When you become a mom, things can get crazy. And I mean—crazy. Prior to your first little one arriving, like the rest of us, you probably had all these ideas of how things would be and how you’d still be able to carry on as normal. Boy, weren’t we wrong?
Despite all the massive shifts in your life, it is vital to stay on top of your health and wellness. Being fit, healthy, and happy is the difference between you being a great mom, or surviving in an unhappy household. Your happiness is the foundation of everything.
In this article, we take a look at some easy tips for health and wellness specifically for ‘mom life’, so that you can learn to prioritize yourself too.
Why Is Self-Care Important For Moms?
Self-care is so important for you as a mom because your health and happiness affect your entire family. If you’re feeling burnout, overwhelmed, tired, uninspired, unmotivated, exhausted, unfulfilled—or a variety of other feelings and emotions that can arise when you’re not properly taking care of yourself—this will affect your entire family.
It can affect your family in a number of ways. Perhaps it results in you not being able to parent your children in the way that you’d like, or maybe it is the catalyst that drives space between you and your partner. Maybe it causes you to neglect your relationships outside of your family too— such as with your friends and your wider community.
In general, self-care should be the epicenter of your life, and everything else can flourish around it when you have a full cup. If you’re not taking care of yourself and your cup isn’t full, you’ll not have anything to give to anyone else either!
Check out my article on self-love tips for busy moms!
Wellness, Health, And Fitness Tips For Busy Moms
I know that you’re busy. And I know that you keep putting your self-care and wellness on the back burner. But it’s gotta stop, mama. You’re not doing anyone any favors.
Sometimes being a good mom means putting yourself first, no matter how anti-intuitive it may feel in the moment.
Here are some of my ideas for busy moms who want to start a good self-care routine!
1. Healthy Eating Habits
Healthy eating habits are vital for good overall health and wellness. What you put into your body controls your body through hormones. You can either support your mood and health with food—or destroy it.
I get it! Because you’re super busy, eating healthy food is probably the last thing on the to-do list. But it really needs to go up to the top of the list as a priority.
The best way to ensure that you have healthy snacks at hand is by meal planning and preparing snacks beforehand.
If you have a meal plan, and you meal prep, it means that you’ll always have a healthy choice available when you’re hungry. This helps to prevent you from reaching for soul-destroying foods.
It doesn’t matter if you’re busy, or too tired, you can easily grab your delicious frozen meals and have them hot and ready to go in 2 minutes from the microwave (or 15 minutes in the oven).
This doesn’t just benefit you, it also ensures that your family is consuming a healthy meal every day too! Pinterest is a great resource to find healthy snack ideas if you’re stuck for inspiration.
Check out my article on meal-prepping recipes to save some time!
2. Fitness Goals
If you’re anything like I was, going to the gym and intense 60 minute workouts went out the window as soon as you found out you were pregnant… or maybe your fitness goals all together…
But physical activity is key to maintaining your overall health, heart health, mental health, and a happy lifestyle!
A medical review by Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives In Medicine notes that exercise is associated with improving quality of life, longer health spans, and the delaying of chronic conditions and diseases.²
Do you have exercise scheduled into your daily routine? Probably not.
And yes daily exercise is ideal, but it also doesn’t actually have to be daily. Doing a workout three to four times a week is enough. Every other day is a great exercise schedule for busy moms!
And no, it doesn’t have to be a 45-minute or 90-minute workout. Contrary to popular belief, a good 10 to 20-minute daily workout will more than suffice.
Journal down some fitness goals such as building strength or weight loss, and then make yourself an easy exercise plan that you can stick to, or get yourself a personal trainer if you can afford to.
If you’re on a budget then YouTube is a great free resource for exercise videos. Get into the healthy habit of looking after your body through diet and movement.
Want a habit tracker to help you reach your goals? Download my free habit tracker here!
3. Journal Self-Care Ideas
Self-care means something totally different to us all. What is relaxing for me, might be really stressful for you. And the things that you require to feel happy, restored, and fulfilled will be totally different from my self-care needs.
Journaling is a great way to learn more about yourself. It can help you to work out what you do and don’t need.
It might have been a long time since you considered your needs, dreams, and desires. Investing some time in journaling can help to draw these inner needs out so that you can work on fulfilling them.
Good journaling is all about asking yourself the right questions! I have some great free journaling prompt resources if you need some help.
4. Rest And Restore
Getting adequate sleep is underrated. And, I appreciate this can be super hard when you’re juggling multiple kids, or even just one. This also gets considerably harder when you have a job or are a single parent.
But, you need to get a hold on it and get good sleep and proper rest too. Granted, this might take some planning, but it is a priority for self-care in the same way that eating is.
Research by Pharmacy and Therapeutics in 2018, noted that sleep is vital for brain function whilst you’re awake. Sleep plays a vital role in your attention span, clarity, your ability to be vigilant and think clearly—which all also play a key role in motherhood too.¹ As you’ll already know, avoiding disasters involves you being quick on your feet, and aware of your surroundings.
This tip also covers taking regular breaks and rest, as well as getting a good night’s sleep. Speak to your friends and family about your need for better rest and breaks. Perhaps your partner can help out more during the night, or perhaps they can take over the night time routine so that you can get to bed earlier.
Perhaps you can get a babysitter so that you can get a nap midday if you need? Do whatever works for your schedule and your family.
5. Socializing Dates
My next self-care tip is about prioritizing community time. We are social animals, and even if you’re an introvert you’ll still need some level of regular community socializing.
Often when we have a family, our community socializing goes out the window, but this is vital for self-care. Most moms have a busy schedule, but try and have a meet-up with other moms, family members, or friends at least once a month.
It’s a good opportunity to decompress, vent, share, laugh, and love. You weren’t designed to do it all alone.
6. Quiet Time Aka Taking a 5’er!
Whether you’re a busy mom, a single mom, or a working mom, you probably don’t know what quiet time is anymore.
Quiet time becomes a thing of the past when you have kids. But it’s important to resurrect it and maintain strict boundaries to protect your quiet time.
Quiet time might not seem relevant to being a healthy mom, but it can be integral for some women. During your quiet time, you get to be with your own thoughts, which is really vital for mental health.
Set aside regular time when you can be in stillness and meditate. Chances are, this is going to be first thing in the morning, or last thing at night when the rest of the house is asleep.
I like to call this taking a 5’er! Sometimes you need 5 minutes alone to decompress, chill, or be silent.
7. Private Time
Private time doesn’t need to be quiet time, but it’s private time where you can do what you want to make yourself feel good.
Maybe you can stick on a movie for the little ones, or set them up with a painting set to keep them occupied so that you can do something for you.
This might be reading a book, journaling, doing a facemask, or painting your nails. Whatever you want. Being a mom does not mean that you need to be on call and available all the time. Teaching your kids boundaries is important for the real world. Let them know it’s mommy’s daily quiet time. They will survive for 10 minutes.
When you become a mom you have a new identity to contend with, but your individual and personal identity (separate from your kids and being a mom) also exists, and it’s important to nurture and love both.
What did you enjoy doing before the kids?! Make time for this in your day—you deserve it.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to create healthy habits for a healthy lifestyle—I hope that you found these self-care ideas helpful! If you need any support then please reach out. The Naturally Empowered Living community is here to support you from surviving to thriving.
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