We exercise everyday, we are fit but there is no fun in it. Or do you lack interest in workouts and need some motivation? Then how about a family fitness challenge? This will motivate entire family to start exercising and at the same time, you will enjoy doing it. So, here is a step by step guide on how to do it.
1. Set Your Fitness Challenge Goal
Before we do anything we always set goals. The same way you need to set challenge goals. When it says family challenge then it is for the entire family. Without missing anyone, involve your entire family from kids to elders. Hold a small family meeting for the same and kick start it. Take ideas from everyone including children. You can perform different kinds of targets like eating healthy, physical activity, strength goals, less screen time, etc. You can even conduct an event of 5k run or bicycle riding. Gather ideas and plan with the acceptance of each and every family member. Make sure the kids understand it well because this is just not a temporary award winning challenge but to bring a lifetime change to your lifestyles.
You need to make it clear to everyone in this meeting about the goals and what you are looking to achieve through this. Suppose your target is healthy eating then you need to cut back unhealthy foods, fast foods, junk foods, etc. You need to add more vegetables and fruits to your diet and avoid unhealthy outside foods. You may have to carry lunch boxes to schools and offices. You also need to drink more water. So, it’s important to make all such things clear to everyone.
2. Prepare A Fitness Challenge Plan
Once you’ve set your goals it’s important to know how to track your family’s progress throughout the challenge. Choose the suitable method like logging the minutes of exercise, steps taken using a monitoring app, kilos or pounds of weight loss, tracking foods and calories consumed, etc. There are many ways to track it based on your targets and goals. Don’t forget star chart, ruler or some other tracker for visual reminders. Stick it on a wall or somewhere visible to entire family so that they can check it from time to time for family fitness. At regular intervals, you need to check in your challenge progress. Whenever you face some problem together you need to fix it at those intervals. You can log everything every night before going to bed and even conduct family meetings on Sundays.
3. A Fitness Challenge Reward
Though getting fit might be a good reward for this challenge but to keep it interesting and to keep everyone motivated a reward should be given. After all, they are working hard to win the challenge. It’s up to you to choose a group gift or separate gifts to each person. Make sure to choose it wisely based on their interests.
However, do not offer food as a reward. You should not think that winning the challenge means you need a reward of some delicious unhealthy fatty food. This can change the entire idea. So, totally avoid the idea of offering delicious food as a reward. On the first family meeting itself jot down their interests. What would the kids like to have? A toy, an outdoor game set, new school set or an outing with the family? Take their interests into consideration.
Similarly, talk to the elders and know if they need something as a reward. Senior citizens have different interests from the rest of the groups; so talk to them and do your best to please them.
4. The Fitness Prize
Like we discussed earlier you need to decide what all you need to buy for the participants and purchase or plan accordingly. By the end of the challenge, you should be ready with the rewards to keep the interest and spirit on. If you fail to get the rewards by the end of the challenge then it may spoil everything.
Whatever might be the reward, praising them is important. Praise them for their efforts and congratulate once the challenge ends and celebration is definitely important. Also throughout the challenge, you need to keep motivating them and encourage.
Once you have congratulated and did a little celebration, give them their rewards or prizes. As you have already taken their suggestions and know their interests, they’ll most probably like their gifts. After such a challenge everyone loves rewards.
Is it done? Not yet. Now that everyone is happy let’s conduct one last meeting regarding this challenge. Ask each and everyone to share their experiences and the lessons they’ve learned through this challenge. Try to ask questions so that everyone can learn something new. Involve children in fitness routine as well and ask them questions. They might have discovered some new interest or even liked a new food. Are they able to wake up early in the morning now? Is it easier than before? Are they willing to continue such a healthy lifestyle? Such questions will encourage them to talk more about it and share their experiences.
If you think that this was a success then soon you can plan another with some different ideas. If you have planned healthy eating last time then this time you can plan about physical activities. Keep this going, to help your family get fit along with you. If you want, you can also keep the same challenge again but set the bar higher this time. Make it little tough and let the family work hard for higher goals.
If you want to give a gap then you can plan something small like reducing the screen time. Track how much time each family member spends before the screen. Give them goals and plan it.
If you have planned 5k run before then you can still plan the same again but this time you may want to run faster.
Whatever the challenge might be, keep the fitness habit going on. Whenever you feel your family is lacking interest, plan something like this and motivate them.
