Finding different ways to keep moving with the whole family

**Collaborative post**

New year, new me – definitely not one of my sayings that’s for sure. I’m not one for making new years resolutions, I have explained why in previous posts. Being a stubborn person by nature if told not to do something then I want to, even more, this is one of the reasons diets never are my strong point and I give up on them quickly.

Finding out I have diabetes actually made me take note of what I was eating and I have cut out a lot of the treat foods I would snack on mainly through boredom while working from home. I’ve never really had a sweet tooth so that was a bonus, and I have upped my step count again and we are walking more as a family, leaving the car at home as much as possible.

I try to make sure I hit 10,000 steps a day, but realistically it’s not always possible especially when we are all tired from busy weeks, after-school clubs and too many late nights – it seems we still aren’t back into our normal routine post-Christmas holidays yet.

Exercise can be boring if you are doing it alone, however, when you involve the whole family it can be lots of fun and you will find yourself enjoying yourselves at the same time.

There are lots of out-of-the-box ways you can keep moving as a family – here are just a few ways:

• • Bike riding
    This is a great exercise for the whole family. We all have bikes and Harry especially loves to ride his whenever possible including on the school run….and home again when I don’t forget its actually at school. We have fields by our house which we can ride on or we can head into town, we are also very lucky that the local football club have a great flat car park which is just by our house, on none match days when the gates are closed we head to the car park to ride safely knowing that no cars will come around the corner. The kids love riding in the car park, it is flat, safe and they can go over the speed bumps and slalom around the posts as much as they want to.
  • All weather walks
    This is something we do as a family already, we’ve always said there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.
    Sometimes there is nothing more fun than pulling on your wellies, zipping up your raincoat and grabbing an umbrella to head out and puddle jump while singing in the rain. We also like to head off to the park where we can burn off energy on kids swing sets, slides, roundabouts and playing games of chase and hide-n-seek.
    We also love to head out into our back garden where we bounce on the trampoline, play swingball or just run around.
  • Indoor exercising using exercise equipment for the elderly
    Not all of the family can get out walking due to health issues. My Dad is awaiting a knee replacement operation, however because he has many other health conditions they are very reluctant to do that operation so are treating him with cortisone injections and physio for now. He also has Angina and has had 5 stents fitted so any physical activity is hard for him as he gets out of breath very easily. There are different types of exercise equipment for the elderly that they can use from the comfort of their chairs such as low-impact foot pedal exercisers to help keep them active.
  • Horse Riding
    This is something both children enjoyed and would love to do again. I booked them in for a stable day a few years ago, this meant they got to muck out the stables, groom the horses, feed them and then finally ride. They are desperate to do this again regularly, unfortunately, it isn’t something I can afford to do just now and something I would prefer to book up for the drier warmer days, not that they would mind being outdoors in the rain I’m sure but it would mean a lot more washing.

• Scooters
  Who says this has to just be for the kids?
  Paul has an adult scooter and I did until recently but I plan to get another when I have the money to do so. The kids love riding their and we had many family days out when we took all our scooters to the park for a family adventure.
  We love heading to Great Notley Country Park but it a very long trail so taking the scooters means we can add to the fun and the kids don’t get as tired walking around.
  We also have a skate park in our town but I’m not brave enough to take the children there are they are far too accident prone and I’m sure they would break a bone or two.

• Fishing
  OK, you don’t actually move all that much while fishing but it does require patience and you are outdoors in the fresh air.
  Both children love to fish with their Grandad’s. Paul’s Dad moved to Norfolk and has his own fishing dock and boat so the children fish with him whenever we visit and when we go on caravan holidays with my parents we always book somewhere with a lake so we can all fish together.
  Last Easter, Emmy and myself had a fly-fishing lesson with a professional and not only were we taught to fly-fish but we got to gut the fish and cook them for dinner on the BBQ.
  
• Rollerskating
  Both the children love to rollerskate and are both rather good at it now. It’s not something I have embraced just yet but we have discovered a Roller Disco which is on every Saturday night and Sunday daytime locally so I think I will need to get in some practice as I think I will need to join them for it. They could be the ones holding my hands and holding me up though. Considering I will need to practice to keep up with the children, it may be wise I invested in my own skates so as not to embarrass myself (or them). They have both progressed to in-line skates which I was sure they would struggle with for a little while but I was completely wrong and they got the hang of them immediately.

Of course, there are loads more ways to keep moving as a family but those are our family favourites.