Tag: exercise

Children, Exercise, Families, Family Life, Fitness, Gym, Healthy Eating, Holidays, Kids Days Out, Large Families, Parents, Summer

Keeping The Kids Busy This Summer With David Lloyd

by thejoyoffive3 Comments on Keeping The Kids Busy This Summer With David Lloyd

For some of us the long school summer holidays are already upon us or they are only a few days away and I’m sure that many of you are the same as me and having mixed feelings about it.

I absolutely adore having mine at home with me but it can also be a real struggle to keep them entertained and also work around them when all they want to do is have your attention.

This is where David Lloyd Health Clubs are an absolute godsend and offer anything from a fulfilled day with all the family, a few hours in a club or two to keep them occupied, full days of childcare and so much more.

With Oscar set to start school this September and Frankie needing a little extra extra push with swimming we are booking onto the intense course to really make sure they get their water wings ready!

It is not only swimming that All Stars at David Lloyd offer. They can learn skills in tennis and gymnastics too with the clubs expert coaches who make learning lots of fun!

As well as keeping fit as a family by swimming together, have a game of tennis or taking part in one of the family friendly circuit or spin classes the children can join in one of the many clubs that DL Kids offer. If sport isn’t their thing then there are plenty of other ways to keep them entertained such as film club, arts and crafts or Nintendo Wii sessions.

These clubs are a great way to keep them entertained and make new friends while you can take part in a class, head to the gym or even enjoy a treatment in the spa.

The holidays can be a really tricky time for working parents and finding childcare that the children will enjoy can be a real challenge. At David Lloyd you have the option of half or full days in their very resonantly priced holiday camps where the children can enjoy all the fun of DL Kids plus a yummy lunch…what could they possibly not enjoy about this!

My younger ones are pretty easy to please and are happy to give anything a go. My eldest son however is pretty hard to drag away from the Xbox but by some kind of miracle David Lloyd has managed to do that! He has loved coming to win as a family and of course fill his belly in the DLicious Cafe which is always a hit with us all for its deliiocs coffees, creamy smoothies and vast choice of healthy hot and cold meals. All of which can be enjoyed in the cafe itself or in the dedicated children’s area where the kids can left of steam in the soft play or spend some time on the built-in iPads.

Some thing he is yet to try is are the special 11+ gym, swimming and tennis sessions which he has his sights set on the summer.

With this wonderful weather we are having at the moment we also want to spend as much time as we can outside and David Lloyd has a large number of clubs with outdoor pools which we are itching to try out. Outdoor swimming in the UK is pretty limited these days so this really is a fantastic addition.

I’m sure there are things that I haven’t covered as the fun at David Lloyd is so expense you really need to see it to belive it. Why not nip along to your local club and see for yourself what a membership could offer you and your family this summer.

*collaborated post

Children, Diet, Exercise, Families, Family Life, Fitness, Healthy Eating, Parents, Pregnancy, Reviews

MUTU System 12 Weeks On

by thejoyoffiveLeave a Comment on MUTU System 12 Weeks On

After the birth of each of my first three children I seemed to manage to get back into shape within a relatively short space of time. I don’t know if this was my youth giving me more of a zest to get back to my pre-baby self, the boundless energy I seemed to have or just luck but it was never really to much of an issue.

Yes my body had changed in countless ways but I could deal with this and my body confidence(whilst clothed) wasn’t to much of an issue for me.

Along came number four and this is where things took a change in the way I felt about my body and how my body was now dealing with multiple pregnancies. If I’m honest the fact I was breast feeding a baby with multiple allergies and an impending wedding the weight loss and diet side of things were pretty on point but my pelvic floor was really feeling the strain from so many pregnancies and vaginal births and I suffered terribly with vaginal prolapse that I managed to improve a little myself before I fell pregnant for the fifth time.

Age was now not on my side, struggling to find a work life balance with caring for five children, weight gain and a completely shot pelvic floor left me in a place I wasn’t happy with and if I’m honest its taken me four years and the kick up the bottom I needed to get me back on track.

