made — obviously these have been adapted as the boys mature and we explain the essence of the principles to our four-year old Arlo so that he understands.

These kinds of habits are easier when children are very little, as they are often questioned, squeezed and argued as older children discover their own opinions. At this point you all find a new groove and a new way to honour everyone’s needs, but the beauty of having being very firm about “healthy eating” when the boys were little has been that, without a doubt, they are now delightful and willing ‘healthy food’ connoisseurs. They are also pretty in tune with how cheap ingredients or poor food choices make their bodies feel.

These pledges revisit the fridge door when the ‘need’ arises and this week the big boys have been giving me ample grief over a few habits so I thought I’d share the basics with you now, plus some recent events and conversations in the next post.

Perhaps these pledges can be modified and made useful for your tribe – Lord knows we parents need to stick together 🙂

Healthy Pledges In Our Family:

1. Meals are a social event – we eat together, free from distractions, creating a time to connect and communicate.
2. We all commit to learning how to look after our minds and bodies better. Considering what we eat, drink, put on skin and hair, what we watch, listen to and read. How much time we spend on digital devices. We consider ‘who’ we take advice from and we FOCUS ON talking ourselves and other people “up.”
3. We feel most centred when we stay grateful for all the blessings we share, when we have a chipper attitude and when we look for what’s RIGHT in our world.
4. Food is not eaten in boredom and it isn’t for soothing, nor is it a bribe or a reward.
5. Eating healthy foods is as much about how, why and when we eat, as much as it is about what we eat.
6. We all remain open to trying new things and parents are in charge of food education. Kids eat what adults eat — no short order cooking. All foods need to be tried and explored.
7. Our drink of choice is water. Commercial juice is consumed sometimes, soft drinks on very rare occasions and cola or any other caffeinated, ‘hyped-up’ drink is for those that have finished growing.
8. We focus on eating organic, real foods in their natural state as much as possible.
9. We minimise refined sugar, low fat products and processed foods — those that are high in trans fats and salts — as much as possible.
10. We strengthen our bodies regularly with adjustments, exercise, rest and vitamins. We also prioritise stretching.
11. We aim to leave the world a better place than we found it. We do this by remembering that kind words and courageously being different, lead others through example.

. . . . .
From the desk of…

Jennifer Barham-Floreani
Bach. Chiropractic, Bach. App Clinical Science
Registered internationally, no longer practicing as a chiropractor in Australia.