Eco-Friendly Habits for Healthy Families

Are you looking for ways to help your family get healthy? Want to “go green” and cut down on waste? You can be healthy and eco-friendly at the same time. Green living and healthy living often go hand-in-hand, and there are some easy things you can do to build healthy habits for your family.

First, I must disclose that I am not what some would consider a “crunchy” mom. In fact, I didn’t even know what “crunchy” meant until about a year ago (I had to ask someone to explain it to me). Although I would like to, I don’t do all of the things on this list.

I approach the whole eco-friendly/healthy living thing by asking these questions:

1. Will it simplify things for our family? If the answer is no, I skip it.
2. Will it save us money in the long run? I’m okay with investing a little more upfront to save more money and resources over time.
3. Will it really improve our health?

So, with that disclaimer out of the way, here are a bunch of really cool eco-friendly habits that could improve your family’s health!

Eco-Friendly Habits For Healthy Families

• Making DIY beauty and skincare products – This could save you hundreds on makeup and skincare products, but it does take a lot of trial and error to make your own beauty supplies. Once you’ve got it all figured out, making the products is easy, and you control the ingredients!
• Using TV time for exercising – Instead of paying for expensive gym memberships and driving to the gym each day, work out at home while watching your favorite shows. We have a little elliptical machine near our TV that we can use during commercials. I’ve also been trying out the TV Time Action Pack to make things a little more exciting!
• Growing food – Gardening is a great outdoor family activity. You can control the growing conditions of your food, and if you’re successful, you’ll end up increasing your vegetable intake! Try Jumpstart Your Urban Farm for backyard gardening inspiration and education.
• Maximizing breakfast – Healthy families know the importance of a good breakfast. They maximize the meal by eating foods that will stick with them all day. Check out Brainy Breakfast for grain-free, brain fueling breakfast recipes.
• Stopping picky eating – This one is SO difficult for our family. I’ve been reading Crunch 0 Put a Stop to Picky Eating and Help Your Kids Love Veggies. It has some great ideas!
• Prepping healthy meals ahead of time – Freezer meals can be a lifesaver, and they’ll keep you from resorting to fast food. Skillet Freezer Meals will help you prep healthy meals that you can freeze and warm up later.
• Taking eco-friendly baby steps – If you try to make a ton of changes at once, they’re not likely to stick. Kinda Crunchy by Tiffany Terczak can help you find more eco-friendly ways to improve your family’s health.