Mummy Zen

Exercising with your child isn’t for everyone. For those of us who don’t have family nearby to help out with childcare, it can be expensive to take time off to go and exercise. Thankfully there are other ways to burn calories that can be easily incorporated into a regular day.

Here are 5 activities that involve exercise without you even realising it and that are easy to do with children around:

Cleaning. Vigorous scrubbing, hoovering and other household cleaning chores are a great way to get some physical exercise whilst making your home nice and clean at the same time. Give your child a clean sponge and let them ‘help’ you clean.

Gardening. This can be an enjoyable way to burn some calories for those of you who have a garden. Digging, hoeing, weeding….and give your little ones a bucket and spade and an assigned area for them to dig around in while you’re working. They’ll have fun imitating you.

Walking. A long walk can be a lovely family activity. Keep to a brisk pace and go for hills and steps to make it more of a work-out. Use the nature around you to keep your child interested. They could collect sticks, daisies and leaves to press or to use for a collage for example.

Playing. Head to your local park and run around with your children. Chase them, play football, throw a frisbee or other games that involve running around. An easy way to get your body moving!

Shopping. Brisk walking to the shops or around a shopping mall, combined with carrying back bags of groceries or other items is another way to burn calories. This is easy with young babies but more challenging with older children who get bored easily. Try to do something for them on the shopping trip to make it more fun, go to a toy store or stop off at a play area.

What have I missed? Can you think of other activities that provide a bit of a work-out and that can be easily incorporated into a day at home looking after children?

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Photo credit

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This is a guest post by Jacqui Porjes, Personal Trainer, BuggyFit and Yoga Instructor.

Photo by Adria Richards

As 2010 beckons, many of us will be aiming for a healthy start to the year. One way to begin as you mean to go on is to make some fitness resolutions.

On average only about 20% of us keep our New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, some of the biggest failures are found in fitness resolutions. No need to let the statistics get you down though. By following the tips below you’ll be better equipped to fall into the successful 20% category.

Choose an attainable goal. Resolving to look like a model is not realistic for most of us, but promising to include daily physical activity in our lives is very possible.

Avoid choosing a resolution that you’ve been unsuccessful at achieving year after year. This will only set you up for failure, frustration and disappointment. If you are still tempted to make a promise that you’ve made before, then try altering it. For example, instead of stating that you are going to lose 30 pounds, try promising to eat healthier and increase your weekly exercise.

Create a game plan. At the beginning of January, write a comprehensive plan. All successful businesses start with a business plan that describes their mission and specifics on how they will achieve it. Write your own personal plan and you’ll be more likely to succeed as well.

Break it down and make it less intimidating. Rather than one big end goal, dissect it into smaller pieces. Set several smaller goals to achieve throughout the year that will help you to reach the ultimate goal. Then, even if you aren’t able to reach your final goal, you will have many smaller, but still significant, achievements along the way. For example, if your goal is to complete a 10K race, your smaller goals could be running a 5K in less than 30 minutes, adding upper and lower body strength training to increase your muscular endurance, and running 2 miles with a personal best completion time.

Make contingency plans: don’t assume sticking to your plan will be smooth sailing. Plan on hitting bumps along the resolution road and be prepared with specific ways to overcome them. What will keep you from skipping your workout or stop you from having a cigarette? This may mean seeking help from family or a professional, writing in a journal, etc.

Give it time: most experts agree that it takes about 21 days to create a habit and six months for it to actually become a part of your daily life.

Reward yourself with each milestone. If you’ve stuck with your resolution for 2 months, treat yourself to something special. But, be careful of your reward type. If you’ve lost 5 pounds, don’t give yourself a piece of cake as a reward. Instead, treat yourself to something non-food related, like a professional massage.

Ask friends and family members to help you. It’s good to have someone to be accountable to. Just be sure to set limits so that this doesn’t backfire and become more irritating than helpful. For example, if you resolve to be more positive ask them to gently remind you when you start talking negatively.

Don’t go it alone! Get professional assistance. Everyone needs help and sometimes a friend just isn’t enough. Sometimes you need the help of a trained professional. Don’t feel that seeking help is a way of copping out. Especially when it comes to fitness, research studies have shown that assistance from a fitness professional greatly improves people’s success rate.

Limit your number of promises. You’ll spread yourself too thin trying to make multiple changes in your life. This will just lead to failure of all of the resolutions.

Test your flexibility: realize that things change frequently. Your goals and needs may be very different in April then they were when you made your resolution in January. Embrace change, even if that means that your resolution is altered.

Keep a journal. A journal helps you recognize your positive steps and makes it harder to go back to the same old habits.

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Jacqui Porjes | 07947 568890 | Jacqui@porjes.com |www.buggyfit.co.uk

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Mummy Zen: You’ll find you can apply these same tips to many other types of new year’s resolutions, not just those related to fitness.

Do you have any other tips to share? What has worked for you in the past, enabling you to stick to your goals?

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Guest post by Jacqui Porjes, BuggyFit & Yoga Instructor, Personal Trainer

Recently had a baby? Feeling overwhelmed? Wondering what on earth has happened to your body? Wondering if you will ever fit back into your skinny jeans? We have all been there. Don’t despair – it is possible to feel fabulous again.

My name is Jacqui. I have a five-year old son and live in London. I have always had a background in fitness but it was shortly after giving birth to my son  that I decided to set up BuggyFit in Central London.

The first problem with postnatal fitness is the lack of gyms with crèches that are (a) affordable and (b) conveniently located. Even if you find one that is and you are lucky enough to be able to fork out the monthly fee plus crèche charges, you may not even be able to get your baby into the crèche, as they can be so oversubscribed!

I say, ditch the gym. Get yourself a jogging puschairif running is your thing, otherwise your normal buggy is fine.

Find yourself a nice circuit, plug in your music, don’t forget the raincover and go for it! One thing London has in abundance is great parks.

Pick a time every day. Morning is probably best, first thing with nothing to distract you like inpromtu meetings in Starbucks! It doesn’t even have to be an hour, 30-40 minutes is fine and follow a routine like this one:

• Start off with 15 mins of fast walking or gentle jogging (enough to raise the heart beat)
• Find a bench to use and do 10 press-ups, followed by 10 tricep dips
• Find a nice twig-free bit of ground and treat yourself to 3 minutes of gentle crunches!
• Another 10 mins of walking or jogging
• Warm down with some basic stretches

Have this time for your self every day or every other day. I promise you if you listen to your body the after-effect will be a lovely warm glow.  Exercising the body helps every other thing in your life feel more manageable.  There are a thousand excuses not to do it…so stick it in your diary.  Join Buggyfit or meet up with friends…

A few things to consider:

Boobs:  Don’t even think about wearing the bra you were wearing before you were pregnant. Get fitted for a new bra and get a high impact bra for running. Anything less is no good…when I was breastfeeding I wore 2 bras!

Feet: It is very common for foot size to increase after pregnancy – check your trainers, you need really good support so if they are looking like they have lost support treat yourself to a new pair at a shop with trained assistants who can help you choose the correct pair and will check your gait.

Knees and back:  Many women suffer from back and joint problems after pregnancy. Don’t lift anything heavy, keep the spine in netural alignment and bend ze knees!

It’s rare you find a very depressed person who exercises regularly – I’m sure they exist but I have never come across them!  Exercise will help to keep postnatal depression at bay.  Sitting at home watching day time TV eating digestive biscuits won’t.

If all else fails and you need some extra motivation give me a call for some personal training.

Just do it!

Jacqui | 07947 568890 | Jacqui@porjes.com |www.buggyfit.co.uk