No one ever prepares you for feelings of the heart! Not until you have your own little munchkins and you nurture and care for their every need do you realize what has transpired in your heart and your body. Suddenly, they hit the road for college and the great adventure of life, and you are struck by wonder of where all that time went.

I think you spend so much physical energy on children when they are young, and when teenagerhood hits you are emotionally exhausted, and there seems to be no time for anything else, let alone your health.

I would never trade a minute of my motherhood, but I do think that asking for an hour everyday to physically care for our health is not a lot of time. It would mean that, over the last 21 years, I should have spent 7,476 hours exercising out of 179,424 hours of doing that motherhood thing.

Modeling for our children and families good healthy habits is extremely important and challenging. Modeling is a way of teaching without words, a way of showing and training and encouraging good habits by just doing them. Health habits are a challenge for families to model. How do you model a healthy lifestyle, when you are so busy just trying to get dinner on the table every night and homework accomplished? Where do you fit in that hour?

Research indicates that one of the best health habits you can have is to exercise everyday by walking and meditating in your own neighborhood. Not at the gym or in front of your TV, but outside, with fresh air, beautiful views and neighborhood chatter. The people with the greatest longevity always lived in community with others where they worked hard and played hard. I believe that in the Coeur d'Alene area, we have all of that right here. We have great neighborhoods, friendly people, and beautiful places to walk and hike right out our front door.

So what will you model for your health? Will you raise children with good health habits, or have to repair adults that have little understanding of what it means to care for themselves physically? Can you take the challenge to get your family outside playing and working together? Whatever we model is what are children learn.

So take time everyday for your health and include the family if you can. Put your kids in the backpacks, strollers or bike carriers and head out. Those of us with older kids, it never too late to start with healthy habits. Bike to the trails, or challenge your kids to a hike up Canfield Mountain with all their friends. Children like to have physical goals just as much as adults do, and it's good to set them. In the beginning, the challenge is just to get everyone to get moving, but soon everyone will need to set little goals to keep challenged: maybe a walk or run together at the Race for the Cure in September, or a bike ride for MS.

Whatever the challenge, look at it as an investment in your health and your children's health for the rest of your life. It's an investment of your time, but you will never be sorry for the trade.

They are watching you. What are you modeling?

Sheree DiBiase, PT, is the owner of Lake City Physical Therapy. She and her fabulous staff can be reached in Coeur d'Alene at (208) 667-1988, and in the Spokane Valley at (509) 891-2623, for an appointment to get you started on your healthy lifestyle modeling. You have to be physically healthy to take care of the ones you love, and be able to model well.