Back on the Exercise Wagon!

At last, I can exercise! Its been too long! But now I have the challenge of fitting it around 2 kiddies.

Being as I have 2 children 3 days a week and 1 child 2 days a week, and then need to share the ‘exercise time slots’ with Stuart at weekends as well as balancing it around Millie’s feed times, I thought I was limited to the odd burst on the Wii Fit but thankfully, there’s another option.

Our SureStart Children’s Centre is excellent. I actually live near 2 but have chosen to go to the one slightly further away, Southbourne, as 1) I’m a snob and its a nicer centre and 2) the classes suit me better. The ones at the other centre always seemed to clash with Callum’s swimming or something else.

There is so much on offer there – such a wide range of classes for everyone. The majority are free or they request a small donation or £1 to go towards any snacks/drinks they provide for the little ones. There are exercise classes, play groups (for children of all ages), speech classes, breastfeeding groups – your really are spoilt for choice!

I have been going along to their Breastfeeding Group, Bossom Buddies, already since Millie was a few weeks old. While there yesterday, one of the girls mentioned she had done a Buggy Fit class the week before that went down to Southbourne beach and back on a 4 mile route.

After Callum, when living in Surrey, I had joined Pushy Mothers which is an exercise class for mums with their buggies (and children of course!!!). It was a gentle class but I met some great friends and, the best bit, we all used to undo our hardwork in the pub after with lunch and sometimes cake. We used to take over part of the pub to chat the afternoon away while our babes played and crawled about. It wasn’t a ‘pub’ pub, it was a hotel restaurant pub so slightly, er, classier (marginally, I admit!).

I had thought about doing the same down this way but as it was over £5 a class and when I looked into similar classes in Bournemouth, they were about the same price, I thought that wasn’t going to be an option. I also had to make sure that it fell on a day I didn’t have Callum.

Then I heard about this class, it was free(!!!) and it took place on a Friday morning! The only challenge would be getting there for the 9.45am start (well arrive at 9.45 for a 10am start!), especially as the centre is a 20 minute walk away (I don’t have the car on Thursdays and Fridays).

I was up a little late this morning but shovelled some breakfast down and made it to the centre bang on 9.45am, with a stitch and a little out of breath before the class had even started!

The disclaimer form I had to sign to say I had been given the OK to exercise (no one has actually said those words but I had my 6 week check, where not one finger was laid on me, and nothing was said to the contrary and I feel fine to exercise so I took that as ok), and that my baby was at least 8 weeks old. Well, actually she isn’t 8 weeks until Monday but they let that pass. We were the ‘youngest’ there (Millie, not me!) and there were a few surprised faces but they are all (but one) first time mums and I do think it is easier to get back into the swing of exercise second time round. I’ve missed it so much!

Anyway, at 10 am we set off walking at a steady pace towards the park. Pretty soon in she instructed us to jog and the rest of the walk was made up of intermittent walking, jogging and sprinting and took us through the park, down streets, through woodland walks down to the seafront where we walked down one cliff path and jogged (read trotted a few steps, wobbled all over the path trying to keep moving forwards before panting in a mess halfway, walking a fair bit then half jogging, half stumbling the final few yards) up the next cliff path before taking the route back to the centre. In total we burned over 500 calories walking 3.66 miles.

The Instructor kept a close eye on us all and made sure we went at a pace we were comfortable with and for those that had been going to the class for a while, they were given more challenging stuff to do or a slightly longer route.

There were about 10 of us in the group and there was a good mix of abilities so no one felt pressured to do more than they were able or like they were being held back. All the girls were also really friendly and I got to chat to a number of different people along the route. No after trip to the pub this time though!

I found it really hard work but I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to go back again next week. There was the added bonus that the sun was shining too! And we’ll gloss over the fact I had forgotten to strap Millie into the buggy. Mortified! Thankfully, there was no baby falling out of pushchair incident and she was in exactly the same position at end as at the beginning, having slept the whole time only stirring once or twice!

It feels so good to be doing some proper exercise again! I perhaps could have eased myself back in a little more gently but hey, what’s the point? As long as I am sensible, am enjoying it, warming up/down properly, the quicker I get back to fitness the better I say!