Inspire a Generation

As the Olympics and Paralympics finish and those involved concentrate on the legacy of London 2012 and their slogan "Inspire a Generation", I wonder how I can do the same at home.  

My toddler is going through a phase of mimicking the words and behaviour of those around her.  She feeds, winds, cuddles and rocks her baby doll (sometimes it also gets told off and put on the naughty step!), helps me with the housework, pretends to cook, tries to encourage me to eat.  Recently I have noticed that she has also been copying me doing my exercises.

I've often heard that the children of active parents, particularly active mums, are more likely to exercise.  In 2008 an article in the British Medical Journal - Early life determinants of physical activity in 11 to 12 year olds - looked at the impact of exercise in pregnant women and mums with young children on the same children when they got older.  Unsurprisingly, they concluded that there is some association between a parent's level of activity and their child's.  There are, however, so many factors to consider, not least genetics, that to me it seems like a nature versus nurture debate.

Nature is unlikely to have produced a top performing athlete in our daughter, but I will nurture her enthusiasm for having a go by involving her in my exercise routine.  I'm pleased to see her trying to join in.  I want her to see that being active is normal and exercise is fun.  Why drive when you can walk?  Dance in the kitchen if you like the music on the radio.  Run in the park and see if you can catch the pigeons.  

I don't want her to be turned off sport, as I was, for not being good enough.  If we are truly going to inspire a generation, a whole generation and not just the naturally able, then surely we need to encourage the gifted and motivate the rest.  To me, that is the challenge in the Olympic legacy and the challenge as a parent.  We don't need to be the fastest, we just need to be fit and healthy.

Reclaiming my body

I was having a little moan to my husband about how my body just doesn't feel like it belongs to me anymore: it belongs to our girls.  Hours are spent feeding, cuddling, calming and carrying the baby.  When I'm not holding her the toddler wants a cuddle or is doing a great impression of a shadow and clinging on to me when we're out and about, or following me around when we're at home so I can't even go to the loo on my own.  


I moaned that I feel I'm always looking after them but don't have the time or ability to look after myself.  I really meant that I would like to have a shower alone, with the door shut, and actually enjoy the experience of steam, zesty shower gel and squeaky clean hair.  Instead it is a chore involving jumping in and out and trying to wash myself while observing the toddler pulling down the towels and waking the baby by enthusiastically bouncing her chair.  


My husband's response was that he thought I was looking after myself very well... through my exercise programme.  His response really made me think again about my body.  Instead of seeing it as something that has been taken from me, I am actually  reclaiming it.  Exercising is something that I do for myself.  Almost the only thing that I do for myself at the moment.  Looking back at my motivations for exercising I am reminded that looking and feeling good is important for me mentally as well as physically.  Of course, it also benefits the children as they have a happy and healthy mum, but I am driving this forward and I am motivating myself and I am doing this for me.


I may be looking a bit dishevelled but I am up and about and will be clothes shopping soon!     

Five weeks postpartum

I do have a forearm by the way, it's just pulling
my top back to give you the full belly effect! 

I’m out of my maternity jeans... but I'm not into my regular jeans.  At least I don't think I am, I haven't actually tried to get them on and am wearing the stretch jeans that I wore in the early months of pregnancy.

I've lost 11cm from my waist since the birth and my belly looks more like a muffin top now.  It's still too early to do any abs work, so I'm concentrating on my core strength and pelvic floor and generally just trying to keep moving.  I'm happy with how it's all going.