Moms’ wellness directly impacts their relationships with their partners, children, and other family members. When moms feel healthy and fulfilled, they are more likely to engage positively with their loved ones and nurture solid and supportive relationships. Modeling wellness and encouraging kids to lead a healthy lifestyle also sets them up for success.
Your approach to their sports and activities can help set them up for a long-term love of being active. How you use your devices can influence how they will use them. Incorporating new habits as perimenopause and menopause hit can ensure you feel energetic and balanced throughout the process. Healthy habits across the whole family can also contribute to a lower risk of chronic diseases and a higher quality of life in later years.
Here are a few I’ve learned to practice across the whole family and ensure you create an active-for-life model that keeps everyone feeling great.
1. Expose kids to as many sports activities as possible
One country that is doing this well is Norway. The country found its way onto everyone’s radar at the Winter Olympics in Pyongyang, South Korea, where a nation of just 5.3 million won 39 medals. This could be attributed to kids being exposed to sports at a young age, which allows them to learn skills like teamwork, collaboration, and goal setting.
According to ProjectPlay.org, “The Ministry guides public funding for sport, administering 64% of gaming proceeds from Norway’s national lottery and sports betting mechanism, Norsk Tipping, to the sports ecosystem.” This allows for roughly $400 million annually for new projects.
2. Don’t have more sports hours per week than your kids’ age to prevent burnout
According to John O’Sullivan, founder of the Changing the Game Project, when asked about Norway’s success on the MomShine podcast, said, “A key takeaway could be as follows: as many kids as possible, as long as possible, in the best environment possible.” But it’s important not to overwhelm kids in the process. He taught me that a simple model ensures that the number of hours your kids spend on sports each week doesn’t exceed their age in years. So if your kid is 8, there shouldn’t be more than 8 hours of sports per week. This helps prevent burnout and overuse injuries.
3. Understand what sports skills they should be learning at each developmental stage
Be aware of the sports skills appropriate for your child’s developmental stage. John O’Sullivan told me a great reference point is Canada’s LTAD model, which aims to create active kids for life. Human Kinetics explains that this seven-stage model is built on the following ten factors:
- Physical literacy
- Specialization
- Age
- Trainability
- Intellectual, emotional, and moral development
- Excellence takes time
- Periodization
- Competition
- System alignment and integration
- Continuous improvement
It explains, “Those using the LTAD model in their programming should use these factors to teach parents, coaches, administrators, and participants about the model’s benefits.” As O’Sullivan taught me, so much goes into the game, and highlighting kids’ growth and learning is far more important than winning, which should be only focused on as kids get to elite levels later in high school and beyond.
4. Maintain moderate enthusiasm for sports stars
If your child excels in sports, maintain a balanced level of excitement. Excessive pressure and expectations can be detrimental, especially before adolescence. One fascinating study looked at the percentage of elite-level junior performers who were still elite-level performers at the senior level across various sports1. The results were analyzed from 110 prospective studies with 38,000 elite junior athletes to determine how many achieved success similar to that of seniors.
The biggest category is in Olympic sports like track and field, cycling, and swimming. The results showed that the most successful juniors don’t always become successful senior athletes—only 7% do. The article advocates focusing on training to maximize intermediate performance to sustain long-term improvement in young athletes.
5. Adopt a food-is-mood approach
Emphasize the connection between diet and emotional well-being. Encourage healthy eating habits that support both physical and mental health. I recently learned that a key American Cancer Society report found that people born in 1990 have double the risk of colon cancer and quadruple the risk of rectal cancer compared to people born around 1950. Inflammatory diets increase that risk by 32%.
I also learned from Dr. Kumi Nagamoto Combs at the University of North Dakota about what they’re finding about the link between foods and behavioral disorders. The results show that even if you don’t show typical signs of allergic reactions, they can still appear in behavioral disorders. It’s so important to try different foods and diets and teach kids how what you eat impacts mood, behavior, and overall health.
6. Plan for perimenopause and menopause symptoms
Prepare for the symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause. Educate yourself and your family to manage this transition better. Through seminars and sitting down with Jill Baker, Family Nurse Practitioner and Wellness Coach, and Donna Klassen, CEO and Co-Founder of Let’s Talk Menopause, I learned eight simple steps to help. They include:
- Eat more protein (a simple model is .6/lb of body weight)—if you are 130 lbs, this is 78 g of protein/day
- Focus on muscle-building workouts instead of cardio and plyometrics to improve muscle composition
- Get 7-8 hours of quality sleep
- Fast 12-18 hours per day *this could be 7 pm to 7 am to help brain cognition
- Incorporate supplements like Collagen, D, and Calcium to support bone health
As women age and estrogen depletes, taking good care of your health moves from luxury to non-negotiable. I learned that estrogen is a natural lubricant in the body. This MomShine article on my interview with Donna Klassen goes into these areas in more detail, answering top questions. Ensure you keep things moving in the boy by incorporating some of these steps to help.
7. Set the example for device usage
Set an example for responsible device usage. Demonstrate balanced habits to help your family manage screen time effectively. Consider putting a family-friendly tech contract in place, but also hold yourself accountable by putting your phone down and showing kids they are more critical. An Aro box can help track when you are off your phone and incentivize quality time across the family. Keep the dialogue open, implement set breaks from screens like 5-7 pm daily, and put them away on weekends. Setting a good example can significantly impact how kids use devices.
Integrating these tips into your family’s routine can promote overall wellness and healthy habits. To learn more, see my 20 quick tips to shine.