I was never hugely into regular exercise until I had kids. I would have bouts of exercise fury when my pants got too tight but if it was too cold, too hot, too late, or too early I could always find a way to talk myself out of it. I was hugely motivated to lose weight after I had kids but that wasn’t my only motivation to get to the gym anymore. Exercising gives you an hour. One whole hour. To yourself. No one to think about, but yourself. A whole selfish hour. To yourself. Yourself. As mums we are attached to our small humans all the damn day. In the car….. “mum” In the shower…... “mum” On the toilet…… “MUM” At the gym you get…….. sweet f**king silence. It seems that there is often massive judgement on mums for taking time to themselves. Mum's are supposed to be selfless right? Going to the gym is something most people aren’t too judgmental over. But imagine if a mum *god forbid* was going for a massage for that hour every day. The judgement would be in overdrive. Mum's (and Dads) should be able to take time to themselves, whether it be gym, massage or catching up with friends without prejudice. Horribly the most critical people are other women. Other mothers! I am a HUGE advocate for doing whatever keeps parents sane. It is such a demanding job that if you need an hour or two to yourself to do whatever the hell you want, then take that hour. Happy mum, happy kids. For me, the gym does wonders for my mental health. The social encounters, the endorphin rush, the beauty of thinking of about one thing at a time instead of 20 million. Happy mum, happy everyone. Get acquainted with your gym child-minding. Most take kids from 6 weeks old. My kids have grown up going to the gym. They are regulars. They know the childminders. They know the other kids. They have been there every week since they were babies. Not only is this good for mum (me) to be able to leave the kids somewhere that is safe and fun but the kids come to know that exercise is a part of routine. That it’s something you do regularly. They’ve seen us in classes. They’ve watched my husband at soccer. They will likely (hopefully) copy us to make it part of their lives too. My 5 year old refuses to take his socceroos jersey off so I think sport has already made an impression. I exercise 6 days a week. I never miss a session, and if I do I get cranky. I am not a gym junkie. I am a silence junkie. A mums mental health is paramount. Never criticize a mum for what she must do to stay sane. If you are a mum, what is your regular moment of sanity?
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Let me address early the question I get asked all the time. “You are fructose-free, but you eat fruit? But fruit contains fructose. I’m confused.” This is how I explain: Back in cave man times, our contact with fructose was limited to fruit (in its whole form) or honey (which if you wanted to eat you’d have to speak to the bees first). From my understanding, this limited supply of fructose is a good thing because our bodies can’t handle large quantities of it. Our liver can’t deal with it and metabolizes fructose straight into fat. Great! The problem nowadays is that there’s a shit tonne abundance of fructose available to us at every turn. Soft drinks, ice creams, biscuits, donuts, cronuts……… And there (unfortunately) aren’t a large swarm of bees keeping us from reaching for the choc top. So hence to minimize our risk of the chronic disease that fructose has been attributed to, our family made the decision not to bring fructose into our home. There are 3 exceptions to this rule:
*Not juice
*Not fruit concentrates *Not dried fruit. Just whole fruit, as nature intended, with all its fibre intact. We eat 1-2 pieces per day. My 5-year-old would eat 10 pieces per day if I let him (and I don’t). My 3-year-old is just fine with one banana on his toast for breakfast. So this is the only fructose we have in our home. I say at home because if we are at a birthday party and other kids are eating cake, I don’t rip my sons away and hand them a cracker. I don’t want to omit them socially from the pack. If we have been to the hairdresser and they offer a lollypop in front of the kids (why do they do that???), I say yes because it’s not worth the tantrum. If they have a brain and ask me on the sly, I tell them to hide those lollypops under the counter and never mention them again. If a product lists sugar (or any synonym for sugar) in its ingredients, I don’t buy it. We still eat sweet things in moderation at home however we use fructose-free sweeteners such as dextrose and rice malt syrup. So technically yes we are “Low Fructose Family”. But that just don’t sound as good as Fructose Free Family. What foods do you avoid bringing into your home? |