Setting Healthy Family Goals in the New Year - Small Steps add up to Great Benefits for Kids

This is a great time to think about setting healthy goals for the entire family. Setting family goals means helping your child set healthy goals too.

Goals need to be realistic and measureable.  Goals mean that we are going to be changing habits that you and your family have grown accustomed to.  So you don't want to tackle too many changes at once.  It is best to start with one or two goals.

Remember that little steps of change do add up!

Often, we set very broad goals or too many goals. After not being able to keep them up we give up thinking this is too hard. We have created 18 printable goal tracking sheets to help kids, and the whole family, set a new healthy goal and track weekly progress.

Changing your child’s healthy eating and physical activity habits can be challenging, It is important to keep it positive, involve the whole family in setting healthy goals, and celebrate each small change.

Set your family for success with these simple guidelines

• Have everyone share their ideas
• Write each idea down
• Discuss the ideas and decide on one or two family goals
• Be very specific
• Keep it simple (if this is an new habit, just select one day vs. seven days)
• Start small. Don’t make big changes all at once.
• Have each family member set one individual goal
• Agree as a family on your time period. For example, you will work on this goal for 4 weeks.
• Use a fun kid friendly agreement and have each family member sign it
• Post the family agreement up in a visible place as a quick reminder
• Post the individual agreement in the child’s room or on their door.
• Print and post a matching healthy goals tracking sheet on the refrigerator to mark your child's progress.
• Keep it positive and celebrate small victories even the small ones. This keeps it fun and motivates us to continue.
• Celebrate the family success with a fun family favorite activity. It doesn't have to be expensive or even cost anything. You would be surprised how much kids value family time.

View our 18 healthy goals tracking pages for kids (Spanish version)

Choose a goal tracking page and print out PDF to encourage kids to set weekly goals!

How to set Specific Goals:

Too general nutrition goal: Eat more fruit and less processed snacks
Specific goal nutrition goal: Serve fresh fruit salad for dinner on Monday and Tuesday nights for dinner for the next 2 months.
 
Too general fitness goal: Increase our physical fitness
Specific physical activity goal: A family hike every Saturday for 45 minutes this month
 
Setting goals can be a rewarding and bonding experience for the whole family. Work together as a family to change healthy habits.

Happy, Healthy New Year!

From Maggie and the Nourish Interactive Team

You may also be interested in these related articles, printables and activities:

Set your family up for success with new healthy resolutions

Overcoming obstacles to kids eating healthier food

Teaching kids about calories

Healthy goal setting by age group

Printable healthy conversation starter card game

Fun food facts to share with kids

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