I’m a big advocate for making fitness a family affair. I grew up watching my mom and grandma exercise on a daily basis and always talk about how important it was to stay active and eat healthy. Having such healthy role models in my life, it was only natural for me to lead an active lifestyle and model those habits for my son. When I was a little girl, we went on family bike rides, roller skated, swam and played outside all the time. My mom was right there skating and swimming with us, so fitness always involved family. All of the activity my brothers and I did never seemed like exercise because we had so much fun doing it, which is what I want Keenan to learn.
Involving Keenan in fitness and modeling healthy lifestyle habits so he grows up leading an active lifestyle is one of my main goals as a parent. We take family bike rides, he goes jogging with me in our BOB stroller, play outside and dance, which he absolutely loves. If I can get some exercise while he’s having fun, it’s a win win for both of us!
Recently I was selected to be a part of Ubisoft’s Just Dance Just Sweat Dream Team for 2014. They sent me a copy of their newest release of the Just Dance game, Just Dance 4. I was thrilled to be chosen because I love to dance (especially in my living room with Keenan!), but it provides another fun activity for Keenan and I to do together that involves fitness. Even though it is a game, you definitely work up a sweat and can follow the dance workout portion for some good sweat sessions!
Here is how our first day went of our “Mommy-Son Doo Wop” team…
Keenan and I had a lot of fun playing the game (rather dancing our tushes off!) and I certainly got my sweat on! We started at the beginning level and I have to say, it was pretty challenging! I took dance when I was teenager and continued it through college, so I thought the game would be fairly easy to follow, but boy was I wrong! It was more challenging since I was trying to watch the screen for the choreography and Keenan at the same time, so it would be interesting to do it by myself and see if my performance improves. The music was great, and we enjoyed dancing around and being silly while getting some good exercise! After our dance session, we had lunch, and Keenan was so tired that he immediately fell asleep for his nap (which usually takes 20-30 minutes!), so I know all of the dancing wore him out!
Since I am 14 weeks pregnant, I’m not able to take any metrics to track my progress, as my goal throughout this pregnancy is to maintain my fitness level, stay healthy and gain the recommended amount of weight. So, instead of tracking weight loss or a decrease in body fat like other team members (which you can find on the Just Sweat Dream Team board) might be doing, I’ll be tracking my weight gain and growing belly! I plan to continue doing CrossFit while adding in a few dance sweat sessions with my little partner each week, so stay tuned!
Our “before” picture!
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
What a fun way to exercise! And that last photo is adorable!
Thank you! It has been a lot of fun playing the game and I am quite surprised with how much you work up a sweat!
How fun! Love dancing especially with Ayden lately!
Keenan loves to dance, so it has been a blast playing the game with him, though I sometimes think he just loves pressing the buttons on the wii controllers!
This sounds really fun! We have a Wii, and Dries loves to dance too, so maybe we should give it a try. I wanted to ask if you felt like the songs and dance moves were appropriate for 3-year-olds…
So far the songs have been appropriate, but I select them. I’m sure there are ones that aren’t so appropriate. You should definitely try it! It is a lot of fun!