Mandy Beer (left) used to hate PE when she was at school. Now she loves seeing the children at her LazyTown Sports Club really enjoying exercise and eating healthily
When Mandy Beer was at school she hated sport, but these days she enjoys teaching health and fitness to children in her LazyTown Sports Club class, as part of the FitKid franchise. Mandy tells Heard it in the Playground how having kids herself made her want to help children today to enjoy keeping fit…
“When I was at school, I didn’t enjoy PE at all. I didn’t seem to do well or enjoy netball or tennis etc, which were the main sports we played at my school in PE and as a result I often sat on a bench as a substitute player. I was the child picked last by teams as I wasn’t fit and lacked confidence. The teachers never seemed to smile or enjoy the classes either – they were very regimented and competitive.
I had a very poor diet and snacked on crisps, chips, sweets and fizzy drinks. I was brought up in a sweet shop, so as you can imagine, they were never hard to get hold of. My mum rarely cooked, so it was mainly convenience food and at the time she believed this food would do us no harm.
My relationship to food and exercise was very unhealthy. Up until about the age of 15 I ate very badly, typically drinking five cans of fizzy pop a day and eating bags of crisps in one sitting for comfort. I was typically ‘plump’ and, with the exception of compulsory PE classes, didn’t exercise. I developed an awareness of my relationship with food at 16. This is when I started to try and diet, which again developed into another unhealthy relationship.
I started to develop fitness when I came to university in Scotland and found I enjoyed walking in the hills. In fact, the first time I 
walked up a local hill (750ft, 4 miles) which my children, Kimmy and Mikey, aged 5 and 7, now do regularly, I thought I had walked up a mountain and found it very, very hard! I now run up that hill with ease!
I had very low self-esteem as a teenager and no body confidence. I developed a very unhealthy attitude towards food and at university I realised this. However, after walking up that hill I felt good about myself! So I started walking more, then running and then swimming and suddenly I felt stronger and happier, with more confidence, and I haven’t stopped since. I went on to be sponsored by the RAF at university and fitness became an important part of my life.
I later went on to running a marathon and entering a triathlon! I hate competing but I like setting myself goals, so I decided to train for a half marathon, which I enjoyed, and surprised myself at how well I did, as I finished in under two hours.
It wasn’t until after I had my second child that I realised I wanted to really challenge myself, so I decided to enter the Edinburgh marathon. I started running every day. When I ran the marathon I felt amazing – I actually sprint finished and had energy left afterwards, finishing in four hours.
I entered the triathlon as I’d suffered a knee injury at the time, so cross training was a perfect option. I wasn’t an experienced biker but I threw myself into it and joined the triathlon swim squad, teaching myself front crawl. I loved it, I was the fastest female runner in the triathlon out of 180 competitors in the novice race and 35th overall, which considering I’d only been riding a race bike for five months, I was extremely pleased with!”
Although Mandy was enjoying good health now she was an adult, she was still concerned that her own children didn’t fall into the same bad habits that she did as a child, or be put off sport at school.
“I loved my kids watching LazyTown the TV show and it came to me one day that it would be great as a kids’ fitness class idea. I googled it and found some information on FitKid who run the LazyTown Sports Club franchise. I made contact with Nicky Kay, the managing director, who I found to be an amazing and like-minded person and from then on I knew that I wanted to be a part of the work they were doing.
Children can attend the LazyTown Sports Clubs from the age of three. Each class is done to the music from the TV show. The classes are games based and they also learn Sportacus’ hero moves. Each week the children receive a message from Sportacus about healthy eating or healthy lifestyles, to take home. It doesn’t feel like a sports class – there are no ‘winners’ or ‘losers’ – it’s all about laughing and having fun and moving at the same time. You don’t need to have any skills, it really is open to all children to enjoy.
I love getting feedback from the kids and seeing them bringing their fruit to the classes to eat after. It’s great hearing them laughing and enjoying exercise. At the end of the classes they all rush to talk to me to tell me about the fruit and veg they have been eating and how they can run fast. Recently I ran a workshop for some of the kids that have been coming to my classes since I launched back in August 2009, and I had a teary moment when I saw nearly 100 local children getting excited about an exercise class and eating apples.”
If Mandy could go back and visit her younger self, she’d want to give herself some words of encouragement, “I really wish someone had told me it wasn’t impossible and my body was capable of doing everything the other children’s could do. At the time, I wrongly believed I was inferior. Now I would say ‘It doesn’t matter if you can’t catch a ball now, keep up with the other runners or jump high. Don’t stop trying, you really can do everything, even if you are small! If you practise, you can be just as good.”
Mandy runs LazyTown Sports Clubs in the Stirling area. Classes are currently running in the following locations – Riverside Boathouse, Bridge of Allan Parish Hall, Kidz World Alloa, Scout Hut in Queen Street, Dunblane centre and Linlithgow Leisure Centre – West Lothian. For more details on the FitKid classes in your area or to register interest in having FitKid classes running at your location, please contact Mandy at mandy@fitkid.co.uk or call 08445 605 451.
FitKid run sports classes for children from 18 months – 16, including the LazyTown Sports Clubs (for kids aged around 3-10), across the UK. Visit www.fitkid.co.uk to find out more about classes for kids in your area. If you think you’d like to run a class like Mandy you can also find information for potential franchisees on the website at http://www.fitkid.co.uk/franchise.asp
Tags: children's fitness, children's healthy lifestyle, exercise classes for kids, fitkid, health and fitness kids, lazytown, lazytown sports clubs, sportacus