I had gone from a hugly active job as a personal trainer to writing my blog which I never imagined would be a completly new career path for me. All my time, love and passion were being ploughed into this new project and any form of exercise had taken a nose dive. This added to events with free flowing food and drink I knew something was going to have to give.

After going along to the Embrace Workshop with the owner of the MUTU System – Wendy Powell she opened my eyes to the way I looked at myself and was just the stepping stone I needed to get things back on track and my body feeling better both inside and out.

The MUTU Systems main aims are to strengthen your core and pelvic floor, heal your diastasis recti, lose weight and eat well.

The program consists of 12 modules with exercises lasting only 20 minutes or less. The programs can be downloaded to any device which makes it easy to keep up the program whenever and wherever you are.

As well as the exercise program there is an easy to follow food guide that promotes healthy eating rather than unrealistic, restrictive diets.

The plan offers realistic goals and allows the flexibility to fit around everyone. My plan still has a couple of weeks to go as I had a bit of a blip over christmas so stay tuned to see my final results…if I pluck up the courage to post them!

I am already reaping the benefits with a significant weigh loss, flatter tum and most importantly for me, less leakage. If you want to give this plan a try for yourselves then click HERE and use the discount code EMBRACE15 for your 15% discount.

*Collaborated post

Children, Exercise, Families, Family Life, Fitness, Healthy Eating, Parents, Soft Play, Sport, Surrey, Toddlers

David Lloyd Clubs:The Start Of Our Family Fitness Journey

by thejoyoffive1 Comment on David Lloyd Clubs:The Start Of Our Family Fitness Journey

All the start of the year I wrote a post on the reasons that I wouldn’t be making any resolutions this year and was going to aim for longer term goals so there was no pressure to getting a huge long list of unobtainable goals completed by the end of the year.

Plenty of changes have sprung to mind with being more organised and procrastinating less…I can safely say this one is very much still a work in progress. One of my lifestyle changes however was to rekindle my love for fitness along with the rest of the family.

Going back three years…pre blog! I was an absolute gym bunny and nothing would get in the way of my daily training. This was all well and good but at times the Mum guilt would set in and I would feel bad for prioritising this time just for myself. This alongside trying to work hard to build my blog meant that sadly my exercise was the thing that I let go.

So with a pretty substantial weight gain and the pressure of spending quality time with the family I wanted a facility that could entertain, motivate and bring pleasure to us all through exercise and I knew this was going to be no mean feat.

The majority of gyms are solely for over eighteens and if the do have crèche facilities the hours tend to be limited and due to this very hard to book into. Then comes the teens and preteens who are often not allowed to use the gym equipment or join in with classes because of their age so get left out completely.

Thankfully David Lloyd Clubs have come to my rescue and asked me to try out their very family mined facilities for the next few months to see if it is possible to enjoy fitness as a family.

David Lloyd – Purley has recently undergone a huge makeover and no stone has been left unturned when planning this club which in one of the largest in the area.

There is something for everyone from a game of tennis on the numerous indoor and outdoor courts, the chance to take a dip in one of there two pools or just relax in the hot tub or sauna. There are workouts galore from a huge variety of group fitness classes to doing your own thing in the state of the art gym area.

If relaxation is what you are after then they have a fabulous cafe bar offering a huge variety of hot and cold meals, giving you the opportunity to grab a quick coffee or sit down with the family to have a tasty meal.

Your meals can even been served in the dedicated children’s area that has its own soft play area.

But for me the real attraction is their DL Kids facilities that allow the children to be cared for in the creche, older children have a huge variety of activies to take part in allowing them to have fun and meet new friends.

There are even specific classes put on for the family to take part in together such as family circuits and family spin they we can’t wait to try.

I really have only scratched the surface of what they have to offer here so please keep an eye on my Instastories to see what we are getting up to and I will be back on here very soon to let you know how we are getting on with this new and exciting journey.

*We were given a family menership for the purpose of this review and they are all my own, honest opinions.

