Last week the Great NEWS blog covered the Perfect Health for Children and this week we will wrap up with specific suggestions for Perfect Health for Terrific Teens. The Perfect Health Mastery series is dedicated to helping families be happier, healthier and in harmony. This Perfect Health for Terrific Teens article provides simple strategies, suggestions and systems to help parents help their teens be fulfilled, grounded and well rounded.
Teens are easily influenced by family, friends, fast food industries, fashion and fancy media promotions. The most important influence is the foundation established by their parents during the formative years from infant to teenager.
It is essential for the parents to walk the talk by being focused on:
- exercise
- fitness
- health
- smart lifestyle choices
Investing in your own health and that of your children early on will pay massive dividends for a lifetime of balance, energy, fitness, health, longevity and vitality.
The following are some of the key strategies, suggestions and systems my wife and I used to help keep our children on the path to perfect health, happiness and harmony.
Helping Teens Make Smart Diet Choices
By this age it is essential they are involved in the planning, preparing and shopping for healthy whole foods. The family should be focused on access to three fantastic meals a day that are delicious and nutritious whole foods. Teach then the value of consuming a majority of meals made with whole foods that are fresh, locally grown and in season. Packing a healthy lunch, snack and water bottle are key survival skills into today’s tantalizing and tempting junk food world.
Be a super role model by eating green leafy plants and green vegetables at each meal. Some excellent examples are arugula, avocado, bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, celery, Chinese cabbage, cole slaw, cucumber, lettuce, chayote squash, green beans, lima beans, peas, pears, snap peas, snow peas and spinach. Teaching teens about the digestion process will empower them to make better choices. Learning about enzymes and probiotics is essential for perfect health and a strong immune system. Eating sauerkraut as a boy helped me embrace a new food that has significant cultural, historical and medicinal value without me even realizing it at the time.
Teach your teens to avoid the unhealthy drinks and enjoy drinking water all day long. The body is approximately 75% water and it is easy to become dehydrated from the abundance of caffeine drinks, fast foods loaded with salt and sugar so consuming water must be one of their top priorities. Coffee, colas, energy drinks, flavored drinks, juices, sodas, sports drinks, sugary drinks and black tea should be avoided.
Excellent examples of snack foods include: guacamole or hummus with carrots, celery, cucumber, jicima or lettuce on sprouted grain wraps. A whole avocado can be cut and spooned out and enjoyed with some snow peas. Dehydrated flax seed crackers and veggie burgers also make great treats. Nuts and seeds (sunflower and pumpkin) soaked in water with sea salt and then dehydrated are delicious and nutritious.
Blended Energy Elixirs are one of the best ways to provide your teens with a delicious and nutritious breakfast or snack that is easy, fast and terrific.
Avoid box cereals which contain artificial colorings, flavorings and vitamins and are loaded with excess sugar. Better choices include healthy whole grain choices such as spouted amaranth, barley, brown rice, buckwheat, millet, oats, quiona rye, teft or wild rice,. Soaking these grains and seeds over night help them soften up and become easier to digest. This will also require less heat and time to warm them up in the morning. Date sugar, honey and stevia are healthier choices to add a little sweetness.
Teens learn best about eating meals on a fairly regular schedule when they experience this at home. It is so important for parents to establish a regular routine that builds a strong foundation for the entire family. Scheduling quality time centered on activities with family, friends and foods (healthy family meals) is extremely important.
Helping Teens Make Best Lifestyle Choices
Teens will learn the value of fitness, foods, fun and fascinating work habits from their parents. It is up to you to be their shining example of the many benefits derived from great habits and routines that will serve them well for a lifetime. Parents must focus on being grounded, healthy and synchronized to the cycles, rhythms and seasons of life in order to share these key skills with their teens. Help your teens develop the skills to thrive with schedules, strategies and systems to sustain their sanity in our complex world. Help them remain focused on the key ingredients for a fulfilling life by being, learning, living and loving their family, friends and fellow beings on planet earth.
Your teens need the skills, strategies and systems to deal with a wide variety of life challenges, choices and opportunities that will be presented to them for their personal development and self growth. As you focus on those areas for yourself, you and your teens will benefit and grow together.
Teens benefit greatly when exposed to a wide range of activities, exercises, groups, hobbies, sports and studies. Well rounded teens find it easier to attain their full potential and maintain their developing body, mind and spirit when allowed to stretch beyond their comfort zone to improve their self esteem and self worth. Boy scouts and girl scouts are great groups that encourage well rounded mental and physical development and enjoying quality time outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine.
