In the past, as the mother of three young children, it was important to make sure that your New Year’s resolutions were both attainable and realistic. The list from the last six years provides a vision into what you were working on in the past.

2013 Eat more fiber.
2014 Return the shopping cart. (You needed an easy one that year).
2015 Clean out the dryer lint trap. (Again, simple goals still feel great when successful!).
2016 Use less plastic. This one is a slow process.
2017 Exchange Facebook for actual books. You read 84!
2018 Volunteer.
This year, however, needs to be different. The children are older and all three are in school. Instead of creating a resolution that will be very easy to achieve, you need to create one that will allow you to set more healthy eating and exercising goals for not just you, but your family. In addition to knowing that your children will be out of the house more this year, the reality is that you are also going to have a busier schedule when it comes to family meals. As it stands now, the goal will likely be to make sure that you serve the healthiest of meals and snacks as often as possible.

This is the time of year when many people focus on efforts to lose weight. With a combination of eating healthy and being more active, mothers are often in a role that can improve the health of everyone in the house. Your family, for instance, will not eat junk food while they are at home if it is never purchased at the store. The youngest children in your house will get in the habit of playing outside, enjoying the opportunity to get fresh air and be more active, if the mom starts every morning by walking around the trail at the closest park. It takes a little more effort to load bikes, trikes, and scooters up for the morning outing, but if your efforts help you start a great routine for your children it is certainly worth the extra energy.

Dads Can Play an Important Role in Modeling Fitness Goals

When it comes to setting a good example for the family, it does not only have to be the mom who takes the lead. In fact when a father makes a commitment to a personalized workout plan to lose weight, even when he travels for work, the whole family might be inspired. When you begin, for instance, to honestly track every single thing you eat you can watch for patterns and search for ways to improve. By logging your food and not cheating or omitting anything you can see just how many exercise calories you need to burn to reach your goals.
When a father gets ready to start setting better fitness goals, it does not have to be heavy lifting or taking long runs. You can just start walking. At first, it might be difficult hard, you might find yourself our of breath and feel like everything hurts after a short quarter mile. If you keep at it, however, you can start to see progress. Even when you are out of town on a contract job, you can still find ways to e healthy by buying groceries at a local health foods store and finding the closest walking trail when ever the weather permits. Walking at lunch; walking at night; walking at home on the weekends. With an aggressive goal of walking 20,000 steps a day you can reach your goals faster and avoid spending hours watching television in the hotel room.

Are You Setting the Right Examples for Your Family?
The latest research indicates that 50% of Americans indicate they are unsuccessful at their attempts to lose weight because they do not have enough self discipline. Custom weight loss programs are great, but if you do not have the self discipline to follow them you are not going to find the success that you want. Nearly 54% of U.S. adults are currently trying to lose weight, and parents are in a great position to make sure that they are setting the very best example.