Spring has sprung and your home deserves a makeover! Cleaning and decluttering your house will enable you to stay organized, as well as invoke feelings of a fresh start and mental well-being. Your kitchen counters will thank you, along with that treadmill that is being used as impromptu storage for clothes. With the days growing longer, there are so many activities that can be done in or around your home to simultaneously promote both cleanliness and fitness goals!

‍

‍

1)  YOGA UNDER THE STARS:

Gather the family and head to the front or back yard for a late afternoon or evening of yoga. If you have a projector, find an online yoga class and project it onto the house. Another option is to have each family member lead everyone in a few poses. No mat? No problem! A beach towel will be perfect!

‍

2) GARDENING:

Gardening offers numerous health benefits such as walking, squatting, stretching, lifting and bending. All of this movement increases oxygen flow to the muscles and brain, and increases a sense of well-being and calm. Detach from electronics for a day and connect with nature in your own yard. Along with growing plants and flowers, growing fruits and vegetables is a wonderful way to get the entire family involved in healthy eating. For those with a smaller yard or limited time, herb gardens are an excellent option. They require less space and maintenance while still providing a positive experience for the entire family. Children will love picking the basil that they grew to put in the spaghetti dinner!

‍

3)  OBSTACLE COURSE:

Turn the yard into field day with an obstacle course! The family can rotate between game stations to add a fun competitive spirit to your fitness routine. Some ideas for game stations are corn hole, horseshoes, ladder toss, Twister, sack races, Spikeball or Slammo.

‍

4)  FAMILY STROLL:

Take the whole family, including the pets, on a walk around the neighborhood. Make it more of a challenge with the addition of skates or bikes. After your excursion, enjoy a backyard picnic to celebrate exercising as a family.

‍

5) NO YARD, NO PROBLEM:

Children love sidewalk chalk, and the driveway or street is the perfect place to allow them to get extremely creative without a permanent commitment. Hopscotch and four square can easily be drawn and played for hours.

‍

6) TURN ON THE HOSE:

Whip out the slip-n-slide, water guns, and water balloons! Surprise your children, friends, or neighbors with a bucket full of water balloons that are ready to be catapulted. Leave a note saying, “Mom and Dad are hiding with our ammo…Good luck!” This will get the family running without even realizing it!

‍

7) TIME TRAVEL:

Take a cue from “Back to the Future”, start running, and don’t stop until you reach eighty-eight miles per hour! If life works like the movies, this will allow you to travel back to the 80’s and play some classic outdoor games. Even if it doesn’t, you can still gather the neighbors and play hide and seek, kick the can, or capture the flag!

‍

8) SPRING CLEANING:

Declutter the house with a family scavenger hunt! See who can gather items to donate or throw away the quickest. After you’ve finished decluttering, clean the house as a family. Just think of all the leg muscles that will be used washing the baseboards! This is also a great time to recommit to healthy eating as a family. Go through your refrigerator and pantry to discard unhealthy foods and snacks. Follow up with a family field trip to restock on nutritious replacements.

‍

‍

‍

‍

> LESLIE DOBBINS Birmingham native Leslie Dobbins is an Elite Fitness Instructor for Life Time Fitness. When she’s not chasing after her 3-year-old son, she enjoys teaching a range of classes based in weights, dance, boxing, cycle and ballet.