How Tech (including Pokémon Go) is Helping To Keep This Family Fit

So, I’ve realised something. Far from tech keeping me sedentary as one might assume with my ‘booty sat by my desk blogging career), thanks to our move to Windsor and my recent obsession with a certain FitBit Christmas gift, I appear to have embarked on a fitness journey like no other. As have my family.

We’re a pretty active family anyway to be fair and are at our happiest on the move: walking, running, swimming, climbing tress, playing Tig and my personal favourite: doing dance-offs in the lounge to Dua Lipa (‘I’ve got new rules, I count ’em’). In fact I become grumpy af if I don’t get my heart rate up. I’ve been told by my PT that I’m a pretty athletic person so need the FEEL THE BURN.  I also suffer from PCOS so regular exercise helps me control my weight, manage my ‘hormonies’ and release stress.

My favourite exercise has to be the power-walk, a brisk walk that doesn’t put pressure on the joints like a run does which allows me to chill out and observe my surroundings (even if that means power walking to Zara and observing new frocks)!

I literally felt at home the minute we moved into central Windsor and feel so incredibly lucky to live by the Long Walk and Windsor Castle which makes a walk in the park, a walk in the park. Picture postcard surroundings make every day feel like a holiday.

Recently, Oliver has accompanied me on power walks after school with the added incentive of playing Pokémon Go some days (I adore Pokémon everything and even collect the cards along with the kids, having immersed myself in their world over Christmas and loving every minute of it).

More than just playing Pokémon Go together though, we discuss the day, talking through any issues Oliver might be having or milestone moments he might not ordinarily share. We decompress and bond on those walks, away from other distractions. It’s just Oliver and I enjoying quality time together, simultaneously working our muscles (including our hearts: the most important muscle of all) and having a laugh.

We arrive home, usually forty minutes or more on the move, Oliver ecstatic by the progress we’ve made on his Pokémon Go app (tonight was catching 7 of the blighters) and I smashing 15k steps by that point.

As much as tech must be used in moderation (and it should), credit where credit is due, too.

Do you play Pokémon Go and own a FitBit too?

 

Phone pic by David Grandmougin on Unsplash.