Children, Christmas, Diet, Exercise, Families, Family Life, Fitness, Food, Gym, Healthy Eating, Hobbies, Parents, Photography

Celebrating The Small Things:Week Four

by thejoyoffiveLeave a Comment on Celebrating The Small Things:Week Four

This weeks ‘celebrating the small things’ is a little self indulgent as I’m unusually pleased with what I have achieved. I’m usually full of self doubt and always see the negatives in what I do which is really counter productive and something I want to try to improve so here it goes:

Happy In My Work- I recently restarted teaching my ladies fitness kickboxing classes which I have found a whole new love for. Teaching was always a huge passion for me but the more children I had the trickier it became to fit this kind of work in and sadly it stopped a few years ago.
Thankfully the New Year has bought with it some lovely faces both old and new that have made my job an absolute pleasure once again.

Weight Loss Going Well – A New Year, restarting my classes and a big hit of self motivation has seen me finally losing some weight.
I wrote a post a while ago on how the past few years have seen me gaining a lot of weigh which has really bought me down and I’m so pleased that over the past few weeks I have seen some changes for the good.
I’ve banished the scales as these are always a source of disappointment for me and have simply used how I look and real as motivation to keep me going.

Looking Back – Last week the lovely Carrisa over at Little Likely Lads tagged me in a post on Insta Stories that needed me to scroll back through my hundreds of photos on Instagram to find my first ever post.
Of course this task had me stopping and looking over all the photos through the years and made me love this social media platform even more.
Moments captured in pictures are hugely important to me and Instagram allows me to see a whole host of my favourite moments in seconds.

Exercise, Families, Family Life, Fitness, Kids Days Out

Little O’s At Oxygen

by thejoyoffive1 Comment on Little O’s At Oxygen

Any of you that read my blog regularly will know that I am not a huge fan of soft play.

It’s sometimes needs must as a parent but spending time there…especially with my youngest two brings me out in a cold sweat!

I’m always looking for alternative indoor activities that the children will enjoy, keep them entertained and most of allows them to let off some steam.

Recently Oxygen Freejumping Trampolining Park has come to Croydon and unlike most trampolining parks we have visited there is a session dedicated to five and unders.

The other week we doned our yellow grippy socks and went along to see if it was something Oscar would enjoy.

After a quick health and safety video we were given free run of the trampolining park from the free jumping zones, airbag runway, huge foam pit, soft play area and so much more.

Oscar was kept amused for the full hour and loved being able to move freely to and from whichever area happened to take his fancy…with the airbag runway being his favourite section.

As well as being bags of fun it helps to improve their motor skills and flexibility, helps them gain confidence and most of all is a brilliant workout in disguise!

The sessions last an hour which is the perfect amount of time the keep this age group entertained and a good coffee area to grab a well deserved treat after all their hard work.

We went along specifically for the Little O’s sessions but they also offer great activities for older children and adults too.

I was particularly interested in coming back to try out the Bear Grylls obstical course that is a great alternative to most fitness sessions.

Please let me know if you decide to try any of the activity sessions out as I would love to know how you get on.

 

Children, Exercise, Families, Family Life

Getting Kids Active In The Great Outdoors

by thejoyoffive2 Comments on Getting Kids Active In The Great Outdoors

A while ago now I wrote a post about the sad decline in outdoor play and it is still something that I am very passionate about.

Getting outside has a huge number of benefits; many of which you might not have even considered:

  • Boosts Mood all children have some level of stress or anxiety, even if it isn’t glowingly obvious to us as parents. By getting out into the sun they can get a boost of serotonin from the sun that will help to lift their mood and help them release some of those feel good chemicals.
  • Sleep Stimulation the brain contains the pineal gland that is stimulated by the sun. This helps with promoting sleep so anything that can help induce this is a winner in my book.
  • Improves Vision it has been found that children who play for extended periods outside have better distance vision than those that play inside.
  • Builds Social Skills without the use of electronic stimulation or other distractions, being outside makes it easier for children to come together, socialise and make strong friendship groups.
  • Builds Immunity that old favourite ‘the five second rule’ is always used in our house and I really don’t worry to much about a bit of dirt. Getting ourside and getting dirty allows the immune system to build itself which in the long term will help your little ones fight off the bigger nasties that childhood brings.

