This summer, give yourself, not your exercise, a break

Q The summer holiday is upon us and, as a-stay-at-home mother of three kids under six, my morning window to run, which I stuck to religiously just as you suggested after dropping them off at school and nursery, is now lost for me until September. I am worried for several reasons.

One, because I love that time to myself and I know it helps me be a better mum because I am in a better mood. And, two, it helps me eat better and makes me feel less soft and flabby round the middle.

Don’t tell me I have to run when my husband gets home from work instead because I know I just won’t have the energy after a long day with the kids and will just want to collapse in front of the telly with a glass of wine. Sara

A I, too, can find the long summer break taxing for exactly this reason. It interferes, no, destroys my regular running routine and I invariably feel completely out of sorts as a result. Like you, the idea of going for a run in the evening after a day running around after the twins does not have the same appeal as that early morning run after dropping them off at nursery which seems almost effortless by comparison. So, what is one to do?

Well Sara, I will be running during those evenings despite their apparent lack of appeal by tricking myself into it. Q: What do I prefer a) or b)? a) Cleaning up after the boys’ supper, then doing bath and bedtime, or, b) getting an hour’s worth of peace and space away from the domestic sphere while flooding my body with endorphins? A: Errrr, I chose b) every time.

We all know how tiring that last leg of the day can be, particularly if you’ve been on a 12-hour non-stop shift with the kids. I don’t know about you, but I do this routine practically every single day of their lives so the prospect of swapping it for an hour-long endorphin-generating run is enough to have me literally running out of the door the moment my husband gets home.

This is doable at least twice on weekdays and then I will be negotiating some exercise hours over the weekends too and encouraging my husband to do the same. ‘You go for an hour bike ride, hon. And I’ll go for an hour spinning class or run later.’ You get my drift.

Use your weekends

During term time I rarely go running at weekends but I always utilise them during the school holidays. And if your other half is never back in time to relieve you of the kids’ bedtime duties, then ramp up your weekend exercise sessions and grit out just the one session after the kids are in bed during the week once he is home. Go on. You may find you enjoy it so much that it provides sufficient motivation to get you to go again. Then again, you might not.

However you do it, work those thrice- weekly runs into your week and suddenly that summer break will feel more like just that – a break – because you too are getting one. A break from the kids, from the house and everything in it, and an hour of freedom from all your responsibilities.

Get active with the kids

The other key is to get active with the kids. The more stuff you do outdoors, the shorter those days will seem and the more your kids will reap the widely recognised benefits of regular physical exercise. It doesn’t have to cost anything either. I spend many days in the local park, bringing a frisbee and a football and a picnic, and spend most of the day there.

We play a lot of ‘toilet tag’ too – a good game to play in a large group including very young kids. Here’s how: One person is ‘it’, and chases all the others, if someone gets tagged, they have to squat as if on a toilet and put their arm out to the side perpendicular to their body and then they can get rescued by anyone who runs up to them and flushes their arm as if flushing the toilet. Take turns being ‘it’. But there are loads of games you can play together outside.

The Get Ireland Active website has numerous suggestions. The more fun, playful and unstructured the activity the better, as they will only ever think they are having a great time which is the Holy Grail of learning.

A day spent outdoors and playing with the kids – three in your case – is a day that can legitimately end with you collapsing on the sofa with a large glass of wine and hopefully a big smile. That is, if you can make it to the kitchen to pour yourself one before you pass out with exhaustion.

Don’t let the fact that it is their summer holidays completely dominate your own. Making time and creating space for yourself is one of the best things you can bring to your role as their mother. Plus you will be setting a brilliant example along the way which is the most powerful way we have of exerting any influence over our children – while there is still time.

The Grit Doctor says: Make being active your top priority and see how it impacts positively on everybody's summer holiday happiness.

Get your kids active Get your children to become more active with the help of the "Get Ireland Active" website (getirelandactive.ie), an extremely useful guide for parents, including loads of suggestions for great physical activities they can introduce into their lives and for their kids.

Benefits of taking the recommended 60 minutes of exercise every day for kids include: Better cardio-respiratory and muscular fitness.

Stronger bones.

Better cardiovascular and metabolic health.

Healthier body fat composition.

Reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Improved confidence.

Ruth Field is the author of Run, Fat Bitch, Run, Get Your Sh!t Together and Cut the Crap. Her new ebook, The Grit Doctor’s Summer Food and Fitness Plan, is available to download at goo.gl/KVo6gU