Share your top tips on how to fit exercise into busy everyday life with Fitbit and win a Fitbit flex - NOW CLOSED

[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

Fitbit have asked us to find out how and when Mumsnetters fit exercise into their everyday routine. Here is some more info from Fitbit: "Fitbit is the leader in activity trackers and is dedicated to helping people lead healthier, more active lives. Fitbit takes a common sense approach to fitness. We believe that the key is to make it easier for consumers to be more active, eat smarter, and get enough sleep - in short, that small changes to your daily routine can add up to big results. To that end, we aim to create innovative, inspiring products and online services that harness the power of new technologies to make people more aware of their everyday activities and motivate them to do more."

We're talking about everyday things you do to be more active - do you have any top tips or advice to share? It could be a time-saving measure which means you free up more time for exercise, or it could be a way that you've found of exercising while doing something else perhaps?!

Everyone who shares their advice or top tip on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a Fitbit Flex - a wireless activity tracker worn on the wrist which measures steps, distance, calories burned and also sleep (RRP £79.99).

Please note that any comments posted on this thread may appear in an email MN will be sending out, and potentially elsewhere.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw
MNHQ

[BoffinMum]

Oh yes, and to sleep well, get all the electronics out of your bedroom (apart from a FitBit of course)!

[StitchAteMySleep]

Walk everywhere.

Carry your baby/toddler in a sling/baby carrier.

Run around with your kids in the park (catch, football etc...).

Play horsey (crawl around with your kids on your back).

Play aeroplane. Lie on your back, knees to chest, soles of feet facing ceiling. Child lies facing your with their tummy on your feet. Use your legs to lift them into the air while holding their hands.

Bounce your young children on the bed to exercise your arms.

Leg horsey (young child), sitting down, legs out in front, your child climbs onto the lower part of your leg (sitting on your feet), hold their hands and lift feet of the floor and down again repeatedly.

Do your own cleaning.

Walk up stairs instead of taking the lift.

Sit on the see-saw with your kids (brilliant for thigh muscles, like squats).

[Catbert4pm]

I go to a SwimGym three times a week for half hour sessions of a combination of swimming, jogging, squats etc against the force of a water jet.

[Babieseverywhere]

I do a lot which has been mentioned, walking to school and anywhere local if time permits. Parking away from shops, stairs not lift. etc.

I also have a rebounder (mini trampoline) in my living room, you can pick them up for next to nothing on Ebay. When the baby sleeps in tghe afternoon before the afternoon school run, I'll bounce/ jog on rebounder whilst watching tv. There are also routines you can do on you tube but I would rather catch up with Judge Judy ;) Great way to exercise, it gets you out of breath and no need for special footwear or clothes...I bounce in bare feet.

I have a Fitbit One atm and I love it and aim to get 10,000 steps a day (often fail) But I covert the Fitbit Flex, so much prettier and you can change the straps width and colours...lovely :)

[YippeeKiYayMakkaPakka]

Exercise DVDs like The Shred have been invaluable since having children. After being up in the night with a baby I find it hard to get up any earlier than I have to, and I'm exhausted by bed time, but I can fit in a 20 minute workout and quick shower while the baby naps or even while she's playing with toys in her playpen.

[KittyMina]

I work three days a week, juggle nursery drop offs, commuting to work and meeting deadlines at work and home and a husband that works long distances away. so usually by the time my little one is in bed I feel as if I've done enough exercise for the day! I do miss the me time of going to the gym and the structure of an exercise class. However I don't feel that I can commit to a gym or attend an evening exercise class. My way of fitting in more exercise is leaving the car at home and walking on my days off wherever i need to go, helps my carbon footprint, more interesting for my daughter than sitting in the car :) hopefully with the warmer weather will be nicer to do
I have worn a pedometer before but found them a bit flimsy and tend to reset themselves which is heartbreaking as you loose track of your steps!

[JambalayaCodfishPie]

Walk to school/work, pushing pram - that's three miles, and walking home again at 3.15pm, that's another three -but seriously uphill. On my two days off we walk home after drop off, and back down for pick up too - so on those days we walk 12 miles, six of which are uphill. Used to get the bus but then they changed the times so it would mean a lot of hanging around, and I hate that.

Dds are in bed at 7pm and that's my hour to do a serious workout - at the minute I'm doing insanity. By 8pm I'm in the shower/making supper for me and DP if we didn't eat with the girls. I used to just spend that hour watching rubbish tv or on the computer, now I do something in it I've lost 17lbs. Makes a difference - eat less move more!!

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I too have a Fitbit and at the moment I am aiming to get at least 3500 steps a day, which is embarrassingly low.

I tend to spend my evenings slumped on the sofa watching crap TV, and of course I get sucked in and don't want to get up and miss what I am watching.

So in the ad breaks I get up and walk circuits around my (very small) house. I know its very little, but something is better than nothing, and I'm trying to take small steps towards habitually being more active.

[threestepsforward]

My exercise top tips:

• get a dog
  
• be an awful driver
  
• get a bike (see above)
  

I've heard about fitbit and they sound fab!

[manfalou]

When feeding the baby, I do my 'Abs workout' Tensing and letting go slowly around 100 times (a lot easier than it sounds). I set it in my mind that feeding time is the time to do these exercises which means I remember to do them. I try and alternate between tensing the abs and the pelvic floor... both things which can be done easily whilst feeding.

