Share your top tips for getting the whole family to embrace a healthier lifestyle with Disney’s #HealthilyEverAfter campaign - £300 Disney store voucher to be won- NOW CLOSED

[RebeccaEMumsnet]

As part of the Disney Healthy Living campaign, this week Disney are launching their new #HealthilyEverAfter week. They’d love to hear about what your top tips are for encouraging your family to embrace a healthy lifestyle.

Here’s what Disney says “We know parents can find it a challenge to ensure their children are eating well and being active - and when they are trying to get their whole family to develop good habits, we believe Disney can help make it fun and simple. The #HealthilyEverAfter campaign uses the power of our stories and characters to inspire these behaviours and encourage parents to share their tips with other families around the UK”

So, how do you encourage your family to embrace a healthier lifestyle? Maybe you’ve created some fun games to get your DCs to keep active? Or perhaps you try to make sure your children are getting a balanced diet and try new foods? Whatever you do to encourage your family to be healthy Disney would love to hear about it.

For more information on the Disney Healthily Ever After campaign and how can you use Disney as inspiration to encourage your family to be healthy, take a look at the video below:

Please note: Disney may well use your anonymous comments on their website, on social media as well as possibly elsewhere.

Everyone who adds a comment will be entered in to a prize draw where one winner will receive a £300 Disney Store voucher.

Thanks & good luck,
MNHQ

DD (3) is much more amenable to walking if she can push her doll's pram or go on her scooter. Sweets and chocolate are a big treat. Once she starts school we will be walking (to avoid the parking madness if nothing else!)

We do little things to pack a little more exercise into our daily lives. we run up the stairs instead of taking a lift, we get off the bus a couple of stops earlier than we would normally and we walk a huge loop around our town to 'earn' a dessert!
We are just about to embark on the NHS couch to 5k programme again. It gradually builds up from walking and jogging for short amounts of time over 8 weeks building up to be able to 'run' 5k. I have done it before and it really does work and I'm speaking as an absolute beginner, Once you have achieved this you can then join the parkruns around the country at 9am every saturday morning where you can take part in a timed jog. We are doing this as a family to increase our fitness and energy levels.

We have bought a wii u and do games like just dance and also exercise blue Ray's all together. The children love how much more flexible (and unfortunately how much fitter) they are than mummy and daddy.
We love long walks especially as we live by a beautiful river.
The biggest hit of all is children on the scooters or bikes and mummy and daddy running/jogging along side ... Whoever eins gets there choice of to program when we get home

Kids have a trampoline in the garden. We have a "disco shed" (speakers and LED lights in the shed) and have a good boogie in there. We walk most places (don't own a car).

The kids love the music from Disney films (especially Frozen!), so we often have a whole family disco. They do loads of exercise without even realising! We also pick up on things in films (like Sven's love of carrots) to help the kids to make healthy food choices.

Model the behaviour you want them to adopt - DH walks or runs to work and I talk to DSs about the gym class I do in my lunch hour. We walk to school and cycle to the park or swimming baths at weekends

Parkrun.
Allotment for sunshine, exercise and trying different veg.
Walking almost everywhere.

Get the whole family involved and make it fun, go for walks when it's wet out and see who can splash in the most puddles, put a CD on and have a dance etc

DH likes to challenge the DDs to eat a certain amount of fruit, and will include types they don't usually like (raspberries etc) to encourage them to try things they have previously said they don't like and they will often find that as the fruit season has changed they will be tastier than they previously remembered.

We've recently started an exercise routine and DS loves to join in with Mummy and Daddy. We gave him his own set of weights which he loves to use alongside us. We all have a good dance around the living room (him completely naked) while we warm up for our exercises - he's loving building his muscles.

He's always been a healthy eater, we encouraged that from the start - if his nan takes him to McDonald's for a treat he always chooses fruit over fries and opts for a salad with his pub meals.

You have to lead by example if you want fitness and eating well to be a lifestyle. It shouldn't to my mind be a 'message' to get across to children, it should just be the way it is.

Exercise
I swim and go to exercise classes. DS2 comes to watch my class (plays on his ipad) as my class is before his soccer tots on a Saturday. He knows we exercise just as part of general routine and it's just what we do.

Things like walks out, bike rides and scootering are just part of the course. We dont make a big deal of saying 'we're going to exercise', we'll just say we're going to a skate park today or to the beach or to the woods.

Food
We eat well enough to my mind. We're no saints, but we're all a healthy weight and don't overeat.

DS1 would chose an apple over crisps or chocolate and a chicken leg over a chicken nugget. He is easy to feed and has a great diet.

DS2 would eat sugar all day - if I let him, I just don't give him that option. I also present healthy choices for them (grapes and fruit on the kitchen worktop to eat whenever), breakfast coco pops only after porridge - that kind of thing. This is just the norm for us.

