Tips for a Healthier Family

Keep your family and yourself happy and healthy. These tips make it (almost) as fun as vacation.

1. Pre-make the meal choices.

Food decisions need to be made by you, the parent, at the supermarket. Fill your cupboards with junky foods and you end up saying no all night. Fill them with healthy stuff, and kids have plenty to choose from. They’ll eat healthy snacks when they get hungry enough. But make healthy foods easy for everyone to grab: Keep fruit and vegetables washed and cut. If it’s too hard to plan ahead for cutting, select fruits like grapes and berries that just need to be washed.

2. Have your kids play cop.

Kids love feeling empowered. So tell them about healthy eating and have them call you out if you grab junk food at the mall or want to stop at the drive-thru. It makes them feel like part of the solution, not like they’re only ones who have to follow healthy food rules.

3. Create a family hub.

Know what your kids are doing and thinking by hanging out together. Create a spot in your home where the family gathers, whether that’s in the driveway in the summer, in the basement, or around the kitchen table.

4. Have a dance party.

Or any other excuse to get everyone up and moving. Put on music and dance after dinner. Hike on weekends. Take the dog for a walk together. To get the kids excited about exercise, Dr. Oz’s family invented the Oz Olympics—a series of competitions that highlighted each of their abilities, in which each child could excel and win a medal. The runners won the running competitions, the ball-throwers won theirs, and so on. See what you can get started in your own backyard. You can even go retro and organize a neighborhood kick-the-can or carry-the-flag competition. Make it fun and everyone wins.

5. Dine together.

Eat your meals as a family (even better, shop for the ingredients at the farmer’s market together). Research has shown that kids who dine with their families eat better: That means fewer sugary sodas, less fried food, and more produce. But the best reason to eat dinner with your family is that it’s fun. Have everyone help prep the foods so they’re invested in the meal. Then sit down and have real conversations with your kids.