Creating goals, outcomes and vision boards are great ways to instill in teens the excitement of setting their energy and intentions in motion in the universe in order to be part of the co-creation process. This is a great way to help them learn how they can let things just happen and be part of the problems and they can make conscious choices and be a part of the solutions. It is very valuable for them to understand the wisdom of Henry Ford when he said “Whether you thing you can or think you can’t you are right”.
Like children of any age teens enjoy lots of emotional connection, mental stimulus and physical contact. Be sure they receive physical contact, verbal support and unconditional love each day. One of the greatest gifts you can give them is to be fully present and connected with them in their events and life. Open, honest, direct and safe communications are worth more than gold when it comes to helping your teens mature into amazing adults.
With a busy school schedule on Monday through Friday and activities on Saturday it is important for Sunday to be dedicated to the family for rest, relaxation and rejuvenation. During the school week it is important to stop the senseless time wasters like TV and video games to focus on exploring, learning and studies. After the homework is done it is important to invest quality time exploring the arts, creativity, culture, music and more. Parents and teens will benefit as they set aside quality time to be grateful and thankful for their many blessings as they expand their religious and spiritual dimension.
One of the bigger challenges with teens is dealing with the peer pressures of the communications, fashion, fast foods, internet, marketing, media, school and social groups, Help them make conscious choices by being a great role model to help them learn how to avoid mindless activities such as excessive phone chatting, gossiping, texting, TV, video games and similar things for as long as you can. Even cell phones and computer usage should be monitored and restricted to help insure good habits and routines rather than just wasting their time. Remember we are in an age of digital distractions and information overload so building a great foundation early on wil be a major advantage for them in the long run.
As with children of all ages and especially your teens it is essential they learn the importance of adding value, creating value, diversifying and investing, life long learning, passionate purpose, smart thinking and working, saving and spending wisely. The pursuit of too many toys, trinkets and tantalizing bling can lead them down a path of over consumerism and consumption that is not good for them or the environment. Our teens will be the next generation of leaders and help us change the world for the better as we all learn to reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose our precious resources and reduce our carbon, mineral and water footprint on the planet.
Traveling with friends, grandparents or relatives is a great way to educate your teens on a wide array of diverse cultures, foods and lifestyles in order to share with them the diversity and variety of different countries, cultures and communities outside their own. Our family travels and vacations are some of our most fond memories. Even a car trip to another state can create magic moments that last a life time.
One of the best suggestions to help your teens is to instill the love of reading, talking and writing so they enjoy communicating and learning. The saying “readers are leaders” is so true. My three adult children love to read and are quite happy, intelligent and successful as a result.
Energy psychology and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) tapping on acupressure points is a valuable resource every parent and teem absolutely must learn how to apply. With all the parental and teen pressures and stresses in today’s world this is an amazing tool to help with the challenges that pop up. It is also great for peak performance in school to help students learn easier and faster while reducing anxiety.
Being Your Teens’s Role Model
Creating perfect health for terrific teens is easier to do the earlier you make the commitment and step up to being a super star parent and role model. Teens look to their parents, relatives and friends as role models so be sure to look closely at what and who they learn from and spend time with.
Are you walking the talk when it comes to healthy food choices and lifestyle?
Your teens learn more from what you do than from what you say so the best way to help insure perfect health for terrific teens is by being shining examples of perfect health parents.
Once they become teens many of their patterns are well established so it is important to focus on perfect health early on in their development. As we all know it can be much more difficult to unlearn unhealthy behaviors. All parents want what is best for their children and may not realize that their own trials and tribulations often passed on to their teens.
Perfect health for teens starts with looking in the mirror and shining some light on both your least desirable and most desirable behaviors, habits and routines to see where you can set an even better example. As we focus on being all we can be we help our teens be all they can be to be happier, healthier and more in harmony.
Mastery Action Plan
- Continue to consciously choose eating delicious and nutritious whole foods for the next 21 days to reboot and revitalize your health.
- Clean out the freezer, pantry and refrigerator to avoid unhealthy fast foods, junk foods and highly processed foods for 21 days as you decide and discontinue any unhealthy habits.
- As you find even more recipes, resources and role models for great nutrition, emotions, wellness and success you will experience more energy, joy, happiness and vitality.
Check out “The Dance of Anger” and “The Dance of Deception,” books by Harriet Lerner Ph.D. for some great insights into unresolved issues that may be harming you and your teens. These are great books to share with your teens and open up some important discussions you may both benefit from.
Our next blog post will share: Be Prepared for Pathogens, Parasites and Problems
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