Fitting in exercise with DC in daily life/how much exercise do you do daily ?

[hamstercat1234]

Brief background; I am Mum of 1 dc , work Mon - Fri 9.30 - 3 to fit in school pick ups and drop offs. For various reasons (family medical issues/ various home projects) exercise has fallen down the list of priorities for me and subsequently DC which is not good, as now he voiced to me last night being sad about his appearance and that he has a "big" belly. Admittedly, he is on the larger side. (8 years old) He isnt very sporty and has put on weight since starting school (less running around I suppose), plus he is tall for his age (140cm) so I think I reasoned with myself he was just larger built. Well now he's voiced his concerns, I have to do something about it.

I need a kick up the bum. Pre DC when I had a dog I was so good at walking her everyday when I got in from work, hour long walks. I've just let life get to me and not prioritize exercise at all. Prior to school when DS was a toddler I worked part time so had 4 days off a week, plus with a toddler you HAVE to take them out to burn their energy! but I just feel like nowadays I've let it slip down the list of priorities, which is not good !

I've already decided one way to fit exercise in is to park further away from the school, which will give DS (and me!) extra steps in the morning and afternoon.

I've made a list of some paid for activities he enjoys: swimming, rock climbing and various soft plays and will try to rotate these, and do one of these on a Wednesday after school (I thought as a mid week pick me up).

Then on other days after school try to aim for 45-60 minutes of activity whether it be playing in the garden, walking, a bike ride, or visiting a park.

We have tons of different walks by us locally and in the car on the way home from school.

Especially now the weather is good !

Has anyone got any insights of

• making this a lifestyle change and not just a phase. Any tips or motivation would be greatly appreciated. have you been through this yourself, how do you keep it up . I'm thinking of maybe using a daily diary to list down ?
• how much exercise do you and DC do each week ? do you try and get something in daily plus a longer walk in at the weekend ?

Talking of Motivation maybe theres a category on Mumsnet forums (maybe in parenting) where I can start a daily diary, i think that may work in my favour. I'm very "phase like" where I'll put my 100% effort into something but then something else will take priority , so I need to make this habit stick as I know long term it will benefit DS (and me from the extra exercise too!)

Embedding and making this part of daily life is key, using opportunities to fit bitesize pieces of movement such as brushing your teeth standing on one leg, always using the stairs not the lift or escalator, heel raises whilst washing up, parking in the furthest space in the car park. This helps to make movement a focus and it's surprising how much more active you can become without thinking of it as 'exercise' which can quickly become a chore. Having a routine can also help, knowing that for example, Monday, Wednesday and Friday are when you are going to go to the gym/ do an online yoga class etc. Smartwatches are useful for monitoring movement and you can set your own target step count, and working with friends or family by setting up a Strava or Whats App group is very motivating.
Finally, admitting that sometimes life gets in the way and you may not be able to do that spin class because DC is poorly but it doesn't matter because you'll definitely be there next week.
I have personal goals to run x miles per week and do a minimum of y steps per day, I never use lifts or escalators and I park a mile away from where I work and walk in but that's because I'm tight and hate paying for parking.
Well done for making the decision to change and good luck - as Paula Radcliffe once said, 'If you want to do something enough, you'll find the time to do it'.

For it to be a lifestyle change it needs to just be what you do, so its built in by default.

If you need to go to the shop and its a walkable distance you always do that rather than get in the car. He might like Junior park run. Anything like that where it can become a regular habit will help to keep it up.

Does he have a couple of friends that might get involved? If there is a park and you can take 2 or 3 of them to kick a ball about after school they'll have a great time. Anywhere local to go fly a kite?
Geocaching is fun, its a big treasure hunt and you can look up local one to go and find. Challenges to learn names of trees/ bird song/ spot wildlife.
Little adventures at the weekend to new cycle paths or a big hill to climb.

Things that make it more interesting and change the focus. So we are doing this because its fun to do rather than specifically because we need to exercise.

I’d first focus on walking or cycling whenever you can. We walk everywhere, very rarely drive, thst is most the exercise i do.

The easiest way to include more exercise are getting up earlier (and doing it before DC are awake) or making small changes like getting off a bus two or three stops early, or getting off the train a stop or two early. As you've sort of already alluded to, it's about prioritisation.

So you're already on the right path re. walking further in the shops. But could you add in things like walking to the shops completely?

