Living A Healthier Lifestyle As A Family

I really want my family and I to begin living a healthier lifestyle together. We used to always take our son out for long walks, have home cooked meals every evening and were generally much more outdoorsy, but ever since the cold of winter came along, Jacek became busier with work and studying and I was dealing with feeling exhausted and ill from pregnancy, all of our good lifestyle practices seemed to go out the window.

Now that the warmer days of spring are upon us and we have a new addition arriving soon I'd really like us to get back into the swing of being a healthier, more active family once again.

One thing which I'd really love for us to do as a family and which I think is such a lovely thing to do, is to grow your own vegetables. A friend of mine lives in the city but has an 'urban garden' where she grows vegetables and fruit, teaching her little girl how to garden in the process and I honestly think it's one of the sweetest things. Teaching my son to garden is something I began to do last year for Earth Day and I'm glad to say that he's shown a keen interest in the garden. I think teaching him how to grow his own produce and how to make healthy, wholesome meals out of it all is one of the best things I could possibly do for him as a parent. Plus, it would be such a lovely addition to our otherwise bleak garden. We could start small with some tomato plants, peas and maybe a few herbs too, just to get Tyler Lee interested and then grow our vegetable garden when and as needed.

I really want us to start going on more family walks together too. Going for a walk together is such a simple thing to do but I honestly really love it. Last weekend we ventured out to the back of the island to get some fresh air into Tyler Lee's lungs as he had been sick for over too weeks. He was so comfy being pushed along in his Greentom Upp Reversible stroller, which I reviewed here and it was lovely being able to chat with Jacek as we walked along one of my favourite parts of the island. It's so quiet out there and it's flat too, meaning there's no excuse for us not to go walking there everyday when it's sunny. I also want us to begin going on more of our family days out again too. 

We used to always be out and about, exploring the country, but life just got in the way. Our most recent day out was the Blarney Castle and gardens where we went to photograph Tyler Lee amongst the daffodils, but that was our first outing for over half a year and I never want to leave it go that long again. I cherish our days out together and not only do they keep us fit, active and give us some fresh air, but we also get to explore new places too and that's so important to me.

Finally, we've become overly reliant on takeaways as of late, always leaving it too late to prepare dinner and then Jacek and I are too tired to even contemplate looking at the cooker. I want us to get out of this habit of just ringing for a takeaway as not only will it save us money but we'll be eating a lot healthier too. I would love to lose some weight after I have the baby and having takeaways for dinner is not the way to do this. There are some bloggers who are amazing at doing their meal planning every week and I would love to take a leaf out of their book and even prepare meals in advance if I can. I think having some of our own produce from the garden would really spur me on in this too. I'm the one in the family who eats the least fruit and vegetables and this really has to change. There's no point in me telling Tyler Lee to eat his fruit or vegetables with his dinner if I don't lead by example.

These are all just small changes that we could make as a family but I think they're ones which will really benefit us greatly too. I want us all to be healthier, more active (although Tyler Lee gives everyone a run for their money when it comes to the activity stakes, he never sits down!) and just enjoy more time together leading a healthy family lifestyle.

What things do you and your family do to live a healthier lifestyle?