Help Your Teen Be Comfortable in Their Skin
12:00 PMBy: Kaycie Smith, BS Nutrition and Dietetics & Best Teen Diets Community Manager
Teens get influenced about how to eat and what weight they should be from many different placed starting at a young age. Other kids at school, TV, movies, magazines and even you as parents impact how they think both directly and indirectly. Not only can your words affect your teen, your actions can too. Now even though you can’t control the other things that influence your teens you can do things to make sure you are sending out a positive message for them.
Be open with your teen:
Talk with them about being healthy and of the different components that go in to overall health including diet, exercise and rest. Instead of just lecturing to them, make it a conversation; ask for their input and opinions. Be supportive and help you teen to feel comfortable in their own skin.
Set a good example:
If you are constantly obsessing about what you eat and how much you exercise kids will pick up and that and feel that they should be doing the same. While the reverse is also true, if you eat junk food all of the time and never exercise it is likely they will pick up that habit as well your best bet is to remember moderation. Eat healthy the majority of the time, and don’t feel guilty if you splurge from time to time. If the whole family is going out for ice cream have a scoop with them.
Make health part of everyday life:
Have healthy snacks around the house, when possible have well balanced meals available and try to get the whole family involved in exercise like going for a hike or bike ride. When health is just incorporated into life teens will be less likely to feel as though they need to diet or go to extreme measure to fit into what they believe to be an ideal body image.
Best Teen Diets recommends healthy well balanced eating that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein and low-fat or fat-free dairy. We offer nutrition information for teens, parents and educators that emphasize the importance of healthy eating for teens.
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