“This post was sponsored by Nature Made® as a part of a Blog Blast for Influence Central to help you to be a Healthier & Happier Mom
This mom job is a rough one. While I love it so much, sometimes I put so much into my kids, I forget to take care of myself. One of my main goals this year is to take care of me! That might sound strange, but last year I got so wrapped up in being busy and taking care of everyone else I forgot about taking care of myself. Because of that, I don’t feel like I did the greatest job at taking care of everyone else because I wasn’t taken care of. t didn’t eat very well, I stressed way too much and I just didn’t feel very healthy. This year I am making it one of my main goals to take care of my health, both mental and physical. I know that by doing this I will be a healthier and happier mom in all aspects of my life. I know this is an important thing for me to do. I need to feel better as a whole in order to be a good mother, wife and friend.
There are a lot of ways to take care of you, but you can’t change yourself in one day. I have been doing this slowly! A lot of years when it’s time to make new years goals I say, OK January first I am going to eat healthy and exercise every day. By Day 3 I’ve failed and by the end of the month I’ve given up. This year I started slowly. The first week I decided I would start with waking up early and taking care of my mental and spiritual health by praying, reading scripture, pondering and then working out. After I got that down, about 2 weeks after the new year, I added daily exercise. I started slowly by just walking on my treadmill for 30 mins a day, then I started running and doing run/walk intervals. Then I started running. Now I am doing a training program that I will tell you about next week! I feel healthier, stronger and happier! Last week I added drinking more water and eating less carbs. I have done really well and it hasn’t been very hard. Because the other two things were already in place I didn’t feel overwhelmed. My next step is to cut out all candy and desserts except for one treat a week. It’s going to be the hardest one, but I really hate how sugar makes me feel. This process that I have done, by doing this slowly has really helped me a lot. Below is step by step on how I am doing this…
6 Steps to Being a Healthier & Happier Mom
(Do them in order slowly. Don’t try to do them all at once!)
Got to bed early and wake up early – From what I read adults need around 8 hours of sleep. I try to go to bed around 10. That’s early for me. I am not perfect at it, but I am getting way better than my regular midnight bedtime. I get up between 5-6 depending on how much time I want for myself in the morning.
Exercise 30 Minutes a Day – Start out slow and work up to where you really want to be. If you want to run a race, I totally suggest the Couch to 5k apps for your phone. If you want to get stronger get weights and start light and work up from there.
Drink 60+ oz of Water a Day – Water is so important to becoming healthier. Once suggestion I hear recently is to drink half your weight in oz daily. Our body needs to flush out toxins daily and have more energy and water can do that! I love this article HERE about 10 great reasons to hydrate!
Cut Out Most Grains From Your Meals – Some grains can be really good for us depending on how much we eat and what kind, but for the most part they turn into sugar in our body and sugar causes cravings and we want more and more and more! I wrote a lot about this when I did my 30 days of no sugar. You can read that HERE.
Take Daily Vitamins & Minerals – Sadly our food doesn’t give us enough vitamins and minerals so a good daily supplement in important! You might think they are too expensive, but you can find great vitamins at Walmart! Nature Made Vitamins, minerals and supplements, are the nations #1 best-selling brand for quality vitamins, minerals and supplements* to help support nutritional gaps* and highly recommend by pharmacists*. So no need to buy expensive vitamins, when you can get great vitamins at Walmart
Cut out the Sweets – Slowly take away sweets, give yourself one free treat a week! Our bodies don’t like sweets. We all learned that when we learned about the food pyramid in 8th grade. They aren’t good for us and they make us fat. So cutting them out is a great way to feel healthier. For me a treat every now and then is ok, as long as I have self control and don’t eat too much!
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*Based in part on data reported by Nielsen through its Scantrack Service for the Vitamins Category for 52-week period ending 9/26/2015, for the xAOC, FDM, and FM Markets. Copyright © 2015 Nielsen.