Tips to Help You Be More Physically Active and Exercise More
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Everyday Physical Activity Tips
Small steps that get your family to move more can help all of you maintain a healthy weight. Choose a different tip each week for you and your family to try. See if you or they can add to the list. Here are a few:
Take a family walk after dinner
Replace a Sunday drive with a Sunday walk
Go for a half-hour walk instead of watching TV
Get off the bus a stop early, and walk
Park farther from the store and walk
Make a Saturday morning walk a family habit
Walk briskly in the mall
Garden, or make home repairs
Do yard work. Get your children to help rake, weed, or plant
Work around the house. Ask your children to help with active chores
Use a snow shovel instead of a snow blower
Join an exercise group, and enroll your children in community sports teams or lessons
Do sit-ups in front of the TV. Have a sit-up competition with your kids
Pace the sidelines at kids' athletic games
Choose an activity that fits into your daily life/lives
Use an exercise video if the weather is bad
Avoid labor-saving devices, such as a remote control or electric mixers
Play with your kids at least 30 minutes a day
Choose activities you enjoy. Ask children what activities they want to do
Explore new physical activities
Give yourself a gold star with non-food related rewards, such as a family day at the park, lake, or zoo
Buy a set of hand weights and play a round of Simon Says with your kids—you do it with the weights, they do it without
(Source: Adapted from www.smallstep.gov)
Keep track of tips you’ve tried with our tracking sheet (48 KB)	
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We Can! is a collaboration between the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute,
the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases,
the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,
and the National Cancer Institute.
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the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).