3 Ways to Get Teens Interested in Healthy Lifestyles

3 Ways to Get Teens Interested in Healthy Lifestyles

Some teens are born wanting to think and live healthily. I think if we could take an honest poll, it would probably not be most of them. It is natural for teens to want to consume themselves with sedentary activities and consume fun food while they engage a little adolescent isolation (or the opposite: teen drama).

On the other hand, there are nothing like teenagers to jump on the bandwagon for healthy lifestyles once they get a vision for it. The secret to self-motivation for self-care is to get their buy-in!

For homeschool high schoolers to truly want to be healthy, they need a holistic understanding of their health.

They need to understand that God created them as a whole person with many facets:

• Spirit
• Soul (mind, emotions, will)
• Body
• Social (connects with self, family, friends, church, work, society)

If we want to get teens motived for self-care, we would be wise to help them gain skills in all those areas…and to WANT to have skills in each of those areas.

What are 3 ways to get teens interested in healthy lifestyles?

Way #1 to Get Teens Interested in Healthy Lifestyles: Model it yourself

We parents can gain some inspiration from the old adage, “More is caught than taught”. If we give ourselves permission, and perhaps a personal plan, we can live healthily in front of our children. They will gain some skills and attitudes simply by exposure to your skills and attitudes.

This does not mean that you must be fitness queens…just good-enough queens!

This simply means that you can ask yourself these simple questions (no guilt-trip allowed):

• How would God like for me to treat myself?
• How can I treat myself as a daughter of God?
• What small activities, habits and thoughts can I incorporate into my life on a daily basis?
  • For spiritual development
  • For soul development
    (To help with this, you can download the freebies from my coaching website, Vicki Tillman Coaching, Enhancing Emotional Health Part 1 and Enhancing Emotional Health Part 2)
  • For physical health
  • For social health
  • Tip: check out this Homeschool Highschool Podcast episode on Psychological First Aid.
• Need a planner for all this? Our friend, Melanie Wilson, at Homeschool Sanity Podcast, has a planner (The Organized Homeschool Life) to help you organize these (and other) aspect of your healthy lifestyle. BTW- We are not affiliates, just admire her skills. Want to hear more about organization? Catch her interview on Homeschool Highschool Podcast. 

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Way #2 to Get Teens Interested in Healthy Lifestyles: Provide role models

I’ve noticed by working with homeschool high schoolers over the years (my kids included) that they like to have 3 kinds of role modes besides their parents:

• In Real Life role models.

  • IRL role models are usually a little older than they are and present a personality and lifestyle that teens can admire. I have seen them look up to:
    • Youth group leaders
    • Coaches
    • Band leaders
    • Worship leaders
    • College students or young working adults that they know or are related to

• YouTube role models

  • Many teens find their role models on YouTube. If a YouTuber can inspire your homeschool high schoolers toward a healthier lifestyle, why not? Here are some YouTube role models teens say they like:
    • Cambria Joy. Healthy lifestyle.
    • Justin Weber Yo-yo performer. Working out isn’t the only way to be physically fit and happy. Try yo-yoing. Justin Weber is a homeschool graduate. He competes internationally in yo-yo competitions.
    • Trio Fitness OCR. We are a little biased here, but we suggest a little role modeling from 2 homeschool graduates (and sons of our 7Sister Sara) who own and operate TrioFitLife.com.
    • One of our homeschool high school friends recommended Anabolic Aliens for workouts.
    • Another homeschool high school friend recommended the cute dance fitness videos at Refit.
    • A Christian wellness/fitness channel recommended by another friend: Revelation Wellness.

• Website role models.

  • Our same friends, Luke and Joel Hayes from the YouTube channel are also at  TrioFitLife.com. They train athletes for Obstacle Course Races. They love it and so do their clients.
  • One of our homeschool friends recommended this Christian yoga website.

Way #3 to Get Teens Interested in Healthy Lifestyles: Get a non-boring Health text

While homeschool high schoolers need to catch healthy lifestyles by watching their role models, they also need to learn it for themselves. It’s hard for teens to do what they don’t know. If they use a text for their Health credit that inspires them, rather than kills-the-subject with busywork and over-teaching, they are more likely to start to understand themselves. And if they understand themselves better, they will be able to better formulate their own self-care plans.

We recommend 7Sisters High School Health for the Whole Person!

We present High School Health for the Whole Person in our 7Sisters no-busywork, don’t-kill-the-subject, adaptable-to-different-levels styles. Teens tell us they enjoy the text. Not only that, they earn their Health credit while gaining good life skills.

The text is written to be enjoyably readable for most homeschool high schoolers and provides meaningful, interesting activities for leveling-up to a rigorous Honors credit for college-bound teens. You might want to check out this suggested syllabus.

(We periodically update the links for those in the text, you can download these updated links in this freebie: Health for the Whole Person – Updates.)

Here’s a review by the popular website It’s Not That Hard to Homeschool High School on High School Health for the Whole Person. 

When you download your teen’s copy of 7Sisters High School Health for the Whole Person, they will gain skills for understanding and managing their:

• Spirit
• Soul (mind, emotions, will)
• Body
• Social (connects with self, family, friends, church, work, society)
• AND in these days of a crazy world, there is information on safety

Check out this post on ideas for teaching Health in a class or at home. While you are at it, here are more activities for teaching Health in this post and more ideas for covering Health in this post.

Also, while we love 7Sisters Health curriculum, there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school. With that in mind, it might help to check out this post on four ways to earn Health credit.