Feeling Healthy...as a whole person 💪🏽

(plus mocktails, book recs about food mindsets, + pretend airport)

Hello! How are you doing?

Like, really? How is your whole self doing?

This month we’re going to focus on feeling good. I could label it as health/strength/wellness, but I feel like many of those words carry baggage and I just want to be clear about the real aim for this month: feeling healthy in all areas of life.

my daughter is pretty ripped 😅 but most importantly, she feels good!

Think about the patterns of health you’ve had in seasons past. In seasons where you made it a priority to go to sleep on time, you probably found yourself in a better mood than the nights when you consistently found yourself up late bingeing or scrolling. In seasons when you were more intentional about what you were eating, you probably had more energy and found it easier to be more self-disciplined in other areas, right? It’s all connected.

Let’s evaluate: on a scale of 1 (awful) to 10 (just about perfect) how healthy do you feel in each of these parts of life: emotionally, relationally, mentally, physically? Feel free to print this out and color in the rings to gauge where you’re at.

If you want, you can focus on just one of those aspects of your health and evaluate where you’re at with those.

I’m not into gambling, but I could totally bet that if you improve one of the four areas of physical health, you’ll start improving all of them.

I’d further bet that if you feel better physically, your relational/emotional/mental health scores will soon get a boost as well. Our bodies work in a similar way; when the cardiovascular system is working better, our nervous system is working better. It’s all connected.

If you want to color these in, I suggest you fill one out now, at the beginning of the month, and revisit it later this month and later this year to see if there’s been some improvement in how healthy you feel as a whole person.

I don’t know if a person can feel like a ten in all areas or even if they should. The goal isn’t a “Level 10 Life”—the pressure would certainly hurt mental health 😅—but just to feel and function better.

What does all this have to do with kids? (This is a parenting newsletter, after all.) Well, your health greatly impacts theirs. And showing them how to make healthy choices is one of the most important things you can do as a parent! Their math scores or sports trophies can only get them so far in life, but what skills and mindsets do they need to be equipped to function well as adults? That’s something to think about!

We’ll talk more about it this month and I’d love to hear some input in the comments.

And now for some other highlights for the week (since this is all in one email now!)

Yummy Food: Frozen-Fruit Mocktails

Frozen fruits are so great. They’re usually cheaper than fresh, they were picked at perfect ripeness, they don’t need to be washed or cut, and you can eat them year-round. If you want to incorporate fruit into a meal but don’t feel like washing and cutting—relatable 😉—then make a mocktail!

Sparkling water + frozen fruit + maybe a splash of some bitters or Grenadine = a simple, refreshing bevarage that is cooled by the frozen fruit. And, by the time you’re done drinking it, the fruit will have thawed and you can slurp it up, eat it with a fork, or pour it onto a plate or something. I don’t know a classy way to do it. But enjoy.

Activity Idea: Pretend Airport

Last year I shared some ideas and printables for making a pretend airport. For the plane, all you have to do is decorate some windows, tape them to the wall, and line up some chairs. Let kids take turns being the pilots and making announcements. It’s soooo cute.

It’s a great activity to do with friends!

Reading/Watching/Listening Suggestions

This month, I recommend grownups read Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan. It’s probably the shortest, quickest book you’ll read this year. Rules usually aren’t good news, but this book is super liberating and much more timeless than a diet. His documentary series on Netflix called Cooked is fascinating, too.

A picture book recommendation for this week is 13 Words by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Maira Kalman. It’s a very quirky book and it might not be your style. However, our family has so much fun with it and the art by Maira Kalman (same illustrator as Food Rules) is just so delightfully odd. If you want your children to add words such as “despondent” and “haberdashery” to their vocab, you’ll love it.

For older kids, check out Food Anatomy by Julia Rothman. I don’t know how her books are supposed to be used, really, but…if you want to know things like short-order-cook lingo for how to prepare eggs, it’s an amusing and educational read and re-read.

I hope you find some music you like this week. We’ve been vibing to the 1963 hit “I Will Follow You” by Ricky Nelson, either on the record player while cleaning or on a Bluetooth speaker while slack-lining in the yard. The lyrics sound a bit co-dependent if you think about them too much 🤪 but I’m still choosing this song as one of my lighthearted summertime jams.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week. I’m cheering you on!
I’m now on a once-a-week posting schedule, so I’ll plan to see you next Monday.

Warmly,

Hope from Family Scripts