01 906 1122
Trusted brokers for
life cover.
01 906 1122
Trusted brokers for
life cover.
Holidays are a time to chill, destress, and enjoy yourself, but it can also be a time when your health plans go out the window, which is never good. It’s important to remain fit and healthy with your family when on holiday.
In today’s column, I wanted to bring you some simple ways to stay fit and healthy with your family while you’re away. It’s great to spend time together and it’s an excellent opportunity to make health and fitness fun with your family too. Remember, encouraging a healthy family and installing a positive association with exercise will dramatically increase the chance of your child staying healthy for life, so it really is incredibly important. Try some of these with your family – you might even enjoy it!
You can make up your own version of this, but the idea is to test how many exercises you can do in one minute as a family. Here is my list of exercises to try: Jumping jacks, sprint on the spot, heel kicks, press-ups and jump in the air. Simply do one minute of each and make a note of how you do – children will love the element of competition. Try it several times over the course of your holiday and see how much you can improve your score.
You’re usually guaranteed to have at least one person in the family with a FitBit, iWatch or some other kind of step counter. You can even download apps on your phone to keep track, if you don’t have a dedicated device. Set a target as a family to hit the magic 10,000 steps a day. What you will find is that you will be doing walks before and after dinner, and the collective goal will make everyone less likely to want to take the bus or taxis. Plus, you’ll get to celebrate the accomplishment of hitting a target every day, which always feels great, no matter what age you are.
No matter where you travel to in the world, you will be able to try new sports and activities, which are generally available for any age group. Researching in advance and booking an exciting activity is one of the really important ones, as the key to helping children stay healthy is finding sports that are fun. Trying something totally different and new on holidays is the perfect way to do this.
If your family love the One Minute Challenge, suggest a group game to play together. There are so many options to choose from: basketball shooting from different distances, penalty shootouts, finding out who can tread water the longest, building an obstacle course or seeing how far you can jump in the sand. Remember, children love games and will love playing games with you, so why not make those games fun? You might even find that you’re a big kid yourself.
Between buffets and being out of your regular routine, you can often lose track of how your family eat on holiday. Just remember the five-a-day rule to keep your family on track: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner. If you’re at the hotel buffet in the morning, then make sure to take some fruit with you to keep as your snacks for later in the day. Sticking to some sort of a routine is so important for staying healthy, both for you and your family. Here are some more steps for eating healthy on holiday.
Quick challenges and games are fun, but you can’t beat a family workout. Try this little workout with your kids and don’t forget to join in yourself too: a three-minute jog to warm up, then follow with three sets and 20 reps each of: squats, plank, lunges, sit-ups and press-ups. If it’s proving too easy, increase it to five sets.
This is the crucial one. You can hardly expect your children to be healthy if you are sitting on the sun lounger, with pints and chips in your hand. You need to show your family that you are being healthy too. So often I get emails from parents looking to improve their children’s health, yet they have incredibly unhealthy lifestyles themselves. The solution? Lead by example and watch what happens to your children’s behaviour.
It is also important to remain financially fit and life insurance can help you do that. At Oomph, we help you find a policy that fits your lifestyle and budget. Get your free quote here.
You are starting a young family and you have the future to look forward to with your spouse and family. Young families have new commitments, such as buying your first home or having children. Another commitment is to make sure your family is financially secure no matter what life may bring.
If you were to die unexpectedly, life insurance is there to make sure your family can maintain their standard of living. It can also make sure they stay in your home, stay in the same school and keep on the same future track. It also gives the grieving spouse or partner time to make decisions. In some cases, it gives the spouse time to find work outside the home, without worrying about finances.
Whether you bring home more or less than your spouse, your family relies on your income. Any income would be missed if something were to happen to you. Even if you don’t work outside of the home, having life insurance is a smart choice. Stay-at-home parents perform valuable services such as childcare, cooking, housecleaning and household management. These services can be costly if that person has to get a job away from the house.
Term policies are quite popular with many young families. This is because they typically offer the greatest coverage for the lowest cost. Term insurance provides protection for a specific period of time (the “term”), and can be ideal for people who feel they have financial needs to cover that will disappear over time, such as a mortgage or a child’s education.
However, many families realize that even after the kids are grown and the mortgage is paid off, their need for insurance continues—to provide income for a surviving spouse, eliminate debts, pay taxes, etc. Because life insurance premiums increase with age, renewing your policy when the term expires can be very expensive. Moreover, poor health may make renewal impossible.
Term life insurance makes sense for many young families because their need for coverage is great and their budgets are often limited. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only type of insurance you should consider. There are other types of insurance on the market that might suit you and your family needs for the future. Contact one of our professional and highly confidential agents today and they will get you the best life insurance on the market today with the leading brokers in Ireland.
At Oomph, we can find a life insurance policy that will protect your young family. Get your free quote here.