Feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of overhauling your family's daily routine? Don't be. Remember that you don't have to change everything at once, and you may be surprised by how many positive routines your family already has in place. Start by assessing your habits — both good and bad — by keeping a family fitness log for a week. Write down all meals and snacks (including what, how much, and where) and physical activities. Everyone in the family should be part of the assessment. If some members are less than forthcoming with the information, do your best to estimate. Try not to interrogate; you'll only put family members on the defensive and probably won't get an accurate answer anyway.

Another approach is to give each member of the family a notebook to tally his or her own meals and activities. With this method, everyone is on the honor system. You should stress that this is a nonjudgmental exercise designed not to pick out individual faults, but to assess where you might improve your family routines.

Once you have a week's worth of family information logged, schedule a family meeting to sit down together and analyze your data. Look for trends, like meals being consistently skipped and family members eating in shifts rather than together.

Some additional questions to ask include the following:

• How many snacks and meals were eaten on the go or while performing other activities?

• Is your daily food intake roughly equivalent to the USDA recommended daily allowance for each food group? (See Chapter 6 for more information.)

• Does your daily diet contain plenty of fresh, whole foods, or is it mostly processed and packaged goods?

• Do you cook appropriate amounts and serve reasonable portions? Are you eating just until you're full or until the plate is clean?

• How much water are you drinking? Are your other beverages of choice full of empty calories?

• What kinds of meals are the kids getting at school? Do they have access to vending machines or other sources of candy and snacks at school or at extracurricular activities?

• Are the kids getting at least sixty minutes of moderate physical activity each day, and are the adults getting at least thirty minutes?

• How often does the family engage in physical activity together?

Once you've analyzed where your family is in terms of nutrition and exercise, it's time to set some goals for where you'd like to go together.

Setting Goals

Goals should not be a magic number on the scale. Instead, you should focus on changes you can make right now to work towards a healthier family. It's fine to start with smaller goals, such as eating your five-a-day servings of fruits and vegetables, walking your kids to school instead of driving, or packing a nutritious lunch for your child instead of sending money for corndogs and tater tots.

You should also have long-term goals established that include the nationally recognized standards for exercise and nutrition. That includes an hour of daily exercise for kids (thirty minutes daily for adults) and daily food intake that follows the USDA guidelines. No one — and no one family — is perfect, and while some weeks you may meet those objectives, there will be plenty of times you won't. The important thing is that they're always there to aspire to. Chapter 6 has more information on USDA standards and other nutrition issues, and Chapter 10 addresses exercise for children.

Don't Forget to Make It Fun

You don't want your children to start referring to your evening walk together as “the nightly death march.” If they aren't enjoying an activity you choose for the family, by all means, try something different until you find one that they do. Let your children take turns choosing family outings. Roller- or ice-skating, snowboarding, bicycling, kayaking, canoeing, football, tennis, Frisbee, golf, bowling — the list is endless. Reluctant to plan a trip to the skating rink or to rent a canoe, just because you've never done it before? All the more reason to try these things out! You may find a new activity your child can be passionate about, or you may discover that it isn't your cup of tea, but at least you've had fun together trying it.

Mixing It Up

Remember that you don't have to make a big financial investment in sporting goods or equipment to mix things up. Rentals are relatively cheap, and when even those may be a strain on the budget, you can find other ways to add entertainment value to less glamorous activities like family walks. Try some new locales, such as a local forest preserve or beach, and make your trek a nature hike. Add a list of items each child has to find on your journey, and you have a scavenger hunt. If your older children enjoy personal challenges, buy them an odometer for their bikes or a pedometer for their waistbands, and let them try to reach new distance goals with these activities. Whatever you choose to do, make it interesting and fun for your child. Don't hesitate to change gears if your current fitness plans are greeted with groans and rolling eyeballs.