I received a text message today from my husband. It said, "I was watching the news and there was this report that links inactivity in moms to inactivity with their babies. Just food for thought." (there are all kinds of shade being thrown in this seemingly harmless text but hey the truth hurts sometimes.)
My reply was Oh
The story that my dear sweet husband was referencing was a report on the BBC website that links activity levels in 'mums' and children (my husband specifically chose to use the word 'inactivity').
Researchers from Cambridge and Southampton Universities conducted this study on 554 four-year-olds and their mothers. As a part of this research, the participants continuously wore heart-rate monitors for seven days.
The results showed a direct positive link between physical activity in mothers and their children, concluding that the more activity a mother was involved in, the more active her child would be.
One of the other revealing results showed that once becoming mothers that some women's activity level fell and often didn't return to their previous active levels. Kathryn Hesketh, research associate at the Institute of Child Heath University College of London said, "For every minute the mother was sedentary, children were 0.18 minutes more sedentary, so one hour of sedentary time in mums would result in 10.8 minutes in children."
She also sited factors that influenced a mother's activity levels included whether or not she worked and whether the child had brothers and sisters.
As a stay-at-home mom of an only child, I have to agree with this study. I worked out all the time prior to becoming a mom and now prioritizing working out into my daily mommy schedule has been well, non-existent.
For the last eight months, I have been planning and procrastinating on going to the gym. I have had every excuse in the book: It's too cold outside; the baby keeps me from going to the gym; I'm just too tired...
I had no idea that my self-neglecting inactivity was affecting my daughter. She and I are both struggling to crawl before we walk (I guess I know why). Well I, and if this sounds like you too, need to start somewhere and even fitting in a 30-minute walk can positively influence our children.
To hold my self-accountable I am even thinking of doing a video log of my journey!
If anyone has any suggestions on workouts or healthy recipes to try send them along with any other questions or inquires to mommiwrites@gmail.com. For more mommy tips follow me on Twitter @mombazar.
