If you live a healthy active lifestyle with kids...

[december2020]

If you live an active healthy lifestyle, what does your typical day look like?

FTM to DS (approx. 20 months) and looking for gradual lifestyle tweaks to get back to the old me.

I've got about 5-10lbs to shift and trying to find ways to get back to healthy eating, exercise and generally having good habits for myself but also for DS to see and follow.

Not to drip feed - I work full time as well.

Do you have a partner? If so that makes it easier.

I run in the mornings when it isn’t my husbands turn to sleep in, or if I want a run and it is his turn I take our pushchair (a running one) and the baby comes with me.

I do some form of exercise most days, either running, weights, conditioning, rugby training or actual rugby. If I do have a day off it tends to be Sunday. My son has either dance or rugby when I have rugby training to ‘solve’ childcare when I’m training, I sometimes take my daughter and she either stays in her pushchair, or she is in a little fenced area of grass.

I don’t work fulltime, so I always go to the gym on a Thursday and Friday when I’m not at work.

Are there any nice walks local to you? Woodland ones for your LO to explore, maybe with a stream or two to jump in. We have a high energy dog so we don't have to do 2 x 1 hour walks every day between us. DD isnt walking yet so she comes in the pram but I'm hoping once she is on her feet she will get used to it pretty quickly and enjoy the little adventures.

We do have to do obviously not we don't!

Running in the morning/gym in the evening/run at the weekend was the way I did it, but it's a hard road with a baby, especially if you are already sleep deprived. If I had my time again I'd build in more walking - at the time I underestimated how good walking is for you and thought I had to do "proper" exercise. I'd try and build in walking into the journey to work if possible and walk for miles with the baby in the pram/pushchair when you can. Also I'd find a good yoga class- for sanity as much as exercise. I did yoga when DD1 was small but it didn't really click with me until I got an excellent teacher. It's almost like magic when done properly.

I get up early to run 2/3 days a week. I don't like it tbh I only do it because I know it's good for me! I try to swim once a week too. We don't drive so the school run is an almost 2 mile round trip and a do 7/8 of them a week, plus we generally walk everywhere. I find healthy eating easier as I love cooking and finish work at 3 so have the time when the kids get home to cook.

Right so here is the actual routine, I thought I had put it in my first reply, sorry.

Monday run at 6am
Tuesday rugby training 6:30pm-7:30pm
Wednesday gym at 5:45am
Thursday gym (not strict on time as its a day off), 6:30-7:30pm rugby training
Friday run at 6am, gym (not strict on time as its a day off).
Saturday rugby training at 12, or if its a match day kick off is usually either 1pm or 3pm.

You can get gyms with a creche, the one I use has one so sometimes I take the baby with me.

For me a running pram is a game changer. That and i do evening group runs and a parkrun on a Saturday morning. At the moment i tend to do a long run on a Monday (5-7miles) interval training on a Weds with my running group, Parkrun 9am Sat and lots of walking Inbetween.

When i return to work I'll run on my lunch break if wfh.

I just try to do things were dd can come along too. When she was tiny it was long walks with the buggy. We then had a back carrier and she came with us hill walking. She is out of the carrier now and did a hilly 6 miles walk on Saturday. We have always had seats for her on mine and DP's bikes and we have a kayak which she comes in with us too. She is always happy to come out on dog walks and we do this each night after tea and before bed. We got her kitted out with good waterproofs and boots so she is out in all weathers. We also go swimming and me and dp take turns doing some lengths. I tried not to focus too hard on losing the baby weight and it did come off slowly.

I'm not sure other peoples' routines will be a lot of help because it will involve factors not present in your life - ie they may work part time, have a partner that wfh, have grandparent babysitters on tap, older children who amuse themselves. I have all of those (and a garage gym) so don't find it a problem carving out the time at all. I realise that's an immense privilege though and listing my routine and how I do it isn't going to help you at all.

I did once have a baby and a desire to get back into running, so I remember how much harder it was at the beginning. My advice would be to start really small and build, rather than trying to make sweeping changes. Think of it (health, fitness) as a jigsaw - start with the easy bits and the rest falls into place later. If you can manage a 15 min run a few times a week start with that. If you can do Joe Wicks videos in the living room while the baby watches and laughs, do that. Walking with the buggy is great for exercise.

Me and DH tag team so we can exercise - he runs two evenings a week, I go to a Spin class. I do a late start one day a week and go to a class at 9am after I've dropped the kids off at nursery. I also do a hiit workout at home once a week and the kids just have to find something to entertain themselves with for 25 minutes! Eldest does football and dancing, youngest goes to tumble tots, we usually go swimming as a family once a fortnight.

Day to day, lots of walking whereever possible and the kids are used to running errands, going for lunch, going to the park on foot (or scooter) rather than using the car. Foodwise I just try to make healthy choices where I can - if we're having pizza, I'll have a big side salad with mine, i have extra fruit at lunch instead of crisps so it's basically like we're eating the same thing, just with some small differences.

I grew up in a sedentary house where both parents were constantly on a diet (they still are!) and I don't want that for my two.

I go running 3 times a week. And do home weight training two times. Usually park run on a Saturday while husband takes kids to the playground. I'm going to crack out the running buggy soon but baby is a bit too little just now.
I'm surprised how much extra energy I have. Really stopped me feeling tired all the time. I'm so much more productive too.

Are you able to get out at lunchtime when you're at work? Exercising without child is often easier imo. I try and get out for a walk or jog at lunch on my working days.

Is you're little one happy in a buggy? Walks with them are a good. And if you had a running buggy you can jog with them too. We are often down at parkrun on a Saturday morning, but increasingly my LO isn't too happy to be strapped in...

Also you could try a HIIT type work out on YouTube in front of the TV. Either after kids are in bed, or you could try doing it with toddler- mine finds it the exercises very funny and I can get a bit of a workout done, although inevitably she'll get in the way at some point.

The only way I can fit it in is 6-7am. They’re all in bed when I get home and the chaos of the fay begins!

Takes some getting used to though, especially since my youngest is a shocking sleeper, I find I feel better if I do exercise though. DH runs at 7am or at lunch time as he WFH and tends to do a race or longer run at the weekend.

We do exercise as a family at the weekend, walking, swimming or cycling but my kids are very active generally and do loads of activities at the weekend and after school, they have happily participated in a range of sports since a young age. It sounds smug but I think because it is something their parents do, it seems normal to them.

Oh and I don’t enjoy actual structured exercise with the kids with me. Walking/running/cycling is fine but I’m not keen on taking them with me to watch. I need to focus! I don’t know how people do these buggy classes.

Thank you everyone and sorry for the late reply! Work got surprisingly busy at the start of this week!

These are all great tips, thank you!
And wow you're all so active - it definitely shows me it can be done. Though I may need to build up to your levels.

I used to be very active but then fell into the trap of 'I'll start tomorrow', where I've managed a bit but still need to build up consistency.
To answer some questions, I do have a DP and he helps and always would support me having time to exercise. He works in the emergency services so long rota shifts, so I can't plan a consistent week schedule and need to adapt it every week to the rota schedule, (so for example some weekends he's working 10+h shift) making it a bit tricker but not impossible.

DS is very active at the moment and I want to be that active and healthy role model for him (and my health and well-being of course) so he continues on that path as he grows up and into adulthood.