Also, I have my monday to Friday 'regime' where on Monday, Weds and Thurs when my eldest is at nursery I fetch any outstanding shopping from the village but power walk and go the VERY long way round straight after the 9am feed. Usually get home between 11 and half past with still an hour and half to do jobs and fit in another feed before its time for the nursery pickup. On Tuesday and Fridays I do my at home DVD whilst the baby has a nap and my eldest 'joins in'. Then at the weekend we tend to go to a country park and walk quite far anyway.

[PinkMangoSays]

As everyone else says I walk where time permits.

My top tip though is fit the exercise in while you're doing else. I dance around the house while cleaning. Make sure I make more than one trip if I have to move more than one thing around. Sure I might look a little crazy bopping around the house wiping surfaces and hoovering but it gets me moving!

[MamaMummyMum]

I think having children in general keeps you fit, running around after them all day!!

However I also try and get up an hour before they do so I can do an exercise dvd.

I also make sure to walk everywhere that I can, I also encourage my children to do the same, whilst walking I normally wear my youngest in a sling/wrap which helps to burn off those extra calories!!!

[keely79]

I have ditched the tube and am now cycling to and from the train stations on my way to and from work. Guarantees at least 15 minutes cycling each way! Have also put a pedometer app on my phone - I find seeing the steps mount up addictive.

[ponygirlcurtis]

I am another one who finds vigorous non-stop cleaning raises the heart rate and gets the sweat going. And it makes me feel better psychologically too, and does a vital task in getting the flat clean, so everyone's a winner!
That plus the school run twice a day, pushing a pram. And a walk into town (instead of taking the car) whenever I can. Oh, and climbing the three sets of stairs to the flat several times a day, sometimes with many bags of shopping plus a toddler to carry! My arms are like popeye's...

[zipzap]

I haven't been very good at keeping fit recently, and I don't want to be a permanent member of my local gym/pool as I wouldn't be able to use it for chunks of time during school holidays so it just wouldn't be worth it.

I have discovered though that they often have promotions on where you can join for a short time - £28 for 28 days was the most recent one. It's great because it's an incentive to go lots regularly and make the most of the short time you have the membership but you're not tied into being a member for lots of time that you pay for but don't use.

I also try to double up and do exercises when I'm doing something else - so for example, when doing my teeth, I do half squats (no idea what their real name is, like sitting down but without a chair!) or pelvic floor squeezes when waiting at a roundabout in the car (live in MK so lots of opportunities ) or seated twists if I'm sitting in front of the computer and waiting for it to do something (or posting a message to MN etc). The trick is to have a simple single exercise that you associate with doing that thing - so every time I walk up the stairs (and nobody else is around!) then I try to punch out in front of me or above me as a bit of an arm exercise - then it becomes automatic and you don't notice that you are doing it, and every bit helps.

[BonzoDooDah]

I started the C25K fitness program. It is free to download and there are no gym fees, travel time to Gym or expensive equipment needed (once decent trainers and a sports bra were bought). It is a super way to excercise as I step out of the door and have started. This means I only need half an hour and have done my stint. I can do it anytime from the second my DH steps in the front door in the evening, to when the children are in bed or even in that wasted hour while my DD is in her dancing class (and the other mums are sitting chatting or playing on their phones).

[pigsinmud]

Get a dog! It means I have to go out for a walk in the depths of winter rather than look out of the window and think perhaps not today. Fortunately I live in a lovely area with fields and a hill. I don't like running as it hurts my knees, so when I need to get my heart rate up for a bit, I walk quickly. Much more gentle on my knees.

Use the buses....when it doesn't arrive you are forced to walk, usually fast, to get your destination on time. The downside with that is that you arrive in a sweaty heap in the summer.

Have lots of children - they always want to go to the park. Instead of sitting on the bench reading your book, do 5 quickish laps of the field.

[BlackeyedSusan]

I walk to the shop and back in the morning after school drop off. it is not far but it adds nearly a thousand extra steps to the routine. i am going to try and think of other routine walks too as I am not nearly doing enough. i lost weight on holiday by walking more, put it back on at home as I did not do enough.

i run up the stairs whenever possible, rather than walk.

I was doing walks after school with the childrren to help calm down ds (asd)

I think I shall walk around the garden everyday after school drop off. the communl garrdens to the flats are quite large, so a couple of circuits will increase my activity levels. I hate organised sporrts/exercise, and walking is the only thing that I am motivated enough to do.

[BlackeyedSusan]

right then, the communal garden is 160 steps to do the small circuit round the bit where the children play, then there is the running about as a monster chasing ds.

I bought the children one of those big exercise ball thingies...for physio and occuptional therapy. I occasionally sit on it too to improve my core strength. when dd is doing her exercises at the park, I also push the roundabout, which the city council have sneakily made more beneficial by failing to lubricate, or balance sideways on the swings. then there is hoiking her up things as she is hypermobile and can not climb so well. ds also likes jumping off the tall logs and gets lifted up too.

the asd exercise programme: carrying ds when he is tired/having a melt down/having a bear hug to prevent a melt down exercises the arms. walking round the library supervising him while dd reads, chasing ds round the school playground either to prevent him from running away mid melt down, or to prevent him having a meltdown. then there is pushing ds on the swings.

shopping is a massive workout. (based on the fact that i am normally shattered once I have finished) carrying it all up two flights of stairs to the front door certainly adds to the joy.

[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread - FitBit have really enjoyed reading your fitness tips. I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the Fitbit Flex (RRP £79.99) is...

Beechview - congratulations! I'll PM you to get your details.

[Beechview]

Thanks. I'm very pleased :)