Goals for Good Health - Having a Stretching Habit

 As you may remember - I am working to develop habits in me and our children that will help us to lead healthier lives. Two weeks ago I talked about drinking more water and last week I talked about flossing. Those goals are both going pretty good. Some days we have very easily hit our targeted amount of water and other days we have to work on it a bit and sometimes fall short a bit. Progress is being made however. The flossing is going good too. I have managed to do it 100 % of the days and the kids are doing pretty good too.

  One thing that we have found both helpful and fun is having some nice charts up to keep track of those things as well as other chores and stuff that we need to get done each day. I found these really nice customizable and printable (free) charts over at my friend Jackie's blog - Blessings overflowing. She has places to put chores/goals and then a box behind it for each day of the week. She also has eight glasses of water printed below each day so that you can X them off or color them in or whatever suits your fancy.

My kids have been spending time on Kahn Academy lately and they think that it is fun on there how their Avatar will grow/change when they hit certain goals and so they thought I should have something like that too for these charts. (Megan's idea but the others find it fun too.) So I drew a plain stick figure on each page and whenever they get 10 marks on their page (for completing a job or drinking a glass of water) then I add something new to their person such as giving them hair or clothes or hands or a hat and so on. Mara has been drawing one for me too so we have all been having a little fun with this.

   I do wanted to get some of these charts made up more permanently by figuring out all our things to work on and then laminating it but so far we are just writing on the paper. We have it on the front of the fridge so we don't miss it but eventually I would like to mount them on the inside of a cupboard door so they aren't quite so much a part of our decor. :-)

  How have you been doing on your health goals?

 The health goal that I have for this week is to get back into the habit of stretching. We used to have a short (a few minutes) stretching routine every morning but that rather went by the wayside with our moving and such this past year. I do know however that stretching helps keep my neck in better condition and the kid's as well. We have been a little tight lately and I think it is time to do some stretching! With the stretching we also work on some deep breathing which is very good for you as well.

 The kids have not been overly found of stretching time but it is still good for them so onward, forward! Would you like to join us?

 Do you stretch regularly? I would love to hear about your routine.