10 Heroic Habits of Health

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for LISTERINE. I received samples for this review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Superheroes are a big deal in our home. My kids love Superheroes – toys, movies, cartoons, all of it! Since Superheroes are people that we should look up to, have qualities we want to mimic and habits we also want to have we have come up with:

10 Heroic Habits of Health

1. Family Walks

One of our favorite Sunday afternoon activities is going for walks. We have a favorite walking path around a local lake, try finding a fun walking for your family.

2. Family Bike Rides

Everyone in our family has a bike; even our baby who is not big enough to ride a bike has a bike seat so he can join in the rides too. It has taken a while to get bikes for every one but now we have a fun riding up and down our block together. Bikes are great because exercise is happening without anyone realizing it – we are too busy having fun!

3. Playing Outside When Mowing the Lawn

It’s easy for me to go outside and mow the lawn and do yard work by myself, but we try to have our kids come outside and play while I am working outside rather than stay inside. Sometimes I have to stop in the middle of lawn to the answer a question or kick a ball but it gives them some time to be outside.

4. Unplug and Eat Dinner as a Family

In today’s world of portable electronics with laptops, tablets and phones its sometimes hard to pull people away. When it is dinner time we have a rule that there are no electronics at the dinner table. Dinner is a chance to talk about each other’s day and connect.

5. Everyone Has a Tooth Brush

At our house everyone has a tooth-brush including our 18 month old baby. In fact he loves “brushing his teeth” so much that sometimes he will go into the bathroom during the day, grab his tooth-brush and wander the house brushing. Sometimes we have to rip the tooth-brush out of his hands to get him to stop brush his teeth so we can put him to bed. He has gotten better about using his own tooth-brush but he use to use any tooth-brush he could find. So after an episode of using almost all the tooth brushes in the house, we threw them all away and everyone got a new tooth-brush.

When I’m at work and I don’t have the opportunity to brush my teeth I use discreet LISTERINE POCKETPACKS for fresh breath.

6. Brushing, Flossing & Mouth Wash Every Night

Sometimes it’s as easy as just asking our kids to brush their teeth, our times it takes sitting on them and doing it for them, but either way brushing gets done. I use to have to sit on my son a lot and brush his teeth, but since we have been brushing teeth every night consistently he has been doing it on his own.

I really like the new Healthy White Gentle mouth wash from LISTERINE. It kills bad breath, prevents cavities, is peroxide free for gentler whitening. LISTERINE also offers Smart Rinse, it’s mouth wash just for kids which is something that we need to have our kids start using. Did you know you can purchase LISTERINE products online? You can!

My kids love floss that is flavored. LISTERINE has a “Cool Mint” floss that is flavored and we all love. They also have several different types of flosses to compliment any concern you might have including: Ultra Clean Mint Floss, Healthy White Mint Floss, Gentle Gum Care floss and Ultra Clean Access Flosser which is great for kids and hard to reach back molars.

7. Take Everyone to the Dentist

Growing up is hard. When your young you count on your Mom and Dad to schedule everything and take care of the necessities. After I got married it was a long time until I went to the dentist and when I did there were a few things that needed to be taken care of. I don’t want my kids to go through something like that so we decided to find a dentist and take the kids in for regular check ups. After asking around we found a really good practice that is really good with kids and now our kids love going to the dentist. When you are looking for a dentist don’t settle for anyone, ask around and find the best one for your family.

8. Drink Plenty of Water

This is one that the whole family needs to work on. Here’s an interesting fact: Your body is between 55% and 60% water. One of the benefits from drinking water is that it helps flush the toxins out of your body while helping improve the functionality of your organs. When we go on walks, everyone has a water bottle that they can use throughout the walk. Everyone has a water bottle in their lunch. Having water in the door of our fridge gives everyone the opportunity to get a drink anytime they want.

9. Prepare Kids For New Experiences by Explaining What’s Coming

Daniel Tiger says it best, ♫ “When we do something new, let’s talk about what we’ll do!” ♪♪

Our son started Kindergarten this year and for the past 6 months whenever you would ask him if he was excited about going to Kindergarten, he would say “No, I’m not going!” Luckily the elementary school has a lot of activities near the end of the school year so whenever we went to a school activity for out daughter we would say things like: “there’s where the Kindergarten classes.” or “do you want to go and see where your Kindergarten class will be.” We went to meet the teacher before school started to see the actual class room and be introduced to the teacher. Every took opportunity we had to expose him to everything about Kindergarten, and now going to school is his favorite thing.

10. Sleep!

One of my favorite quotes from The Lorax is: “Sleep is the body’s way of telling other people to go away.” Sleep is very important. At our house we have a few good sleepers and a few not so good sleepers. One will wake up just from hearing the floor creaking outside his door. Another will wake up when you open the door to her room. And another will wake up after you turn on the light, pull the blanket off of him and rub his back for a few minutes. Everyone can tell when someone did get enough sleep at our house and nap time goes from a luxury to a necessity. Our youngest sons thinks he is too big for naps, but at the end of the day when he has melt down after melt down, as parents we know better. And even though he may cry a little before falling asleep at nap time, it is totally worth it. That is why even during the summer our kids have their regular bedtime because kids (and parents) need sleep.

Do you have any other Heroic Habits of Health at your house? LISTERINE has created a to also help encourage healthy habits.