I dont do food as treats and I can't be doing with the good food bad food list either - there is a only a good diet and children need all food groups. I'm probably a bit strict on sugar intake and brushing their teeth, but in a nutshell my approach is to make nice nutricious meals most of the times, but a takeaway when we feel like it is fine.

Make everything fun! Go exploring in the Woods and build dens or head out on Scooters or bikes, instead of just for a walk! Same applies to food - make it fun and get them involved. My boys love eating crudities and houmous if I shape the veg sticks into little people, and enjoy tucking into salad wraps if they can make them themselves.

Agree it's about leading from example - we walk rather than drive a lot, DH is a keen cyclist, and the DCs both think bike rides are the best fun.

we avoid doing 'childrens food' and 'adults food' meals - although that means DH and I usually need to add salt and chilli flakes to meals, it becomes normal to eat a range of veg and fruit. There's always a fruit bowl on the dining table and the DCs can help themselves, if they ask for snacks, they tend to be pointed in that direction.

we walk to school and try and take long walks at the weekends, in local forests, although the weather has been atrocious here for weeks now so we haven't managed too many walks. Swimming is always fun and good exercise, we swim every day when we are on holiday.

My daughter also loves her trampoline and will bounce on it at every given chance.

Chocolate is now limited in our house, with things like strawberries and grapes being offered more often.

We get the children to make their own smoothies by giving them a choice of fruit. Because they have made it they enjoy it. We also walk most places we go.

We have looked up information together on what food is healthy and what is best kept to a minimum. My 5 year old loves books, so when she found a page in an encyclopaedia on healthy eating, she really took to the idea. Now she likes to look up the food she's eating on the 'rainbow chart' in the book, which shows food groups, and identifies the food we are eating. She really feels in charge of this, which makes her much more likely to agree to eat healthy foods without us having to plead for her to eat her vegetables!

We live near the beach so we always walk and dd goes on her scooter and finds it fun running around on the beach collecting shells. We also do loads of healthy baking recipes and do things like frozen banana pops or carrot muffins.

always have a variety of fruit and raw veg available but dont keep crisps or biscuits in the cupboard - only buy one packet at a time for a special treat.
Let the children eat raw veg if they want - they often prefer it raw to cooked - even french beans and sweetcorn

We do softplay every Saturday morning and swimming every Sunday morning. We scoot/ walk everywhere (havent been in a car for around 6 months) I get my daughter to help me prepare most meals so she learns about different veggies and meat etc
Her Dad takes her on bike rides, sometimes we just put the music channel on and have a good boogie together. Run around the park, race each other home, to the next lap post etc. She loves playing musical statues aswell, just me and her. And her big love is bouncing on my BED!!!! My poor bed.
She has defiantly got more me more active since I had her as before a walk to the train station was seen as a chore so we are both keeping each other healthy and moving!!!

I try to make it as normal as possible, so it is assumed that we will walk / cycle / scoot to school and back (that's at least 2.5 miles a day for them and 5 miles for me!).

We choose fun things like swimming or roller skating at the weekend. I do bike rides with ds1 (ds2 struggles to safely navigate roads, so it can be a bit restrictive with him unless we go to a bespoke off-road track, and ds3 just sits in his seat, so not really exercise for him).
better on a warm day in the summer picking them up from school and driving straight to the beach for a swim, as we're lucky it's within a reasonable distance.

Ds3 (2) loves to go for a walk across the fields, where we go next to a train track - we look for Thomas as we walk.

Meal-planning healthy food helps, so I don't just reach for the easiest thing the children are asking for. They always want pizza, so they know we have that once a fortnight with a film, which stops the nagging.

We try and have raw veg (carrots, cucumber, celery) as our watching TV snacks. Also apparently pop corn isn't that bad for you - as its a grain. So we pop our own and make sure there is v little salt/butter. And yes you can pop popcorn using marg. Its fine!

Geocaching- oh yes, we haven't done that for ages! Thanks for the reminder!
We like to play in soft play areas often if it's raining/too cold/too windy to be outside for a walk or play on the park!

We also do lots of little games and action songs- head, shoulders, knees and toes etc. I have a sports day set including sacks for sack races, egg and spoons, bean bags and of course medals for winners!

Can't believe I forgot to mention silly dancing! Turn music on in the house and just dance! Kids love it (so do I!!)

Family walks somewhere interesting so that no one realises they're exercising! Castles, parks, zoo, anyway!

We have started eating a lot healthier over the past 12 months and have swapped sugary snacks for healthier ones, such as rice cakes, nuts, dried fruits... Don't get me wrong, the kids will still get treats every couple of days such as a chocolate clear and a packet of sweets.
We have also joined our local David Lloyd gym where there are activities for the children to take part in. We also go swimming as a family twice per week and my OH and I will go to the gym whilst the kids are in there clubs. Between my partner and I, we have already shed 2 stone between us since 1st January Amazed is an understatement.
We had to become more active, as our children are both very active!
We also walk more rather than jumping in the car (if where we are going is within a reasonable distance) xxx