Balancing Fitness With Family.

How Do You Train With A Child?

Before we go into this, I do want to state that every family unit is different, just as everyone’s goals and aspirations are different. What works for me may not work for the next family, and maybe it will, so here we go.

If you look at any source, they’ll tell you that the most important thing is a routine, and it really is. You’re gonna need to have a sit down and plan the most convenient times for you to train/how long for/where your child(ren) will be during that time.

For myself and my partner, that’s during school hours. We’re hugely lucky enough to both be self employed full time, so to have the luxury of beginning work a little later in the day. We typically drop our son off at the school Breakfast Club at 8:15 and are in the gym for 8:30.

During the school holidays we take training in turns; one of us will train at the normal time while the other spends time with our son, then upon parent 1’s return, parent 2 then goes to train. This isn’t ideal as we prefer to train together for safety as well as enjoyment, but we make it work. For the sake of a couple of hours it’s worth making the sacrifice.

Obviously the above only works if you’re a 2 parent household, but what can be done if you’re a single parent? Well, my recommendation would be to have in school and out of school plans ready. When your child is in school? Great, go to the gym as usual. When your child is out of school, if you can’t arrange childcare or don’t have someone to help out, that’s fine. Just build a home plan for those times.

A home plan doesn’t have to be all push ups and burpees; there is a LOT you can get done with resistance bands and a few small free weights in a pinch. Of course the gym itself would be preferable but needs must, right?

Having a plan in place means you’re more likely to stay on target than to just not exercise or train for however long (up to 6 weeks!) the school break in question is. It doesn’t have to be extreme or fancy; it could just be some active fun with your family, but it’s worth putting it into place.

So, that’s the training side of it, this won’t be applicable to everyone but hopefully can be helpful to some!

What About Nutrition?

How do you balance a full life with a family, a job and a dog AND make sure you’re eating right?

The simple answer (for me) is meal prep. I understand this isn’t for everyone, but please believe me when I tell you it is both time and cost efficient, as well as (again) helping to keep you on target.

I typically have combinations of breakfast/lunch/dinner that all amount to roundabout the same number of cals in - this is subject to change though depending on my training intensity/length/etc - and my evening meals are all frozen and ready to go when I am.

I don’t prep my son’s food as he likes to request certain dinners/foods, and we like to keep it mixed up for him, so it’s really good not to be cooking 2 different meals (or 3, depending on what my partner wants!) each night. Everyone is happy, my targets are met and it’s not taking bloody ages to juggle making everyone’s food in my pokey little kitchen.

How I’ve Managed During Covid-19 Restrictions

If you follow me on any social media, you’ll have seen that we’re lucky enough to own all our own equipment. This means that for me, training hasn’t really changed much. At first, we were just training at home in our dining room, and then later on we moved all our kit into a private place near to our home.

We’re training a little later in the morning now (around 10am) and taking our son with us. He typically watches a film or does some school work during, and it means he can still be supervised and we can still train together.

For the first few weeks my nutrition was way off track. I was a bit sad, a bit bored, and I was basically eating everything on sight. We fell out of a routine due to the complete absurdity of the situation. I managed to put on a few kilos and was generally miserable. This compounded with the lack of travel (I usually cycle to and from work several times a day!) meant I was feeling really unfit and unhappy.

It took a bit for me to acknowledge that it was the food(!) really making me feel horrid, but thankfully I’m back to my regular scheduled meal prep, this time in a deficit. Putting on weight wasn’t the end of the world, but I was starting to feel lethargic; my skin was breaking out, I was craving sweets and I was tired more than usual.

I’d recommend now as the time to get your nutrition on track, especially if you can’t train currently. It’s as good a time as any to set some better habits in place and in all honesty it’ll make you feel better. I’m not saying to cut calories or anything, but just make healthier nutrition choices and see the impact it’ll have. Get the kids involved if you can, let them taste test the foods you’re making and try to encourage them to join you. It could be good for everyone.

Most of all, don’t give up on yourself because you have a family. Yes it can be difficult to make the time and to make sure you’re eating well, and I know I’m exceptionally fortunate in my circumstances, but it’s not impossible to juggle it all if there are goals you want to achieve.

So What's The Take-Home?

We can't control every aspect of our lives, even less so when we're trying to manage work, a family, and physical health all at once. To get the most out of your self you need a plan.

1. Sit down and put together a Time Management plan.

2. Have training plans ready for all scenarios (child at school, child at home, active outdoor exercise, etc.)

3. Focus on nutrition when exercise is less of a certainty. Eat well.

4. Put together a meal planner if meal prep is off the table.

5. Just do your best. Nobody can tell you how to run your household or your life. If you want to train, train. Do what you can to make yourself happy as well as the people you love. It's vital.