Prior to becoming a parent exercise may have simply just been part of your routine, no need to plan for it, it just simply happened, it was easy. When a new bub comes along your old routine often does a back flip and almost becomes unrecognisable. Despite exercise being a health promoting activity and one of the most effective means to decrease risk of chronic disease, its often the first to go and only life sustaining activities are given a look in! If it’s been awhile since you thought about exercise, here are some of its top benefits:
- Improves sleep by promoting transition to deeper sleep stages
- Helps to keep blood sugar and appetite levels normal
- Assists achieving and maintaining a healthy body composition, including lean muscle mass and reduced fat mass
- Boosts feelings of overall wellbeing and emotional health
- Has an anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effect and therefore boasts anti-aging properties!
- Assists to maintain a healthy immune system, essential when parent duties are in order!
With a recap of the health benefits of exercise under your belt, you will soon learn, perhaps you shouldn’t let it fall by the wayside so easily. It is possible to incorporate exercise into your routine whilst being a new parent. It just takes the right equipment, a little creativity and some flexibility. If you follow my instagram you will have seen, I recently found a tool, which ticks all the boxes – the Bugaboo Runner. I found, having a Bugaboo Runner on board ensures keeping active whilst being a parent so much easier! Bugaboo makes exercise less complicated and can be taken off road, on the sand so no need to plan your destination, simply go with the flow and see how far you and bub get. Its lightweight design caters to most exercise and strength levels and best of all it can fully recline allowing bub to sleep whilst you’re on the go! In fact, Bugaboo makes having no restriction on your active lifestyle that one bit simpler which makes all the difference as to whether you head out that door or not!
Balance can be hard to achieve as a parent and whilst the desire to exercise is there, sometimes we can get stuck in a time poor rut. Here are some tips to help find more balance and find the time to make exercise part of your routine:
- Be kind to yourself and make peace with the importance of “me time” daily – let go of guilt and seek support
- Wake up 30 minutes before bub and use this time as ‘me time,’ avoid checking emails or looking at social media, take time out for you!
- Set aside a day each month to cook large batches of nutritious food which can be portioned and frozen, this will be a time saver overall
- Each week roast a large batch of vegetables and store in the fridge, when lunch times rolls around you already have a base for your meals, you can make a simple salad using the vegetables or toss into a wrap with feta cheese, eggs and rocket leaves
- Revaluate whether you are using your time wisely, are you spending longer on certain activities than you would like? Are you sitting longer in traffic then you need to? Do a stocktake of your time, you might be surprised and small changes can make the world of difference!
Whilst the thought of finding time to exercise might be difficult to swallow at this stage, I guarantee you will feel better for it! And bub will have some fun too!
To find out more about Bugaboo products including the Runner click here.
References
Booth, F et al 2014, ‘Lack of exercise is a major cause of chronic disease,’ Compr Physiol, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 1143-1211.
Kishi, A et al 2013, ‘The effects of exercise on dynamic sleep morphology in healthy controls and patients with chronic fatigue syndrome,’ Physiological Reports, Vol. 1, No. 6, pp. e00152.
Roberts, C et al 2014, ‘Metabolic Syndrome and Insulin Resistance: Underlying Causes and Modifications by Exercise Training,’ Compr Physiol, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 1-58.
Teixeira de Lemons, E at al 2012, ‘Regular Physical Exercise as a Strategy to Improve Antioxidant and Anti-inflammatory Status: Benefits in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Oxid Med Cell Longev, Vol. 2012.
