The Pursuit of Healthiness

The Pursuit of Healthiness
Your Guide to Getting Healthy

Friday, February 8, 2013

Have a Family Night!

When I was a little girl, family night happened every Wednesday, no excuses, and involved a game of Scene It, Yatzee, or Monopoly. It usually ended with my sister and I fighting and all of us having a bowl of ice cream.

This is not the type of family night I'm talking about. These days, most nights at home are spent on the couch, my parents indulging in a decadent dessert and flipping through the channels complaining that there's nothing on. It's taken weeks, months even, for me to try to change this behavior that's only increased their risk for heart disease and waistline over the years.

Two years ago, my mother bought me a Wii for Christmas, with WiiSports and WiiFit. We spent most of the day and the following days playing the games, my parents actually enjoying getting up and golfing, bowling, boxing. Then they got bored. Then they sat on the couch and had dessert.

In the past few months, I've been trying to get that to change. Little by little, I got them up. I versed my mom in a series of tennis games, until it became an all out grudge match, a Wimbleton. I boxed my father, who hates to lose. They ended up exhausted and my dad ended up changing the channel back to watching horseracing.

But hey, it's a start!

So how are you "family nighting?" WiiSports marathon? A basketball game of kids verses parents? A Just Dance dance fest? Sound off and share some of your own ideas!