For DDs walk one of my dogs to school every day and I (or my mum/PIL if I have to go into the office) pick the dog up from there. So that gets them in morning exercise. Then they do swimming or gymnastics after school a few nights a week or they join me on evening dog walks. On weekends, we typically do 2 dog walks a day as a family and they might have 1 sport session.

Honestly, a big part of why I exercise as much as I do is walking the dogs. Outside of that, I have very little interest in exercise and my only other motivation/reason for exercising is because I love cake.

If your circumstances allow could you consider another dog one day, perhaps? It clearly motivated you before and there's nothing more motivating (in my opinion) than dogs and being able to eat good food guilt free to make someone exercise! I do find that out of all DDs 'exercise' opportunities, the dog walks are the ones they look forward to the most.

Separately, whilst I think it's great you've recognised your son might be a bit large, don't forget that some children do seem to store fat around their middle and then suddenly shoot up in height and the 'tummy weight' goes. Both my DDs did that about your sons age 😊

DH and I exercise pretty much daily - mostly gym, I also do some classes and we both run (we work full time). DC are in organised activities and do something active most days - basketball, dance, martial arts. But yes they see it as the respective activity, not specifically exercise. Plus some hiking and dog walks on weekends.

Can you sign him up for something he enjoys as an activity, might also be more fun for him to do it with other kids.

When we moved when my DD was. 2 I found myself really isolating myself and got in bad habits (it was a rubbish time in life for various reasons). Over the last year I’ve implemented exercise both in my personal time and with DD

She loves yoga so we often do that together. We walk everywhere we can. The library is about a 20 minute walk away, the supermarket 30 minutes (I don’t walk for a big shop but to pick up a little treat for dd/something we need for dinner). We also go out a lot on her bike/scooter and play football in the park together. She loves dancing so there’s often music blasting while she dances all over the house. I always try to schedule in one big activity or a few smaller ones throughout the day.

In the evenings, I do boxing on my Switch (I’m too nervous for the gym and my husband is away a lot so need to exercise at home anyway).

The trick is making it a part of the routine. Starting out is hard but then it quickly becomes default

I think you need to look at what he's eating as well as how much exercise he's doing as that's the easiest way to loose calories from your daily intake.
Can you walk to/from school?
He should be playing out rather than sitting in front of a screen when he gets home from school.
Swimming, cycling, junior parkrun at weekends, pokemon go or geocaching to give your walks some "purpose".
Never use the car for a journey that's less than a mile.
Are there any clubs after school he could stay for? even after school club / wrap around tend to do activities, or at least the ones near me are always playing out in the yard.

Other people make me exercise. Meeting with friends for a walk, using the gym while my kids are swimming or swimming while my kids are at the gym.
I’m amazing at letting myself down but the people pleaser in me will not let anyone else down so making plans to exercise works well for me.

Separately, whilst I think it's great you've recognised your son might be a bit large, don't forget that some children do seem to store fat around their middle and then suddenly shoot up in height and the 'tummy weight' goes. Both my DDs did that about your sons age 😊
I agree, all mine did this somewhere between 8 and 10. Then seeming grew a foot overnight! None of them were overweight previously or afterwards.

@ThreeStripeQueen and @TheHungryHungryLandsharks thank you for your kind words of encouragement. I am hoping this is the case however on the kids BMI calculators unfortunately he is marked as overweight for his height - he is 140cm tall and he is over 8 stone which I fear is past the "puppy fat" stage.

thank you to everyone for your tips and advice. I will also address the portion sizes - we have already scaled down the treats MASSIVELY.

You haven’t said what he has been eating. You should look at both exercise and diet!

Download an app that tracks your steps.... I end up in a daily competition with myself 😅. It really spurs me on. I try to do at least 10k steps a day

Things like chicken and shrimp/prawn are good for weight loss

OK with that weight you really need to look at portion sizes and snacks. Kids don't actually need to eat all the time, it's OK to be hungry. And an 8yo won't need an adult sized portion. In fact most adults also don't need the portions most of us are accustomed to.

@HeidiLite yes I am definitely looking at the overall picture of reducing portion sizes, adding in vegetables with every meal, and we've already reduced the snacks and made changes in his lunchbox to be a healthier

Ah ok, it’s good that you are making changes. Don’t forget at his age he doesn’t need to lose weight. As long as you’re making changes to stop him gaining excessively he’ll grow into any extra weight.