A mother of a workout

I never even thought about my body, health or fitness until a few years ago when I put on lots of weight. Even then, I didn’t really mind until I heard some people at school say I was fat. I was really upset, but just didn’t know what to do to lose weight. I thought if I asked my mum outright she might say, ‘I told you so,’ because our body shape is similar and she always said she had to work out to stay slim.

Recently, mum told me she was really busy at work and that I would have to walk the dogs for her a few times a day. I was really annoyed but had no choice so I did it without complaining. I found I quite enjoyed it and liked being with the dogs. After two weeks of walking them regularly I started to feel better and more energetic.

Soon, mum started walking the dogs again with me and even though I could have left her to it at this point, I didn’t. I really wanted to spend the time with her, as before that, it had always been my older brother and sister who’d done active things with her. When my mum suggested we take the bike and have one of us run with the dogs while the other one rode, I agreed because I wanted to carry on exercising with her.

Our walk/runs were really funny at first. My mum might think she’s quite fit, but she’d never run before and we were both really bad at it. We seemed to spend most of the time swapping between running and cycling as neither of us could run for too long. But now we’re both much better and can keep going for longer.

Up until this point, I never thought that my mum asking me to walk the dogs was a ploy to get me fit, but now I know it was. I wanted to be active and join in with the rest of my family, but I didn’t know where to start. I feel so much better now and am glad my mum has helped me realise that fitness should be an integral part of my life.