"Just eat when you are hungry.” I’m sure you’ve heard this advice before.
This might be the health and fitness related “advice” that draws the biggest eye roll from me. It does not work with mom life! Let me paint a picture for you...  Let’s put to the idea that you need more time to get in a good workout to bed for good! It’s not about having more time. It’s about being more efficient with the time you have (and being honest with yourself about the time you have).
 Exercise is a punishment for eating “bad foods” You need to earn food by exercising. These ideas are so deeply ingrained that, with nearly everyone I coach, I need to untrain these behaviors…. heck even I catch myself having these thoughts and have to check myself. These ideas are even subtly integrated into apps like MyFitnessPal where you earn more calories toward you daily calorie goal with added movement. The ONLY way you can move forward toward creating a sustainable healthy lifestyle is to free yourself from this limiting line of thinking. Exercise as punishment and food as reward are the antithesis of empowering, healthy habits. Every day becomes a battle, even an obsession. Break free! Both exercise and nutrition are important! Exercise is not a punishment for eating bad foods! Exercise it’s so valuable for the body and the mind, it builds muscles, empowers you, increases your metabolism, your blood flow, improves your mood, decreases stress...I could go on an on. These benefit (especially the mental ones) increase dramatically when you let go of this “punishment idea.” And food? Food is not the enemy. Food is the fuel (the energy source for your body). It’s the fuel for your muscles, your brain, it helps keeps your hormones in balance. Yes, some food choices may be "better" than others, but you don’t need to earn it, or punish yourself for enjoying it. That my friends is a dangerous and very slippery slope. Again! The ONLY way you can move forward toward creating a sustainable, empowering, healthy lifestyle is to free yourself from this line of thinking. Here’s the thing. I make it sound easy, but I know it’s not. These two rules are simple for sure, but untraing and even uncovering some of you underlying ideas and behaviors takes time. As I mentioned this idea is something I coach all my clients through. I’d love to do that with you by inviting you to a have a little strategy session with me. Jump on over to my calendar to book a chat with me. Its free..there's no obligation. The best part of my job is connecting with you and seeing how I can help!  One of the biggest obstacles that all the busy moms face is finding time for themselves. Whether that’s time to use the restroom alone or take a shower without somebody needing something, or the time to work out, read a book, have a real conversation with friends… anything that make you feel like you again. With the never ending to do list and the needs of everyone else, it’s HARD!
I had this crazy “aha moment” the other day that I really need to share with you related to our conversation about getting stuck in the “I’ll start tomorrow” or “I’ll start next week” cycle. You stay stuck because you don’t value the promises you make to yourself.
 We know as moms we are all pretty much exhausted all the time. There are certainly things we can do to gain a little bit of that energy back...but before we can even take the necessary steps to do that we need to address a major challenge as it relates to our exhaustion.
Exhausted moms cannot rely on willpower! You are here because you have health and fitness goals, you want to get control over you body, you want to feel stronger and more confident in your skin, you want more energy, and you want to stop merely surviving mom life and live it! You can have the best intentions, a perfect nutrition program, some kick ass workouts planned...but the bottom line is when you are tired your willpower is depleted. When you are exhausted, your willpower cannot be relied on, it cannot be trusted.  Mom Posture: You know those rounded shoulders, that forward head position and an anterior pelvic tilt (belly hanging out and arch in your back). It results from the increased weight of the belly and breasts during pregnancy and then carrying the baby, nursing, changing, all in that hunched position, post-partum. On top of the aesthetic downside of this posture (namely the pooch and hunchback), these distortions can cause neck pain, headaches, lower back pain, knee pain and the list goes on and on… The thing is, it is more than just standing up straighter and fixing your posture in the moment, this posture results from months to years or repeated motions. Over time, the muscles around your shoulder and hips get all out of balance: the chest muscles and hip flexors tighten while the upper back and core muscles become weak.  Mom Posture The good news is targeted stretching and strengthening routines can have you looking better and feeling better in no time. Improved posture goes a long way; you can see results relatively quickly and it can give you the confidence you need to push forward with a more intense fitness plan.
Not all that long ago was stuck in a loop. I was constantly saying "tomorrow will be different" "next week will be different" and sometimes it even went into "next month will be different" or "after the new year will be different.” I would make this plans, these grand plans go the gym X amount of times each week and make all of these healthy recipes that I was finding on Pinterest. What happened was, just after a few days, Monday or Tuesday I would get overwhelmed and I would give up. Time would go by and I would continue the same cycle. It was so defeating and ultimately I realized I was self sabotaging  "Ah, the postpartum mommy tummy. We all get it! As weeks go by and we are cleared for exercise, for many of us, our first thought is to get rid of it! So naturally we start doing crunches right? Wrong!
Endless crunches are not going to flatten your mommy tummy AND they could be making it worse. Keep reading to learn what the mommy tummy REALLY is and how you can go about fixing it." Continue Reading my article on 5MinutesforMom.com.  We’ve been having a conversation recently about why we moms are so damn tired all the time.
You want to start planning healthy balanced meals, but you’re too damn tired. You want to start that new workout program, but you are just to damn tired. You want to (_insert pretty much anything here_), but you are to damn tired! Right? The first thing we talked about was all the mental junk. All the, sometimes trivial, little daily decisions we make add up to shear exhaustion and depleted willpower by the end of the day (it’s a real thing called Decision Making Fatigue). The best advice I have for this is to put your priorities first. Align your decisions and your actions with your priorities. Ok, yes, makes sense, but what to does that mean? |
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