15 Tips to Inspire Your Family to Move Toward Healthier Habits

A healthy diet can help prevent your fatty liver disease from getting worse or even stop it entirely. When you eat the right foods, you lose weight --- that lowers the amount of fat in your liver. 

Start small. You don’t have to make huge changes in your diet. 

Even small changes can have a big impact on your liver health.

If you have MASH or MASLD,  keep healthy snacks handy for when you’re on the go.  

Snack healthy and try: 

• Whole-grain tortilla chips paired with guacamole to add fiber. 
• Plantain chips, which are rich in fiber, potassium, magnesium, and vitamins A and C. For lower fat, look for baked.
• Spicy peanuts and pepitas (pumpkin seeds) provide heart-healthy fat, protein, and fiber. 
• Fruit topped with lime juice and chili seasoning. 

To keep meal times fun with the family, aim to have a couple of healthy themed meals each week. 

Themed meal nights, you can try:

• Meatless Monday: Serve vegetable quesadillas stuffed with chopped vegetables, black beans, and low-fat cheddar cheese. 

• Taco Thursday: Serve fish tacos made from your favorite white fish, seasoning, shredded cabbage, low-fat cheese, and low-carb, whole-grain tortillas. 

Here are some easy ways to lower sugar in your diet. 

Lower sugar, you can try to :

• Ditch sugary drinks like soda to help you get rid of 39 grams of sugar --- the total sugar in a 12-ounce can of cola.
• Swap soda and juice for plain or sparkling water as much as possible. 
• Add slices of lemon, lime, or orange to flavor your water.
• Only eat sweets like ice cream once or twice a week, or not at all.
• Offer fruit topped with Greek yogurt as dessert.

Staying active with fatty liver disease helps prevent your condition from getting worse. But staying active benefits the whole family, and it's more fun!

Stay active, try to get at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week. Set aside a little time each day for the family to get active together. Even if you don't enjoy it at first, physical activity is often more fun when you do it as a family.

You don’t have to run a marathon or exercise at the gym to improve your MASLD and MASH. Studies show walking for 30 minutes most days of the week can help improve liver function.

Walk more, you can squeeze in a walk with your family if you:

• Walk your dog
• Walk your kids to and from school
• Take a walk before or after dinner

You can make it more fun for your kids if you play music or games like “I Spy” or even have a short scavenger hunt.

Rather than sit inside, schedule 30 minutes of family time outdoors. 

Play soccer, kids love it? You can just all kick the ball around, or even focus on drills, dribbling, passing, or shooting. As long as you all get your heart rate up, it’s all good. You can also add some strength training moves so that everyone gets stronger soccer muscles. You can try:

• Push-ups
• Planks
• Squat jumps

It’s a win-win for both you and your child. You’ll get to spend time together, and you’ll get to see them grow in a sport that they love to do. 

Be a sports team coach, its a great way for both you and your child to stay active. You’ll be able to exercise with your child outdoors when you do sports drills.

The family that eats healthfully together and exercises together stays well together. But it can be tough to get everyone on board. 

Get the whole family involved, try to stay positive about new healthy habits. Here are some ways you can make healthy habits motivating and fun.

Kids get excited about family activities, especially when they're part of the process. 

Let your kids decide, and try to:

• Take your kids to the grocery store.
• Have them pick out fruits and vegetables.
• Let them help you cook.

Help your kids create fruit smiley faces, wash veggies, and mix batter. To encourage physical activity, let them pick what they want to do, whether it’s a dance party or to play tag.

It can be tough when you're trying to start a new healthy habit. To help, create a habit stack — build a habit onto activities you already do. 

Habit stack, and make habits together, you can try to:

• Add in going for a short walk, right after your normal breakfast time
• Start stretching right after you brush your teeth
• Lift weights while you watch TV

Research shows that even these small bouts of activity can help to make you healthier.

When your kids do something positive on their own, reward them. If they choose a piece of fruit as a snack or do physical activity outside, give them some praise.

Reward your kids, you can give a non-food rewards, like:

• A hug
• Going to a neighborhood block party
• Playing a card game such as Loteria 

When you see and reward your child’s efforts, they are more likely to continue. 

When it comes to healthy living, lead by example. 

Be the family role model, you can try and:

• Show your family how you’ve made eating pattern changes.
• Let them know how many fruits and veggies you eat each day.
• Share the little ways you’ve built in more activity.
• Track your wins where they can see. 
• Share that you've lost weight, your blood pressure is down, or liver health is better.

If they see you do well, it will inspire them to join.

The best way to adopt healthy habits is to start with one small thing at a time. 

Change one thing, to start small, here are a few things to try:

• Don’t exercise? Begin with a short 5-10 minute walk most days of the week. Add more time once you've built up your confidence. 
• Changing your diet? Start with an easy goal like cutting out one sugary drink a week, then every other day, until finally it’s once a day. 

Happiness spreads. You can help your family stay positive about healthy habits.

Teach positivity, to teach healthy habits, you can:

• Say “Let's take a walk after dinner, it will let us spend time together.” 
• Ask open-ended questions like “Why do you think this food is good for you?”
• Practice gratitude, talk about daily positive experiences.

Supporting each other can help you eat more healthy foods, stay active, and improve your liver health.