Prying your screen-happy pizza lover off the couch to eat a healthy meal and move around a little may be as easy as following some simple rules.

Everything in moderation is the key for Kimberly Justus, health and fitness program coordinator at the Downtown Boise YMCA.

“I don’t believe in fat-free foods,” she said. “I don’t believe in eating low-fat food, just every food in moderation.”

That has worked for Justus, a lifetime member of Weight Watchers who lost track of eating well when her son was 9 years old.

“McDonald’s became our kitchen,” she said.

She changed her habits, eating what she wanted, as long as she didn’t go over Weight Watchers limits. Her son helped her keep track of what she ate. In the process, he learned how to read food labels. Her son, now 18, still has the habit of reading labels.

A few easy steps for helping your children establish healthy habits:

•  Read labels on sugary drinks. One bottle often looks like one serving, but examine the label. It may say the drink has little more than 100 calories, but that’s for one serving, and the bottle has two and a half servings. Do the math. Consider water instead.

•  Take a box of  mini cookies and divide it into one-serving portions. Read the label to see how many cookies make one serving. Put the servings in resealable bags.

•  Practice what you preach. It’s easy to tell kids they need to get moving, but the message will sink in better if you do it, too, says Katie Lamansky, health program specialist with Idaho’s physical activity and nutrition program. Some ways to help your kids:

•  Try setting the stage by limiting screen time, maybe 15 minutes at a time. You can do it, Lamansky says. Kids spend an average of six and a half hours a day plugged into screens — game systems, computers, TV. That’s 45.5 hours a week. “That’s a full-time job that kids are using watching TV or playing video games,” Lamansky said.

•  Add your kids to family activities or chores you already do. Spend time together outside working in the yard. Take walks with kids outdoors, or take your dog for a walk.

Go on hikes. If the word “hike” sounds too much like work, add a fun factor by turning it into a search for pretty rocks or a scavenger hunt or whatever works for your kid.

•  Give your children time for unstructured play — the kind where they use their imaginations, and make up characters and rules.