For me though the biggest benefit to outdoor play is exercise.

With obesity increasing twofold in the past decade it is down to us as parents to educate our children on the effects of exercise and try to get them into our everyday lives.

What child doesn’t love a trip to the park to jump on the play equipment and have fun.

They are having fun whist exercising and not even knowing what wonderful benefits it is having on them.

Outdoor play equipment allows children to build their gross motor skills, promote well being, build self confidence and put in those foundations for healthy living habits for life. 

What do you do to get your little ones out in the great outdoors?

*collaborated post

Children, Exercise, Families, Family Life, Holidays

Free Swimming For Under 16’s

by thejoyoffiveLeave a Comment on Free Swimming For Under 16’s


The school holidays are upon us and I’m sure as I I’m, your trying to think what you will fill the next 6 weeks with to keep the kids entertained.
It can be a real strain to fill everyday and a major pull on the bank balance.

If you could get out of the house, keep the kids entertained and get them some exercise for free I’m sure you would all jump at the chance!

Well until the 4th September Purley, Waddon, South Norwood, Thornton Heath and New Addington swimming pools are all offering free swimming for under 16’s.

All you need to do is fill out an application form and take along proof of name and address.  The only cost is £2 for the membership card.

I have already signed number two up in a bid to get him of the Xbox and doing some exercise with his friends.

Children, Exercise, Families, Family Life, Fitness, Gym, Healthy Eating

A New Me For Christmas:Week Eight

by thejoyoffive3 Comments on A New Me For Christmas:Week Eight

I’ve been a little quiet on the weight loss front for the past couple of weeks and that’s mainly due to the fact I fell off the wagon spectacularly over half term!

Way to many days out and parties occurred which resulted in not fitting in enough exercise and a large amount of overeating!!

  

I had a wake up call when my jeans wear getting more than snug again and jumped straight back to it.

I have massively cleaned my diet up again and have got lots of exercise in even with the children.

 

I did my first buggy run for about six months and throughly enjoyed it.  I’m a gym bunny at heart but love the feeling you get from running outside.  It’s way more invigorating and give you time to clear your head and gather your thoughts.

I’ve had a gain in weight which came as no shock but I’ve taken it as a positive to stay on track from now on.

Week Seven

Weight 10.4

BMI 23

Body Weight 25.4

Goals

To exercise outside at least twice a week.

Keep food healthy yet interesting so I don’t waver .

Diet, Exercise, Families, Family Life, Fitness, Healthy Eating, Marriage

A New Me For Christmas:Week Seven

by thejoyoffive2 Comments on A New Me For Christmas:Week Seven

  
Well my big night out has come and gone and I can say that I felt a lot happier in my dress than I was expecting.

I’m not where I want to be yet but the weight loss and toning that has happened so far has really helped with my confidence, something of which I wrote about a while ago.

Due to a few to many drinks and a big fried breakfast in the morning my weight has remained the same.  I’m not surprised or disappointed about this as I had a much needed night out with my husband that is far more important than losing a few pounds.

Week Seven

Weight 10

BMI 22

Body Fat 24

Goals

Lose another 2lb this week

Make the most of this good weather and train outside

Get the family involved in my training

Exercise, Families, Family Life, Gym, Healthy Eating, Uncategorized

A New Me For Christmas:Week Six

by thejoyoffive2 Comments on A New Me For Christmas:Week Six

  

After a very poor week last week I’m back in full swing, which to be honest has been prompted a little with the fact I have a night out at the end of the week.

As im sure is the same with most of you, nights out are rare so I always like to try and look and feel my best as I’m never sure when the next opportunity will be!

I’ve trained everyday even if it has been a quick 20 mins in the front room.  My diet has been good in the whole apart from a couple of chocolate slip ups!!

I am however trying to take a different approach to food as it is something I really enjoy so if I really fancy a treat I’m going to have a little as life is to short to not have a little of what you fancy!

Week Six

Weight 10

BMI 22

Body Fat 24

Goals

Loss another 2lb

Up the weight sessions to improve tone and strength

Get party dress ready for the weekend!!