Our aim is to raise 1000 pounds to set up fun fitness classes for parents and their children to lose weight, improve mental health and create new friendships!
When I became a single mom and started struggling with mental health, my physical health also became very affected.
I have put a lot of weight on, which only made my depression worse. It became a vicious cycle: the more I’ve put on weight, the more depressed I felt; the more depressed I felt, the more I wanted to compensate with unhelathy food. And one day- I found myself obese and severly depressed.
In 2019, I decided to lose weight, as I knew it will have direct impact on my mental wellbeing. I really wanted to become a healthy role model for my son to follow.
It was a start of my journey to full recovery.
However, being a single mother, who is always struggling with childcare, meant I was unable to join the gym. I needed to come up with ideas for physical activies, which I could do together with my son.
At that time, walking seemed like the only solution: my little boy, would jump on his scooter or a bike and I’d follow him around.
Walking was absolutely amazing and it became our respite during Covid’19. We started of by walking 30-45 minutes a day and over time we increased our daily goal.
Walking between 15,000-25,000 steps a day helped me lose weight and come out of depression, and it gave us opportunity to spend quality time together in nature.
Unfortunately, three years of walking every day, caused damaged to my hips and now, I am unable to be as active as I’d love to be. Whilst awaiting an appointment with Orthopeadic Hopsital, I am trying to find other things to do with my 10 year old, to keep us both physically engaged.
I have noticed there is a very big gap in the market as there aren’t any fitness classes in my area, where kids are allowed to join in.
Obesity and mental health problems are affecting both adults and children so why not work on it together?!
I believe, opportunities like that, would greately benefit families who are trying to lose weight, improve their mental wellbeing, become more confident in their bodies and spend time in a fun and active way.
Mental and physical wellbeing are interconnected and if we can improve one aspect of our lives, it will cause a domino effect on a larger scale, which can have an impact on the whole family.
We are aiming to raise money, which will help us secure a venue, fitness instructor, who will be able to create excercise routine suitable for the whole family and some marketing campaign.
And who knows… If it’s successful, perhaps we could roll it out to other areas?!
If you believe in our idea, please help us raise some money to get started!
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/reachforastar?utm_term=kenme57AW
Thank you
Sylwia and Damien
