Pilates Plus for a Healthy Lifestyle

Harris's homemade fruit salad and homemade yogurt!

Harris age 9 pictured above with his homemade fruit salad with my homemade yogurt.

“The man who uses intelligence with respect to his diet, his sleeping habits and who exercises properly, is beyond any question of doubt taking the very best preventive medicines provided so freely and abundantly by nature.”

Joseph Pilates

Prevention is one of my core values and part of what draws me to the Pilates Method. It doesn’t have to be a big luxury or a costly investment to make changes in your life that can help prevent injury and ill health. A bath, early night, drinking more water, walking to work, eating more veg, moving more and fresh air are just a few cheap and easy ways.

There are so many simple things that we do as a family inspired not only by Joseph Pilates but other people I have studied including Katy Bowman and of course growing up in the Scottish countryside in the 80’s and eating home cooked meals.

Here are the top ten ways we integrate healthy habits for a healthy life:

Sit on the floor. At least once a week we have carpet tea. We lay out a big blanket reserved just for carpet tea and we all sit on the floor and eat our eventing meal.
Create Space. We reduced the amount of furniture in our home, particularly in our living room. This means someone is always sitting and moving around on the floor. The boys and I can often be found rolling around on the floor.
Stimulate. We have lots of Pilates props mats, balls and spiky things to stimulate and promote movement.
Water. We have a water filter jug always full and available at child height. Plus fun cups to inspire us all to drink more water.
Make it Easy. On our kitchen counter we have Pick n Mix jars full of our favourite healthy snacks including dried mango, almonds & banana chips and for extra fun we use paper bags to scoop them into. Keeping healthy snacks available makes it easy to make healthy choices.
Walk. Seems obvious but there are often more chances to walk than we take. We walk every day to school and to the studio and our boys always look for the stairs instead of the lift.
Barefoot. We all go barefoot round our home.
Play. Exercise isn't always what it seems. We enjoy playing football, basketball, running around outdoors and bouldering climbing as ways to get our own exercise while having fun as a family.
Sleep. We use a minimal pillow and firm mattress to promote healthy sleep.
Read. We all read a lot in our household but we read a big mix of fiction and nonfiction so we always have an opportunity to learn.