Top tips to ‘Move for Health’ as a family

As we gear up to the Woolworths/Myschool Move for Health 6km Fun Run/Walk, we are talking about all things health, hoping to inspire things health, hoping to inspire Capetonians from all walks of life to upgrade their lifestyle

Last week, we provided some up-to-date, evidence based information on exactly how much physical activity you and your family should be doing. It is easy for health practitioners and researchers to sit back and tell people that they should be doing more exercise.

So, for today’s article, instead of hearing from a health practitioner or a researcher, we have asked one of the SSISA’s most inspirational people, a homeschooling mom of eight kids nicknamed Se7en, to tell about her health journey and share some of her top tips for keeping a family healthy and active.

We asked: What inspired you to start this fitness and healthy lifestyle journey with your family?

“As a mom of many kids, I always found the best way to kep everyone happy was to get everyone outdoors. The great outdoors keeps kids of all ages (and their grown-ups) happy. I needed to get fitter in order to keep up with my children. I was feeling so left behind that I knew I had to do something.” 

We asked: How has your health journey affected you and your family’s lives (particularly your children)?

“When I started on my fitness journey at SSISA, I was not very active. I could sit and watch my kids all day. But as I started moving more and being able to do more, so my kids joined me… a short evening amble became a walk, then we started walking the parkrun and hiking.

Not only are my kids moving more, but they appreciate that I can do so much more.”

We asked: How do you motivate your children to put down their technological devices, head outside and be physically active?

“Our goal has always been to be outdoors as much as possible. And as soon as they realised that the fitter we were the more adventurous we could be, my kids were totally on board with getting more active.

My top tip is start really small. Aim for just fifteen minutes, if it is still awful… go home and try again another time. You and your kids will get better at it.”

We asked: What are some of your go to outdoor family activities?

“As a family we do a lot of walks, and I make sure we walk nearly everywhere. My kids love coming with me to the store or on errands, so we walk there. Anything closer than two or three kilometres from home we always walk… and yes, it does take longer, but it gives me longer to chat with them and hang out with them.

Otherwise, we parkrun as a family every Saturday. There are parkruns all over the world and most likely one in your area, and they are free, safe and well organised. All you have to do is go online, find your local parkrun and turn up at 8am on a Saturday. The nice thing is that you get emailed your results, week after week you will start seeing improvements. Your goals can be your encouragement… always try to get better.”

Is it time for you to start moving for health with your family? Why not try some of these amazing ideas with your own family? Need a goal to work towards, why not make it the Woolworths/Myschool Move for Health 6km Fun Run/Walk in proud association with with the SANParks on Sunday November 3 and follow our weekly training programme.