This post is part of my duties as a Together Counts™ Energy Balance Ambassador, for which I am being compensated. All opinions are my own.
So…I never really got around to doing a year-end recap post…that perhaps, was indicative of the fact that 2014 was a little crazy! Jonah started preschool, the big kids both had big academic achievements, and I got a J-O-B. We ended the year running at a very frenetic pace! This past year I was also once again an Energy Balance Ambassador for Together Counts ™ so the family and I made an extra effort to eat, play, and stay active together! That’s because Together Counts™, in case you need a refresher, is an initiative of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation that encourages and provides lots of resources for families to be active together and to work on their energy balance – calories in during family meals, and calories out during family activities.
So what did the Rapsons do together during 2014 to make it count? Well, lots of things of course! One big thing was that the big kids started going sailing with Daddy on Sundays. A great way to be active and spend quality time together! Jonah’s not quite ready for that yet, but someday he’ll be a rational being and he will make a great sailor as well. The best part of this is that they also get to be active with their Grandpa, Bobby’s dad, the original Rapson sailor.
We also took some time to serve together in active ways – once again doing the Buddy Walk for Down syndrome together and during the summer the kids also got to come with me to help deliver shoes and socks to kids who needed them with Shoes 4 the Shoeless, where they got to run and play right along side the kids they helped.
Another thing we did was make sure to be active on our family trips! That’s right, we didn’t just lay around on the beach (although that sounds lovely, and um, maybe I’ll put that on my list for 2015!) – we took a really looooong walk to the Lake Erie beach instead of taking a shuttle, we walked all around Cedar Point, and we played at parks and tromped around mountains at my parents’ place in Virginia. And of course, we took lots of opportunities to swim together, whether at home at our local pool or at hotels when we were traveling.
As it has gotten colder, we’ve still tried to keep up the activity (just not this week in the -25 degree wind chill temps!) – and just to make sure we were intentional about it, the kids did swim lessons this fall, too.
And of course, we’ve shared meals together as a family – got to fuel up before we play!
We’ve loved being active as a family together this past year – how about you? What ways have you worked on energy balance with your family? For more great resources and ideas on the why and the how of being active together, go check out Together Counts™!
